FIGURE 21.

The future of exercise science for safe, evidence-based, and personalized approaches. To overcome existing hurdles and efficiently leverage the power of novel techniques and approaches, a close interaction between basic muscle research, applied human exercise physiology, as well as athletes and coaches should be aimed for. Model organisms, cell culture, and molecular and computational biology might provide insights into cause-effect relationships, epistasis, etiologies, and mechanisms complementing the descriptive and correlative studies in human volunteers. Inversely, data from large cohorts that will become available because of widespread use of wearables and trackers as well as those obtained in and based on feedback from athletes and coaches will reveal processes and pathways to be explored in mechanistic detail. The molecular athlete should furthermore be informed by sports psychology, e.g., in regard to motivation, perseverance, compliance and adherence, nutritional sciences, chronobiology, sleep research, and other fields of relevance to training. Finally, a mutual exchange between the observations in training and those in various pathologies associated with an inactive lifestyle or inadequate muscle functionality will help to push the boundaries of physical activity interventions in the prevention and treatment of numerous diseases. Image created with BioRender.com, with permission.