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Are you interested in treatments that are likely to be effective on the greatest number of fibromyalgia sufferers?
Here, I review everything we know about the benefits of exercise and physical activity!
♻️ Last update: Juny 17, 2025
👩⚖️ Declaration of financial interests: none directly related to the subject. My complete declaration of financial interests is in the legal notice section.
Written by Nelly Darbois, physiotherapist and scientific editor
Do exercises relieve the symptoms of fibromyalgia?
Yes, physical exercise is one of the treatments most likely to relieve the symptoms of fibromyalgia.
Why do I say that?
I could tell you that I’ve followed several patients who felt much better after implementing weekly walking sessions, or exercises in physiotherapy sessions over several weeks.
I could also tell you that their scores on tests that measure quality of life or pain intensity have improved.
But how do we know if these results can be generalized to the majority of people with fibromyalgia? That’s where clinical studies come in, to see what works for the greatest number.
A publication in the scientific journal Nature [Couto 2022] has compiled the results of 18 top-quality studies evaluating the effects of exercise in people with fibromyalgia, compared with not exercising.
These studies included a total of 1,184 people.
Here are the results:
- aerobic exercise appears to reduce pain perception, depression and improve quality of life ;
- resistance exercises and stretching reduce pain perception and improve quality of life, but have no significant effect on depression.
What do we mean by “aerobic exercise” and “resistance exercise”? Let’s find out!
What exercises should I do?
Several physical exercise modalities have been tested in studies of fibromyalgia sufferers. Those that help relieve symptoms are :
✅ aerobic exercises: these are likely to be effective in relieving symptoms, and are therefore to be preferred ;
✅ resistance exercises / muscle strengthening;
✅ stretching.
Aerobic exercise is physical activity that increases your heart rate and breathing for a prolonged period.
In practice, you can do brisk walking, jogging, cycling, rowing, swimming or cardio dance classes, where you maintain constant activity for at least 20 to 30 minutes at a time.
How do you know if you’re exercising fast enough/intensively enough? Whatever your level, a good indicator is your level of breathlessness during the activity.
You should be a little out of breath, but not too much. You may have to speak at the same time, though not necessarily continuously.
Resistance or muscle-strengthening exercises are designed to strengthen your muscles by working them against resistance.
This can be done using free weights, weight machines, elastic bands or simply using your own body weight (as with push-ups, squats or lunges).
If you’re not used to doing this type of exercise, using your body weight is usually more than enough. As long as you find the right level of difficulty!
This is why physiotherapy sessions are often prescribed for fibromyalgia.
As for stretching, these are all movements and postures designed to stretch and soften your muscles and joints. This includes yoga.
How often?
For physical exercise to have an impact, it has to be done often enough.
The people included in the studies were physically active:
- for 3 to 24 weeks at a time;
- 2 times a week most often, and between 1 and 5 times a week ;
- for 20 minutes to 1 hour per session.
The minimum amount of dedicated physical activity you need to do to hope for an effect on fibromyalgia is therefore at least 1 20-minute session a week for 3 weeks.
It’s reasonable to assume that the more frequent the rhythm, the greater the potential positive effects.
Most studies fail to identify any side effects associated with the introduction of exercise.
Some studies evaluating the impact of aerobic exercise on fibromyalgia sufferers describe a transient increase in pain or fatigue in a minority of people.
And one of the 496 people had a stress fracture of the foot bone (metatarsal). This may be due to chance.
Source: Bildonde 2017
In the case of fibromyalgia, studies show that regular physical activity can help reduce pain, lower the risk of depression (for aerobic exercise) and improve quality of life.
It’s worth bearing in mind the Gaussian curve: this means that response to exercise can vary from person to person, with some people benefiting greatly from physical activity, while others do not. The average person sees a moderate positive impact.
If you’re considering exercises for your fibromyalgia, you can start slowly and observe how your body reacts.
✅ If the exercises give you relief or improve your symptoms, it could indicate that this is a good approach for you.
❌ Before concluding that physical activity doesn’t work on you, try it for at least 3/4 weeks: that’s the minimum duration for observing initial effects.
And if you’re already at this type of physical activity frequency and intensity, it’s possible that you’ll need to practice at a higher frequency to obtain positive effects!
***
That’s all I wanted to say on the subject! Any questions or comments? See you in comments!
See also: Pain and menopause: what’s the link?
📚 SOURCES
Couto, N., Monteiro, D., Cid, L. et al. Effect of different types of exercise in adult subjects with fibromyalgia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials. Sci Rep 12, 10391 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-14213-x
Bidonde J, Busch AJ, Schachter CL, Overend TJ, Kim SY, Góes SM, Boden C, Foulds HJ. Aerobic exercise training for adults with fibromyalgia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 Jun 21;6(6):CD012700. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD012700. PMID: 28636204; PMCID: PMC6481524.
Written by Nelly Darbois
I enjoy writing articles that answer your questions, drawing on my experience as a physiotherapist and scientific writer, as well as extensive research in international scientific literature.
I live in the French Alps☀️🏔️, where I enjoy the simple pleasures of life (+ I’m a Wikipedia consultant and the founder of Wikiconsult).
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