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← Questions/LIVING WITH AS

Does exercise really help, and which kind?

The short answer

Pooling 59 randomised trials, every structured exercise type beat usual care on disease activity, function and pain, with Pilates, yoga and Qigong each strong on different measures and none clearly best. Sessions of an hour or less showed the clearest benefit on function. A six-week unsupervised home programme changed little, which is a useful reminder that duration and structure matter more than the choice of exercise.

3 papers behind this answer, best first

Clicking through to a study? How to read a paper is the ten-minute version.

Huo R · 2026
Review

Comparative effectiveness of exercise interventions for axial spondyloarthritis: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Annals of physical and rehabilitation medicine

Pooling 59 randomised trials of 3,404 people, every structured exercise type beat usual care on disease activity, function and pain, with Pilates showing the largest gains on symptoms and function, yoga easing pain, and Qigong the only one that also lowered blood inflammation markers; none was clearly superior overall. The best exercise for AS is the one you will actually keep doing, and the evidence now supports several.

Treatment Response & Outcomes
Macedo RB · 2026
Review

Therapeutics in Axial Spondyloarthritis: A Review of What Works - SPARTAN 2026 Annual Meeting Proceedings.

Current rheumatology reports

A 2026 expert review concludes that TNF, IL-17 and JAK drugs all control symptoms in axial spondyloarthritis, that evidence for slowing spinal damage is strongest for TNF blockers and not yet established for JAK inhibitors, and that structured exercise, in sessions of an hour or less, measurably improves activity, function, pain and fatigue. Obesity predicts worse disease and a weaker response to TNF drugs.

Treatment Response & OutcomesTNF-α InhibitionIL-23 / IL-17 Axis
Uçar Mİ · 2026
Study

Effects of home-based exercise on disease activity, spinal mobility, functionality and systemic inflammatory indices in ankylosing spondylitis: A randomized controlled trial.

Journal of back and musculoskeletal rehabilitation

A six-week home exercise programme for ankylosing spondylitis improved spinal mobility within the exercise group but made no measurable difference to disease activity, function or blood inflammation compared with controls. Six weeks of unsupervised exercise is probably too little to shift the disease itself, which is a useful corrective to expecting quick results.

Treatment Response & Outcomes

Plain-language guides on this from patient organisations

Reviewed sources written for patients. They cover the “what do I do” part that research papers can’t.

Want the mechanism? These threads go deeper

Treatment Response & Outcomes