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Objective The purpose of the study is to determine the immediate effect of Bowen Therapy in pressure pain threshold and postural sway of healthy individuals. Design Crossover, randomized, and double blinded study. Setting University. Participants Participants aged 18 years old or over, naive to Bowen therapy were recruited among university students. An a priori sample size calculation determined that 34 participants were needed. Methods Each participant attended two sessions and received Bowen Therapy and a sham procedure. The order in which Bowen or the sham procedure were administered was randomized. All participants had their postural control and pressure pain thresholds assessed in sessions 1 and 2 both at baseline and at the end of the session. Main outcome measurements Postural control was assessed using a force plate and centre of pressure antero-posterior and medio-lateral displacement, velocity and total sway area were calculated. Pressure pain threshold was measured at 10 different body sites on the paraspinal muscles from C1 to S1 using an electronic algometer. Result The results showed a significant increase in the anteroposterior displacement ( p = 0.04) and a significantly lower decrease in the mean velocity ( p = 0.01) of the centre of pressure and a significant increase in the pressure pain thresholds of two (out of ten; p ≤ 0.04) body sites in the group receiving Bowen Therapy compared to the group receiving the sham. No other significant differences were found. Conclusions The findings suggest that Bowen Therapy has inconsistent immediate effects on postural control and pain threshold in healthy subjects. Further studies are needed using symptomatic participants.

Objectives Low back pain affects the person's ability to keep balance, especially in challenging conditions. The purpose of this study was to determine the immediate effects of Pilates exercises on postural sway and dynamic balance of young individuals with non-specific low back pain. Design Controlled laboratory design. Settings and main outcome measures Forty-six participants with non-specific low back pain were randomized to a Pilates (n = 23, 10 males; age: 21.8 ± 3.2 years) and a control group (n = 23, 9 males; age: 22.8 ± 3.6 years). Postural sway was assessed with a force platform and dynamic balance with the Star Excursion Balance Test, before and after the intervention or rest period. To assess postural sway, participants stood still on an unstable surface set on the force plate for 90s, with eyes closed. Intervention The intervention lasted 20 min and consisted on four Pilates exercises: single leg stretch (level 1), pelvic press (level 1), swimming (level 1) and kneeling opposite arm and leg reach. Results At baseline, no differences were found between groups. The Pilates group improved in all the postural sway values (area of CoP: 11.5 ± 3.4 to 9.7 ± 2.7 cm2, p = 0.002 and CoP velocity: 2.8 ± 0.6 to 2.3 ± 0.5 cm/s, p Conclusions Pilates exercises immediately improved postural sway and dynamic balance in young adults with non-specific low back pain.