2 Genetics of Physical Activity

The beneficial effects of regular physical activity on primary and secondary prevention of several common chronic diseases have been well established and reduction of sedentarism is one of the main goals of public health initiatives. The main challenge for implementation of these recommendations is the poor compliance to physical activity interventions. Since physical activity is a behavioral trait, research has mainly focused on finding psychological, social and environmental factors that contribute to levels of physical activity. Interest on the biological basis of physical activity has re-emerged recently (1,2) and advances in techniques of molecular genetic research have opened new avenues to test for the role of specific genes and mutations. The purpose of this review is to summarize the data from genetic epidemiology studies, and potential candidate genes for physical activity levels.