Back pain? A workout video eased it as much as a live class

New study

This is one study, not a conclusion. Still, it tackles a question plenty of people with a stubborn lower back ask themselves. If you can't make it to a class, does a prerecorded workout video do as much for the pain as a coach who watches you live on screen and corrects you as you go?

What the researchers compared

The trial, led by Gevers-Montoro at McGill University in Montreal and published in the European Journal of Pain in September 2026, randomly split 94 people with chronic low back pain three ways: a waitlist, live interactive sessions over videoconference, or prerecorded video sessions they followed on their own.

Both exercise groups got the same general program, three one-hour sessions a week for 12 weeks. A certified kinesiologist, a university-trained exercise professional, built it and adjusted the intensity to each person's fitness. The only real difference between the two groups was whether somebody was on the other side of the camera.

What they found

In the end 57 people finished, with an average age of 48, and 36 of them were women. Dropout rates were similar in all three groups, so neither format drove people away more than the other.

Exercising in either format cut pain intensity by more than 20% compared with the waitlist. The authors call that clinically worthwhile, meaning the kind of change you feel in daily life rather than one that only shows up in the statistics. Pain triggered by movement went down as well.

Live versus prerecorded made no measurable difference. Pain was the same, and so were perceived difficulty, effort, fatigue, satisfaction and the pain people felt during the workouts themselves. In this group, having a coach watching live added nothing the video didn't already deliver.

Why it may have helped

The team also looked for what drove the relief. It wasn't a magic exercise. The people who improved most were the ones whose sense of their own general health got better, who moved more during the rest of the day and who walked faster on a short 4-meter test.

The researchers' reading is that exercise may ease pain by improving everyday habits and the way you rate your own health. That lines up with what we wrote about a short daily mobility routine, where moving regularly matters more than perfect form on every rep.

Back pain keeps drawing attention in the wellness press too. Women's Health ran a piece in September 2026 on nerve flossing, a set of gentle nerve-gliding moves for sciatica. The Montreal trial asks a broader question, though. It isn't about one technique but about whether the format you train in changes the outcome.

What the wider evidence says

This trial doesn't land on empty ground. In August 2026 the Journal of Medical Internet Research published a systematic review and meta-analysis by Wang and colleagues on remote rehabilitation for chronic low back pain, pooling 14 trials with 794 participants.

Compared with little or no treatment, remote programs lowered pain and disability on average. Against structured, active rehab, though, they showed no clear edge, and in-person care came out slightly ahead on disability. The authors rate the certainty of the evidence as low to very low and see remote training as a flexible add-on to care, not a replacement for it.

The limits of this study

Start with who was studied: 94 adults with chronic low back pain, 57 of whom completed the program, at an average age of 48. That's a small group. Women in it reported less relief than men, something the paper describes but can't explain.

The trial ran for 12 weeks, so it says nothing about where people stand a year later. It was funded by public Canadian research bodies, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the authors report no conflicts of interest. And it has not been replicated yet in another group of people.

One more caveat. The videos came from a professional and followed a complete, tailored program. The study tells you nothing about a random workout clip online, about pain that started recently, or about pain that comes with tingling or weakness in the legs, which always deserves a visit to your doctor.

Bringing it into your week

If you want to try it, one option is a video program designed by an exercise professional, three sessions a week at an effort that leaves you finishing in good shape, given a few weeks before you judge it. If the pain is new or has changed, it makes sense to talk it over with your doctor first.

What this trial points to is that the format matters less than sticking with it. That's usually the weak spot, which is why it's worth reading how to build a habit that doesn't depend on motivation. Three sessions a week for 12 weeks is what was tested, not the odd workout here and there.

If you train at Gym Triple X, a simple mix is one guided session on the gym floor to check your technique and two at home with a video, plus a quick weekly note on how your back responded.

Which exercises suit your back and how fast to progress depends on your history and how you feel from week to week. If you'd like, a personal trainer on the Costa del Sol can help you put together a plan you can also follow from home, at your own pace and with no commitment.