The Powerful Evidence for exercise
LITERATURE REVIEW
Citation:
Rivera, R.A., Robertson, M.C. and McCleery, J.P., 2025. Exercise interventions for autistic people: An integrative review of evidence from clinical trials. Current Psychiatry Reports, 27(5), pp.286-306.
As an Exercise Physiologist, it is central to my practice that I stay up to date with research trends and evidence to inform my practice. While autism and exercise physiology practices are not new, this is still an emerging area of research, and most investigations have taken place in the past 15 years.
A recent integrative review by Rivera, Robertson and McCleery (2025) examined the strength of evidence through clinical trials of exercise interventions for autistic people. This type of research is essential as it brings together many investigations into one, central touch point.
This paper reviewed 30 papers, including Meta-Analyses and Randomised Control Studies to integrate data from thousands of participants across different research contexts. The investigators identified the following core themes:
Physical activity has a consistent, positive effect of social and communication difficulties associated with autism
Physical activity has a significant positive impact on executive functioning skills, creating strong correlations with performance in a variety of life skill domains.
Exercise has a positive impact on sleep quality, duration and benefits.
Despite these positive effects, autistic young people experience significant barriers to participation, and rarely achieve activity recommendations.
Autistic people face unique personal barriers (e.g., motivation and behavioural activation) and social-environmental barriers (e.g., sensory environment, stigma) that make it uniquely challenging for them to be physically active.
Existing research is fundamentally flawed as most studies are laboratory-based and have not engaged in co-design with autistic people.
So what should we learn from this research?
Exercise interventions are evidence-based and have significant positive effects on autistic lives
Autistic people do not get the same opportunities as their peers to engage in physical activity - we have to change this!
The best outcomes are co-designed - when we include autistic people in decision-making, we improve our ability to help them.
At Exercise on the Spectrum this research is fundamental to my approach.
Make exercise more enjoyable and accessible for autistic young people - it is proven to improve lives.
Build capacity of supporters, parents and educators to create inclusion opportunities and overcome barriers.
Advocate for systemic changes to access to clinical exercise support, and upskill professionals to provide it.
Listen to what autistic people want - don’t just tell them what they need.
A full link to the text is below - all copyright is held by the original authors.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11920-025-01597-6.pdf
