Therapeutic Considerations and Recovery in Low Back Pain: Williams vs McKenzie

Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common muskuloscheletal disorders. It is associated with high costs in medical assistance and indirect losses through temporary work incapacity. Therefore, it represents a challenge for medical practice. There are many types of treatments and recommendations depending on doctors’ knowledge and opinions, but two protocols stand out due to their “popularity”: the Williams and McKenzie protocols. Given the duration of flares and relapses rate, it is important to apply an efficient and lasting treatment. This is why the aim of the present study is to compare these two protocols, McKenzie and Williams, in terms of principles and exercises, in order to reveal wich one is more suitable in LBP recovery. In the end, the McKenzie protocol proved to be superior to the Williams program in terms of pain relief, lumbar mobility and number of sessions needed to recover. Another finding was that the two programs are not totally contradictory, but they are just applied in different stages of the LBP syndrome, depending on several anatomical and pathological factors.