{"id":31490,"date":"2026-10-13T02:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T02:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490"},"modified":"2026-10-13T02:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T02:48:10","slug":"exercise-is-doing-more-than-building-muscle-it-may-also-be-rewiring-your-dna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490","title":{"rendered":"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

We\u2019ve been saying exercise is good for your immune system for so long that the sentence barely means anything anymore. It\u2019s right up there with vegetables are good for you and smoking is bad. Okay. Thanks. Anything else?<\/p>\n

Then somebody finally starts looking under the hood.<\/p>\n

A study published September 18 in Science Advances used some fairly sophisticated molecular tools to compare regular exercisers with sedentary people and found differences not merely in cholesterol, blood sugar or some other number your doctor circles in red. The differences went all the way down into metabolism, immune-cell gene activity<\/a> and the accessibility of the genetic machinery those cells use to do their jobs. That\u2019s considerably more interesting than telling us people who exercise tend to be healthier.<\/p>\n

The researchers pulled data from the Chinese Immune Multi-omics Atlas<\/a>, an enormous project that has profiled more than 10 million circulating immune cells from 428 adults. For this particular exercise analysis, they compared 40 regular exercisers with 46 sedentary subjects. The active group reported training at least three times a week and accumulating at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise.<\/p>\n

And this is where things get interesting.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>
Zhanna\/Adobe Stock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How Does Exercise Change Immune Cell Gene Activity at the Molecular Level?<\/h2>\n

The exercisers showed metabolic patterns associated with greater fatty-acid oxidation and antioxidant activity. Their immune cells also looked different. Researchers found changes involving cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells, two components of the immune system involved in identifying and destroying infected or abnormal cells. They also found differences in chromatin accessibility, basically how available certain sections of genetic instructions are for the cell to use, along with changes in signaling associated with antigen presentation and inflammation.<\/p>\n

In plain English, the bodies of people who exercised regularly appeared to be operating with a differently tuned metabolic and immune system.<\/p>\n

Before somebody starts selling Immune Chromatin Activator Xtreme in a black bottle with lightning bolts on it, however, there\u2019s a rather important catch: This study does not prove exercise caused those differences.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s cross-sectional. Researchers essentially took a molecular snapshot of people who exercise and people who don\u2019t. Maybe exercise produced the differences. Very plausible. But perhaps people who exercise regularly also eat differently, sleep differently, have different body compositions or differ in some other way the study couldn\u2019t completely untangle. The researchers also didn\u2019t have the kind of detailed exercise information we\u2019d need to start claiming that deadlifts improve natural killer cells more than rowing or that four workouts beat three.<\/p>\n

And please don\u2019t turn \u201cexercise affects the immune system\u201d into \u201cexercise makes you immune to disease.\u201d That\u2019s not what the study says either. Immune biology is ridiculously complicated. More activity from an immune cell isn\u2019t automatically better, and an immune system turned up to 11 isn\u2019t necessarily desirable. Ask anyone with an autoimmune disease.<\/p>\n

What makes this study important is something else. For years we\u2019ve measured exercise by what we can see. Bodyweight. Waist circumference. Blood pressure. VO2 max<\/a>. Muscle. Strength.<\/p>\n

Exercise Biomarkers: Visible Muscle vs. Cellular Housekeeping<\/h2>\n

Those are obviously important, particularly to the M&F crowd, because nobody has ever stood in front of a mirror admiring his chromatin accessibility.<\/p>\n

But underneath the stuff we can see, exercise is apparently associated with a massive amount of biological housekeeping.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a useful thought the next time you have one of those workouts where nothing spectacular happens. No PR. No great pump. The scale hasn\u2019t moved. You look exactly the same walking out of the gym\u00a0 as you did walking in.<\/p>\n

You may still have accomplished quite a bit.<\/p>\n

The more science learns about exercise, the less it looks like something we do merely to improve the body.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s beginning to look like something we\u2019re supposed to do.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve been saying exercise is good for your immune system for so long that the sentence barely means anything anymore. It\u2019s right up there with vegetables are good for you and smoking is bad. Okay. Thanks. Anything else? Then somebody finally starts looking under the hood. A study published September 18 in Science Advances used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":31491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nExercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA - World Bodybuilding News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA - World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We\u2019ve been saying exercise is good for your immune system for so long that the sentence barely means anything anymore. It\u2019s right up there with vegetables are good for you and smoking is bad. Okay. Thanks. Anything else? Then somebody finally starts looking under the hood. A study published September 18 in Science Advances used […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-13T02:48:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.muscleandfitness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Figure-of-a-person-running-up-a-DNA-chain.jpg?quality=86&strip=all\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vkim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"vkim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"vkim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8488193465311f3bad835ef6ff452e7c\"},\"headline\":\"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-13T02:48:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490\"},\"wordCount\":659,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/Fit-man-running-while-his-futuristic-watch-displays-how-exercise-changes-his-DNA.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490\",\"name\":\"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA - World Bodybuilding News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/Fit-man-running-while-his-futuristic-watch-displays-how-exercise-changes-his-DNA.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-13T02:48:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8488193465311f3bad835ef6ff452e7c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/Fit-man-running-while-his-futuristic-watch-displays-how-exercise-changes-his-DNA.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/Fit-man-running-while-his-futuristic-watch-displays-how-exercise-changes-his-DNA.jpg\",\"width\":1109,\"height\":614},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=31490#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"World Bodybuilding News\",\"description\":\"Data, Rankings, Results.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8488193465311f3bad835ef6ff452e7c\",\"name\":\"vkim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g\",\"caption\":\"vkim\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?author=236\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA - World Bodybuilding News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA - World Bodybuilding News","og_description":"We\u2019ve been saying exercise is good for your immune system for so long that the sentence barely means anything anymore. It\u2019s right up there with vegetables are good for you and smoking is bad. Okay. Thanks. Anything else? Then somebody finally starts looking under the hood. A study published September 18 in Science Advances used […]","og_url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490","og_site_name":"World Bodybuilding News","article_published_time":"2026-10-13T02:48:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.muscleandfitness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Figure-of-a-person-running-up-a-DNA-chain.jpg?quality=86&strip=all","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"vkim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"vkim","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490"},"author":{"name":"vkim","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8488193465311f3bad835ef6ff452e7c"},"headline":"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA","datePublished":"2026-10-13T02:48:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490"},"wordCount":659,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Fit-man-running-while-his-futuristic-watch-displays-how-exercise-changes-his-DNA.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490","url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490","name":"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA - World Bodybuilding News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Fit-man-running-while-his-futuristic-watch-displays-how-exercise-changes-his-DNA.jpg","datePublished":"2026-10-13T02:48:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8488193465311f3bad835ef6ff452e7c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Fit-man-running-while-his-futuristic-watch-displays-how-exercise-changes-his-DNA.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Fit-man-running-while-his-futuristic-watch-displays-how-exercise-changes-his-DNA.jpg","width":1109,"height":614},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=31490#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Exercise Is Doing More Than Building Muscle: It May Also Be Rewiring Your DNA"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/","name":"World Bodybuilding News","description":"Data, Rankings, Results.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8488193465311f3bad835ef6ff452e7c","name":"vkim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g","caption":"vkim"},"url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?author=236"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}