Exercise Physiology

Exercise physiology examines how the body’s major systems respond and adapt to physical activity, encompassing acute changes and long-term remodelling in the cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal and endocrine networks. Central to this field is the study of energy homeostasis: regular training stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle, optimises substrate utilisation (enhancing both fat and carbohydrate oxidation) and modulates inflammatory and stress-response pathways. Contracting muscle also secretes signalling molecules known as exerkines that coordinate adaptations in adipose tissue, liver, brain and vasculature. These systemic effects underpin the preventive and therapeutic roles of exercise in non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and certain cancers, while improving functional capacity and quality of life. Insights from exercise physiology inform the design of personalised activity programmes and public-health strategies to combat sedentary lifestyles worldwide.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Large-scale multi-omic analyses have mapped the temporal molecular response to endurance training across blood, plasma and 18 solid tissues in male and female animal models. This comprehensive data set reveals thousands of shared and tissue-specific transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic and epigenomic changes over an eight-week training course. Key findings include coordinated regulation of immune pathways, mitochondrial function and stress responses, with notable sex differences and implications for human conditions such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular recovery.

Seminal work identified a muscle-derived myokine driven by the transcriptional co-activator PGC1-α that induces browning of white adipose tissue and increases thermogenesis. The membrane protein FNDC5 is cleaved and secreted as irisin upon exercise, triggering UCP1 expression in white fat cells. In animal models, modest elevations of irisin enhance energy expenditure without changing activity or food intake, improving obesity and glucose control and defining a muscle-to-fat endocrine axis.

Exercise Physiology publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in exercise physiology across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Exerkines: Bioactive proteins and metabolites released by contracting tissues that mediate inter-organ communication and adaptation.

Multi-omic: An integrated analysis combining genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic data to capture complex biological processes.

Myokine: A muscle-derived signalling molecule produced in response to contraction, exerting local and systemic effects.

Thermogenesis: Heat production by tissues, notably induced in brown- or beige-like adipocytes via uncoupling protein activation.

Composite Z-score: A standardised metric combining multiple clinical variables to assess overall cardiovascular risk.

References

1. Introduction to Exercise Physiology.
2. Temporal dynamics of the multi-omic response to endurance exercise training. Nature (2024).
3. A PGC1-α-dependent myokine that drives brown-fat-like development of white fat and thermogenesis. Nature (2012).
4. Aerobic, resistance, or combined exercise training and cardiovascular risk profile in overweight or obese adults: the CardioRACE trial. European Heart Journal (2024).
5. Exercise induces tissue-specific adaptations to enhance cardiometabolic health. Cell Metabolism (2024).