The Science Behind Athletes of the Future – Sport Genomics
Human athletic performance is a highly complex phenotype. For example, two male power athletes of similar age, experience and body composition follow the same resistance training program under close supervision – at the end of 8 weeks one has gained 4 lbs of muscle and the other has gained none. And numerous studies, involving thousands of athletes, report significant increases in speed and endurance when ingesting caffeine before exercise, while others show no effect or slightly adverse outcomes (1-3). When we study diet and disease or supplements and performance or training methods and improved speed or power, why do the observed outcomes have such mixed results?