Ever wondered why you can spend hours at the gym and barely see the slightest improvement while your best chum does the bare minimum and boasts a 6-pack to die for? Well, the answer might well lie in your genes and a new genetic test called XRGenomics could reveal exactly how your DNA responds to aerobic training.
The test results can then be used to tailor specific training programs to individuals, potentially revolutionising the fitness industry.
A British company has devised the XRGenomics test following decades of research into DNA and its effects on our responses to exercise carried out by the University of Loughborough and McMaster University. It is already known that our DNA accounts for around 60% of the variation in responses to aerobic exercise with age, gender and basic fitness accounting for another 20%. What accounts for the remaining 20% is currently unknown.
Now the test, involving a simple cheek swab, can measure your genetic response to aerobic training by analysing 27 different DNA markers and classifying you into one of four categories. Those in the lowest 18% are “low responders” who are known not to show much improvement through aerobic exercise.
The test’s creators believe the test could help those identified as “low responders” to identify what will work to make them fitter and so could become a health tool for professionals. “Good responders” who want to see a bigger change in their fitness could use the results of their DNA test to tweak their exercise routine to focus on what could potentially improve their fitness.
For both groups that might involve switching to exercise that focuses on strength and resistance.
There are several DNA tests on the market that promise to reveal whether your genes affect your fitness or ability to get fitter. However, they are much less sophisticated than the XRGenomics.
Its creators admit that some people who take the test and are given the news that they are a low or non-responder might take that as their cue to quit exercise altogether. However, they point out that with your genes only accounting for around 20% of how you respond to fitness, you have another 80% in your own hands to change your genetic destiny.
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