From New Scientist:
Public-health campaigns regularly plug exercise as a sure-fire way to
avoid an early grave. But that message may be too simplistic. For an
unhappy few, even quite strenuous exercise may have no effect on
their fitness or their risk of developing diseases like diabetes.“There is astounding variation in the response to exercise. The vast
majority will benefit in some way, but there will be a minority who
will not benefit at all,” says Claude Bouchard of Louisiana State
University in Baton Rouge, US.At the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress in Sydney,
Australia, last week Bouchard reported the results of a study
assessing the role of genes in fitness and health changes in response
to exercise.In the study, 742 people from 213 families were put through a strict
20-week endurance training programme. The volunteers had not taken
regular physical activity for the previous six months. Exercise on
stationary bikes was gradually increased so that by the last six
weeks the volunteers were exercising for 50 minutes three times a
week at 75% of the maximum output they were capable of before the
study.Previous reports indicated that there are huge variations in
“trainability” between subjects. For example, the team found that
training improved maximum oxygen consumption, a measure of a person’s
ability to perform work, by 17% on average.But the most trainable volunteers gained over 40%, and the least
trainable showed no improvement at all. Similar patterns were seen
with cardiac output, blood pressure, heart rate and other markers of
fitness.
That really corresponds with my own experience. The only time in my life that my body really trained was during the year or so that I ran 5 miles a day, 7 days a week. In addition to three judo practices a week and two karate practices per week.
It would be interesting to know what characteristics and behaviors the most trainable had in common and what characteristics and behaviors the least trainable shared.
