Gut Microbiota and Exercise: Implications for Health Promotion and Athletic Performance

Kapitel i bok, 2026

The gut microbiota has emerged as a pivotal mediator of human health and physiological performance, wherein exercise acts as a potent modulator of microbial composition and function. This chapter focuses on the latest research examining the relationship between physical activity, exercise training, and the gut microbiota, exploring its implications for health enhancement and athletic performance. This chapter begins with a detailed description of gut microbiome in human, outlining its complex ecosystem and metabolic capacity to influence host physiology. Emerging evidence from population-based studies is summarized to illustrate how physical activity influences the lifespan trajectory of the gut microbiome. We then provide mechanistic insights from human trials and animal studies, showcasing the exercise-induced enrichment of anti-inflammatory, butyrate-producing, and lactate-utilizing bacteria (e.g., Lactobacillus, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Roseburia spp., and Akkermansia muciniphila), which enhance intestinal barrier integrity, metabolic efficiency, and recovery processes. These findings position the gut microbiota as a new frontier in precision sports medicine. Moreover, we provide a compelling review of how the interplay between exercise and individual factors, such as baseline fitness, age, and dietary habits, can influence the pre-exercise microbiota profile and subsequently alter the microbial response to exercise training. Furthermore, the interplay between gut microbiota along with their metabolites that have shown to be modulated by exercise, and host epigenetics is dissected, attempting to reveal the mysteries of health maintenance and disease prevention from this new perspective. By integrating multidisciplinary evidence, this chapter provides a roadmap for harnessing microbiome-exercise interactions to enhance healthspan and athletic potential through personalized microbiota-targeted interventions.