If you can’t finish the marathon or can’t even start one, try looking at your family tree.Researchers say animal studies suggest your tendency toward the playing field or the couch could be in your genes.In a series of experiments that lasted through 15 generations, rats who were bred for performance outran and outperformed their couch-potato counterparts by several degrees."This underscores the fact that the genetic basis of our endurance ability is pretty high, surprisingly high,” said Richard Howlett, a faculty member in the department of medicine at the University of California, San Diego."They [the rats] were destined to be better performers,” added Dr. Todd Schlifstein, a sports rehabilitation physician at New York University Medical Center in New York City.Howlett is co-author of three papers being presented April 5 at the annual Congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences, in San Diego. The papers are part of a much bigger project involving numerous collaborators.
