Objective: To investigate the effect of the Feldenkrais method versus core stability exercises on pain, disability, quality of life and interoceptive awareness in patients with chronic non-specific low back pain. Design: A single-blinded, randomised, controlled trial. Setting: Outpatient, sports medicine clinic of Mazandaran medical university. Participants: Sixty patients with chronic non-specific low back pain randomised equally into the Feldenkrais method versus core stability exercises groups. Intervention: Intervention group received Feldenkrais method consisting of training theoretical content and supervised exercise therapy two sessions per week for five weeks. Control group received educational programme and home-based core stability exercises for five weeks. Outcome measures: All patients were examined by World Health Organization’s Quality of life Questionnaire, McGill Pain Questionnaire, Oswestry Disability Questionnaire and Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness Questionnaire. All outcomes were measured at baseline and the end of the intervention Results: There were statistically significant differences between groups for quality of life ( P = 0.006, from 45.51 to 60.49), interoceptive awareness ( P > 0.001, from 2.74 to 4.06) and disability ( P = 0.021, from 27.17 to 14.5) in favour of the Feldenkrais method. McGill pain score significantly decreased in both the Feldenkrais (from 15.33 to 3.63) and control groups (from 13.17 to 4.17), but there were no between-groups differences ( P = 0.16). Conclusion: Feldenkrais method intervention gave increased benefits in improving quality of life, improving interoceptive awareness and reducing disability index.

Introduction: Patellofemoral pain syndrome is associated with a decrease in hip muscles strength, especially abductor and external rotator muscles. Hip abductors with femoral control have an effect on the frontal plane on the knee valgus, and the increased hip abduction capacity helps these patients. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of abductor and adductor exercises in addition to the knee exercises in knee joint pain in patients with Patellofemoral pain syndrome. Method: This is a clinical trial study conducted on patients suffering from patellar-femoral pain syndrome who visited the Sports Medicine department of the Imam Khomeini Hospital Clinic. The NRPS questionnaire was used to evaluate the patients’ pain severity SPSS version 16 was used for statistical analysis of the data. Results: The mean age of the patients in abductor group was 33.4±6.1 and in adductor group was 33.7±7.3, but this difference was not significant (P=0.1). The results of this study showed that in the abductor and adductor group, the results of all of the statistical tests on the change in the Scores of the questionnaires and tests after 6 weeks of training exercises were statistically significant (P<0.05). the comparison of the scores between the two groups showed only the difference between the mean scores of Step down between the two groups of adductor and abductor, which was statistical significance after exercises (P=0.03). Conclusion: Based on the presented study, 6 weeks of abductor and adductor muscle exercises, and specially abductor muscles, helps reduce pain and the improve joint function in patients suffering from patellofemoral pain syndrome.