• Posted July 24, 2026

Back Pain? Try Swimming, Study Says

FRIDAY, July 24, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Suffering from low back pain?

A few laps in the swimming pool might help, a new study says.

An eight-week swimming program significantly improved function and pain among a group of people with back problems, researchers reported recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

“They improved by about 50% from where they were before starting the program,” lead researcher Deborah Wareham, a doctoral student at Macquarie University in Sydney, said in a news release.

For the new clinical trial, researchers recruited 76 adults aged 26 to 74 who’d been battling low back pain for at least three months.

Half were randomly assigned to take part in an eight-week individualized swimming program, supported by four telehealth coaching sessions with a physical therapist.

“They weren’t regular swimmers, but they were able to swim 25 meters and feel confident in the water,” Wareham said. They had a goal of performing three 30- to 45-minute swimming sessions by the end of the trial.

The other half didn’t swim, but did receive education also presented to the swimming group. The education covered concepts like "Pain does not always equal harm;" "The back is made for movement;" "Flare-ups are likely;" and "The best management is to keep moving."

“Swimming is commonly recommended as an exercise for people with chronic low back pain, but there was a complete lack of evidence about whether it actually works,” Wareham said. “We undertook this study because we felt there was an urgent need for research to determine if swimming was effective or not for chronic back pain.”

After eight weeks, the swimmers had significantly better function and less pain.

“Compared to the control group who received education only, swimmers scored on average 2.5 points or 30% lower on a widely used disability scale,” Wareham said.

“In fact, the improvement we saw in our study compares favorably with effects reported for other exercise such as Pilates in a recent meta-analysis,” she added.

The benefits from swimming persisted after a half-year and full year of follow-up, although differences between the two groups declined over time.

“The argument for swimming in back pain is logical, but it was important to test this,” senior researcher Mark Hancock said in a news release. He is co-director of the Spinal Pain Research Center at Macquarie University.

“Swimming can improve range of motion, strength and general aerobic capacity and the buoyancy of water can help people engage with movements that might otherwise be painful or limited,” he said.  “Importantly, participants told us swimming built their confidence to start exercising and engage with other meaningful physical activities." 

Some participants continued swimming after the program, while others moved to other forms of exercise.

“Now we have the evidence to support the recommendation – swimming is a suitable exercise for people with back pain, and it helps,” Hancock concluded.

More information

The Mayo Clinic has exercises for back pain.

SOURCE: Macquarie University, news release, July 21, 2026