Genetics: Some have them. Some.........don't.

There is no shortage of workout suggestions on the internet. Take a look on Facebook or Instagram and you will find Flex Online, Barbend or Generation Iron serving up workout tips from today's top pros. From how Nick Walker “Refines his quad sweep during his Olympia prep.” To how Shaun Clarida “Trains his bicep peaks.” The same workouts and the secret tips used to build their world-class physiques are now available to implement into your own training. 

We have fitness influencers “educating” us on the correct way to hold a bar or where to pull our elbows during a row for peak muscle contraction. Which if executed correctly will have us looking something them. That is the underlying suggestion. Right? This is how they did it, and so can we.

Ehhhh, before you throw everything you now know about back training out the window, hold that thought.

If you genuinely believe you can follow your favourite pro or fitness influencer's workouts and build the same body, or one that even comes close to resembling it, there is one teeny, tiny but ridiculously important factor you're ignoring: genetics.

Not strength. Not nutrition. Not supplements. Not even drugs.

Genetics.

Everyone has muscle.

Everyone eats food.

Everyone can and will get stronger in some capacity over time. 

A good portion of people who train will take drugs at some point.

But the one factor that sets everyone apart is genetics.

Some people were born with superior genetics and some were, well, left at the back of the line.

There are approximately 700 muscles in the human body. Broken up into 3 classifications: skeletal, smooth and cardiac. A good portion of them don't mean anything to most of us. However if we are generally talking about the main muscles that do the heavy lifting, (pun intended) and allow us to move, we are talking about the brain, nerves and skeletal muscles, known as the neuromuscular system.

Because we all move in the same way, we all have the same muscles.

Removing aesthetics from the picture, muscles serve a simple purpose: they allow us to move.

Try moving a body part when a muscle isn't attached to anything. It won't work. Why? Because muscles need to be connected to joints and when one end isn't connected the muscle can't generate force. As a result, a body part won’t move. I've said this hundreds of times: if you move, the muscle does its job.

Let's break this down. If you could look into 100 gyms in 100 different countries at the same time what would you see? You'd see people doing the exact same exercises, using the exact same machines, doing basically the same rep ranges with the same range of motions. It's all the same the world over.

With the popularity of posting training workouts on social media, we can see this whenever we want. From Australia, to China, to the United States to Dubai. It's all the same. It's gym training.

Take it a step further. For the most part, the accepted nutrition for the gym goer across the world, be it casual or pro, tends to be focused around a high protein, moderate to high carb, low to moderate fat diet. Lots of meat and fish, lots of rice, lots of eggs, lots of veggies. Depending on the country and what's easily available and affordable there will be slight variations in the exact ingredients but the same basic macronutrient profile will be followed in some form.

Again, people across the world who train, eat largely the same.

Then we can look at supplements. The global supplement market is currently worth approximately AU$300 billion, and growing. This means that people all over the world are buying vitamins, proteins, pre-workouts, intra-workouts, post-workouts, weight-gainers, BCAAs, snacks, sleep aids, nootropics, digestive enzymes and an ever-expanding list of health and training-related supplements. 

You can walk into a supplement store, a supermarket, a chemist, a gym or go online and order your preferred supplements. You can even buy those “developed” by your favourite pro. You can copy their supplement stack and add it to your own.

Now while you can't exactly walk into the supermarket and walk out with testosterone, you don't have to look too hard to find steroids. Some countries will be easier than others but a quick look into any gym around the world and the proof that people can get steroids with ease is certainly on display. Pro's are now making their cycles available online so you can not only train and eat like them, but you can drug like them too.

So, gym goers across the globe basically train the same, eat the same, supplement the same and if one chooses, drug the same.

It's all the same. 

So why are we all so damned different?

Genetics.

Now before you go exclaiming, “Yes! Genetics are why I’m overweight!” No, you’re overweight because you eat too much. 

You might be genetically predisposed to gaining weight easily but unless you put the food in your mouth, no one magically gets fat. There is no, “immaculate conception” of fat cells!

I'll grant you that genetics can determine where you hold your fat, but that fat doesn't happen without an excess of calories being consumed.

Genetics will determine your starting point. How you look. Your frame. Your height, you width. Your insertion points, your muscle bellies, your lever lengths.

Training intensity, diet consistency, supplement stack, and drug cycles, aren't genetics. However, genetics will determine how a body responds to training, food, supplements and drugs.

As much as you may admire someone's physique and hang on their every piece of advice, a large chunk of what they say may have no relevance to you because you won't respond the way they do. So being aware of how your body reacts to various stimuli can ultimately save you time, and money and avoid a lot of frustration. 

For example, if you are the person who gains weight from driving by a Woolworths sign, taking dietary advice from the person who can eat 6 pizzas before bed and not get fat may not be the best move. Your genetics are entirely different.

With that said, there isn’t a person alive who won’t respond positively to eating well and lifting weights. So all advice has merit to some degree. Feeding your body correctly and making it stronger is about the best thing a person could ever do. It is literally the human equivalent of putting the highest octane fuel in a car that has an engine built with strengthened internals. The chances of it going bang are significantly less. 

But does eating and training right guarantee amazing aesthetic or performance results? Unfortunately not. Everyone is bound and set to the limits of what their genetics will allow. It's often said a person was able to maximise their genetics despite still coming up short of their ultimate goal. So do bad genetics mean you don't train, you don't watch what you eat and don't make yourself the best you can possibly be? Of course not.

Not for a second am I suggesting that if you don't have optimal genetics, give up. 

A lot of people like to blame their genetics for their inability to do things. In many cases that is completely justified. I always wanted to play professional basketball, but no amount of practice was going to change the fact that I'm 5’4 and pro ball was never going to be in my future. Do I quit playing because of that? No. I just changed my expectations for how far I can take it and play more for enjoyment rather than a potential career.

Each and every one of us has the ability to build muscle, and burn fat. We have the capability to run faster and further. We can all swim quicker, cycle longer, jump higher, and train at a increased level. Genetics doesn’t determine drive or personal choices. We can all work harder and make ourselves better.

But, do we all get to play professional basketball, win Mr. Olympia, look the same as a bikini model or get to eat 6 pizzas before bed and not get fat? For some, a very select few, they were in a separate line when genetics were being handed out and they got all the good stuff. They can do whatever they want. Fuck them! For the rest of us, most of us, we need to temper our expectations just slightly, because no matter how good we are, some genetically gifted asshole with a physique like Chris Bumstead, will dunk on us while eating a pizza and ride off into the sunset with a bikini model!