On genetics, hard work and "knowing what you're doing," bro

I saw the above meme posted on facebook the other day.

The meme, of course, was a response to people like me who think AT LEAST 80-percent of fitness results are determined by genetics.

However, steroids also don't get a person up at 4:00am, and we'd be stupendously obtuse to assert that steroids aren't responsible for a number of incredible changes in a person's body who happens to be ingesting/injecting them. 

I get it. I really do. People like me come across as pathetic or as "hating." We don't work hard enough to get results, that's why we're bitter. I've been through this discussion too many times before. The genetically gifted take it as some sort of affront to point out that they're genetically gifted. That, and it's something of a ego self-stroke to assert that the difference is simply that you're a hard worker.

But it's not an affront at all. Of course these people work hard. Most people who work out consistently work hard. Working out is hard work. Exercising is hard work. Even for me, who works out as little as 12 minutes per week, often times it's a struggle to get that 12 minutes started. Even if I do only workout for 12 minutes, it's a painful, uncomfortable, mostly un-fun 12 minutes. It's hard to get motivated for anything that's painful, uncomfortable and mostly un-fun, even if it only lasts a few seconds. So everybody works hard.

When I speak of genetics, it's not to put down anybody. It's not to question anybody's effort. Anybody who is fit and who has an impressive body, or is impressively strong, or is skillful in any kind of athletic endeavor works hard. They all work very hard. The fact remains, however, that, for the most part, there are also a lot of people who don't look like they work out who are also working hard. So while the genetically gifted hate having their work-ethic questioned, they never hesitate to question the work-ethic of those less gifted.

Funny how that works.

This isn't me being bitter. I've seen it with my own eyes. Walk into any collegiate wrestling room in the country right now. You will see an entire swath of body-types, even though every single wrestler in that room is working hard and is doing the same exact workout protocol.

I bring up this example because this is the other thing you hear from The Gifted, that maybe others are working hard, but they "don't know what they're doing." But this is bullshit too. Most of the time, The Gifted are the ones who are working out inefficiently. Because they've never had to get smart about their training. Anything works, so they keep doing what works. They may be working hard, but they're not working smart.

So, let's return to the wrestling room. There are going to be some wrestlers who look like action movie stars and there are going to be wrestlers who look like your stereotypical computer geek who never leaves his mom's basement and subsists on Dorito's and Dr. Pepper. Again, all those wrestlers are working hard and are doing the same type of training, so how would we be able to say that some are just not working hard, or some just don't know what they're doing? The difference isn't training methodology or effort. The difference is what their genetic make-up tells them to be.

The other thing people like me get accused of is telling people they can't accomplish certain things. I shit on people's dreams. Maybe, but I'm willing to be I'm not wrong. Let's look at someone like Doug Holland. Doug Holland is an old-school powerlifting champion who also adheres to HIT  training principles. Here's a video of him at 50-years-old deadlifting more than 2x his bodyweight from an elevated platform. He does this for reps, not a single-rep max. This is a highly impressive feat for someone half his age who weights 100-lbs more than he does.

As I wrote, he is a HIT adherent. He is also a highly successful powerlifting coach. And even though he is a successful coach, it is a certainty that the vast majority of his trainees have failed to match the feats of strength he accomplished while in his prime 20 years ago or so. The fact that very few, if any, of his students have managed to match his achievements can't be explained because they "don't know what they're doing." If Doug knows what he's doing, they know what they're doing, since he's telling them what to do. And it would be hard to believe that all his years of coaching-- and with having  highly motivated athletes seeking out Mr. Holland to train them--that there has been a dearth of trainees of his who didn't work hard.

So what's the reason why few, if any, of his students have ever matched his numbers?

Because Mr. Holland was simply more genetically gifted when it comes to powerlifting.

I don't try to shit on people's dreams. I try to re-frame their ideas of success. Not all of us can be Doug Holland or Lebron James or Cam Newton. But we can all be our best version of ourselves.

And on that note, I want to include a couple of pics. The pic on the left is me, now, at a 165-lbs. The pic on the right is me back in September at 190-lbs. I wanted to show a couple of things. First, I wanted to show someone that is in pretty shape can still lose 25-30-lbs in less than 6 months working out 1x/week no longer than 25 minutes each week. And, also, it was an experiment, because, unlike the last time I lost a significant amount of weight, I tried to be more responsible and reasonable in my weight-loss methods. I was much more patient, as I lost weight relatively slowly, hoping that I would lose less muscle than I did last time. But the fact is, I don't think my efforts were all that successful. I think the pics--while from different angles and in different lighting--are enough to show that I didn't get extremely ripped and that I still lost a significant amount of muscle during the experiment. So this is twice now that I've lost 25-lbs and did not end up in single-digit body-fat, even though I began both experiments between 15-17-percent body fat.

This doesn't mean that you can't. It just shows how my particular genetics make "leaning out" much more difficult and challenging for me than for many others. Was it from lack of effort or flawed methodology? Hardly. Since the age of 16 I have spent significant portions of my life experimenting with various diets and exercise protocols, and I've never managed to get extremely low bodyfat numbers. Even when I was wrestling in college, working out close to 3 hours every day and watching my diet religiously, I wasn't extremely ripped.  But I'm still in pretty good shape, and I'm still a better version of myself than I would be if I wasn't doing some of these things.

My physique in either of those pics would get the "do you even lift, bro," comment from any number of traditional meatheads (even though I'm just as strong, if not stronger than them in several lifts/feats of strength). Below is one of my favorite videos about natural "bodybuilding" from Omar Isuf. Mr. Isuf himself is obviously fairly genetically gifted, but it took him 3 years to build up his physique, being highly dedicated and hard-working, and he is very open about getting the "do you even lift bro" comments (and he is definitely strong than the vast majority of the meatheads who may be bigger/fatter than him).