ObjectiveTo systematically review the clinical efficacy of exercise therapy for patients with low back pain. MethodsWe electronically searched databases including PubMed, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP from 2000 to September 2014 to collect randomized controlled trial (RCTs) about exercise therapy versus other therapies in the treatment of low back pain. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software. ResultsA total of five RCTs involving 413 patients were finally included. Compared with the control group, exercise therapy could relieve pain (MD=-0.92, 95%CI -1.32 to -0.51, P<0.000 1), and improve function activity (MD=-1.21, 95%CI -1.43 to -0.99, P<0.01). ConclusionExercise therapy can improve low back pain and functional activity to a certain extent. Due to the limited quantity and quality of the included studies, larger scale, multicenter, high quality RCTs are needed to verify the aforementioned conclusion.