Continuous Low-Level Heat Wrap Therapy for the Prevention and Early Phase Treatment of Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness of the Low Back: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Mayer JM, Mooney V, Matheson LN, Erasala GN, Verna JL, Udermann BE, Leggett S. Continuous low-level heat wrap therapy for the prevention and early phase treatment of delayed-onset muscle soreness of the low back: a randomized controlled trial. To evaluate the effects of continuous low-level heat wrap therapy for the prevention and early phase treatment (ie, 0−48h postexercise) of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) of the low back. Two prospective randomized controlled trials. Outpatient medical facility. Sixty-seven subjects asymptomatic of back pain and in good general health (mean age, 23.5±6.6y). Participants performed vigorous eccentric exercise to experimentally induce low back DOMS. Participants were assigned to 1 of 2 substudies (prevention and treatment) and randomized to 1 of 2 treatment groups within each substudy: prevention study (heat wrap, n=17; control [nontarget muscle stretch], n=18) and treatment study (heat wrap, n=16; cold pack, n=16). Interventions were administered 4 hours before and 4 hours after exercise in the prevention study and between hours 18 to 42 postexercise in the treatment study. To coincide with the expected occurrence of peak symptoms related to exercise-induced low back DOMS, hour 24 postexercise was considered primary. Pain intensity (prevention) and pain relief (treatment) were primary measures, and self-reported physical function and disability were secondary measures. In the prevention study, at hour 24 postexercise, pain intensity, disability, and deficits in self-reported physical function in subjects with the heat wrap were reduced by 47% ( P