How can DNA profiling help cyclists?

Promotional feature with Muhdo Health

There are a variety of things you can do to improve your health and fitness, from changing the foods which you eat, to incorporating the latest training style or techniques, which will hopefully benefit your performance on the bike as well.

Some people seem to lose weight effortlessly, while others have to work hard to stay in shape. Equally, some people have no problem building muscle mass, enduring gruelling workouts or tolerating pain.

Until now, even the best training systems and protocols have been based on retrospective observation, guesswork, and trial and error to determine how your body responds to training, nutrition and various coaching philosophies.

But in the last couple of years a new tool has appeared from the health tech market that promises to revolutionise how we understand our bodies. And this tool is being used right now by some of the world’s best cyclists to outperform their peers, whilst maintaining their health throughout the year.

Simply put, it all comes down to DNA. Our genetic blueprint determines how the body responds to environmental factors including diet, stress and exercise.

Everyone responds differently, so by profiling an individual to find out their genetic predisposition to each of these factors, it becomes possible to tailor your training and diet to work in conjunction with your DNA. This gives cyclists the ultimate starting point and foundation to build upon, to help improve performance but also, more importantly, their overall health.

Muhdo Health is one such company that is pioneering the science of genomics. It can analyse key genetic variations to help you gain a simple but powerful understanding of your body, including how your muscles form and behave, how you utilise the food which you choose to eat each day, and then whether you are likely to be deficient in certain vitamins or minerals.

Muhdo also provides unique meal and workout plans aligned to your genetics and one of four key health and fitness goals: Fitness and Endurance; Fat Loss; Muscle Building; or Fit For Life.

Even if you have no intention of going to the gym, Muhdo offers home workout suggestions that will help to improve your strength, fitness and recovery levels.

And this year Muhdo has added two exciting features that will allow you to improve your general health and combat those aches and pains each day.

Firstly, each month over the next 10 months a new genetic health area will be unlocked, giving insight into a whole array of fascinating health topics and then reporting back your individual genetic results with recommendations you can act upon.

Muhdo is also offering a new and unique process called epigenetic tracking, which allows you to actively monitor the effect that your diet, exercise and environment are having on your genes’ expression and health.

Your genes are as only effective as the stimulus that they are given, so understanding how specific foods, training loads or exposure to pollution are affecting you will then allow Muhdo to make certain lifestyle recommendations to hopefully improve your health and negate any harmful effects.

You don’t need to be an aspiring Geraint Thomas or looking to smash your personal best each week for a DNA test to prove useful, however. Understanding your inner workings and what makes you you will allow you to make little changes to your lifestyle that are easy to implement and stick to, which will ultimately put you on the path to improving your health and wellbeing.

For more information, visit muhdo.com.