Physical activity (PA) and exercise are among the most important determinants of health. However, PA is a complex and heterogeneous behavior and the biological mechanisms through which it impacts individuals and populations in different ways are not well understood. Genetics and environment likely play pivotal roles but further work is needed to understand their relative contributions and how they may be mediated. Metabolomics offers a promising approach to explore these relationships.

In this review, we provide a comprehensive appraisal of the PA-metabolomics literature to date. This overwhelmingly supports the hypothesis of a metabolomic response to PA, which can differ between groups and individuals. It also suggests a biological gradient in this response based on PA intensity, with some evidence for global longer-term changes in the metabolome of highly active individuals. However, many questions remain and we conclude by highlighting future critical research avenues to help elucidate the role of PA in the maintenance of health and the development of disease.

身体活动 (PA) 和锻炼是健康最重要的决定因素。然而，PA 是一种复杂且异质的行为，其以不同方式影响个体和群体的生物学机制尚不清楚。遗传学和环境可能起着关键作用，但需要进一步的工作来了解它们的相对贡献以及它们是如何被调节的。代谢组学为探索这些关系提供了一种很有前景的方法。

在这篇综述中，我们对迄今为止的 PA 代谢组学文献进行了全面评估。这压倒性地支持了对 PA 的代谢组学反应的假设，这在群体和个人之间可能有所不同。它还表明，这种基于 PA 强度的反应存在生物梯度，一些证据表明高度活跃的个体代谢组的全球长期变化。然而，许多问题仍然存在，我们最后强调了未来的关键研究途径，以帮助阐明 PA 在维持健康和疾病发展中的作用。