Active by Instinct
Teal Burrell didn’t know a good thing until it was gone. The now 30-year-old in the District of Columbia was involved in gymnastics, basketball, cross-country and track through high school, but didn’t play sports in college. Something was missing. “I realized playing sports was part of my identity,” she says. Now, Burrell’s a competitive runner who made it to the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon last month. Most athletes — professional and recreational — have always had an instinct to move, says J. Timothy Lightfoot, chair of Texas A&M University’s Department of Health and Kinesiology. Here are eight other factors influencing your inclination toward exercise:
1. Your parents were active.
“Both of my parents were great role models for being healthy and active when I was growing up,” says Jonathan Levitt, 25, a competitive runner in Boston who works for a health analytics company. It’s no surprise, then, that Levitt values exercise: Research suggests preschoolers whose parents are highly supportive of exercise are more than six times more likely to be highly active than inactive. “Early on, [family] ends up being a really important factor” in kids’ activity levels, says Vincent Granito, a psychology professor and women’s basketball coach at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio, who played college football. Case in point: His mom was a fitness instructor.
2. You had a great coach.
While mom and dad play a big role in your physical activity as a tot, people such as coaches, peers and other role models can make a big difference in how much you exercise as you age, Granito says. For girls in particular, coaches, gym teachers and other exercise leaders are critical motivators, according to a report from the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. But the opposite is true too: In one study, middle-aged non-exercisers cited “negative school experiences” as reasons for sitting still.
3. You’re built like an athlete.
Bruce McBarnette walked onto Princeton University’s track and field team and within one week was the school’s second-best high-jumper. Now, at age 57, he’s won 32 national championships and 12 world championships for his age group. “I was certainly born with a certain level of ability,” says McBarnette, the president of a real estate investment company in Sterling, Virginia. “I have a nice build for the high jump; I have a lot of quickness and speed and power.” About 52 percent of a person’s daily physical activity is genetic, although estimates range from 24 percent to 92 percent, says Lightfoot, who directs Texas A&M University’s Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance.
4. You’re a high-achiever.
But there was something else that helped take McBarnette from being a top high-jumper in college to one of the best in the world: drive. McBarnette has a lot of it: He was valedictorian of his high school class, president of his class at Princeton and served in the U.S. Army. He’s now a lawyer, actor and philanthropist. “[Sports] gives you … a platform in which to pursue excellence,” he says. Granito sees strong work ethics in the women he coaches, too. “Somebody who’s highly competitive, somebody who has a high need to achieve — those are personality characteristics we’d probably see for people who want to be athletes,” he says.
5. You grew up in a sporty community.
Granito grew up near Cleveland — an all-around sports-crazed town. His dad was a huge sports fan, so he and his three brothers latched on. “That aspect drove my interest in sports,” he says. Living in a city where it’s easy to be active — such as the District of Columbia, Minneapolis and San Diego, which are ranked No. 1, 2 and 3 in the American College of Sports Medicine’s report of fittest cities — makes a difference too. However, contrary to popular belief, most research shows that broad interventions like implementing sidewalks don’t necessarily make everyone more active, Lightfoot says.
6. You’re a healthy eater.
Sure, it makes sense that health nuts are more likely to both eat healthily and exercise, but Lightfoot suspects the relationship between diet and physical activity goes deeper. If you overfeed animals, for example, their physical activity level has been shown to decrease 62 percent, he says. His research is also looking at how environmental toxins may affect physical activity. “There are things that we as humans take in that may actually be interfering with the biological control of physical activity,” he says.
7. You like exercise.
Burrell, the Olympic trials runner, started — and continued — exercising for a simple reason: fun. “Playing sports as a kid was fun, and when I started running in high school, it was really just a way to be part of a team and make friends,” she says. “As an adult, it’s still fun to challenge myself and see what I’m capable of.” Indeed, a key to sticking with exercise is finding something you enjoy doing, whether it’s walking to work, gardening or playing an organized sport, Lightfoot says. “Everybody’s waiting for a magic pill — there’s not going to be a magic pill,” he says. Instead, “Eat right, find something you like to do and do it,” he adds.
8. You want to be.
Burrell doesn’t think she popped out of the womb an Olympics contender. She’s simply motivated to be her best. “I truly believe if you want to be an athlete, you can be one,” she says. Lightfoot has a similar belief — and that says something coming from someone who studies the genetics of physical activity. “People will always ask, ‘Well, does that mean if I’m predisposed to be inactive, should I not even try?'” he says. “The answer is no — you can overcome that predisposition.”
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8 Signs You Are Made to Be an Athlete originally appeared on usnews.com
