Desire to Exercise May Be Genetic

No one who made it through middle school ever said that life was fair. And now, the Los Angeles Times reports, comes more evidence of biological injustice. New research suggests that the desire to exercise, as well as the degree of pleasure taken from exercise, has much more to do with genetics than previously thought.  How much? Between 48 percent and 71 percent, according to a 2006 study of more than 37,000 twin pairs from seven European countries. The L.A.Times also cites a 2006 Swedish investigation
that looked at leisure-time physical activity in 5,334 identical and 8,028
fraternal twins.The findings revealed that the exercise habits of
identical twins were twice as closely matched as those of fraternal
twins. Because fraternal twins share half their genes and identical
twins are genetic duplicates, the finding implies that genes account
for much of the variability in physical activity levels between people. Yes, there’s more in the Los Angeles Times.