Women with Fibromyalgia Prefer Resistance Exercise with Heavy Loads—A Randomized Crossover Pilot Study

Ulf Mathias Andersson, Anna Cristina Åberg, Lena von Koch and Annie Palstam
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Ulf Mathias Andersson: School of Health and Welfare, Medical Science, Dalarna University, 791 88 Falun, Sweden
Anna Cristina Åberg: School of Health and Welfare, Medical Science, Dalarna University, 791 88 Falun, Sweden
Lena von Koch: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden
Annie Palstam: School of Health and Welfare, Medical Science, Dalarna University, 791 88 Falun, Sweden

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-9

Abstract: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain condition associated with impaired muscle strength and exercise-induced pain. Physical exercise has been highlighted, by international clinical guidelines and stakeholders, as an essential component of rehabilitation in FM. Exposure to pain during exercise is generally correlated with elevated lactate levels and, additionally, is one known reason for persons with FM to avoid physical exercise and activity. A crossover design was used to test and evaluate an approach consisting of resistance exercise with heavy loads and a low number of repetitions among ten women with FM. The participants were consecutively recruited to test and perform exercise with two different resistance levels (A = light/moderate load, and B = heavy load) in a randomized crossover trial using an AB/BA setting. Results showed that the heavy load exercise session was experienced as more positive than the light/moderate load exercise session and that lower lactate levels followed exercise with heavier weight loads. This is promising and indicates that the approach of heavy weight loads and accustomed repetitions is accepted in FM and has the potential to attenuate hesitation to exercise due to exercise-induced pain. However, these effects need to be further investigated in more extensive studies.

Keywords: chronic widespread pain; physical; training; lactate; rehabilitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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