Participants

Seventeen adults previously diagnosed with MD (FSHD, LGMD, and BMD) were recruited from The Neuromuscular Centre (Winsford, UK). All participants were considered ambulatory (as described below). The participant characteristics of each MD sub-group and a grouped average for MD are described in Table 1. All participants provided written informed consent before taking part in the study, which was approved by the local Ethics Committee of Manchester Metropolitan University. All procedures complied with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (28).

Participant characteristics and anthropometric measurements at baseline (PRE) for muscular dystrophy (MD) grouped and separated into muscular dystrophy sub-groups.

Data are presented as mean ± SD.

All participants had not previously undertaken structured resistance training, were functionally active (ambulatory) and self-reported that they did not undertake more than 1 h of intense physical activity or 3 h of low-moderate physical activity per week. The participants were all receiving regular (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) physiotherapy treatment at The Neuromuscular Centre, that involves passive mobility activities lasting ~1 h. All participants were able to walk at least seven meters with or without assistive walking devices, were in otherwise good health and without any uncontrolled co-morbidity or cardiac issues. Consistent with previous studies that have “grouped” multiple MDs for analysis [e.g., BMD and LGMD (27), FSHD, and LGMD (29)], we grouped all the participants as “adults with muscular dystrophy.” This is discussed later within the limitations section of the discussion, and represents the rationale for the within group study design (see section Materials and Methods below).