12/15/2025
2021 Evidence on Exercise for Chronic Low Back Pain
A major systematic review looked at 249 clinical trials to see how well exercise therapy helps adults with chronic non-specific low back pain (pain lasting more than 12 weeks).
- Key takeaways
1. People who did exercise programs had significantly less pain compared with no treatment, usual care, or placebo.
2. Exercise also improved function (how well people could move), though the change was smaller and didn’t always reach what experts consider a clinically meaningful improvement.
3. Compared with other treatments (like heat, traction, or education alone), exercise still showed benefits for pain and function, although the differences were modest.
4. Mild side effects (like muscle soreness) were similar to other approaches and generally minor.
- Bottom line
If you or someone you know is dealing with long-term low back pain, exercise therapy is likely helpful for reducing pain and improving movement — and it’s supported by high-quality research.
I asked Chat GPT to summarize this study for easy reading, but if you want the full medical lingo then use this link.
"Exercise therapy for chronic low back pain - PubMed"
We found moderate-certainty evidence that exercise is probably effective for treatment of chronic low back pain compared to no treatment, usual care or placebo for pain. The observed treatment effect for the exercise compared to no treatment, usual care or placebo comparisons is small for functional...
