body2see said:
I agree to disagree. Genetics are everything. I competed as a natural for over 8 years myself using proper exercise, nutrition, and psychological principles. People thought I was on gear, but in reality I wasn't. Very hard work to build and maintain this way. Don't get me wrong, I got awesome results but it was a long haul...and I eventually found that I reached a plateau, thanks of course to genetics. For example, everyone has one or two specific body parts that just grow. People tend to have one that stands out and they have NO say in this whatsoever, some people have more difficulty with this than others.
I have seen people that know nothing and eat garbage, blow up because they are genetically gifted, while others, myself included, who have excellent knowledge, application, and diet struggle to make their bodies something it wasn't "naturally" meant to be. I have seen people who have never lifted a day in their lives look as if they'd been training for years.
I think that is what makes one choose the decision to use gear is when they are ready to make themselves something they are not meant to be...
Everyone wants a quick fix...why train naturally for 16 years when you can get it with gear in 1-2?? I mean that is the train of thought these days, like it or not.
You may of misunderstood my comments. Heres a more clerer view of what I think:
Genetics determine your potetial, basically what you can accomplish if you workout, eat, and sleep.
Drugs allow you to supercede your gentics, to basically become a super you. When you get off the drugs your body returns to it's prior genetic boundaries.
So yes genetics are very important.
That being said, most people are not genetically gifted, if they were no one would be gentically gifted.
Most people sit in the middle of the bell curve.
Some people sit to the right side of the curve and no matter what they do they will always be relatively small, and weak.
Some people sit to the extreme right of the curve, these people are muscular without training, are strong without training, and get bigger no matter what they do.
It's fair to say that if most people sit in the middle, most people should not train in a manner that the gentically gifted or the geneticaslly cursed would follow.
For these individuals, realizing a muscular (8-12% body fat) at a weight of 185 and a height of 5.10 is an effort but can be done. With a little more effort some of them can gain an additional 5-7lbs of muscle over this number. This would leave most advanced trainees with a mens health type of body if they trained correctly.
The thing is that most average trainees (particulary young males) look at Coleman, Yates, La cour, etc... as the type of body they wish to have so they follow the same program as the champs, use the same nutrition plan, the same drugs and expect the same result.
Most people after a few months or years of training this way burnout or quit in disgust from their lack of progress.
Most people would continue to train if they 1) had a more realistic goal thats fits within their gentic capacity and 2)trained in a manner that allowed them to make gains.
Most average trainees (if you have to ask if your average you most likely are) will benefit best from the following:
3 weekly workouts a week on non consecutive days
Compound exercises
Progressive weights
3-5 work sets per muscle not exercise
warming up with light weight before the heavy weight
1-2 exercises per muscle group
sound nutrition (not that low carb rediculously high protein nonsense)
sufficent rest
and a strong mindset (this is the glue that allows you to follow the above for enough time to see a change)
If you are getting cut up, you can train a little more frequently, by adding light cardio, calasthenic, or light weight training to speed up fat removal. A reduction in caloric intake is also indicated.
With the above method a trainee will be able to add aprox 10-20lbs of muscle his first year of training (muscle not fat or excess water). After the first year gains will slow down to 5-10lbs (of muscle not fat or excess water) a year for a few years. Then hit a point in which further gains are extremely hard to come by.
The thing is if you follow the instruction above you will reach your goal a lot quicker than other drug free methods and in the end we all want progress.
So yes gentics do matter, but with that being said other factors come into play especially if you are further right on the bell curve.
Lawrence
Note: For more info about my training and nutritional philosophies write me at
[email protected] I will put you on my mailing list for my newsletter, that I will send out once my website is up.