Going deep to study exercise

Scientists look into what’s going on at the body’s most basic level

About 120 scientists from around the US are in Louisiana as part of a six-year, $170 million (Dh624 million) National Institutes of Health programme to study the molecular nitty-gritty of exercise.

Decades of research have shown that exercise is good for people, but scientists don’t know what’s going on at the body’s most basic level.

“Basically, we’re looking to learn which molecules change in our bodies after exercise and which molecules transmit the benefits to the organs and tissues that aren’t directly involved in physical activity,” said Dr Tuomo Rankinen, an associate professor at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and co-leader of Pennington’s share of the study.

Pennington is among 12 universities and institutions working together to study 2,400 sedentary adults and 300 who work out at least four hours a week. They’ll be looking for people from a variety of racial and ethnic groups. Forty per cent of the sedentary people will be chosen at random for four hours a week of supervised endurance training, 40 per cent for supervised resistance training and the rest will be assigned to remain couch potatoes.

All 2,700 will undergo a battery of tests and give muscle, fat and blood samples at the start and after three months.

They’ll have tests of cardiopulmonary function, muscular strength, and body composition. They’ll be given wearable devices to monitor their physical activity levels when they’re not in the lab. And they’ll be interviewed and fill out questionnaires at the start and end.