The Effects of Pilates Training and Vitamin D Supplementation on Lipid Profile and Flexibility in Men with Multiple Sclerosis

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of eight weeks of Pilates training and vitamin D supplementation on lipid profile and flexibility in men with MS. For this purpose, 32 people who met the research conditions voluntarily participated in this study as a statistical sample with an age range of 40-45 years and were randomly divided into four groups: supplement, exercise, combined (exercise + supplement) and control groups. One week before the start of the intervention, a pre-test was taken from all four groups, which included the Wells test to measure flexibility and BMI. The training protocol also included Pilates exercises for eight weeks, three times a week on alternate days, with sessions starting at 20 minutes and gradually increasing to one hour. The training load was increased in two ways: increasing the number of repetitions per round and increasing the retention of movement (from the first session, five seconds of maintaining the movement with six repetitions, which increased to one hour, eight seconds of maintaining the movement with 10 repetitions in the eighth week). Descriptive statistics were used in data analysis to calculate the standard deviation, mean, and graph. In the inferential statistics section, the normality of the data distribution was first assessed using the Shapiro-Wilk test, which revealed that the data distribution was normal. Next, the Levene test was used to determine the homogeneity of variances. One-way analysis of variance was used to examine the significance of the difference between the groups, and if significant, the Tukey post hoc test was used to determine the difference between the means of the two groups. The significance level was also considered to be (P ≤ 0.05). All statistical analyses and graphing were performed using SPSS version 22 software. Eight weeks of Pilates training and vitamin D supplementation had a significant effect on triglycerides (P=0.003), cholesterol (P=0.0001), low-density lipoprotein (P=0.0001), high-density lipoprotein (P=0.0001), body composition (P=0.0001), and flexibility (P=0.0001) in men with MS. According to the results of the study, it can be said that Pilates training combined with vitamin D consumption improves lipid profile indicators and some health-related physical fitness factors.