Anna Tollbäck, Stefan Eriksson, Anna Wredenberg, Göran Jenner, Roberto Vargas, Kristian Borg and Tor Ansved
DOI: 10.1080/1650197731916

Nine ambulatory subjects with myotonic dystrophy participated in a supervised 12-week progressive high-resistance training pro- gram. Knee extensor muscles were trained 3 times a week with free weights, 3 􏰁 10 repetitions at 80% of 1RM. One leg was randomly chosen for training and the other served as control. Six patients completed the training program. In the trained leg, 1RM increased from 16. 4 􏰂 3. 4 kg to 21. 8 􏰂 2. 6 kg ( p = 0. 0002). There was no difference between pre- and post-training concentric or eccentric isokinetic values at 30°/second in either leg. Muscle biopsy from m. vastus lateralis in the trained leg revealed no systematic difference in the degree of histopathological abnormalities before and after training. After training, there was a tendency toward increase in cross-sectional area of type I muscle fibres. However, the number of sub- jects was too small to draw conclusions regarding the effects of training on the histopathological changes. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed no difference in the m. quadriceps area after training. In conclusion, patients with myotonic dystrophy improved their muscle strength without any observed negative side effects after a 12-week high-resistance training program