Finally the one thing that I’m most excited about has shown up in my email last night after I was done with my cycling.

My DNAFit results!!!

And so… below is the brief overview on my fitness report based on my DNA.

Now that you’ve seen the brief overview of my DNA results, let’s dive a little bit deeper into each section.

On the fitness, the fitness areas that DNAFit focuses on are

1. Power/Endurance Profile
2. Aerobic Potential (VO2 Max)
3. Recovery
   1. Post Exercise Recovery Speed
   2. Post Exercise Nutrition Needs
4. Injury Risk

Power/Endurance Profile

Based on my genes, I’m 74.3% endurance and 25.7% power. Therefore in my sports training, it would benefit me and my body if I placed high priority on endurance type of exercises. Endurance training is low intensity activity and you do it for longer period of time.

Personally I love long rides of more than an hour ever since I got a road bike early this year. I enjoy long rides and I find it amazing that the test confirms this.

Out of the 8 genes that DNAFit tested for power response, my profile responded positive to 2 sets of the power response tests. And my profile responded positive to 6 sets out of 11 genes for the endurance response tests.

Aerobic Potential (VO2 Max)

The VO2 max is a test used by scientists to measure the maximum or optimum rate at which an individual’s body can effectively use oxygen during exercise.

There are 5 VO2 Max genes that are tested and my profile responded positive to 4 of the genes.

I’m on the medium (right in the middle) on their scale. In order for me to make use of this ability, DNAFit recommended me to include both endurance and power activities in my training.

Post Exercise Recovery Speed

According to the DNAFit, I’m lucky enough to recover very quickly with little rest. There are 7 genes that are tested and my profile has no respond to all of the genes.

From the results, I have no issues with removal of toxins, metabolic by-products, and free radicals created during detoxification process or exercise and I have lower levels of inflammation after hard training sessions, which leads to quicker recovery times. Definitely a plus for me!

Based on the above, it is still recommended for me to take adequate intake of antioxidants in my daily diet and to maintain regular exercise program to support my recovery times.

Since I’ve been active, I’ve got the feeling that I needed to stay active. So there were times when I exercise 5 times a week. In my head, I have this thought if I don’t consistently exercise then I might “lose it” whatever that means. Now I get it!

Post Exercise Nutrition Needs

There are more than 5 micronutrients recommended for post exercise nutritional support and recovery time.

The recommended daily intake of these micronutrients varies from person to person.

In my case, I need to take up more Vitamin A than the normal EU recommended daily allowance. My Vitamin C intake is at the top of the EU recommended daily allowance. The rest are just according to the normal EU recommended daily allowance.

Injury Risk

I suspected that I have high injury risk which was why I stopped being active for several years. Boy that was a mistake. But then I was young and didn’t know any better.

It is confirmed by DNAFit that I have higher risk of injury.

There are 7 genes tested for this and my profile responded positive to 3 injury risk genes. Based on the tests, I have:

1. Moderate risk of tendinopathy and osteoarthritis.
2. Increased risk of tendon and ligament injuries in sport.

My concerns when I’m cycling and running are my knees and ankles. I do experience minor inflammations on both knees when I pushed myself in training sessions. This means I have to be extra careful when pushing myself and listen to my body so that I don’t overexert myself.

It is recommended for me to undertake prehabilitative exercises relevant to the sport and consider nutritional support for connective tissue. My go to prehabilitative exercise is yoga. I find that doing yoga helps with my knees, ankles and the overall recovery.

The big question now is what changes am I going to incorporate into my training now that I know and have this information about me, my genes and my fitness.

1. I’m definitely going to add power based workouts to improve my VO2 max.
   1. I’m looking at to do sprints (which I used to hate for most of my adult life but thanks to Bobby, I look forward to do more of it now)
   2. Weight training. I’m unsure how to go about this but I will consult someone from DNAFit.
2. Consume the recommended micronutrients for nutritional support. On the plus side, I get to eat more fruits and veggies. The cons, added expenses of buying new fruits and veggies.
3. Currently I do my endurance training 3 times a week. So it’s either I do my endurance training twice a week and incorporate a power based training once a week or keep my endurance training to 3 times a week and just add a power workout once a week. I haven’t decide yet.

I find that the DNAFit for fitness is useful for me not only to confirm my own gut feeling and hunches about my own body, it is a tool that I can refer to when it comes to scheduling training, when to rest, what to eat to support my body and my fitness goal.

I will be sharing my DNAFit Diet results from DNAFit after this post is published.

See you soon!