Tai-chi is a bodily discipline of Chinese origin that is part of the body-mind approaches. This practice aims to improve flexibility, strengthen the musculoskeletal system and maintain good physical, mental and spiritual health. It would thus help reduce lower back pain.

In a study conducted in 2011¹, 160 people aged 18 to 70 and suffering from persistent low back pain, either participated in Tai-chi sessions (18 sessions of 40 minutes delivered over a period of 10 weeks), or received traditional care. On a 10-point scale, discomfort from low back pain was reduced by 1,7 points in the Tai chi group, pain reduced by 1,3 points, and feeling of disability reduced by 2,6 points over a scale of 0 to 24.

In another study carried out in 2014², the effects of Tai-chi were evaluated on 40 men between 20 and 30 years old suffering from acute low back pain. Half of them followed Tai-chi sessions while the other half followed stretching sessions, 3 sessions of one hour per week for 4 weeks. Pain was rated using the Visual Analog Scale, a scale from 0 to 10 that allows the patient to self-assess the intensity of pain they are feeling. Participants in the Tai Chi group saw their visual analogue scale drop from 3,1 to 2,1, while that in the stretch group increased from an average of 3,4 to 2,8.

S Hall AM, Maher CG, Lam P, et al., Tai chi exercise for treatment of pain and disability in people with persistent low back pain: a randomized controlled trial, Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken), 2011 Cho Y, Effects of tai chi on pain and muscle activity in young males with acute low back pain, J Phys Ther Sci, 2014