Research

Hormonal

High responders to 12 weeks of resistance training exhibit differential regulation of specific microRNAs (miR-378, miR-29a, miR-26a, and miR-451) compared to low responders, with miR-378 levels strongly correlating with lean body mass gains.

Resistance training results vary significantly between individuals. This study suggests that 'high responders' maintain stable levels of certain microRNAs (like miR-378) during training, which correlates with greater muscle gain. Low responders show different molecular adaptations (downregulation of miR-378, upregulation of miR-451). If you are not seeing expected muscle gains, it may be due to these underlying molecular differences rather than just effort. Consistency is key, as your body may be using different molecular pathways to adapt.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
miR-378, miR-29a, and miR-26a were downregulated in low responders and unchanged in high responders, while miR-451 was upregulated only in low responders... the training-induced change in miR-378 abundance was positively correlated with muscle mass gains in vivo.
Peter K. Davidsen et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 2010

Why this rating

Controlled clinical trial with blinded analysis and a relatively large sample size (n=56) stratified by response, though the mechanistic link to protein synthesis is inferred from target prediction.

Source

High responders to resistance exercise training demonstrate differential regulation of skeletal muscle microRNA expression

Peter K. Davidsen et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 2010

DOI 10.1152/japplphysiol.00901.2010

cohort · n=56Cited 376×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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