Research
Hormonal
Acute exercise triggers a redistribution of blood flow and metabolic substrate utilization across organs, with increased perfusion to working muscles and brain areas controlling movement, while vasoconstriction occurs in visceral organs.
During exercise, your body prioritizes blood flow to your muscles and active brain regions. This is a normal and necessary physiological response that ensures working tissues receive enough oxygen and nutrients.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
In response to acute exercise, blood flow is markedly increased in contracting skeletal muscles and myocardium, but perfusion in other organs (brain and bone) is only slightly enhanced or is even reduced (visceral organs).
Why this rating
Supported by extensive human imaging studies using PET, providing direct evidence of organ-specific blood flow and metabolism.
Source
Organ-Specific Physiological Responses to Acute Physical Exercise and Long-Term Training in Humans
Ilkka Heinonen et al. · Physiology · 2014
DOI 10.1152/physiol.00067.2013
narrative_reviewCited 127×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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