This is what every latently lazy person has been waiting for, the news that no matter how much exercise you do - you are not going to get any benefits.

Well, that's what the headlines would hope you to believe, but the study that underpins these shocking findings only looked at one aspect of fitness, aerobic capacity. Granted, this is the powerhouse, and your personal aerobic capacity is generally the hard and fast predictor of good health.

But, to announce that for 1 in 5, no matter how much aerobic work you do, walking, cycling, running, jogging, etc - this is not going to boost your fitness at all, not one iota? Uh oh, this is risky. I can see people peeling off their kit and jumping into their jim jams in five seconds flat.

However, the good news is, the results may have some benefits, if there is indeed a gene that indicated aerobic capacity, or lack off, it can be tested for, and then a more appropriate training programmes can be designed to boost other aspects of the individual's fitness.  This is a bit Sc-Fi for me, I can help thinking if we fast forward five years we'll be saying things like 'My gene therapist suggests I'm more genetically predisposed to Pilates...so I'll do that instead'.

One thing I am wondering, the average human body contains 10 to 20 billion miles of DNA distributed among trillions of cells. That's a hell of a lot of info. And they have attributed genetics as the 'cause' for things like alcoholism, depression, homosexuality, aging and aggressive behaviour - strewth, there's even a gene that's supposed to give carriers a shorter night's sleep, so surely there has to be a gene that is responsible for searching for incessant genetic reasons to excuse people from reality. But I am guessing that one might not reach our front pages.

Believe me, this little genetic gem isn't going to stop me from exercising - will it you?