Home-Based Exercise, Coaching Improves Fitness in Neuromuscular Diseases

WEDNESDAY, June 4, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Combined personalized home-based aerobic exercise and coaching improves physical fitness for people with neuromuscular diseases, according to a study published online June 4 in Neurology.

Sander Oorschot, from the University of Amsterdam, and colleagues examined the efficacy of combined personalized home-based aerobic exercise and coaching on physical fitness in people with neuromuscular diseases in a multicenter, assessor-blinded, randomized controlled trial. Participants with different types of neuromuscular diseases were randomly allocated to a six-month intervention or usual care (44 and 47 participants, respectively). Assessments were performed at baseline and at six and 12 months postintervention.

The researchers found that the mean group difference in physical fitness, measured as peak oxygen uptake, was 2.2 and 1.7 mL/min/kg directly after intervention and on average over time, respectively, in favor of the intervention group. In the secondary outcomes, including daily physical activity, quality of life, physical functioning, metabolic syndrome markers, and creatine kinase level, no significant between-group differences were seen. There were 25 and 22 adverse events reported in the intervention and usual care groups, respectively. No changes were seen in creatine kinase levels.

“Future research should look at how changes in fitness levels affect how well people with neuromuscular diseases can do everyday activities,” coauthor Eric L. Voorn, Ph.D., also from the University of Amsterdam, said in a statement. “It should also look at ways to motivate people to keep exercising regularly in their daily lives to make sure the benefits of long-term treatments are maintained.”

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