Your guide to DNA fitness testing

Ever wondered why you couldn’t hit that personal best on the track, or why you don’t feel like you experience the benefits of swimming? The answer could lie within your own DNA.

Exercise genetics studies the links between our genes and the many factors that influence exercise and fitness. This includes looking at the types of activities we could be more likely to excel at, whether we’re more at risk of injuries, and our maximum oxygen capacity.

What does science say about genetic fitness tests?

The field of exercise science has accelerated rapidly over the past few years, and a number of genes and variations have been identified as having an influence on some aspects of exercising. This includes our endurance, muscle strength, ability to burn fat, and even your recovery time following a workout! Did you know there’s even a gene that makes a receptor for vitamin D, which has an important role in regulating levels of calcium and phosphorous? These minerals have a direct effect on skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function and are therefore critical for exercise performance.

It’s not just how we respond to exercise that has an impact on our fitness, but also the way our bodies are individually built. Other genetic variations have been found to cause differences in our musculoskeletal systems – such as our joints, tendons and ligaments – or our muscle’s ability to extract and deliver oxygen, which they need to function.

What your DNA may tell you about your fitness

It’s always beneficial to have a well-rounded exercise regime made up of different types of exercise including endurance and power training and muscle strength.

Endurance training is characterised by continually using a group of muscles that can produce sub-maximal force over a period of time or through repetitive movements. An example of endurance training is running. Power training on the other hand, is where a group of muscles are used to generate maximal force in as short an amount of time as possible. Olympic lifting, long jump and shot put are all power activities that need a large amount of explosive force. Muscle Strength exercise, however, refers to particular groups of muscles being able to produce maximum force to overcome a resistance within a single exertion. These types of activities, such as weightlifting, require heavy resistance, a low number of repetitions and often demand a very long rest period afterwards.

Endurance training

• Are you more likely to excel at endurance or strength training? Might you have enhanced cardiovascular performance? If so, you can then choose to do more endurance training, while still maintaining a varied fitness routine, if improving your cardiac performance aligns with your fitness goals.

• How are you likely to respond to endurance exercise? How you react to it can be helpful in identifying where you focus to reach your fitness goals.

• How’s your maximum blood flow and muscle efficiency likely to affect your response to endurance exercise? Knowing your body intricately like this can help you decide if endurance exercise is the best activity for you.

• Are you likely to experience an increased inflammatory response to intense exercise and how might your maximum oxygen capacity (VO2) affect your endurance performance? If so, how can you reduce the risk of increased inflammatory response so you can still participate in the intense exercise you enjoy?

• Are you likely to be more effective at maintaining blood sugar levels for endurance sports? If not, what steps can you take to maintain those all-important blood sugar levels whilst enjoying endurance sports?

• Are you more likely to see changes in body mass index (BMI), fat mass, percentage of body fat, and abdominal fat in response to endurance exercise? Depending on your goals, knowing this can help inform where you focus your efforts.

Power training

• Are you likely to excel at activities requiring strength and speed? Perhaps you have “the sprint gene” that contains codes for a protein found in fast-twitch muscle fibres, which give you sudden bursts of energy to help you move quicker but for shorter periods of time meaning you get tired quickly? If so, you may want to include more exercises that demand strength and speed in your workouts.

• Are you likely to experience increased muscle growth and power? If the answer’s yes and if increased muscle growth and power is your target, you’ll know to stick to power training.

• Are you more likely to have muscle efficiency that supports power training? If you do, you’ll be naturally well suited to power training.

• Are you likely to excel at activities requiring strength/power? If this is the case, power training is likely to be the optimal type of exercise for you.

• Are you likely to have increased inflammation after strenuous exercise? If you are, then how can you take steps to avoid inflammation after exercise and what alternative exercises are there?

• Are you likely to have increased muscle mass required for power sports? If so, power training is probably the ideal exercise for you.

Muscle strength

• Are you more likely to gain or lose fat in response to strength training and how can you improve your exercise regime with this in mind?

• What response are you likely to see with strength training in relation to body mass and how will this influence what types of exercise you do to help you reach your health goals?

• Are you more likely to experience increased muscle strength in response to strength training? If your aim is to build muscle, you’ll know more strength training is the way to go about it.

Joint function

• Do you carry an increased risk of joint injuries and does this mean there are types of exercises you ought to avoid or can do to reduce the risk of harm to your joints?

Exercise recovery

• Do you have an enhanced ability to recover from exercise? If not, what steps can you take to speed up your muscle recovery?

• Do you have increased protection from inflammation following exercise, and can therefore alter your workout routine accordingly?

What else to consider

Exercise is about so much more than losing weight. Of course, that may be one of your primary goals, but it’s also incredibly important for your mental health. Whilst your DNA fitness test may recommend a certain type of exercise for optimum benefits, if you don’t enjoy that specific type of exercise, that’s okay. It’s worth remembering to balance your desire to reach specific goals with finding an exercise routine that you love. Otherwise, you’ll only put off exercising more and more. Keeping your fitness routine varied is important too as all types of exercise – cardio, endurance, power, muscle building and flexibility – help your body function well.

Exercise is also only one part of the puzzle; being healthy also means eating the right foods and looking after your mental health. And Evergreen Life is here to help you every step of the way.

With the Evergreen Life app, you can measure and track areas of your wellbeing like diet, sleep and happiness – and also get more personalised tips on how to improve.

Reviewed by:

Anna Keeble BA MA Wellbeing Expert

Dr Brian Fisher MBBCh MBE MSc FRSA Medical Expert

Dr James Harmsworth King MBBS MPhil PhD Biotechnology & Medical Expert

References

What is difference between endurance, strength and power?: Performance Pain and Sports Medicine: Interventional Pain Management Specialists

Frontiers | ACTN3: More than Just a Gene for Speed | Physiology (frontiersin.org)

Slow-Twitch Muscle Fibers vs Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers (healthline.com)