Narrow Results

Background: Smoking has a number of well-documented negative effects on health. The seemingly common knowledge is that smoking causes low back pain. Cigarette smoking is associated with poor physical fitness and reduced muscle strength.¹ The specific effects of smoking on the efficacy of the lumbar extensors have been previously investigated where individuals with chronic low back pain often have weaker lumbar extensor muscles.² Rigorous exercises, however, reverse this weakness.

Hypothesis: This study hypothesizes that cigarette smoking is associated with deficits in the lumbar extensor strength that make the back susceptible to mechanical stress and injury.

Study Design: Cohort study.

Methods: The objective of this study was to determine the isometric lumbar extensor strength before and after fatigue challenge amongst smokers and nonsmokers. A pre-test and post-test design was used to determine the differences in the lumbar extensor endurance between smokers and nonsmokers.

Results: The result of the study confirms a relationship between reduced lumbar extensor strength and cigarette smoking. The negative impact of smoking on lumbar extensors suggests increased susceptibility to lumbar injuries and thereby low back pain.

Conclusions: Smokers demonstrated reduced muscle strength and fatigability of the lumbar extensors and they may perhaps be vulnerable to lumbar spine injuries. The study also confirmed that spinal extension exercises increased the endurance time of the lumbar extensor muscles.