What is SET (Suspension Exercise Therapy)?

  Low back pain is a fairly common symptom in modern society, and its prevalence is evident in the fact that the most common of all outpatient visits is for the flu, followed by low back pain. Studies have found that about 60-80% of people experience low back pain of varying severity at least once in their lifetime, and fortunately in most cases the pain resolves itself within a few days.  In terms of etiology, only less than 10% of low back pain can be found to have a clear etiology, such as fracture, tumor, osteoporosis, rheumatism, disc herniation, spinal stenosis, etc. This part of low back pain with a clear etiology has a special medical term called “atopic low back pain”; the remaining more than 90% of low back pain cannot be found to have a clear etiology. In other words, X-rays, CT, MRI usually do not have specific positive findings and are therefore called “non-specific low back pain”. Therefore, if you are a low back pain patient, don’t panic because you probably have “non-specific low back pain”, which means that the pain is not caused by a herniated disc (which is probably the biggest concern) or spinal stenosis.  Although most low back pain resolves on its own, there is a high rate of recurrence and some patients have low back pain that lasts more than 3 months and becomes chronic. Chronic low back pain can have a great impact on an individual’s life and work, mainly in terms of pain and functional impairment. During an attack of low back pain, the pain is not only located in the lower back, but can often involve the buttocks, thighs, abdomen and chest and back. As an upright walking animal, the waist is an important structure that supports the upper body (thorax and upper limbs, head) and connects the lower body (pelvis and lower limbs), and it is also an important part for power generation and transmission. Although many patients with chronic low back pain do not have severe pain, there is always a lingering feeling of soreness and weakness in the lower back, which is usually obvious when sitting, standing or bending for a long time, and it is difficult to straighten the waist when standing up from sitting, and household chores such as sweeping, grocery shopping and washing clothes can lead to soreness and weakness in the lower back, which needs to be relieved by resting from time to time. Long-term chronic pain can lead to reduced mobility, and many things that patients want to do become incompetent, seriously affecting the quality of life. When patients go to the hospital, they are often diagnosed with lumbar strain, myofasciitis, and small joint disorders in general because there are no specific positive results in X-rays, CT, MRI, and other ancillary examinations, and the treatment is usually medication and physical factors for pain relief. This type of treatment lacks specificity, so the efficacy is not long-lasting, and patients often relapse and gradually lose confidence in curing low back pain over time.  Recent studies have found that patients with chronic low back pain commonly suffer from reduced function of the lumbar back muscles, which is an important factor in the recurrence of pain and dysfunction, and that restoring normal function of the lumbar back muscles will greatly reduce pain and improve function. Active exercise therapy is currently the most effective and reliable method of restoring muscle function, and European guidelines for the treatment of chronic non-specific low back pain include active exercise therapy as the mainstay of treatment for these conditions.  Numerous scientific studies have proven that there are two different muscles around the human spine, one is located deep in the spine to maintain stability, called local stability muscle. The other is located superficially in charge of the movement of the overall motor muscle. These two muscle groups work in concert to maintain normal trunk movement. Most patients with chronic low back pain have dysfunction of these two muscle groups, resulting in various pain and movement disorders, and conventional tests such as X-rays, CT, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are poor diagnosticians of muscle function, and abnormalities can only be detected by specialized testing instruments.  It should be noted that the active exercise therapy referred to in this article is not only the usual do swallow fly, five-point support and other movements, such movements exercise the superficial overall motor muscle, for the deep local stability of the muscle effect is not great, and therefore the effect is slow, and because the stability of the spine is not targeted to enhance, some patients exercise and even aggravate the symptoms, resulting in the loss of confidence in exercise therapy, unable to adhere to. This is also an important reason why active exercise therapy is not widely accepted in China.  In recent years, a new technology called Suspension Exercise Therapy (SET) has gradually emerged in developed countries in Europe and America and is being promoted very quickly. As a new type of active movement therapy, it can rapidly activate the dysfunctional local stabilizing muscles and overall motor muscles, resulting in rapid improvement of patients’ symptoms.  Its popularity is mainly due to the following reasons: 1, safe and comfortable: when patients lie on the treatment bed to do active exercise, the body part is suspended, due to offset part of the gravity, patients usually feel safe and comfortable 2, painless: the whole exercise treatment process is painless, patients are easy to accept 3, fast onset of effect: usually a treatment that has a more obvious effect, 1-2 courses (10-20 times) can consolidate the effect. -20 times) can consolidate the curative effect and effectively reduce recurrence.  As an emerging technology, suspension exercise therapy has the characteristics of safety, painless and rapid effect, which is a revolution of traditional physical therapy methods. It is believed that the introduction of this technology into China will help patients to relieve their back pain and significantly improve the quality of life of back pain patients.