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It’s In Your DNA

It’s In Your DNA

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Time to gain that extra 1 per cent, and use your own DNA to take your game to the next level

Until recently, DNA testing has largely been associated with the medicine – but now the fitness industry is also getting in on the act, using the unique profile of a person’s DNA to create fitness plans and pathways that are completely tailored to that individual.

One of the leading companies in this field is Atlas Biomed, with the company pioneering what effectively amounts to a ‘DNA Test Kit’ enabling athletes and non-athletes alike to deep dive into the kind of data and information that can provide a priceless insight into health traits, now and in the future.

DNA testing is playing an increasingly important role in helping sports people and teams at the very highest level gain the extra one per cent required to get one over on the opposition. In football, for example, the Egyptian national team – a side that contains Liverpool’s prolific Mo Salah – have been using DNA testing as a means of identifying times when players are potentially susceptible to injury.

In the wider-world, the test can include an examination of optimal recovery time after aerobic exercise or weight sessions in the gym.

All of which allows coaches and fitness trainers to organise bespoke sessions best suited to the needs of those individual players. A DNA test, for instance, may flag up the possibility that a player is less suited to high intensity training in the gym and is more likely to get injured when embarking on such a session.

Other tests could include analysing the impact that a substance like coffee might have on an individual. The more susceptible a person is to caffeine, the more they can moderate and manage their intake.

Such is the speed at which the technology is developing that some leading figures predict that it might be possible to identify someone who is likely to be an elite athlete before they have even kicked a ball or run a lap in anger. That might sound scary to some but in the fitness industry it represents the potential for a complete revolution in the way training is structured.

All of this technology, of course, was pie in the sky as recently as 15 years ago but as DNA testing develops and becomes more mainstream then so the packages available become more and more affordable – not just to clubs at the elite level in sports like football and rugby but to individuals like you and I.

AtlasBiomed’s ‘Listen to Your Genes’ DNA Test kit’, currently covers areas such as the disease risk influenced by genes and lifestyle; carrier status and the child risk of hereditary diseases; the impact on vitamins, nutrients and food intolerance’s; athletic predisposition to performance and injury; DNA ancestry, origins and Neanderthal genes; and unique personal traits determined by genes.

In short, it’s as comprehensive analysis of your DNA as you’re likely to find.

In the wider-world, the test can include an examination of optimal recovery time after aerobic exercise or weight sessions in the gym.

All of which allows coaches and fitness trainers to organise bespoke sessions best suited to the needs of those individual players. A DNA test, for instance, may flag up the possibility that a player is less suited to high intensity training in the gym and is more likely to get injured when embarking on such a session.

Other tests could include analysing the impact that a substance like coffee might have on an individual. The more susceptible a person is to caffeine, the more they can moderate and manage their intake.

Such is the speed at which the technology is developing that some leading figures predict that it might be possible to identify someone who is likely to be an elite athlete before they have even kicked a ball or run a lap in anger. That might sound scary to some but in the fitness industry it represents the potential for a complete revolution in the way training is structured.

All of this technology, of course, was pie in the sky as recently as 15 years ago but as DNA testing develops and becomes more mainstream then so the packages available become more and more affordable – not just to clubs at the elite level in sports like football and rugby but to individuals like you and I.

AtlasBiomed’s ‘Listen to Your Genes’ DNA Test kit’, currently covers areas such as the disease risk influenced by genes and lifestyle; carrier status and the child risk of hereditary diseases; the impact on vitamins, nutrients and food intolerance’s; athletic predisposition to performance and injury; DNA ancestry, origins and Neanderthal genes; and unique personal traits determined by genes.

In short, it’s as comprehensive analysis of your DNA as you’re likely to find.

Something that BESTFIT’s very own Faris Fisher recently found when he took a test on BESTFIT TV.

As well as finding that his DNA did not make him predisposed to early greying – a fact borne out by his immaculately coiffured hair – and that people of his body-type only suffered from average body odour when sweating, the test also revealed some eye-opening information concerning his health over both the short and long-term.

As well as supplying information on areas such as testosterone levels, the DNA test kit also provides information on how changes of approach can help tackle and manage the different areas identified.

“The nutrition tab told me I was low in iron and vitamin E,” he says. “But there are easy fixes and I’m able to work around my health.”

This kind of testing clearly has the potential to not just help with those who have an active interest in fitness, it can also help health professionals to take positive steps towards assisting those most in need of information around nutrition and the management of long-term conditions.
DNA testing, it seems, is here to stay – and it could transform the fitness industry as we know it.

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