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The University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine conducted a study that determined your genetics could be to blame for your unwillingness to go to the gym.
Researchers Franck W. Booth and Michael D. Roberts placed 50 rats in cages with exercise wheels. They recorded how often the rats used the wheels and sorted them on a spectrum of lazy and inactive to frequent exercise.
The rats were then separated into two breeding groups, so that the 26 most active rats bred only amongst themselves, and the 26 least active bred only with each other. The process was then repeated over ten generations.
At the end of the experiment, the researchers observed that the rodents from the “super runners” line willingly ran 10 times longer per day on average than those from the “couch potato” line.
To find which traits predisposed the active rats to working up a sweat, the researchers looked at several factors, including body composition and mitochondria content in muscle cells. But the most significant difference between the two populations was in their genes.
“Out of more than 17,000 different genes in one part of the brain, we identified 36 genes that may play a role in predisposition to physical activity motivation,” Roberts noted.
Agencies/Canadajournal
