Resistance Exercise Training on Disease Impact, Pain Catastrophizing and Autonomic Modulation in Women with Fibromyalgia

Women with fibromyalgia (FM) often complain of whole-body pain, and muscle fatigue, which may be related to autonomic dysfunction. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of resistance exercise training (RET) on disease impact, pain catastrophizing, and autonomic modulation in women with FM. Women with FM (n=26) and healthy control women (HC: n=9), aged 19–65 yrs, were compared at rest. Women with FM were randomly assigned to a resistance-training group (FM-RT: n=14) or a non-exercising control group (FM-CON: n=12). Women in the FM-RT group underwent 8-weeks of RET on 4 different exercises, 2 times per week, 3 sets of 8–12 repetitions at 50%-60% of the pre-determined 1-repetition max (1RM). Autonomic modulation was assessed using heart rate variability and heart rate complexity. Healthy control women had a lower resting heart rate, decreased normalized low-frequency power, and increased normalized high-frequency power compared to the FM groups at rest. After the 8-week intervention, significant increases (p ≤ 0.05) in 1RM were observed for both chest press and leg extension for women in the RT group. Disease impact was significantly reduced (p ≤ 0.05) for participants in the FM-RT group (FM-RT: 59±12 to 41±24 units; FM-CON: 72±7 to71±8 units), but pain catastrophizing was unaltered. There were no significant changes in autonomic modulation after the RET intervention. These data demonstrate that while women with FM may still have autonomic dysfunction after undergoing a RET program, disease impact was significantly reduced.