Training with multiple sclerosis.

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

I’m from Poland so I apologize for my English to be a bit rusty.
My brother has an MS. I try to bring him into calisthenics (it was a while ago…) and he answered me, that his physiotherapist forbade him to do any resistance training do to muscle fatigue. He (PT) believed that overall fatigue decrease coordination and his goal was to improve coordination in his patients at all cost.
But I see on this forum people with MS who are successfully training with barbells and reaching great numbers.
So I have three questions regarding this topic:

  1. Is there any chance that training with barbells would do any neurological harm to a trainee with MS and make a permanent impairment of coordination?
  2. How to keep patient with MS motivated if he cannot chase numbers in a more controlled manner and his performance may vary wildly from session to session?
  3. Any advices of how to deal with a trainee with MS, besides adapting to situation and relying heavily on RPE?
2

  1. Not when the training is dosed appropriately for his level, no.

  2. This is going to involve a lot of education and guidance to develop buy-in and setting process goals, rather than outcome goals.

  3. Those are the most important things. Individualizing based on preferences, limitations, and tolerance, and adjusting the training as needed over time.

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