Objective To explore the effect of moxibustion at Shenque (神阙 CV 8) on the anti-exercise-induced fatigue in rats after exhaustive exercise in varying degrees. Methods Seventy-two SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups according to the random number table method, including blank group, model group and moxibustion group. The model group and moxibustion group were divided into 4 subgroups respectively, that was 1 time, 4 times, 7 times and 10 times subgroup. There were 9 groups with 8 rats in each group. Except blank group, all the rats were established into exhaustive models through swimming. Mild moxibustion at CV 8 was carried out for 15 min in the rats in moxibustion group after modeling for once every other day. The concentration of serum glucose (GLU), malonaldehyde (MDA) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) as well as the activity of aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) were detected 24h after the exhaustive exercise by adopting full-automatic analyzer. Results The exhaustive time of rats were long at first but shorter later. The exhaustive time of rats in the model group (4 times) were obviously longer than that in the model group (1 time) (P〈0.01), the exhaustive time of rats in the model group (7 times) and model group (10 times) were obviously shorter than that in the model group (1 time) (P〈0.01), and the exhaustive time of rats in the moxibustion group (7 times) and moxibustion group (10 times) were obviously longer than that in the model group with the same number of times (P〈0.01), the serum GLU level of rats in the model group (7 times) and model group (10 times) increased when compared with the blank group (P〈0.01), and the serum MDA and BNU levels as well as the activity of AST, ALT and LDH of rats in the model group (4 times), model group (7 times) and model group (10 times) increased when compared with the blank group (P〈0.05 or P〈0.01),