What’s next?
Moving forward, the researchers need to find out whether the gut affects motivation in humans, too. To do that, they’re analyzing the gut microbiomes of people with varying levels of exercise motivation.
“With enough samples, we could potentially correlate species of microbiota that exist in exercise-motivated individuals,” said study coauthor Nicholas Betley, PhD, a biologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
Variations in the gut microbiome could help explain the “runner’s high” that some people have in a long-distance race. The research could also help promote weight training or sports participation.
“Imagine if a sports team could optimally motivate the athletes on the team to exercise,” said Dr. Betley. The lab is investigating the microbiome’s impact on high-intensity interval training.
Signals from the gut to the brain could be affecting body processes in other ways too, the researchers speculated.
“There are so many possibilities for how these signals may change physiology and impact health,” Dr. Betley said. “A new set of studies may well establish a whole new branch of exercise physiology.”
A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.