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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For teenagers and young adults with Down syndrome, resistance training can boost their muscle strength and functional performance, new research shows. These improvements may help them hold down a job and increase their quality of life.
Although they usually have a sturdy build, "most, if not all, individuals with Down syndrome suffer from muscle weakness, which contributes to limitations in their daily lives," Patrick Cowley of Syracuse University, New York and the study's lead author told Reuters Health.
People with Down syndrome may have 40 to 50 percent less strength than individuals without Down syndrome, he noted.
Young adults with Down syndrome are often able to hold manual labor types of jobs -- like dishwasher or grocery store stocker, for example -- and live independently or semi-independently. "If they lack appropriate levels of muscle strength and endurance it can have a particularly adverse effect on their quality of life, independence and inclusion in society," Cowley said.
Cowley and colleagues found that 10 weeks of strength training, involving three sets of 10 repetitions twice weekly, led to significant gains in muscle strength in seven women and five men aged 18 to 36 with Down syndrome.
"We found that leg strength increased in particular, which is associated with the ability to perform tasks required in everyday life," Cowley said.
Arm strength improved 42 percent, on average, and leg strength a remarkable 90 percent, according to Cowley, who reported the study findings at the 2007 annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine.
The participants also saw improvement in functional performance; they found it easier to get up from a sitting position and to go up and down steps.
This study, Cowley told Reuters Health, shows that resistance training "may provide a means to improve muscle strength and functional ability in individuals with Down syndrome."
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