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The Truth About Bodybuilding Genetics

Playing basketball certainly will not make you seven feet tall… and no amount of exercise will transform a genetically inferior specimen into an outstanding athlete, and neither will anything else.

People are not born equal; the potential for physical development varies enormously… and while it is true that properly performed exercise will greatly improve the functional ability of almost literally anybody, it is also true that the final results will not be equal.

Proper exercise, like anything else, has certain basic requirements… if these requirements are provided, then the results will be good; if not, then the results will be poor… it's just that simple.
 
Of course good genetics will determine your maximum potentials, but the point here is that even people who have good genetics will need to work damn hard to get to the top, and the rest of us are held back more by many other factors before genetics even come into play.

A friend of mine has a brother who's a competitive bodybuilder. Both brothers are pretty much walking examples of mesomorph. My friend however doesn't like bodybuilding nor lifting weight that much (mostly laziness), and while he's a strong bastard for a completely untrained bloke and keeps a very good shape in his early 40s despite a generally shocking diet, he doesn't wow anyone with his strength nor physique. His brother OTOH works hard and has a superb muscular body as a result.

Some of my dance teachers are international elites in our field. They are obviously naturally gifted, but they train the basics about 10 times as often as me, which is about 100 times more often than the average Joe & Jane taking our dance classes. It's impossible for me to attribute their success purely to genetics when nobody else is willing to work as hard as they do.

However, it's damn convenient to blame genetics for one's lack of success in whatever field.
 
I've only ever heard weak pricks winge about there genetics.

The harder you train, the better you eat, the better your genetics get.





Looks like that worked for Dorian. Who would guess that the skinny teenager could ever build the best physique ever. Imagine if he'd never picked up a weight.
 
Universal

A rare interview with Casey.

Please read Viators impressions of meeting Yates for the first time.

As an aside- Franco was a lot smaller than his friend Arnold, but Franco was much stronger.
Both trained the same way.
 
PTC said:
If you believe that, your probably one of the whinges
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Na mate, I'm a short arse and I don't complain about that so I'm not gonna complain about anything else.

Seriously though have you ever heard that complaint or one similar? I know I haven't
 
Thank you so very much for this Andy, I am indebted to you.

Gold’s Gym where we trained was famous. Many foreign bodybuilders and trainers from the East Coast would just show up at the front door with luggage in hand, straight from the airport. I still remember one mid-summer morning when a young Dorian Yates showed up with a gleam in his eye. I think he was all of 19 years old, with a shaved head and very little muscle on his frame. This kid came all the way from England, just to be inspired to train with great intensity.
We treated him good and let him watch our grueling training sessions. He was wide-eyed and appreciated every minute of the hard training. I remember he was worried about his tattoos back then, and how it would affect the judges when he started competing. We all told him that the tattoos would not help in the judges’ eyes, that this form of personal expression was frowned upon. He said he was trying to get them removed, which was a step in the right direction.
The next time I saw Dorian, he had packed on 100 pounds of pure muscle and was winning shows in Europe. He turned pro just after that, and the rest is history. To me, in the beginning Dorian had just an average frame, but above average motivation. Boy, did he surprise everyone with his size and shape later in his career. In my mind, he’s still one of the best Olympians to date.
 
I really should simply lock the thread now as no more needs to be added, but I wont, because I need some cheering up
 
PTC said:
I've only ever heard weak pricks winge about there genetics.

The harder you train, the better you eat, the better your genetics get.
Click to expand...

Too true.
Supposedly 99.9% of every humans DNA is identical.

People need to stop wingeing about things you can't change and work harder.
 
Cool quote from dante.

 
Oliver04 said:
Cool quote from dante.
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+1

i just don't get how anybody can debate the role that genetics play.

They are your genes for fucks sake, they make up who you are. You can only do the best with what you've got, the key point being of course that most people don't do the BEST with what they've got, they just whinge that what they've got isn't enough. Which is the problem.

Me and my training partner do the exact same training as each other. His legs are twice as big as mine. He has amazing genetics for legs. Mine are growing, just much more slowly. Moreover, he goes out drinking most fridays/saturdays. I never drink and rarely stay out late.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not whinging about my genes or anything like that. But I am just amazed that some people seem to think genes are irrelevant. No they are not.
 
Very well expressed.

This is very similar to me and my training partner. Same height. He just has a larger frame and thicker legs, and does not have a fucked-up spine like mine. His squat is 25kg more than mine, his deadlift 15kg, and his overhead press 10kg less.

He had a cold today, spent all yesterday drinking schnapps, didn't stop him doing max lifts in the gym today.

I am just amazed that some people seem to think genes are irrelevant. No they are not.
Click to expand...
Genes are not irrelevant. But there exists no test for genetic potential. Our only way to discover our potential is to just give things a go. And whether our potential is low or high, as pistachio says, most of us are very, very far from achieving it.
 
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Let's put it this way.

You at 90% of your genetic potentials > some dude who has better genes but has only made use of 20% of his potentials.
 
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