The best body Genes edge out
environmental factors when it comes to athletic performance. Having
the perfect body for your chosen sport can be the difference between
winning and losing
By Vivienne Parry THE
GUARDIAN , London Friday, Aug 13, 2004,Page 9
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ILLUSTRATION MOUNTAIN
PEOPLE
| Top marathon runners tend
to be lean and light, star swimmers are gangly things with huge feet
and gold medal weightlifters are solid blocks of muscle with short
arms and legs. So does your physique -- and indeed the way your body
works -- fit you for a particular sport, or does your body develop a
certain way because of your chosen sport?
"It's about 55:45, genes to environment," says Mike Rennie,
professor of clinical physiology at the UK's University of
Nottingham Medical School who cites the case of identical twins from
Germany, one of whom was an endurance athlete, the other a power
sportsman, "They look quite different, despite being identical
twins."
Someone who's 1.5-meters tall has little chance of becoming an
elite basketball player, but being over two meters tall with the
springiest tendons in the land won't automatically propel you to
Olympic gold.
Craig Sharp, professor of sports science at Brunel University,
made this point at a recent Royal Institution event at which the
limits of human performance were debated. "Unless you have tactical
sense where needed, unless you have access to good equipment,
medical backup and the psychological conditions to have the winning
attitude and be able to drive yourself through pain, and of course,
superb technique, all the physical side will be in vain."
Jonathan Robinson, an applied sports scientist at the University
of Bath's sports development department in southwest England,
underlines the importance of technique. "In swimming, only 5 to 10
percent of the propulsive force comes from the legs, so technique is
vital." To illustrate his point, he cites triathletes, who are all
extraordinarily fit, yet who may fail to reach competition standard
if their swimming technique is poor.
But having the right physique for the right sport is a good
starting point. Seventeen years ago, the Australian Institute of
Sport started a national Talent Search Programme, which scoured
schools for 14 to 16-year-olds with the potential to be elite
athletes.
One of their first finds was Megan Still. In 1987, she had never
picked up an oar in her life. But she had almost the perfect
physique for a rower. After intensive training, she won gold in
women's rowing in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Other countries have followed the Australian example. The
explosion of genetic knowledge has meant that there is now a search,
not just for sport appropriate physique but also for "performance
genes." Several are implicated. For instance, the ability to use
oxygen efficiently is key to gaining the winning edge. The EPOR gene
initiates the process of red blood cell production and then switches
off, but one mutation means that it carries on working, leading to
an abnormal amount of red blood cells.
Finnish researchers identified an entire family with this EPOR
mutation, several of whom were championship endurance athletes,
including the great cross-country gold medalist skier, Eero
Mantyranta. This mutation was definitely performance-enhancing.
Craig Sharp believes that elite athletes of the future may well come
from among such physiological "outliers," people who naturally
possess extremes of normal physiology which also happen to be
performance-enhancing.
"It's a question of finding them," he said at the Royal
Institution event.
The drive to pick elite athletes based in part on body shape or
characteristics has had a difficult history, with work bedeviled by
the race issue. Competitors of African origin hold most of the
leading times for top running events, even though only one in eight
of the world population is black. And Kenyans from the Kalenjin
tribe hold 40 percent of the top honors for distance running.
These Kenyan runners tend to have slim legs, with high calf
muscles (a genetic trait), which is a very efficient anatomy for a
runner. But, they also live above 600 meters, which helps to
increase the body's amount of red blood cells as well as its
cardiovascular capacity, which are both vital for long distance
running. And since runners are national heroes, and running requires
no more equipment than a pair of shoes, there are considerable
rewards for training intensively.
In truth, there is more genetic variation between individuals
than there is between races. All we may be seeing
But, so far, what do we know about the different physiological
types suited to particular sports?
Rowing
The perfect male rower is an extraordinary physiological
specimen. He is tall, heavy but with very low body fat (10 percent
in men), with broad shoulders and long, powerful limbs. His heart is
capable of pumping 40 liters of blood a minute. Rowers have the
highest absolute maximum oxygen uptakes of any athletes and the
highest intakes of air, up to 300 liters per minute.
Shooting
You might think a sport that requires you to lie down,
doesn't require fitness. But perfect shots have very good
cardiovascular fitness and a low heart rate, which they can slow
further. Within seconds of firing, they can (without knowing it)
drop their heart rate by 20 beats and fire exactly between
heatbeats. Pistol shooting also needs strong upper body musculature.
Swimming
The perfect swimmer is tall, with very long limbs,
particularly arms. Top-class swimmers have big feet, which provide a
huge propulsive advantage. They have big hands to act as paddles,
narrow hips to reduce drag and broad shoulders to maximize arm
power. Sprint swimmers are more mesomorphic, with high power energy
systems.
Sprinting
The perfect 100m sprinter is tall, with a strong mesomorphic
body shape. Top sprinters have slim lower legs and relatively narrow
hips which gives a biomechanical advantage. They have a high
percentage of fast twitch fibres (more than 80 percent). They use
muscle fuel so fast that they are practically running on empty by
the end of the race.
Marathon Running
The perfect marathon runner has a light frame, slim legs and
is of small to medium height. They have high percentage of slow
twitch fibres and very high maximal oxygen uptake. They can
withstand dehydration, and training gives their muscles a high
storage capacity for the premium muscle fuel, glycogen.
Gymnasts
The perfect female gymnast is small and slim, with a high
strength to weight ratio and an even musculature. Unusually, she
will have grown steadily, rather than in spurts, during her early
adolescence. She has a narrow body to permit speedy rotation and
superb balance. Gymnasts of both sexes require both high power and
high capacity energy systems and, overall, are the fittest of all
athletes.
Weightlifting
The perfect weightlifter has a strongly mesomorphic body
type, and is very well muscled. Good weightlifters are not tall and
tend to have relatively short arms and legs, which makes them more
effective levers. They have cardiovascular systems able to stand
sudden surges in blood pressure. High percentage of fast twitch
fibres.
Morphs and muscles:
Body type: ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph
Mesomorphs have well-defined muscles and large bones, with a low,
narrow waist. Men are rectangular, and women are hourglass-shaped.
Ectomorphs are skinny, lightly muscled with thin wrists and
ankles. Endomorphs are round and soft, with relatively short limbs,
high waists, small hands and feet. Most people are mixtures of body
types, but those who are strongly mesomorphic tend to do well in
sports such as weightlifting, while running is where ectomorphs are
found to excel.
Body physiology: high power or high capacity
To determine your physiological type, it is useful to think of
your muscles as being powered by batteries (in reality, they are
fired by three different types of cellular fuel). Some people's
muscles have a much greater capacity to deliver big bursts of power
for short periods, while others are better at delivering a smaller
amount of energy over a sustained period. The former group are
suited to power events and the latter are better adapted to
endurance sports.
Muscle composition: fast twitch/slow twitch
Muscles are made up of two different types of fiber. The "fast
twitch" fibers deliver extreme amounts of power for a few seconds,
whereas "slow twitch" fibers deliver prolonged contraction over many
minutes or hours. The ratio of fast to slow fibers in each person is
inherited. Those with more slow twitch fibers favor endurance
events. Individuals with fast twitch fibers favor sprint events or
those requiring sudden power, such as weightlifting.
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