Muscle strengthening activities and fibromyalgia: A review of pain and strength outcomes

Designing effective corrective exercise programs: The importance of dosage

“…As Bianco et al (2015) explain, this may have important ramifications both for the athlete and for those inexperienced in the gym, such as the patients with Fibromyalgia (FM) as described in Nelson's (2015) paper. Nelson (2015) provides compelling evidence that, not only is exercise important, but specifically that resistance training, or muscle strengthening activities can be of great benefit to the Fibromyalgia population.…”

“…Nelson (2015) provides compelling evidence that, not only is exercise important, but specifically that resistance training, or muscle strengthening activities can be of great benefit to the Fibromyalgia population. It is possible, therefore, that patients with similar and related conditions may also benefit, such as those with breathing pattern disorders it's hard to see how any training other than breathing rehab an help BPD?, chronic fatigue and post-viral fatigue.…”

“…Anyone in pursuit of such an objective would, therefore, be likely to include muscle strengthening exercises as part of their program. Nelson (2015) concludes his paper by stating that "Future studies must provide explicit details with regard to frequency, intensity, duration and type of muscle strengthening exercise", and he is right. One of the theories behind Fibromyalgia has its basis in a dysfunctional interplay between growth hormone (Chaitow et al 2005) and other anabolic hormones, including IGF-1 and ghrelin (Tander et al 2007).…”

“…Poliquin (2006) explains that if resistance training is conducted using optimal acute exercise variables, serum growth hormone levels can increase by as much as 20-fold. Since growth hormone is key in entering the deep, restorative, deltawave phase of sleep usually compromised in FM, it is entirely possible that the muscle strengthening activities assessed by Nelson (2015) helped to drive GH levels higher. Similarly, Ratey & Hagerman (2008) explain that simply partaking in steady-state exercise, such as cycling or treadmill running (classic "cardiovascular" exercise) results in more of a catabolic effect, whereas including some sprints into the cardiovascular training (a form of interval training) increases growth hormone secretion dramatically.…”

“…Looking at it from the opposite perspective, research into gym-based functional movement assessment showed that Individuals who exhibited biochemical and biomechanical signs of BPD were significantly more likely to score poorly on movement screening tests (Bradley & Esformes 2014). Overall then, it seems plausible and likely there may be a bidirectional effect of exercise on breathing pattern and breathing pattern on exercise pattern; and since BPD may be both a component of and causative in FM this may help to explain why the results of Nelson's (2015) enquiry into resistance based training interventions were so positive.…”