Supervised exercise training is not associated with increased gastrocnemius muscle oxygenation during exercise or increased hyperemic hemoglobin flow after a model of ischemia. This suggests that the symptomatic improvement witnessed is not the result of increased oxygen delivery to the active muscle. The enhanced recovery after exercise training therefore reflects a combination of enhanced metabolic economy and increased oxidative capacity, suggesting that exercise training helps reverse an acquired metabolic myopathy.

Supervised exercise training for claudication results in an increase in the proportion of MHC type I expression within the symptomatic gastrocnemius muscle.