In the middle of August, the following information began to circulate in numerous national media: ‘They find/discover the switch that awakens in people the desire to exercise’, ‘they discover a switch for the desire to exercise’ and endless variations of the same headline. The Spanish team’s work, published in the journal Science Advances, has caused a stir and could serve as a basis for designing drugs that predispose people to exercise and for developing personalised training plans. But first, what does this switch consist of?
This study has found that intense muscle contraction during exercise activates two proteins from the same family (P38). The research shows that the two proteins regulate each other, so that interest in physical activity is greater or lesser depending on how much each is activated. A third protein is also involved, interleukin 15 (IL-15), whose production is related to the activation of P38 proteins by exercise. IL-15 has a direct effect on the part of the cerebral cortex that controls movement, the motor cortex.
The interpretation of all this data is complex, so it’s tempting to summarise it as the switch has been found to make us all want to jump into burpees, but we want to calm you down a bit. For this we have the pedagogical director, Mario Muñoz, Doctor in Sports Medicine, Master in Exercise Physiology and Personal Training, who warns us about some limitations and precautions:
The research argumentation focuses solely on the biological/physiological aspects of exercise motivation. However, we know that motivation is multifactorial, including also psychological, social, environmental, etc. components. Motivation induced by a sport-friendly environment (family, friends, partner) can be a much more powerful switch or inhibitor than any protein interaction. We know that education in habit change and psychological support is probably much more relevant than the search for the ‘holy grail’ of exercise.
While the study demonstrates an association between muscle proteins and brain activity, it cannot establish a definitive causal relationship. More (quite a bit) research is needed to understand the direction and nature of the relationship. There is still a long way to go to translate these basic findings into practical applications to promote physical activity in different populations. More human intervention studies are needed. Statistical significance is often not seen in practice, just as there may be observable events in practice that do not have statistical significance in research.
Most studies on the subject are experimental in mice, in part or in whole, and the results need not be directly extrapolated to humans. Biological mechanisms may differ between species. We also want to make it clear that the research team is probably exempt from any blame in this regard. Reducing exercise motivation to a ‘switch’ oversimplifies a very, very complex phenomenon. The reality is that there are multiple factors that influence exercise adherence and obesity treatment.
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