Study of How Different Training Loads Affect Gut Health and Exercise Fitness in Healthy Men Aged 18 to 45

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are studying how different amounts of supervised indoor cycling training affect gut health, including gut bacteria, substances produced by gut bacteria, and the gut barrier. The study focuses on healthy, recreationally active men aged 18 to 45 years. It aims to find out how moderate and high training loads influence levels of butyrate, a substance made by gut bacteria, and how these changes relate to fitness, muscle health, and signs of overreaching, a state of excessive training. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups a control group with no structured training receiving a weekly placebo capsule, a moderate-load training group completing eight weeks of supervised cycling sessions four times a week, or a high-load training group completing four weeks of moderate training followed by four weeks with double the training sessions. Training intensity is personalized based on exercise testing and follows a set schedule of different cycling session types. The study includes a 10-day taper period after the training. Participants will attend four assessment periods at baseline, mid-intervention four weeks, post-intervention eight weeks, and after the taper. During these times, they provide blood, stool, muscle, urine, saliva, and breath samples. They also complete fitness tests and questionnaires. Researchers will monitor exercise performance, gut microbiome changes, muscle adaptations, metabolic and vascular health, and recovery markers throughout the study. Training sessions and adherence are closely tracked until 10 days after intervention completion.

Impact of Training Load on the Gut miCrobiome And Its Relation to exeRcise Performance, mUscle Phenotype, and markerS of Overreaching in Healthy Men