#48 The Sports Gene - Book Summary

Hello Wise Wordians,

Welcome back to another episode of ‘Wise Words Book Summaries’.

This week we are summarising ’The Sports Gene’ by David Epstein which explores the contribution of both genes and sports training on human athleticism. 

In this episode, we cover topics such as:

• The predictive ability athletes acquire from their many hours of experience 
• 10,000-hour rule, does it work?
• Genetic trainability 
• How sports and sport technique shape the bodies of high-performing athletes
• How our environments and culture shape our bodies and our genes

If any of these topics sound interesting to you then make sure to give it a listen, and if you enjoy what you hear, why not leave us a like, subscribe to our channel, or even better, let us know your thoughts in the comment section below, your feedback means so much to us and helps to improve our podcast.

In addition to this, if you fancy implementing any of the actionable ideas we mention in this episode, head on over to our website at wisewords.blog where the ‘The Sports Gene’ book summary will be waiting for you.

Next week we will be summarising ‘The World’s Fittest Book’ by Ross Edgley so make sure you stay tuned for that.

We hope you enjoy it.

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Chapters:
00:00:00-Intro
00:00:15-Overview
00:07:51-Nature or Nurture in Athletic Performance
00:08:21-Less about reaction times and more to do with experience-built predictive ability
00:18:53-How best to become an expert. The 10,000-hour rule.
00:21:32-Does 10,000 hours work
00:24:52-The problem with the 10,000-hour rule
00:27:08-Are some people easier to train?
00:28:39-The comparison between natural talent and a hard worker
00:33:33-Does practice matter?
00:34:12-Where talent meets innate advantage
00:36:19-Your hardware determines your software limit
00:39:46-Specialising late, general physical preparedness
00:42:39-Genetic advantages do exist
00:44:06-The overlap between men and women
00:49:48-Genetic Trainability
00:53:07-Testing identical twins
00:56:28-Starting at an elite level
00:58:15-The double muscle gene - my-statin
01:02:22-How we gain muscle
01:03:06-Different muscle types
01:08:10-How sports and sport technique can shape the ideal body
01:15:04-How many pounds of muscle to a pound of bone
01:17:51-The ideal body for basketball
01:21:15-How our environment affects our genes
01:24:59-How the build of black and white people’s bodies differ
01:27:06-Allens Rule
01:29:30-The doping variant, why some people can dope and not get caught
01:31:19-Theories as to why Jamaicans are so good at sprinting
01:31:44-Selection of the fittest slaves
01:32:08-Jamaica’s Sprint System
01:36:42-Natural selection and malaria - differing haemoglobin levels
01:40:17-Compensatory mechanism for reduced haemoglobin levels
01:41:22-Can every Kenyan run?
01:42:43-The hidden advantages of Kelinjin bodies
01:44:23-Why do slim legs matter
01:47:05-The altitude advantage
01:50:44-Genes that contribute to training addiction
01:54:34-Sudden death syndrome, genes responsible for injury and pain
01:58:18-Genes responsible for gold medals
02:01:36-Debrief

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