The modern sedentary lifestyle has now made obesity, a national epidemic.
Doctors, nutritionists, and fitness professionals are doing everything they can to encourage people to lead healthier lives.
Why not use your 23andme fitness information from your raw data to learn more about the status of sports-related genes like ACE and ACTN3?
Why do some people respond to an aerobic workout routine by becoming incredibly fit, whereas others who exercise just as hard for months end up no fitter than when they began?
This question has bothered countless people who’ve started exercise programs and has also motivated a major study – “genetics of fitness”.
Scientists have long known that when a group of people follow the same aerobic workout routine, some increase their cardiorespiratory fitness substantially, while others seem to get no benefit at all.
But what is it, that makes one person’s body receptive to exercise and another’s resistant?
There is no magic workout that works for everybody.
Customization is the key, and over the years it is being commonly used in various fields.
Exercise for your phenotype by knowing your genotype
If healthcare and fitness professionals know a person’s genetic predispositions they can recommend a tailor-made exercise regimen that can maximize results.
By testing specific markers, researchers have discovered that certain traits such as stamina, muscle building, fat burning, energy distribution, etc. are governed by genetics, not effort.
At first, this may sound disappointing as it demonstrates that despite the efforts, some exercises simply do not benefit everyone equally.
Instead, this science clearly casts a light on what people should be doing to maximize their own unique fitness.
For example, the ACTN3 gene is responsible for the development of fast-twitch muscle fiber.
Determining whether someone is better suited towards sprinting-based activities (i.e. short distance running) or endurance-based exercises (i.e. long-distance running) is based on variations in this gene.
This drives home the point that genes can have profound effects on your health and body, even deep within your cells.
By knowing your genes, altering your exercise pattern can lead to better fitness conditions.
Do you have your DNA raw data from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, FTDNA, MyHeritage?
Upload your DNA raw data to Xcode Life. Our Gene Fitness Report analyzes aerobic capacity, weight loss/weight gain with exercises, flexibility, lung/heart capacity, and 15 more such categories.
