{"id":15119,"date":"2026-02-28T05:55:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T05:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=15119"},"modified":"2026-02-28T05:55:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T05:55:19","slug":"new-study-links-hard-training-to-better-gut-health-digestion-recovery-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=15119","title":{"rendered":"New Study Links Hard Training to Better Gut Health, Digestion, Recovery & Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Intense workouts could add more than muscle to the list of physical benefits brought about by getting your sweat on. A new study shows that hard training can also positively affect the balance of your gut bacteria, leading to better digestive systems, and greater potential as far as making a PR. The latest science certainly adds new meaning to the term \u201cgut check!\u201d<\/p>\n

Regular exercise is already encouraged for lean mass gains and mental health benefits, but these new findings, resulting from a study by Edith Cowan University in Australia<\/a> suggest that the intensity of our training could promise even more, influencing the configuration of our gut microbiome. \u201cBased on previous research, it appears that athletes have a different gut microbiota when compared with the general population,\u201d explains Ph.D. candidate Bronwen Charlesson<\/a>, who served as lead on the paper. \u201cThis includes greater total short chain fatty acid concentrations, alpha diversity, and an increased abundance of some bacteria and a lower abundance of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists at ECU wanted to find out the specific effects of exercise, so they designed separate training volume loads, and checked them against other gut health factors, such as diet, to see the if training related scenarios like oxygen uptake could influence the results.<\/p>\n

How was the Study Carried Out?<\/h2>\n

Twenty-three highly trained, national level rowing athletes (11 male, 12 female) were studied during two, 3-day periods separated by one month. The first period included around 5 hours of rowing, cycling, and cross training over 3-days, while the high-intensity load asked for the same training, but for more than seven hours over three days, resulting in greater intensity as recorded by heart monitors.<\/p>\n

What the Study Found<\/h2>\n

The higher training load was linked with a shift in multiple gut health markers<\/a>:<\/p>\n