We have discussed in our earlier blogs that most fitness aspirants hit the gym for aesthetic goals rather than desire to have a fit & healthy body. Their fitness goals are motivated & influenced by the body structure of others in their gym or people they have been following on social media. Most of the fitness decisions are skewed in favor of looking good rather focusing on achieving realistic fitness goals.
We have seen a lot of other online fitness goals are using this show business of that big muscles & V shaped tapered body to make them sign up for their program. However, my purpose of discussion here is not about what others are doing to achieve their aesthetic goals but to throw light on the fact that every human body is unique in itself & you should not compare your body structure with those of others. We are going to discuss in detail how genes & DNA will define your muscle & body structure & impact on some of the most common & most famous exercises.
So whatever your fitness goals might be- building that strong 6 pack abs, burning that extra fat or building that rounded glutes, genetics plays a major role in determining your body shape. Not only our baseline but also our workout progress is determined & influenced by our genes. This is the reason two people can follow the same workout routine but one may see the progress better than the other.
Your daily routine will have an impact on your gene expression simply because your routine is in your control & genes disposition is predetermined. Genes have profound influence of the following fitness goals:
- Round Glutes: You must have observed at some point in time that a lot of folks have super developed back. While some of them have large gluteal muscles, others have to work to get them into shape. Your glutes have genetic disposition & your ability to gain mass in glutes is influenced by genes. As a result, some people may find great results from rear focused workout (back, glutes, hamstrings) while others may not be able to have the same amount of muscle growth. The workout you do either at home or at the gym has a greater influence on your body shape over the long term however there are limits to what your shape is genetically. You cannot assume that by doing a rigorous workout you will get a tapered back as you would have seen on Instagram.
- Muscular Calves: Athletes having half calves insertion( tendon is long, muscle is short) tend to face challenges in getting their calves to grow while athletes with low calf insertions & long muscle bellies can build enormous calves with less training. Although you can get some progress in the area, you cannot change the way your body is structured. The matter of fact is everything is influenced by genes- how much muscle we can gain, how fast we gain, specific muscles we gain faster as compared to other muscles, how explosive we can be & how well we respond to training.
- Low body percentage: A lot of us can reduce our body fat percentage by a structured workout & quantified nutrition, however how quickly it reduces & where the remaining fat is distributed depends upon your DNA. This is the reason some fitness folks can achieve lean , muscular physiques with little effort while for others it takes a well thought over planning & rigorous training. Group of genes impact muscle fibre type, composition within skeletal muscle, how quickly one can build muscle, predisposition of certain amounts of subcutaneous fat, total body fat, distribution of fat tissue & ease with which fat tissue changes in response to diet & workout activity. There are certain limits to which how much exercise & diet can change the combination which we inherit.
Experts want people to acknowledge that truly unique.it’s important to keep focus on health over aesthetics.
Key takeaway
The fact is your genes are predetermined & you cannot change it. However, by evaluating your genes & DNA, you can make alterations in your workout & nutrition schedule/routine & align it with your fitness goals( not aesthetic goals)
