We are excited to announce the launch of our new genotype-based “G-Fit” fitness class concept, focusing on tailor-made exercises to accommodate different muscle types.
This means that, for the first time, DNA testing isn’t just about giving you information about yourself, or to help you track down your ancestry. We have designed a fitness class that takes into account the genetic makeup of skeletal muscle fibres.
Why is this important?
G-Fit is an exciting new addition to our service portfolio, helping to eliminate the ‘one size fits all’ approach to health and fitness. While DNA testing is a growing trend in the fitness industry, helping to create bespoke workout and nutrition plans, for example, G- Fit provides another step forward in the field of precision fitness. It is focussed on deploying the proven benefits of tailored exercise – accommodating the difference in genetic profiles in relation to Power vs Endurance muscle fibres. We are all different – and made up of a unique set of genetic code, which can help to determine muscle size, for instance, and how we react to exercise.
Our skeletal muscle is made up of bundles of individual muscle fibres (myocytes), which are classified based on how they produce energy and can be broken down into two main types: slow-twitch (type I) and fast-twitch (type II). Slow-twitch muscles help to facilitate long-endurance feats (such as half marathons) while fast-twitch muscles, as the name suggests, are recruited for more powerful bursts of movements like sprinting (though they fatigue more quickly).
While we all have a combination of these two types of muscle fibres, one may predominate – and research has shown that that’s somewhat down to your genetics.
G-fit takes this fully into account – it enlists the help of your unique DNA sequence to work out exactly how to help you achieve your optimal health and fitness, by identifying what works best for you from the very beginning.
We all respond to workouts differently, and learning about your genetic makeup can be a great way to motivate how you approach exercise, which in itself is no easy feat.
Launching soon!
Following a soft-launch earlier this month in Central London, in partnership with London fitness group 1RebelUK, G-Fit (the first-ever genotype-based fitness class) will be rolled out over the coming months in multiple cities across the UK.
These classes will initially be exclusive to our users, but please keep an eye out as we will be sharing more information (and videos!) over the coming weeks...
You can take a look at video footage from our G-Fit class launch last Friday here.
2020 vision
Finally, we are proud to say that this presents an incredibly exciting step for our company. Our fitness tests and services have been created for those who are starting or looking to optimise their fitness and diet journeys, and patients who are looking to incorporate a healthier and more personalised fitness lifestyle into their lives.
The Rightangled platform was itself created to address the needs of patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease and those on medications that are ineffective – in alignment with the UK government’s National Genomic Healthcare Strategy, which aims to ensure patients receive access to preventative and personalised health and care. We launched the service initially whilst at Warwick University Science Park and since then it has been incredible to see the direction the company has taken – in the UK and internationally.
We are proud to be expanding our services across the Atlantic and are currently being supported with our US strategy by the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI). We participated in their trade missions to Texas last year and were selected to join their incubator programme, which was recently launched at Dell Medical School, to roll out our service to more customers in the States. We’re delighted to be holding a full launch event in Austin, Texas, later this year, and will continue our existing service delivery to occupational health providers in Texas and Michigan.
With NHS backing and seed funding of Rightangled's platform and the extensive resources we are bringing to medical practitioners, we are also seeing a huge uptake from the medical sector in the UK, as we succeeded in making the service more streamlined and economical – and the science behind the test easily digestible by medical practitioners, who in many instances do not have the specialty background in genomics to decipher the results to aid their patient's health and treatment journey.
It is clear that enabling the use of genomics medicine on a population level will inevitably bring wealth to the public health efforts and our healthcare services.
It’s an exciting time in precision medicine and for the company.
