Thursday, April 30, 2015

Exploring Why Some People Get Fitter Than Others






       The article is a bout why some people get more fit than others even while doing the same work out intensity and routine. Studies are being done that indicate that there has to be some genetics involved because particularly high or low low response to exercise tends to run in families. The less known answer to this is what genes might be involved and how those genes increase or decrease the body's response. Currently studies are being performed on rats.

       The study uses rats that are highly responsive to exercise while rats born with other genes are not as responsive and show less cardiovascular benefits from the same work out. The Journal of the American College of Cardiology published the new rodent study stating, scientists from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim created two strains of rats that would or would not respond well to working out." The study involved rats running for several days and recorded data on how long it took the rats to become tired to see how well they adapted to the workout. Males and Females that had the most mileage were bred together and those who ran less were then bred. Seven generations of rats were used and exercised for two months on the same workout. Rats that responded well too running increased the distance that could run by about 40 percent before tiring. However, rats he did not respond well ended up generally losing about 2 percent of there endurance during the training.

       The scientist then look at the hearts of the rats and noticed those that did not respond well also had no increase in cardiovascular health and the left ventricles looked like those from animals that did not run. The problem they found was that hearts that did not adapt to exercise actually made there bodies weaker rather than making them stronger. The article writing by Gretchen Reynolds claims, "When they carefully assessed gene expression in the animals' heart cells, they found more than 360 genes that were operating differently in the two groups of animals. Many of these gens are known to affect cell growth." This information can help us understand why this happens to humans and maybe come up with different work out regimes to change it. I feel that after a few months of exercising if a person has no real results then other types of works out or weight lifting should be attempted to see if any changes can be made.

Exploring Why Some People Get Fitter Than Others
Endurance Training Influences Gene Expression In Muscles

3 comments:

  1. This is an interesting article. I always thought that a person's environment affected their health (being exposed to more fatty foods or not exercising daily). Genetics seems to play a big part in a person's overall health.

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  2. So now I can blame genetics for not being able to lift enough? Sounds good to me. This was a great article and you can really see how genetics can play a role in fitness.

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  3. I also notice that people can not be same fit by doing the same work. However, I do not know there is something to do with genes. great research!!!
    sabrina, working on des-octanoyl ghrelin

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