Since the initial work of Jeremy Morris, the pioneer of physical activity epidemiology, our efforts in attempting to better understand the role of exercise in health and disease have produced an immense body of evidence showing the positive association of physical activity with health and longevity. During the 1980s and 1990s epidemiological works began to cement the idea that physical activity and fitness were associated with decreased mortality and positive health outcomes. Since then, exercise has been increasingly recognized to have a central role, not only to prevent, but also to treat health problems. Now that the evidence supporting the importance of physical activity and exercise for health is almost unquestioned, it is time to move ahead!

It is time not only to discuss “if” we should exercise but also to discuss “how” we should exercise. Although physical activity is recognized as being important for health, there is a large proportion of the population that remains inactive. Some of the attributed barriers and reasons for not exercising include lack of time, boredom, lack of motivation, and unsatisfactory results. The volume of exercise science research increases every year; however, it is disappointing to note that exercise prescription has continued to follow the same guidelines for many decades. Have we not uncovered any new findings that would make exercise prescription more efficient and overcome many of the purported barriers to participation? Is there no evidence to help health professionals to adequately choose and design exercise program for specific outcomes?

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that will represent and stimulate continuing efforts to answer questions such as the following: works aiming to understand how exercise acts in health and disease; how to adequately prescribe exercise in order to prevent health problems and/or to bring better outcomes for people with diseases; the proposal of new methods for evaluating outcomes form exercise interventions; and the development of exercise approaches to tackle barriers to initiation and adherence. In summary, we are particularly interested in articles describing new perspectives in exercise for public health or providing new insights regarding established exercise models.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• The role of high intensity of effort exercise in health and disease
• Application of resistance training approaches for preventing and treating diseases
• Acute mechanisms and chronic adaptations of novel exercise approaches in health and disease
• Manipulation of exercise variables and their influence on health outcomes
• Novel approaches to increase initiation and adherence to efficacious exercise protocols
• Methodological or applied research using causal inference methods