(the first time I sent this message back to the author only and not to
the board) Oops!

Hi Jamal;

Your question is very good one, and I've been asked that by other
people recently. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of
well-substantiated medical information about exercise, physical
therapy, etc. in LGMD. Most of the information out there seems to be
about Duchenne MD, and it seems to be left up to us to figure out how
it might apply to other forms of MD.

Now that several forms of LGMD have been genetically characterized, I
would hope that some better information might become available in the
next few years.

Some information about exercise is given on the MDA's "ask the
experts" page on lgmd:

http://www.mdausa.org/experts/ask_lgmd.html

the file is pretty long, so you might want to use the "find in page"
feature in the "edit" menu of your browser to look for "exercise".

My experience, and those of other people I've talked to, suggests that
while exercise won't significantly help muscles that are affected, it
won't hurt either if done in moderation. Also, since many types of
LGMD affect only specific muscles, strengthening other muscles which
aren't affected can help make up some of the loss of function.

You probably want to consult a physical therapist (if possible one who
has had other patients with muscular dystrophy) to come up with
exercises that would be beneficial. This depends very much on your
condition and which muscles are affected in your particular case.

Best wishes,
Brad