Abstract

Introduction: fibromyalgia is a chronic disease characterized by widespread pain, non-restorative sleep and fatigue among others, that negatively impacts both physical and emotional function and reduces the quality of life. Objetive: to review the literature to verify the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of exercise in the treatment of fibromyalgia. Material and method: we searched the literature on exercise and fibromyalgia in the databases Pub-Med, Cochrane and PEDro with MeSH words. We selected 21 articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria established. Results: all studies showed an improvement in symptoms of fibromyalgia with different types of physical activity. Aerobic training improves maximal oxygen consumption and decreases the intensity of pain and fatigue, enhancing the quality of life of individuals, strength training reduces the severity of the symptoms of fibromyalgia and aquatic exercise causes improvements in pain, physical function and muscle strength as well as psychosocial health variables. Conclusions: the studies reviewed show that aerobic and aquatic exercise are really effective for improving physical health in fibromyalgia.