Treatment recommendations for fibromyalgia (FM) include regular physical exercise. In this prospective study we examined predictors for adherence to stretching and aerobic exercises in women provided with an individualized home based program.
Thirty-nine women kept exercise diaries for 12 weeks.
For both types of exercise, women who were less physically fit at baseline engaged in more exercise during the program. Yet for stretching, more lower body pain at baseline predicted engaging in less stretching exercise over time, whereas for aerobic exercise, more baseline upper body pain predicted more exercise over time. As time passed, participants with higher baseline physical fitness and/or older age were reducing their aerobic exercise practice at significantly faster rates, as were those women with higher baseline stress.
Given that adequate levels of adherence were limited to about half of the participants for both types of exercise, steps to reduce barriers to exercise (e.g., stress) need to be taken when prescribing exercise in the treatment of FM.