Understanding Exercise Response Variation – Dr. John noone.

This review by Dr. Noone and colleagues at AdventHealth’s Translational Research Institute, Orlando Florida, discusses the intricate factors contributing to individual response variability with specific focus on the key molecular and mechanistic factors that influence health outcomes and exercise response.

Authors outline these mechanistic factors as intrinsic, such as sex, age, hormonal status, race/ethnicity and genetics, and extrinsic, which includes the likes of exercise timing, exercise dosing, circadian rhythms, sleep habits, dietary interactions and medication use. Furthermore, authors outline the molecular transducers of exercise which include all of the genomic, epigenomic, proteomic, post-translational, transcriptomic, metabolomic, lipidomic elements. All of which should be considered in respect to exercise response variability.

The challenge researchers in this field face relate to the integration of our understanding of these two factors (mechanistic and molecular) to guide exercise prescriptions. This review emphasizes the need for consistency in study design, greater sample sizing, a marked precision in post exercise sample collection, measure adherence, standardization in procedures and protocols and an incorporation of clinical and molecular data from trials as crucial challenges researchers face to provide optimal personalized exercise prescription for performance and clinical benefit.

This work featured on the front cover of Cell Metabolism with artwork entitled: “Variability is the law of life, and as no two faces are the same, so no two bodies are alike.”—Sir William Osler, 1903.

While recently, this work earned Dr. Noone the “Top Journal Impact Factor Publication in 2024” award within AdventHealth’s Research Institute – where Dr. Noone conducted his second postdoctoral fellowship under the tutelage of Dr. Bret H. Goodpaster.

(Scientific Director, AdventHealth Translational Research Institute).

Noone J, Mucinski JM, DeLany JP, Sparks LM, Goodpaster BH (2024). Understanding the variation in exercise responses to guide personalized physical activity prescriptions. Cell Metabolism. 36 (4):702-724. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155041312300476X?via%3Dihub