Exercise training (ET) improves endurance capacity by increasing both skeletal 
muscle mitochondrial number and function, as well as contributing to favourable 
cardiac remodelling.Interestingly, some of the benefits of regular exercise can 
also be mimicked by the naturally occurring polyphenol, resveratrol (RESV). 
However, it is not known whether RESV enhances physiological adaptations to ET. 
To investigate this, male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to a control chow 
diet or a chow diet that contained RESV (4 g kg⁻¹ of diet) and subsequently 
subjected to a programme of progressive treadmill running for 12 weeks. 
ET-induced improvements in exercise performance were enhanced by 21% (P <0.001) 
by the addition of RESV to the diet. In soleus muscle, ET+RESV increased both 
the twitch (1.8-fold; P <0.05) and tetanic(1.2-fold; P <0.05) forces generated 
during isometric contraction, compared to ET alone. In vivo echocardiography 
demonstrated that ET+RESV also increased the resting left ventricular ejection 
fraction by 10% (P <0.05), and reduced left ventricular wall stress compared to 
ET alone.These functional changes were accompanied by increased cardiac fatty 
acid oxidation (1.2-fold;P <0.05) and favourable changes in cardiac gene 
expression and signal transduction pathways that optimized the utilization of 
fatty acids in ET+RESV compared to ET alone. Overall, our findings provide 
evidence that the capacity for fatty acid oxidation is augmented by the addition 
of RESV to the diet during ET, and that this may contribute to the improved 
physical performance of rats following ET.