Brain & nerves Neurological Rehabilitation
Muscular Dystrophy
- Progressive muscle weakness
- Difficulty rising from the floor or climbing stairs
- Frequent falls
- Enlarged calves in some types
Quick answer
Muscular dystrophy is a group of inherited conditions causing progressive muscle weakness. Physiotherapy cannot halt the underlying process, but it maintains movement, prevents contractures, supports respiratory function and preserves independence for as long as possible.
Typical recovery
Lifelong management
Muscular dystrophy is a group of genetic conditions in which muscle fibres progressively break down. Duchenne is the most common childhood form; others, such as Becker and the limb-girdle dystrophies, progress more slowly.
Being straightforward about what treatment does
Physiotherapy does not stop the underlying process. Anyone offering a cure should be treated with great caution.
What it does do is significant: it prevents much of the secondary disability. Contractures, scoliosis and respiratory complications cause a great deal of the loss of function, and much of that is preventable or delayable with consistent management.
What we work on
- Maintaining joint range — daily stretching and night splinting, particularly for the ankles, knees and hips, since contractures are what typically end independent walking before muscle weakness alone would
- Appropriate exercise — gentle and submaximal. Heavy resistance and exercise to exhaustion can damage dystrophic muscle, so intensity is deliberately moderated
- Respiratory care — breathing exercises and airway clearance, which become increasingly central over time
- Postural management and seating to reduce scoliosis risk
- Equipment and home adaptation, planned ahead of need rather than in crisis
- Standing programmes where walking is lost, to help maintain bone density and joint range
Coordinating with the wider team
Care is shared with neurology, cardiology, respiratory medicine and orthopaedics. Physiotherapy works within that, and we ask for the team's guidance rather than working in isolation.
Family support
Families carry the daily programme, and it is demanding. Making it realistic and sustainable matters more than making it theoretically optimal.
Medically reviewed by Nasir Mughees, BPT, MPT, Orthopaedic Physiotherapy · Last reviewed September 2026