Effect of Aerobic Exercises on Lung Function in Women With Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Aerobic exercises (AEs) have gained much interest in managing fibromyalgia (FM). This trial aimed to find out how AEs affect women with FM in terms of lung function, chest expansion, dyspnea, exercise capacity, and quality of life.

Eighty FM-diagnosed women were allocated randomly into 2 equal-sized groups. For 12 weeks, the AEs group did moderate-intensity aerobic cycling and diaphragmatic breathing exercises while the control group did just diaphragmatic breathing exercises. Outcome measures included forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in the first second, and total lung capacity for lung function; upper and lower chest expansions; Medical Research Council dyspnea scale for dyspnea; maximal oxygen consumption for exercise capacity; and physical component score and mental component score components of the 12-item Short Form Health Survey for quality of life.

By study completion, all outcomes improved significantly in the AEs and control groups (P < .05). Compared with the group of control, the AEs group revealed more substantial increases in forced vital capacity (9.51% vs 4.95%, P = .04), forced expiratory volume in the first second (8.72% vs 4.54%, P = .03), total lung capacity (11.02% vs 5.39%, P = .001), upper chest expansion (21.22% vs 10.03%, P = .02), lower chest expansion (31.35% vs 11.2%, P = .01), maximal oxygen consumption (55.89% vs 36.94%, P = .03), physical component score (18.8% vs 10.9%, P = .001), and mental component score (25.67% vs 15.26%, P = .02) accompanied with greater declines in Medical Research Council dyspnea scale scores (37.71% vs 19.45%, P = .03).

In FM women, moderate AEs could improve lung function, chest expansion, dyspnea, exercise capacity, and quality of life.