Patterns Of High And Low Response To Regular Exercise Across Multiple Clinically Relevant Traits

PURPOSE: We investigated if high- or low-responsiveness to exercise training aggregates in the same individuals or if the response patterns are randomly distributed across seven clinically relevant traits. METHODS: A total of 566 participants from the HERITAGE Family Study completed a 20-week endurance training program (>95% compliance) and had complete response data available for maximal oxygen uptake, percent body fat, resting heart rate, and fasting levels of insulin, HDL-cholesterol, small LDL particles, and inflammatory marker GlycA. For each exercise response trait, race, sex, and generation-specific quintiles were created and high responders were defined as those within the 20th percentile representing the favorable end of the response trait distribution (e.g., top end for VO2max response, bottom end for fasting insulin response), while low responders were defined as the 20th percentile from the least favorable end. Those between the 20th and 80th percentile were labeled as average responders. RESULTS: Only one individual each was classified as a universal high or low responder for all seven traits (Table). Half (51%) of the cohort was both a low and high responder for at least one trait. About 24% had at least one high response but no low responses, 23% had one or more low-response traits but no high responses, and 2% were average responders across all traits. Pearson correlations between response traits were low, ranging from -0.22 to 0.11. CONCLUSIONS: Inter-individual variation in exercise responses applied to all investigated cardiometabolic traits, even with the same exercise intervention and level of compliance. Neither high- nor low-responsiveness aggregated consistently in the same individuals, as a low responder for one trait may be a high responder for another. From a clinical perspective, adherence to an exercise prescription is likely to produce multiple health benefits for an individual even if the targeted risk factor level doesn’t improve.