Quote:
(FROM THE BASKETBALL - STONE GETTINGS THREAD)
It's possible Stone Gettings is white AND has fast twitch muscles!Quote:
More recently it was accepted "scientific" fact that Africans and African Americans were better sprinters because of fast twitch muscles, but inferior distance runners because of fewer slow twitch muscles. That was until the Kenyans and Ethiopians started winning all the Olympic and international marathons and 10k races.
My 23&Me report on this subject
Your Wellness Result
Tom, your genetic muscle composition is common in elite power athletes.
Studies have found that almost all elite power athletes (including sprinters, throwers, and jumpers) have a specific genetic variant in a gene related to muscle composition. You have the same genetic variant as these elite athletes.
What this means for you
For most people, lifestyle and training factors drive athletic performance. At the national and international levels of competition, the genetic variant in this report seems to make a difference in athletic success, but its role for non-elite athletes isn't completely understood.
Genetics and Muscle Composition
What's in a muscle?
Our muscles are made up of two main types of fibers, called slow-twitch and fast-twitch. Fast-twitch fibers allow rapid, forceful muscle contraction the sort of contraction required for sprinting. Slow-twitch fibers contract more slowly, but they also tire less easily. Endurance athletes tend to have more slow-twitch fibers, while power athletes (including sprinters, throwers, and jumpers) tend to have more fast-twitch fibers a difference that may reflect both their genetics and their training habits.
Muscles and genetics
This report is based on a genetic marker in the ACTN3 gene. This marker controls whether muscle cells produce a protein (called alpha-actinin-3) that's found in fast-twitch muscle fibers. While some people don't produce this protein at all, almost all of the elite power athletes who have been studied have a genetic variant that allows them to produce the protein. This suggests that the protein may be beneficial at least at the highest levels of power-based athletic competition.
Genetic result
You
CC
Common result for elite power athletes
CT
Common result for elite power athletes
TT
Uncommon result for elite power athletes
See the percentage of customers with these results
About endurance athletes
Most of the elite power athletes who have been studied have a genetic variant that allows them to produce the alpha-actinin-3 protein in their muscles. Does that mean that people who don't produce this protein are more likely to be endurance athletes? Studies in mice suggest that the answer may be yes: young mice who don't make any of this protein are able to run farther without getting tired. But studies in humans have not consistently shown an endurance advantage for people who don't produce the alpha-actinin-3 protein.
Genetics isn't everything
Differences in the genetic marker used in this report may only explain about 2-3% of the difference in muscle performance between different people. In elite athletes who work intensely to reach the upper limits of their potential, that 2-3% may mean the difference between qualifying for the Olympics and missing the cut. But for the rest of us, the choices we make about how to train will far outweigh the contribution of our genetic result at this marker.
I was surprised. Cause I'm not a sprinter!! And can't dunk on a 10' rim.
Maybe Gettings will want to post his result for us. If he's "TT" then whomever started all this commentary will be justified. But I'll guess Gettings is like me, a white guy with fast twitch who still loses out to others in certain competitions. I bet 23&Me knows more about this than they reveal here!
And they wouldn't say that it "a social construct" LOL.
Variant type -- European -- African -- East Asian -- Latino -- South Asian
CC variant -- 31.2% -- 61.5% -- 30.2% -- 24.0% -- 15.8%
CT variant -- 49.3% -- 33.7% -- 49.3% -- 49.0% -- 47.6%
TT variant -- 19.4% -- 4.8% -- 20.5% -- 27.0% -- 36.6%
CC and CT are Common result for elite power athletes. TT is Uncommon for elite power athletes.