REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Systems Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1617261
This article is part of the Research TopicExercise as a Therapeutic Strategy for Reprogramming the Immune Response in Cardiovascular Disease ProgressionView all articles
Exercise Workload: A Key Determinant of Immune Health -A Narrative Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Exercise and Health, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
- 2North Carolina Research Campus, Appalachian State University, Kannapolis, NC, United States
- 3School of Athletic Performance, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
- 4Shanghai Key Laboratory of Human Performance, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
- 5Research Institute for Doping Control, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
- 6Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
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The total exercise workload is an important factor influencing immune health.Appropriately prescribed physical activity can mitigate the detrimental effects of chronic inflammation, bolster the body's defenses against both infectious and noninfectious diseases, and decelerate the immunosenescence process. Physiological and immune system responses to moderate and strenuous exercise workloads vary markedly.This narrative review summarizes current findings on the impacts of moderate-intensity exercise, high-intensity interval training, and strenuous and prolonged exercise on immune health, elucidating their specific effects and underlying mechanisms.Additionally, the role of challenging environmental conditions in shaping immune responses to exercise is also briefly considered. The insights presented here are intended to guide healthy individuals in selecting evidence-based exercise training protocols that are compatible with both health promotion and immune health. Moreover, this review offers prospective research directions, particularly regarding personalized exercise regimens and the interaction between exercise and environmental factors, providing valuable perspectives for scholars within the field of exercise immunology.
Keywords: exercise intensity, Immune health, moderate-intensity exercise, immune cell function, cytokine regulation
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 01 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shi, Hu, Nieman, Li, Chen, Shi and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yue Shi, School of Athletic Performance, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, 200072, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.