The Surprising Way Exercise Is Reshaping Your Gut

Gut Feeling: Exercise does lots of good things for your body, and scientists keep discovering new benefits. Now, recent research out of Edith Cowan University in Australia suggests that how hard you train may actually reshape the bacterial community living in your gut. And that’s a bigger deal than it might appear at first glance.

The Study: Researchers studied elite rowing athletes across periods of high and low training intensity. When athletes were pushing themselves, there were measurable changes in their gut bacteria and short-chain fatty acid levels. The leading theory is that intense exercise produces lactate, a byproduct of hard-working muscles, which can reach the gut and may feed certain bacterial growth. But during lighter training periods, athletes started eating worse and their digestion slowed down, which shook up their gut bacteria in its own way.

The Takeaway: Your gut is more responsive to your lifestyle than you might think. Training intensity appears to be one of many forces that can shape your inner flora.

Keep in Mind: These were elite athletes, so the findings may not translate to us mere mortals (i.e., recreational exercisers). And since diet and digestion also shifted alongside training, it’s tough to pin the gut changes on exercise alone without more research.