How Exercise Changes Your Muscle's Instructions
Epigenetic changes in healthy human skeletal muscle following exercise– a systematic review
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
miR-1 and miR-133a decrease after chronic training, even though they increase after a single workout.
Most assume more of these muscle-specific microRNAs always equals better adaptation—but here, the body turns them down after adaptation, suggesting they’re temporary triggers, not long-term drivers.
Practical Takeaways
Keep exercising consistently—even if you don’t feel stronger yet, your muscles are quietly rewriting their genetic instructions for better efficiency.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
miR-1 and miR-133a decrease after chronic training, even though they increase after a single workout.
Most assume more of these muscle-specific microRNAs always equals better adaptation—but here, the body turns them down after adaptation, suggesting they’re temporary triggers, not long-term drivers.
Practical Takeaways
Keep exercising consistently—even if you don’t feel stronger yet, your muscles are quietly rewriting their genetic instructions for better efficiency.
Publication
Journal
Epigenetics
Year
2019
Authors
M. Jacques, Danielle Hiam, J. Craig, R. Barrès, N. Eynon, S. Voisin
Related Content
Claims (4)
The way you live—like how much you move, how you manage stress, and what you eat—can turn your genes up or down without changing your DNA, kind of like a dimmer switch for your body’s instructions.
When people do long-term workouts like running or lifting weights, their muscle cells show tiny changes in a biological tagging system called DNA methylation—mostly fewer tags in areas that control metabolism and muscle function.
After just one workout like running or cycling, your muscles quickly change how their genes are turned on—specifically, a gene called PGC-1α gets more active because a chemical tag on it gets removed, helping your body respond to the stress of exercise.
When you do a single tough workout like running or cycling, your muscles produce more of two specific tiny molecules called miR-1 and miR-133a—but if you train like that regularly over weeks or months, those same molecules go down. It’s like your muscles hit a reset button after long-term training.