Effect of Low Versus High-Intensity Exercise on Renal Biomarkers in Athletes: A Comparative Study

Exercise offers significant health benefits, promoting normal body system functioning, healthy growth, development, and overall well-being. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of high and low intensity exercise on renal biomarkers acute response in athletes. This cross sectional study was carried out in the department of physical education, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (UP). A total of 20 healthy male athletes with age range from 22 to 26 years were randomly selected. All subjects performed high and low intensity exercise for 5 minutes with a gap of 7 days. Blood samples for selected renal biomarkers were collected at pre-exercise, immediately after exercise, 10 and 20 minutes after the high and low intensity exercise. The serum urea and creatinine count decreased significantly after high-intensity exercise compared to low-intensity exercise (p<0.05). When compared to the baseline, this effect was still observable after ten and twenty minutes of passive recovery (p<0.05). There was a substantial increase in serum sodium and potassium from baseline immediately after exercise (p<0.05), after ten and twenty minutes of passive recovery without reaching to baseline. When the same subjects were exposed to different exercise intensities, the acute and short-term effects of exercise on renal biomarkers were intensity-dependent immediately after exercise, after ten and twenty minutes of passive recovery.