Acute exercise effects on urinary losses and serum concentrations of Cu and Zn of eight moderately trained and five untrained male runners were determined to ascertain effects of training on trace metal responses owing to acute exercise. Maximum oxygen uptake (VO₂ max) of the moderately trained subjects was 47.3 ± 2.3 and that of the untrained subjects was 34.7 ± 1.9 ml kg^–1 min^–1. Subjects consumed a controlled diet to minimize changes due to dietary intake. Immediately following acute exercise at 90% of VO₂ max to exhaustion (30 s exercise and 30 s rest periods), serum Zn and Cu levels of moderately trained and untrained subjects were elevated. Serum Zn of moderately trained subjects 2 h post-exercise was lower than before exercise (13.5 ± 0.05 versus 12.5 ± 0.05 µmol l^–1), a similar trend was observed for untrained subjects. Serum concentrations of both groups were similar to pre-exercise levels 2 h post-exercise. Changes in urinary losses of Zn and Cu, associated with the acute strenuous exercise of short duration employed in this study, were not significantly different. These data demonstrate that increases in serum Cu and Zn following acute exercise are independent of training status for moderately trained and untrained men.