A common New Year’s resolution is to get in shape. Sometimes this looks like being more strict with your diet. Other times it’s exercising more or in a different way. But is your gut affecting your gains? Today we are answering the question, “Can gut health affect your muscles”.

The Gut-Muscle Connection

Your gut microbes control nearly everything in your body, from food digestion to brain function. But does your gut have anything to do with your muscles and how they function? It sure does!

Your gut controls inflammation levels and when we exercise, our muscles become inflamed. For the sake of health and growth, this is normal and actually a good response. Our body wants to maintain homeostasis and this response will get us back to normal (or better). 

But if our gut and other parts of our body stay inflamed for too long, it can cause tissue and cellular damage which can lead to disease development.

When we exercise, it causes microtears in our muscles. This is especially the case if you’re starting a new exercise program or working out harder than your body is used to. The muscle fibers tear which causes an inflammatory response so those tissues can be repaired. As this happens repetitively, the muscles grow so they can handle the stress you’re putting them under. 

This exact response is why you feel sore after working out or training muscles you haven’t trained before. But there are some really intricate workings of this connection.

Can gut health affect your muscles?

So if your gut controls inflammatory responses and exercising causes inflammation, it makes sense that your gut can affect your muscles. 

Studies are showing that your gut has an important role in tissue repair. Specific gut microbes send out the cells to repair the damaged tissues during (and after) exercise. 

The healthier your gut is, the faster and more efficient these repairs happen. However, if you have an unhealthy gut, these repairs happen much slower or potentially not at all. When eating healthy foods, the gut microbes give off molecules like short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) that help you with muscular metabolism and mitochondrial function.

The gut also helps with nutrient absorption from the foods we eat. When the gut is not healthy, it has a harder time extracting nutrients from our food. The gut microbes help to ferment our food and during this process, nutrients are unlocked and then absorbed by the intestinal tract and sent to the areas of the body where they are needed. If the intestinal tract is not tight like it should be it:

1. Allows bacteria to translocate from the gut to elsewhere in the body. This causes inflammatory reactions wherever those bacteria decide to go. 
2. Cannot absorb nutrients as well as it should leaving the body malnourished. 

Both of these problems affect the muscles directly. Excessive inflammation throughout the body taxes the immune system and depletes nutrients needed for tissue repair. This leaves your muscles starved for the nutrients they need to function at their best. 

Studies show that people experiencing diseases that cause muscular atrophy also have gut dysbiosis. Gut dysbiosis is a condition where the balance of microbes in your gut is out of whack, unhealthy strains begin to take over, and the healthier strains become depleted. 

Symptom management became easier for patients — especially muscular pain and weakness — once the dysbiosis was treated. Usually, they were treated with probiotic strains that appeared to be depleted in the subjects. 

There is no doubt that your gut affects the health and function of your muscles. 

How does exercise affect the gut?

But can exercise affect the gut as well? You may already know this answer to be yes, but do you know how it works?

Your gut microbiome, much like the rest of your body, is extremely adaptable. As your body changes, it makes adjustments to support these new differences. This allows your body to keep up with whatever tasks it needs to complete that it didn’t used to do.

Your gut microbes being able to influence your brain and everything else begin to change and improve these other areas of your body, too. This way your gut can support these new, healthier actions. 

Myokines and exerkines are signaling molecules that are released from your muscles when they contract. Myokines are what your muscles release during normal contractions. Exerkines are what muscles release during exercise. These molecules help the muscles to interact with all of your organs and your gut microbiome. 

When myokines and exerkines are released, they help to modulate the gut microbiome by increasing healthy bacterial strains. 

Different exercise types affect your gut health differently. Extreme exercise can actually stress out your gut causing inflammatory responses. This is really only the case when it comes to things like ultramarathons and similar events. Sometimes you’ll notice if you start working out too hard too quickly you’ll have some digestive upset like diarrhea. However, if you stick with it your body often adjusts and can handle it. 

Most of the time, though, general exercise 30 minutes 5 times a week is enough and actually ideal to improve your gut health. People who experience digestive issues like IBS or similar conditions may want to stick to more gentle exercise types like tai chi, walking, simple weight lifting, or yoga. 

For the general population though, whatever exercise makes you feel the best is what you should stick with — even if that is ultramarathons. 

People who do extreme events actually have specific microbes in their guts that other people do not have. These microbes have been found to improve their muscular contractions, endurance, and recovery. The gut microbiome changes to be able to support whatever lifestyle you decide to have. So healthier lifestyle choices that include moving your muscles will help improve the gut microbiome too.

How to Improve Your Gut for Better Exercise Performance

So with all of this being said, what can you do with this information? 

First, get into a good exercise routine to kickstart the release of myokines and exerkines. 

Here are some other suggestions to improve your gut health while getting back on track!

1. Take probiotics or get more into your everyday diet. Yogurt (make sure it says what strains are in it otherwise it probably doesn’t have probiotics) and other probiotics-containing foods can get your probiotics naturally. If you want to take a probiotic I recommend AtrantilPro or the one that I take daily from doTERRA. Whatever you choose make sure it tells you the strains and that they created it in a way that it actually survives until it reaches your colon.
2. Eat a diet rich in prebiotics, fiber, and polyphenols. Basically, get a lot of plant foods in your diet. Eating a diverse selection of seeds, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and herbs is one of the best ways to support your gut health.
3. Keep yourself on a good routine. This includes sleep, diet, and exercise. If you’re on a good routine, your body gets to be on one too and there are a ton of benefits from this, including a positive influence on your gut microbiome. 
4. Add some diversity to your exercise routine and diet plan. The more ways you move and feed your body the healthier it will be. 
5. Get in the sun as often as you can. Not only does the sun give you vitamin D but this results in killing off pathogenic viruses and bacteria, while boosting your gut microbiome. 

All in all make healthy lifestyle choices and your muscles, gut, and entire body will thank you!

Resources:

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01065/full

https://www.cell.com/immunity/fulltext/S1074-7613(23)00045-6

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666675823001078#sec1.1

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11643575/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7599951/