• Keep up to date with Ausbb via Twitter and Facebook. Please add us!
  • Join the Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

    The Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Ausbb- Australian Bodybuilding Forum stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.

    Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.

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.
 
Kyle Aaron said:
It doesn't matter how awesome your genetic potential is if you sit at home on the couch eating KFC buckets
Click to expand...

845750618l.jpg
 
I've only ever heard weak pricks winge about there genetics.

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

dorian-yates.jpg


dorianyates.jpg


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.
dorian-yates.jpg
 
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
Click to expand...

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.

Doggcrapp said:
You know what amazes me about this sport? How many long time juicers somehow forget both that you can build a great physique naturally with hard work and the bottom line is that genetics determine who has a great physique or not. I absolutely believe Michael Lockett is natural, and I feel incredibly sorry for anyone in bodybuilding who builds an awesome physique clean. No one will believe you, you will be constantly deluged with accusations of drug use, its a losing battle....and do you know where it all stems from? Jealousy. Noone can stand anyone else better than themselves physiquewise in this sport....so you have to blast them with "oh they must be doing this and that"... how can they look so different than I do?.........you see bickering even at the pro level and it all trickles on down.
Ever notice there isnt a preponderance of black people on all these muscle message boards stating "why cant I get bigger?" "how do i get cut up?" or "all drugs!"......the reason? They dont have to! By and large with (one notable exception everyone knows on these boards) black people are genetically predispositioned for this sport.
What you basically see on these boards is white kids/men complaining to each other about everyone who is bigger and better than them. I dont know how many times I wanted to yell out to someone bitching and whining about this crap and say "Hey here is your wakeup call, IM going to shit on your bodybuilding dream parade....YOU DONT HAVE ELITE BODYBUILDING GENETICS, DEAL WITH IT!"
Here is a 20 year old kid that lifts at my gym. Brad Castleberry.
YouTube - Brad Castleberry posing at the 2006 Musclemania World Champs
He is 5'10" and even larger than he was last year in this video, I would estimate he is 15 lbs larger now onstage and 235-245 now offseason. Everyone knows he is lifetime natural, he is very known around here. I believe he placed 2nd last year in the Musclemania but was awarded first when the drug tests came back and the first place finisher flunked. He lifts with the same crew every day, they all lift the same. Included in that crew is one of my employees (who he hangs with and trains with). My employee has access to the best supplements and proteins there is at Trueprotein, do you think he looks like Brad? Do you think anyone in his lifting crew looks even remotely like Brad? Not even close. Because Brad has a genetic advantage that separates him from everyone. He is genetically gifted along the lines of Matt Mendenhall and Jay Cutler. He will never make it to that level because you cannot go into the Miss Universe without makeup on obviously. But here is a 20 year old kid with incredible genetics who can leap thru the roof, dunk a basketball like its nothing, and things come so easy for him bodybuilding wise.....while the people around him doing the exact same training/eating/supplements are left in the dust.
Ive been stating for years that I believe he who takes his strength levels up to their genetics limits (for reps) will create the largest physique muscularly (according to their genetic makeup). So how does a 20 year old lifetime natural kid create that kind of muscle mass? By lifting shit heavy, powerbuilding. Heavy weights on key exercises for reps in safe form. He has a cousin in the gym who also has the same exact elite genetics but doesnt like to train heavy, the typical "lets get a pump and go home" mentality 90% of the bodybuilding world has. The cousin is lean and skinny, while Brad is lean with a great deal of muscle mass. It's night and day. Whats funny is its a crew of young guys who dont really spot right, I dont think they take things that seriously and hey at 20 years old we all were still learning form and function.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yl-GJyhbcdk

YouTube - Brad Castleberry 765 squat

He is trying to do maxx singles here for the video obviously and (for you Squadfather) these would never count in a powerlifting meet (and I would subtract at least 100 pounds off of everything) but the guy is a powerhouse for what he is and has learned what is putting muscle mass on his frame. Heavy weight for reps. Yet again you see where his elite genetics (size, strength, shape, even leaping ability) create a separation from everyday lifters and even his friends he hangs with.
Fair? Nope. But it is what it is. So IMO you can sit there and bitch, moan, complain, and create conspiracy theories the rest of your life or you can take it for what it is and get down to building the best physique your unique genetics (your mom and pop gave you) allow you to.
Click to expand...
 
Oliver04 said:
Cool quote from dante.
Click to expand...

+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.
 
pistachio said:
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.
Click to expand...
Very well expressed.

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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Last edited:
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top