Are couch potatoes born and not made? Are habitual exercisers not really neurotic? Tough questions. Fortunately, European researchers are on the case, having studied the activity habits of 37,051 sets of twins, in search of a genetic predisposition to exercising. The New York Times reports that the scientists set a charitable standard of one hour per week of light jogging or an
equivalent activity to classify someone as an ‘‘exerciser.’’ Despite the low bar, only about
44 percent of the males and 35 percent of the females met the
standard. The researchers found that, across the board, however, the identical-twin pairs were more
likely to share an exercise pattern than the fraternal twins. Doing the math, they concluded that differences in exercise behavior were about 60 percent attributable to
genes.
Health, fitness and lifestyle tips for people over 50 who still like to play hard
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
What is being pointed out is that if humans were still in the “hunter/gatherer” phase of existence where get up and go meant you ate, had warm garments and a mate or you perished, those with the supposed genetic markers for exercise (and thereby possibly strength, endurance, etc.) would have passsed those genes on to their offspring.
By altering the survival of the fittest, we changed the adaptive response of the evolutionary line.
As we have done less manual labor, gotten less and less exercise and have polluted the environment as part of our “progress”, we have evolved into unhealthy, obese and lethargic creatures.
As we continue to destroy our habitat, it will prove interesting to see which other creatures find humans as a viable food option…
exercising is a big healthy life
I have observed, in all things we are drawn to what we do best. We see musical talent, manuel labor, intellectual endeavors, cooks arts and crafts. Exercise and athletics is the same.
We are good at certain activities because of the balance between nature and nurture. As a result we see, families of gardeners, hunters musicians etc. Exercise and athletics is no different.