Author: David Epstein
Synopsis |
The Sports Gene (2013) is a key to learning what factors make the best and worst performance in athletics. In this The Sports Gene Summary, you will learn the suitable type of training for different sports and body types and how genes play an important part in determining your athletic success. |
Detailed Summary of The Sports Gene
The Sports Gene Summary will teach you how genetic material affects your physical strength, endurance, and willingness to train for athletics. In The Sports Gene Summary, you will learn what sports you can train.
Furthermore, you will learn why people from some parts of the world have contributed to particular sports fields for centuries.
Below you will find a physiological explanation for how the people of Ethiopia and Kenya have the perfect bodies for long-distance running. And how white Americans make the best swimmers due to their short legs and long arms, which have been a trait gifted to them by their ancestors.
The Sports Gene Summary Key Points
Different body types are suitable for different Sports. The Sports Gene Summary Key points will break the myth that lean and thin bodies suit all sports. People with small legs and arms cannot be good at any kind of sports. Let’s dig into the details to find more interesting facts about the sports gene.
You might also like to read Algorithms To Live By Summary to know how to live better.
How Much You Endure While Exercising and Doing Sports
There is a reason why white Americans are generally good at swimming while Africans are good at running. The amount of physical stress and training you can go through depends on your genes. You might have seen two people with the same weight, height, and body type at the gym.
One may be training harder and spending extra time, while the other may not be able to enjoy the process or get the “high.” Some of us get that feeling as soon as we start working out. For some people, that feeling is delayed, and they need to spend a long time working out if they want to feel that endorphins rush.
Many of us are not able to work out more even when we want to, and we can easily blame our genes for that according to David Epstein! Almost 75% of the variation related to the amount of exercise we do depends on our genetic makeup. The endurance and strength vary from person to person because all of us have different genetic makeup.
Another factor that depends on our genes is our threshold for pain. While we are lifting weights or going through training, pain is a factor we must encounter repeatedly. If you have been passed with a greater pain threshold than your ancestors, your bones will be less susceptible to injury. You will be able to train for a long period of time.
Can you be a Swimmer or a Runner? Let’s get to know
If you have a lean body and long legs, you can easily train for a marathon or even the Olympics with the right spirit. On the other hand, if you have shorter legs, there will be less inertia. So you can train in sprinting.
Your short legs will support your body to remain in that position. If you are heightened, basketball may be a good option because the taller you are the easier it is to reach the basket. Having slightly longer arms than usual helps in basketball too.
Having short legs but longer arms can also make you a great swimmer!
This is why knowing your body type can help you in training for the right type of sport. It will allow you to use your body parts to your advantage during matches.
The more Oxygen you intake, the Smoother you can Train
Some forms of exercise make us breathless in a few seconds. As you put your body through physical work, your body demands more supply of oxygen. If your body is designed to take more oxygen innately.
It also depends on the quantity of blood we have in our bodies. The more blood you have the more oxygen will be transported throughout your system. Also, having the appropriate amount of hemoglobin is important because hemoglobin carries the blood in our body.
A person can enhance their ability to intake oxygen by training in high altitudes where oxygen is low, and the body has to work to make the oxygen supply go.
The Sports Gene Quotes
“The broad truth is that nature and nurture are so interlaced in any realm of athletic performance that the answer is always: it’s both.” –David Epstein
“It was a strong clue that one key difference between expert and novice athletes was in the way they had learned to perceive the game, rather than the raw ability to react quickly.” –David Epstein
The Sports Gene Summary Review
This Sports Gene Summary is perfect for improving your understanding of sports and athletics. It will help you understand that athletics is not just about hard and strenuous training. There is more to sports that we can control.
Sometimes your bodies and genes are not built for certain activities and sports, but that is okay. There is always something that you can improve on, which will also be assisted and welcomed by your genes.
The writer David Epstein also provides real-life examples of some of the best athletes from the Olympics to give authenticity to his points related to sports’ physiological and genetic aspects.
To Whom Would I Recommend the Sports Gene Summary
- The twenty-two-year-old sports enthusiast wants to know the science of sports and its relation to the human body.
- To the fifteen years old who like to follow all kinds of sports, different matches, and the lives of athletes.
- And to the athletes who aspire to compete in the Olympics, the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games, the Pan American Games, and the Mediterranean Games one day.
Link: https://amzn.to/3oI5hhx