Been There, Done That : ...

If there’s a gene for obesity, as New York researchers recently announced, could there also be couch potato genes? Jock genes?

Well, maybe. Canadian researchers are trying to pinpoint the gene or genes that “predispose people to have success in sports,” says Marcel R. Boulay of Laval University in Quebec City.

“We know there are people who have (better) response in blood pressure and cholesterol lowering, for instance, when exposed to the same training program,” says Boulay’s colleague, Claude Bouchard.

But slackers, take note: Even if it turns out you’re genetically shortchanged, you’re not off the hook. Fitness researchers who specialize in adherence say your genetic blueprint may someday be used to write your personal exercise prescription.

Blessed with “jock genes” or not, more people will get moving in 1995, predicts John Duncan, exercise physiologist at Dallas’ Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research. “Integrate exercise into your daily life, that’s the new message,” Duncan says. New, less strenuous, exercise guidelines call for 30 minutes of moderately intense activity to be accumulated throughout the day.

But for the 78% of Americans who still don’t exercise enough, the New Year may not be one of increased exercise as much as increased consciousness, says James Sallis, psychology professor at San Diego State University. “We’ll have more awareness of how our lifestyles have become sedentary,” he says, “but ’95 is not the year we’ll do something about it.”

That’s not all bad, though. According to Sallis and others, this contemplation stage often leads to the action stage.