Physical Activity and Exercise: Prescrip 2022 : special issue: Physical Activity and Exercise: Prescription, Measurement, and Testing

Dear Colleagues,

Aerobic and resistance training are associated with benefits in physical performance as well as reduced risk of mortality. However, the exercise response to aerobic and resistance training is largely variable. Variance in cardio-respiratory adaptations to exercise training has a 47% heritable component. Furthermore, several candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms appear to influence cardio-respiratory trainability, although genetic sequence alone is not a reliable predictor of the magnitude of training response. Hence, recent studies have used a combination of ‘omic’ technologies to further understand molecular mechanisms, pathways, and biomarkers that predict high and low responders to exercise. In addition, recent evidence suggests suppression of exercise-induced inflammation attenuates gains in muscle mass. Consequently, the immune response potentially mediates the magnitude of adaptive response to exercise. Prediction of cardio-respiratory and strength responsiveness to regular exercise is a topic of great relevance due to its potential role in personalized exercise medicine applications to ensure exercise training is effective. The purpose of this Special Issue is to add to the existing body of literature, to provide more information about the most effective methods of identifying poor responders to endurance and resistance training.

Dr. Brendan O'Brien
Guest Editor