Several of Britain’s leading athletes are set to benefit from revolutionary DNA profiling which has gone global in recent weeks.
British based company, DNAFit, have captivated the minds of all sports enthusiasts with their ground-breaking tests, with 2011 European Indoor 800m champion, Jenny Meadows becoming the world’s first athlete to reveal her genes.
The test comes in the form of a ‘do-it-yourself’ mouth swab kit, and once analysed in the laboratory, results are produced on 18 key genes related to fitness and recovery. Tests can indicate whether or not an athlete has more power or endurance DNA, their ability to recover after exercise, or if they are sensitive to certain types of food.
Meadows’ test, which can be seen in full here, identified that she has an almost ideal power:endurance ratio for an 800m runner – 48.8% to 51.2%. The information gained from the tests have already been put into practice, with Meadows and her husband and coach, Trevor Painter, already reaping the benefits. “The thing that really staggered me was to be exactly 50 per cent speed and 50 per cent endurance, which is absolutely perfect for an 800m runner and perhaps if I had known this I would have concentrated on the 800m a few years earlier instead of pursuing 400m as well,” Meadows said.
Meadows results also showed that her genetics mean she is susceptible to soft-tissue injuries. After missing the London 2012 Olympics after suffering from an Achilles injury, Meadows hopes to utilise the DNAFit results to prevent this happening again. “Before the Olympics I put a really hard winter in because I thought I had to do something really special to win a medal,” she said. “It was a high-risk strategy and unfortunately I got injured. If I’d known that I was susceptible to getting injured, I would have gone a different way.”
Meadows and Painter have already reduced her running sessions each week from 14 to 11, to lower any potential injury risks leading up to this year’s European Championships and Commonwealth Games.
Despite Meadows stealing the headlines with the publication of her genes, another British athlete has been realising the benefits in more ways than one.
Andrew Steele, British 400m runner, has been working with DNAFit since 2013 as a Consultant. Steele was sent a DNA test kit by company Founder Avi Lasarow whilst training in Arizona, and was surprised at how accurate the results were. “I wrote to Avi after receiving my results to say well done, as they were very close to what I thought they would be, and I’ve been involved with the company ever since really.”
Through his increasing involvement with DNAFit, Steele relocated to ‘The Big Smoke’ London, linking up with new coach Chris Zah in the process. Steele, whose best days on track came in 2007-08 when he reached the Olympic semi-finals, explained that his decision to join Zah’s training group was helped by his DNAFit results. “To be back at my best, I knew I needed to go back to the hard-core Northern work-ethic, as that’s what worked so well in the past and the DNA results confirmed that. Knowing how Chris coaches and the way he works, it seemed like a great match”.
As Steele put it, DNAFit is looking to be “the light between the fog” within sport, whether at elite or recreational level. Even for ‘charity runners’ doing the London Marathon, not everybody is genetically disposed to training as per your monthly fitness magazine, “everybody’s journey is different” Steele rightly says.
Founder Avi Lasarow agrees, “What we’ve found is that there’s no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to training, whether you’re training in a team or as an individual.”
According to Steele, there has already been high interest in DNAFit across the globe, reaching as far as Australia and the United States. With several Premiership Football club already on-board, and more DNAthletes set to be revealed, the future looks bright for gene testing.
DNA testing could become a routine part of signing up to commercial gyms, with the results being used by personal trainers to plan the best programme for clients. It’s extraordinary to think just a few years ago the extortionate expense of gene testing was limited to the rich and wealthy, but now every Tom, Dick and Harry can get their hands on a DNA test. As the science develops and more genes can be tested, the efficiency of results will surely lead to new realms of sporting greatness for all.
With 12-week training programmes specifically tailored to an athlete’s DNA and goals soon to be available through DNAFit, training could become a lot easier without wasting time on the latest fitness gimmick, all for the price of a new pair of spikes.
