In Healthy Young Men, a Short Exhaustive Exercise Alters the Oxidative Stress Only Slightly, Independent of the Actual Fitness.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the apparent disagreement regarding the effect of a typical cycling progressive exercise, commonly used to assess VO2max, on the kinetics of ex vivo copper induced peroxidation of serum lipids. Thirty-two (32) healthy young men, aged 24-30 years, who do not smoke and do not take any food supplements, participated in the study. Blood was withdrawn from each participant at three time points (before the exercise and 5 minutes and one hour after exercise).

The relationship between oxidative stress and exercise.

Physical exercise has many benefits, but it might also have a negative impact on the body, depending on the training level, length of workout, gender, age and fitness. The negative effects of physical exercise are commonly attributed to an imbalance between the levels of antioxidants (both low molecular weight antioxidants and antioxidant enzymes) and reactive oxygen and nitrogen species due to excessive production of free radicals during physical exercise. In this critical review, we look for answers for three specific questions regarding the interrelationship between physical exercise and oxidative stress (OS), namely, (i) the dependence of the steady-state level of OS on fitness, (ii) the effect of intensive exercise on the OS and (iii) the dependence of the effect of the intense exercise on the individual fitness.