Table 3.

Synthesis of results

Ref	Type of intervention		Type of analysis of the Gut Microbiota	Diversity metrics		Composition
	Exercise Group	Control Group		Alpha diversity	Beta diversity	Relative abundance (Significant differences)
						Phylum	Class	Order	Family	Genus	Species
[49]	5-week endurance exercise program—with five weeks endurance control group—three cycle ergometer sessions per week	Physical activity level monitoring	16S rDNA amplicon generation Region V3-V4	None of the changes in α-diversity indices were different between the exercise and control periods	The plots indicated that the gut microbial communities were almost identical between the exercise and nonexercise periods (PERMANOVA, P > 0.05	NO	NO	NO	NO	↑ Oscillospira during the exercise period in the control first group (P = 0.003) ↓C. difficile during the exercise periods in both groups (P = 0.03) and (P = 0.01)	NO
[50]	Weber’s classification system a: Class A (average exercise capacity), Class B, and Class C (reduced exercise capacity)	Weber classification Class A- B- C	16S rDNA amplicon generation Region V4	No significant differences were detected among the three groups in alpha diversity measures (p > 0.05)	Weber A samples were separate from the other groups (ANOSIM pairwise comparisons generated an R > 0.5, p < 0.05	NO	↑ Betaproteobacteria in the Weber A group	↑ Burkholderiales and the family Alcaligenaceae in the Weber A group	↑ Ruminococcaceae in the Weber A group	↑ Faecalibacterium in Weber A group ↑ Escherichia_Shigella in Weber C group ↑ Blautia and Eubacterium hallii in Weber B group	↑ Escherichia coli in Weber C group
[51]	The objective measure of physical activity with multi-sensor for a typical 7-day period following	N/A	16S rDNA amplicon generation Region V4	No difference in alpha diversity was reported	Step count and self-reported PA were consistently associated with β-diversity as determined by unweighted Unifrac	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
[59]	Aerobic exercise training (AE) or trunk muscle training (TM)	N/A	Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analyses	N/A	N/A	NO	NO	NO	NO	↑ Bacteroides ↓Clostridium subcluster XIVa in the AE group. The relative abundance of Clostridium cluster IX was only significantly increased in the TM group	NO
[53]	Short physical performance battery (SPPB)—HF / LF	N/A	16S rDNA amplicon generation—Region V4	Measures of alpha diversity were not significantly different when comparing groups	N/A	NO	NO	NO	↑Prevotellaceae and ↑ Paraprevotellaceae in the HF group	↑Prevotella, ↑Barnsiella, and ↑Phascolarctobacterium in the HF group	Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Barnesiella intestinihominis, Bacteroides caccae, and Clostridium citroniae were higher in the HF group -Eubacterium biforme, Desulfovibrio D168, and Escherichia coli were lower in HF
[54]	Two fitness phenotypes, high fitness (HF) and low fitness (LF)	N/A	16S rDNA amplicon generation Region V3	NO	Significant correspondence (p = .04) and dissimilarities (p = .01) in gut microbiota composition in connection with the two physical phenotypes	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
[55]	PAL by the FGAS scale: community-dwelling older adults (older adults) and physically active senior orienteers (senior orienteers)	N/A	NGS	No difference in alpha diversity in terms of the Shannon index was observed between the groups	N/A	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Bilophila unclassified were significantly different for 8/15 covariates or combinations of covariates
[56]	Exercise frequency Daily exercise group, Regular exercise group (DROE), Occasional exercise group, rare exercise group, never exercise group (NROE)	N/A	Data recover from AGP [57]	OTU numbers were 207.2 and 195.2 (p < .001), while the Shannon indices were 5.681 and 5.508 (p < .001) in the DROE and NROE groups, respectively. Microbial α-diversity was significantly affected by exercise in overweight individuals	N/A	NO	NO	NO	↓ Actinomycetaceae, Desulfovibrionaceae, S24-7, Pseudomonadaceae, Barnesiellaceae, and Oxalobacteraceae with exercise frequency. Gradually ↑ Campylobacteraceae, Fusobacteriaceae, Turicibacteraceae, Paraprevotellaceae, Clostridiaceae, Peptostreptococcaceae, Corynebacteriaceae, and Bacteroidaceae with exercise frequency	NO	NO
[54]	Habitual PA behaviors were assessed by wearing a monitor for 24 h per day	N/A	16S rDNA amplicon generation Regio v3-v4	N/A	N/A	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
[48]	lifetime high-endurance athletes (LA) and subjects who meet the minimum recommended physical activity levels (CTRL)	N/A	16S rDNA amplicon generation	No difference s in alpha diversity indices between athletes and non-athletes	N/A	NO	↑ Cytophagia (p = 0.03) in the CTRL group compared to the LA group	NO	A significantly different abundance of Bacteroidaceae in the CTRL group compared to the LA group (p = 0.002) and Clostridiales Incertae Sedis XI (p = 0.01)	Significant differences were observed in the relative abundance of genus Bacteroides (p = 0.002) between the CTRL and LA group Phascolarctobacterium (p = 0.01) Subdoligranulum (p = 0.02)	Blautia, Faecalibacterium Bacteroides, and Roseburia formed a significantly different part of all bacteria, 9.3% (7.9–10.8) in the CTRL group compared to 6.2% (5.4–7.2) in the LA group (p = 0.001)
[58]	PAL was assessed objectively over two weeks of daily measurement using an accelerometer Step-count: more active/less active groups	N/A	16S rDNA amplicon generation region V4	NO	Microbiota divergence between individuals (Beta diversity, PERMANOVA, p < 0.394)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
[59]	An 8-week exercise training randomized controlled trial was conducted. This exercise training program consisted of aerobic and resistance exercises	N/A	16S Region V4	NO	N/A	NO	Clostridia ↓ compared with the control group after intervention. Significant difference for Betaproteobacteria between the two groups (F = 5.149, P = 0.047)	Bifidobacteriales ↓ of the control group after intervention. Burkholderiales showed an increase in the exercise group and a reduction in the control group,	↑Acidaminococcaceae in the exercise group, ↑ Bacteroidaceae in the control group	↑EXERCISE GROUP Phascolarctobacterium and Mitsuokella ↓CONTROL GROUP Bacteroides and Parabacteroides
[15]	One year of intervention by promotion of physical activity (IG)	Control group (1-year follow-up	16S rDNA amplicon generation Region V2—V4	NO	N/A	NO	NO	NO	NO	Intervention Group ↓ Haemophilus, Butyricicoccus, Eubacterium hallii, and Ruminiclostridium 5 ↑Coprobacter (FDR P < 0.1)	NO
[60]	Training program HIIT + RT: three times per week for 12 wk	CONT	16S rDNA amplicon generation Region V4	NO	PCoA of the unweighted Unifrac distance matrices showed that the pre-and post-intervention microbiota composition changed in most patients from the HIIT + RT group, whereas it remained stable in the CONT group	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO

^a Based on the peak VO2 values obtained in test

↑: Increase

↓: Decrease