Zeller, Lior, Abu-Shakra, Mahmoud, Weitzman, Dahlia et al. · The Israel Medical Association journal : IMAJ · 2011
This study looked at what happens to healthy athletes when they stop exercising for just one week. Researchers found that after 7 days without exercise, athletes developed increased body tenderness (similar to fibromyalgia pain) and reported lower quality of life. The findings suggest that lack of exercise might trigger symptoms similar to those seen in chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS research because it demonstrates that even brief interruption of normal physical activity in healthy people can produce pain and quality-of-life changes resembling those in ME/CFS. Understanding how exercise withdrawal affects body pain thresholds and symptom burden may provide clues about post-exertional malaise and symptom flares in ME/CFS patients.
This study does not prove that exercise cessation causes chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia in the long term—it only shows short-term reversible changes in a healthy population. The study does not establish whether these 7-day changes would persist beyond one week, nor does it demonstrate that they represent the same pathological process as ME/CFS. Correlation between exercise withdrawal and transient tenderness does not establish causation for chronic illness development.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Zeller, Lior, Abu-Shakra, Mahmoud, Weitzman, Dahlia, & Buskila, Dan (2011). The effect of exercise cessation on non-articular tenderness measures and quality of life in well-trained athletes.. The Israel Medical Association journal : IMAJ. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21446236/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-zeller-2011-effect-exercise,
author = {Zeller, Lior and Abu-Shakra, Mahmoud and Weitzman, Dahlia and Buskila, Dan},
title = {The effect of exercise cessation on non-articular tenderness measures and quality of life in well-trained athletes.},
journal = {The Israel Medical Association journal : IMAJ},
year = {2011},
note = {PubMed: 21446236},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/zeller-2011-effect-exercise},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/zeller-2011-effect-exercise
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