Addicted to training or just allergic to exercise? It largely lies in the genes.
“Sick on sports day?”
My daughter recently got a bad grade in physical education, or gym, for short. “It’s not fair,” my daughter said. “I wasn’t even there because I was sick.”
“You get that from your mother,” I think to myself. If I ever was too sick to go to school, it would never be on a sports day. After all, that’s the best school day of the year. But then again, I was someone who always wanted to be the best in the class at gym.
The only time I got a bad grade in gym was when I refused to participate in aerobics in the outdoor court.
Surrounded by three school buildings full of watching kids, I believed I had built up a too cool reputation to be doing lame dance moves.
However, regarding everything else, I was fiercely competitive. Voluntarily pushing your limits, seeing how far you could go, how fast you could move, how long you could last—that always seemed fun and very satisfying to me. Not enough bikes to ride home together after going out? No problem, take mine, I’ll run.
I could never understand the kids who would come up with the infamous doctor’s note to excuse themselves from the gym teacher.
“I have nothing to do with sports”
A few years ago, I heard a colleague say:
“Sports, I have absolutely nothing to do with them! Just running yourself into a sweat.”
I couldn’t imagine what that was like. Of course, it’s not strange to not like some sports. But sports in general? To me, that’s like saying you don’t like music. Moreover, she said it in such a way that made it clear she thought people who exercise for fun were crazy.
“Just running yourself into a sweat.” I couldn’t imagine what that was like. Of course, it’s not strange to not like some sports. But sports in general? To me, that’s like saying you don’t like music. Moreover, she said it in such a way that made it clear she thought people who exercise for fun were crazy.
That the colleague in question did not actively exercise was no surprise. When I later calculated the BMI for her and another colleague and explained it to them, she was quite shocked. Words like “obesity” and “morbid obesity” apparently did not sound so pleasant.
Genes for Training
I always thought it had something to do with upbringing. Since the age of five, there wasn’t a moment when I wasn’t involved in some sport. Yet, it should have been noticeable, for example, in the baseball team or basketball team, there were always boys who seemed to be there with much less pleasure. Boys from whom you would always see and hear a sigh when the coach said: “another round around the field.” Research from Georgia confirms (fortunately) that upbringing is only part of the story.
“Genes, especially those in the brain that drive dopamine, may play a role in one’s tendency to enjoy training or to avoid it.” According to Rodney Dishman of the University of Georgia.
He presented his findings from research on rats and humans in his lecture “Genetics of Exercise Avoidance” during the Integrative Biology of Exercise 7 meeting in Phoenix[1].
According to Dishman, studies on twins and families have shown that 20 to 60 percent of the variation in physical activity is hereditary. However, the exact genes that lead to this are not yet well understood. It would mostly be the reward centers in the brain that determine whether you seek out physical activity or avoid it, in both animals and humans. Particularly the neurons in the brain that regulate dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate areas of the brain that control motivation, pleasure, and reward.
Dishman also took into account other personal traits that contribute to physical activity or instead cause you to avoid it. Things like your ability to set goals, self-control, fitness, and skills. His current research suggests that dopamine does not just have a direct effect on your need to be active or not. It might also have an indirect effect by influencing the aforementioned properties. Take my colleague, for example. In her case, it turned out she had never set a goal to lose weight. If she did, she would then face the fact that she has a lot more difficulty demanding the right physical effort from herself.
Knowledge is Training and Dieting
This kind of research is especially useful for personal trainers, fitness instructors, and thus physical education teachers as well. Often, these are people like me. Those over-eager folks who were continuously bouncing around in the gym, eager to hurl one trembling child after another through the wall in dodgeball. Especially for us, it’s hard to imagine having no affinity for physical movement and sport.
Yet, it’s often these kinds of customers who sign up with us. Understanding that things just work differently in such a person’s head can often get you a lot further.
References
- American Physiological Society (APS). (2016, November 4). Hate exercise? It may be in your genes. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 15, 2016, from sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161104102446.htm
