Exercise as Medicine in Chronic Disease: Movement Mechanisms, Digital Rehabilitation, and Functional Recovery

Movement behavior, motor performance, and functional capacity are central indicators of health and recovery in chronic disease populations. Many patients experience exercise intolerance, reduced movement efficiency, impaired postural or locomotor control, fatigue, breathlessness, and reduced confidence in movement. These limitations arise from interacting physiological, biomechanical, motor-control, psychological, and behavioral mechanisms, including altered cardiorespiratory responses, muscle dysfunction, perceived effort, symptom-related fear, motivation, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. Advances in cardiopulmonary exercise testing, wearable sensors, motion tracking, remote physiological monitoring, and digital biomarkers now allow more precise assessment of movement limitations and recovery trajectories. This Research Topic brings together movement science, exercise psychology, clinical exercise physiology, and digital health to examine how movement-based assessment and intervention can improve functional recovery in chronic disease.

This Research Topic aims to advance mechanistic understanding of how physiological, biomechanical, motor-control, psychological, and behavioral factors shape movement behavior, exercise tolerance, and functional recovery in chronic disease populations. Although exercise-based interventions are widely recommended, major gaps remain in understanding why individuals differ in movement capacity, perceived effort, adherence, treatment response, and recovery trajectories.

Physiological markers from cardiopulmonary exercise testing, movement-derived data from wearable devices, biomechanical indicators, and behavioral measures can provide insight into individual movement limitations and adaptation. However, these markers are rarely integrated with psychological and perceptual factors such as fatigue appraisal, motivation, self-efficacy, fear of symptoms, and confidence in movement. This Research Topic seeks to encourage work that links movement mechanisms with psychological functioning and personalized exercise prescription. Particular emphasis will be placed on how digital monitoring, tele-rehabilitation, hybrid care models, and movement-based phenotyping can support more precise assessment, intervention, and sustainable functional recovery.

This Research Topic welcomes contributions that investigate the mechanisms underlying altered movement behavior, exercise intolerance, motor performance, and functional recovery in chronic disease populations. Topics of interest include:

• Movement-related phenotyping
• Cardiopulmonary, neuromuscular, biomechanical, and perceptual determinants of exercise tolerance
• Wearable-assisted movement monitoring
• Digital biomarkers of physical activity and functional recovery
• Perceived effort, fatigue, movement confidence, symptom-related fear, self-efficacy, and adherence
• Personalized exercise prescription based on physiological and psychological profiles

We also welcome studies on tele-rehabilitation and hybrid rehabilitation models when they include movement-based assessment, motor performance outcomes, or mechanistic explanations of functional change. Suitable article types include original research, systematic reviews, reviews, mini reviews, methods articles, brief research reports, conceptual analyses, perspectives, and opinion articles. Studies that integrate movement science, exercise psychology, clinical rehabilitation, and digital health technologies are particularly encouraged.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Effort perception, Exercise as medicine, Movement behavior, Digital rehabilitation, Tele-rehabilitation, Cardiopulmonary exercise testing, Exercise intolerance, Wearable technology, Chronic diseases, Motor Control

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.