Swimming and Spinal Deformities: A Cross-Sectional Study

Does elite swimming accelerate lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration and increase low back pain? A cross-sectional comparison

“…Recent studies have shown that participating in competitive sports, especially swimming, to be associated with LBP [3,9,[14][15][16]. Our results could not reproduce these findings as in our cohort swimmers were less likely to report LBP compared to the controls, although not significantly less, supporting a recent study by Noormohammadpour et al [10] who found swimmers to experience less LBP compared to other sports.…”

“…Previous studies by Pollard et al [21] and Nyska et al [22], both indicated swimming biomechanics as tortional strain and hyperextension motion of the thoracolumbar spine during butterfly to increase the risk of musculoskeletal injuries. Furthermore Zaina et al [15] showed that swimming during adolescence to be associated with an increased risk of trunk asymmetries and hyperkyphosis.…”

“…In contrast, recent studies would suggest that excessive swimming poses a threat to the lower back in the form of DD and low back pain (LBP) [2][3][4][14][15][16]. Kaneoka et al [4] opposed these previous findings by showing a significantly increased risk of DD compared to recreational swimmers and they reported a history of LBP in 77 % of high load swimmers and 87 % of recreational swimmers.…”

The role of intense athletic activity on structural lumbar abnormalities in adolescent patients with symptomatic low back pain

“…Unfortunately because the aforementioned study was a survey, Noormohammadpour et al was unable to comment on possible structural causes of the pain. Similarly, Zaina et al [28] compared the prevalence of spinal deformities and low back pain in 112 competitive adolescent swimmers, to 217 adolescent non-swimmers, and they found a significant increase in trunk asymmetries, hyperkyphosis, hyperlordosis and low back pain in the swimmers group [28]. Lastly, Roy et al reported that 30 % of all clinic visits to a pediatric sports-medicine clinic are due to low back pain, and they found that ''red flags,'' such as participating in contact sports, presenting with neurologic symptoms or having unremitting pain could not be used to predict if objective radiographic pathology would be present on imaging studies [29].…”

Scoliosis and Sport

“…Swimming is considered to be a complete sport and a treatment option for scoliosis, but recently published results of a research were contradictory to these opinions. The research conducted on a sample of 112 adolescents, who participated in competitive swimming and who were compared to 217 pupils of the same age (12.5 years), showed that swimming is associated with hyperkyphosis, with an increased risk of trunk asymmetry, as well as with increased prevalence of low back pain in females by 2.1 times (Zaina, Donzelli, Lusini, Minnella, & Negrini, 2015).…”