Introduction and Purpose: Myocardial infarction remains a major concern in global health and imposes a substantial burden on healthcare systems and the economy. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of eight weeks of aerobic exercise (continuous and intermittent) in combination with ginger consumption on the expression of antioxidant genes in the cardiac tissue of rats with myocardial infarction.

Materials and Methods:48 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups: intermittent-training group, continuous-training group, ginger supplement group, intermittent-training + ginger supplement, continuous-training + ginger supplement, and control. In the intermittent-training groups, the protocol of Khalafi et al. (2016) was used; in the continuous-training groups, the Razavi et al. (2019) training protocol was used. Ginger extract was administered intraperitoneally at a dose of 20 mg per kg body weight daily to the ginger-supplement groups. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were measured 24 hours after the end of the last training session and the recovery period. Data were analyzed at a significance level of p < 0.05 using one-way ANOVA.

Results: The results showed a significant difference in the mean expression/levels of SOD, MDA, CAT, and GPx between the intermittent training + ginger supplement group and the groups: intermittent training, continuous training, ginger supplement, and continuous training + ginger supplement.

Discussion and Conclusion: These findings indicate that the pattern of exercise intensity and the presence of an exogenous antioxidant source (ginger) interact to optimize myocardial redox adaptation after infarction.