Athleticogenomics

The Athleticogenomics-report provides insight into several genetic traits that can influence your sports performance. In the case of sports, a genetic predisposition for good performance is also called ‘talent’, but an insight into the aspects for which you are genetically less predisposed can lead to performance improvement.

By adapting your training to your genetic predisposition for specific aspects, you can optimize training and, by extension, performance.

Strength versus endurance sport

The inventory of the genetic predisposition to strength or endurance sports identifies various aspects associated with outstanding performance in athletes.

Twelve different genetic variants are analyzed that influence oxygen uptake, lactate threshold, muscle type and recovery capacity during exercise.

Level of the oxygen uptake

The oxygen uptake is particularly important for endurance athletes in achieving good performance and is expressed as the VO₂max, the measure of the maximum oxygen uptake per minute.

A genetic predisposition for a high VO₂max allows an endurance athlete to perform in an energy-efficient manner over a longer period of time, which improves maximum speed.

Trainability of the oxygen uptake

The extent to which training can increase the VO₂max appears to vary from person to person. Thus, this so-called VO₂max trainability, together with the genetic predisposition to the level of the VO₂max, determines the impact of VO₂max on performance.

A genetic predisposition to high trainability of oxygen uptake means that a focus on VO₂max training may be a good option. On the contrary, a low predisposition may be reason to adjust your training for optimal effectiveness.

Lactate threshold

The moment when the body through great exertion has to lay claim to the lactate system as energy supply, with the production of lactic acid as a by-product, is called the lactate threshold.

Lactic acid is harmful to the muscles and has a negative influence on sports performance. The higher the lactate threshold, the longer and more intensively an athlete can perform.

The genetic predisposition for a high lactate threshold can be a good reason to train specifically to get it as high as possible.

Muscle type

Each muscle is made up of fast and slow muscle fibers, with the ratio between the two causing an increased predisposition for strength or endurance sports.

The ratio between these two muscle fiber types in your body is largely genetically determined. Targeted training can stimulate one of the two subtypes of fast muscle fibers and thus optimize the ratio for the sport you practice.

Injury susceptibility

Injuries can be a major hurdle to performance improvement and it is absolutely true that prevention is better than cure.

Genetic variants in the genes encoding the connective tissue that make up tendons have been associated with an increased risk of tendon injuries.

Preventing injuries is important for everyone, but for people with an increased genetic risk it is extra important to be alert and to organize the training properly, such as with a thorough warming-up.

Caffeine as a stimulant

Caffeine can be used as a stimulant in various sports performances. The optimal dosage, whereby the performance improves to the maximum and the possible negative effects of caffeine do not yet occur, is different for everyone.

Insight in your genetic predisposition to caffeine breakdown can help determine the optimal dosage.

Metabolism

How does your body react when you suddenly start exercising much less from an intense training program?

When you exercise a lot and intensively, the body has a high energy requirement. When the frequency and/or intensity of exercise goes down, the energy requirement is lower.

With this change, some bodies will store a greater proportion of the energy coming in through diet as fats than others, a process in which genetics play a role.

Mentally

Sports not only has an obvious physical aspect, but also an important mental component. How does exercise influence you? An important part of this is taught, but there is also a genetic variable in it.

The willingness to exercise and the feeling that you have been partly genetically determined after exercise. This means that sports may always feel like an obligation to you, or that you are addicted to sports and the feeling it gives you, where overload is lurking.

Strength versus endurance sport