Home workouts may rev up muscle energy in lupus patients

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Age 18 to 65 years. * Diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus according to the 2019 European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology/American College of Rheumatology classification criteria. * Stable, non-organ-threatening systemic lupus erythematosus, defined as a Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) score of 6 or less at screening, with no active renal or central nervous system involvement. * Stable background lupus therapy, defined as no initiation of a new disease-modifying antirheumatic drug or biologic therapy and no change in the dose of immunosuppressive therapy within 8 weeks before enrollment. * Persistent fatigue and/or muscle pain, with a PROMIS Fatigue T-score of 55 or greater. * Stable prednisone dose, or equivalent glucocorticoid dose, of 5 mg per day or less for at least 12 weeks before enrollment. * Able to safely participate in a moderate-intensity exercise program. * Able and willing to provide informed consent. * Able and willing to comply with the home-based exercise protocol and study procedures. Exclusion Criteria: * Prednisone dose greater than 5 mg per day, or receipt of a glucocorticoid burst within 8 weeks before enrollment. * Pregnancy. * Severe anemia, defined as hemoglobin less than 10 g/dL. * Uncontrolled hypothyroidism. * Severe systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity, defined as a SLEDAI-2K score greater than 8. * End-stage kidney disease requiring renal replacement therapy or estimated glomerular filtration rate less than 30 mL/min/1.73 m². * Uncontrolled hypertension, defined as blood pressure greater than 160/100 mmHg. * Decompensated heart failure. * Unstable pulmonary disease. * Neurologic condition that limits exercise performance. * Uncontrolled diabetes mellitus. * Severe osteoarthritis that limits safe participation in the exercise intervention. * Overlap autoimmune disease, including inflammatory myopathy, mixed connective tissue disease, or systemic sclerosis. * History of solid-organ or bone marrow transplantation. * Any contraindication to magnetic resonance imaging. * Inability to fit safely on the magnetic resonance imaging scanner bed. * Myocardial infarction or cerebrovascular event within the previous 3 months. * Serious hemorrhage, including cerebral hemorrhage, within the previous 12 months. * Acute infectious illness within 1 month before enrollment. * Inability to provide informed consent. * Inability to adhere to the home-based exercise protocol. * Current participation in a structured exercise program.