We’re used to gut health being discussed in the same breath as mood. Now, research is shedding light on the link between your microbiome and your motivation to exercise. WH reports on the news that workouts are a gut instinct
It happens like clock work. Ever y few months, hundreds of v ideos promising to boost your gut health f lood TikTok. Stewed apples, sweet potato soup and shots of olive oil have all gone into the algorithmic blender with the promise of feeding your microbiome. But with the line bet ween ex perience and ev idence as blurr y as your Christmas party camera roll, it can feel hard to sepa rate the recipes for good gut health from the recipes for a messy kitchen. So when we heard there was an ev idencebased g ut-health hack that doesn’t involve dirty dishes, we were all ears.
Exercise is being talked about in gut-health circles with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for stool samples. Not only can a sweat session support your microbiome, suggests the research, but the relationship works both ways – a healthier gut then makes you feel more motivated to exercise (which improves gut health… you get the idea).
‘When performed with correct form, exercise has been shown to improve both the diversity and strain of your gut microbiota,’ says Stacy Sims, an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist specialising in female performance. ‘We also know that a greater gut diversity is associated with a dominant strain of microbiota (small microorganisms that live in your microbiome, in your digestive tract) known as Bacteroidetes, which is responsible for increasing lean muscle mass and reducing body fat.’ And if you’ve just taken the trouble of learning to pronounce ‘Bacteroidetes’, this bit of bacteria is just the start.
That a well-functioning gut can help curb your cortisol isn’t news; the mind-gut connection has earned more headlines than Harry and Meghan and there are whole food groups dedicated to boosting your brain via your gut (see: kombucha and co). But if managing your stress can make you kinder to your colleagues, it can also make you fitter.
‘Healthy gut microbiota help modulate oxidative and inflammatory stress,’ says Dr Sims, about the mechanism behind the mind-gut connection. This matters, because keeping a lid on cortisol is a precursor to exercise adaptation – the technical term for your body’s physiological response to training. ‘Cortisol signals to your blood vessels to constrict, reducing blood flow to your muscles and depriving them of the oxygen and nutrients they need to refuel,’ adds Dr Sims. ‘So when your cortisol levels are too high, your muscles can’t repair themselves, which they need to do in order to grow.’
But perhaps the most powerful piece of evidence for the gut-muscle connection is that it can influe
