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© ShutterstockLazy TV remote A recent study suggests that missing genes may cause laziness.
Feeling lazy? It may be in your genes, say McMaster University researchers.

A study with lab mice at the Hamilton, Ont., university suggests rodents who lack key muscle genes could not run as far as normal mice, who typically love to run.

"While the normal mice could run for miles, those without the genes in their muscle could only run the same distance as down the hall and back," Gregory Steinberg, associate professor of medicine in Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and Canada Research Chair in Metabolism and Obesity, said in a statement.

"The mice looked identical to their brothers or sisters but within seconds we knew which ones had the genes and which one didn't."

But, Steinberg said, the muscle genes "turn off when (people) become inactive and lazy" and it becomes more difficult to become active again.

"This explains why it's so hard get started with an exercise program, but after few days of exercise we believe they can switch them on again," he said.

The research is published in the current issue of the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.