what type of exercise offers the most benefits?

What type of exercise should be recommended for fibromyalgia sufferers who account for two to four percent of the world’s population? Generally treated at pain centres where the condition is diagnosed, these patients, who are mainly women, are encouraged to exercise regularly to alleviate widespread pain and anxiety and to boost their general health. But what type of exercise offers the most benefits? In a bid to answer this question, a team of researchers compared the effectiveness of sessions of tai chi, a Chinese martial art that makes use of slow choreographed movements, with aerobic exercise (cycling, walking etc) and also studied the influence of the duration and frequency of these activities. The average age of the 226 study participants, of which 92% were women, was 52. They had suffered from fibromyalgia for an average of nine years, and none of them had been treated with alternative medical therapies in the six months that preceded the study. Changes in their symtoms were assessed at 12, 24 and 52 weeks, and participants continued their standard medical treatment thoughout this time. The study showed better outcomes for patients who took part in twice weekly tai chi classes than for those who took part in supervised aerobic exercise. Long-term practice of the discipline was found to be more effective than more frequent sessions, with little difference between patients who did tai chi once or twice a week, but increased benefits after 24 weeks of practice as opposed to 12 weeks.