The alcohol might negate any effects of lipolysis (also significantly increase risks but I’ve been there and done it myself when younger so again that’s no judgement from me).
I would imagine your infrequent use means there is very little impact on perma abs.
Well during lockdown I drank 0 alcohol (so like three months). But I always thought alcohol was actually bad for fat, in that the body would prioritize the processing of alcohol instead of food which would be converted more easily to energy, and would also turn some testosterone into estrogen?
Yes alcohol inhibits lipolysis, so would negate any potential gains in lipolysis from drugs (at a guess).
And yes high levels of drinking is a T into E scenario for men.
What do you mean? You guess they’re correct or that they’re wrong?
Define “good”.
I think the Internet has inevitably skewed our frame of reference for “exceptional/good/average/poor/bad”.
I’d say that this guy has exceptional/good genetics, because somehow he managed to build a whole load of muscle despite 1700-2200 calories and < 100g carbs,
I don’t think you have bad genetics. I think you have good/average genetics. I have nothing to substantiate this. It’s hard to tell, really, because I do not know enough about you (or the lad I posted about above).
To clarify with an example: I started exercising routinely two years ago. I’d been mostly inactive before then. I ran Stronglifts as a teenager, and got about as strong then as I am now (albeit at a heavier bodyweight and with shoddier form). And before then I tried some sports. But mostly I was a sedantary kid, adolescent, and “adult”.
I could make the mistake of looking at my new social circle of physically active friends and hypothesise that I have “bad” genetics (well, hypogonadism aside…) but being inquisitive I’ve come to realise that while I certainly put the most effort into my fitness out of the group they have decades of lead-time on me.
To be clear: they’ve been playing sports routinely since they were small kiddos, they had more active childhoods than what I made of my own, etcetera. Nor did they ever amass significant amounts of fat. It’d be a mistake to compare what they do in a week now, and what I do in a week now, and draw the conclusion that I have to work harder because of my genetics — rather, I’m still playing catch-up. And to catch-up, I have to do more in a week than they do.
If you are familiar with geometric series I find that’s an excellent model to highlight the disrepancy.
To circle back to the internet remark, as we can go online we can be exposed to more samples of the exceptional and the very good in an hour than a person would come across in their entire life before and thus what’s truly average becomes in a sense denormalised as far as our own mental models go.
But our brain does this kind of thing all the time. It’s not well-equipped to reason at scale, whether that concerns numbers or time which is why we get people that doesn’t want to get “too bulky” believe that a month of hitting the gym will have them looking jacked. Wendler had it right when he suggested thinking about what happens to your body in the timeframe of 36 months. Sure, if you continue drinking and partying like you are for 36 months I don’t believe there are any genetics around that can save you from replacing the six-pack with a one-pack.
But I also don’t think it’s too fruitful to reflect too much on genetics. And, I think people can be so incredibly wrong it’s silly. The only way to know is to reach for the limit and see where you end up.
Does Dorian look genetically gifted to the left?
Can’t help but think of Lamar Gant reading this. How much of your training have you dedicated purely to the pursuit of strength and strength alone?
As an example of someone I think has misread their own genetic potential: Do you think CT has bad genetics? He thinks he does…
I’m someone who was born with the genetics of a worm. I had to work extra hard to achieve even a little bit of success. So when I see someone who has a great frame and obvious muscle-building potential doing endless sets of easy exercises, talk for ten minutes between sets, and doing the same pointless workout over and over again, it pisses me off.
Something like that most likely. I’m guessing my slav and asian genes are clashing ahahah
Indeed. Do I look like that and have more freeway with my diet because of my genetics, or because I’ve been training very hard for like 8 years and gained 10-15 kgs of muscles?
I’ve always been “not serious” out of the gym. And progress as increased over years as I was doing less and less counterproductive shit. But in the gym or in training, I was always going balls to the wall. Probably too much.
Yeah that’s because I hang on this site with beasts ahahah
Honestly, a solid two third of training years have been spent doing programs with the main goal of strength. No shitting. I believe I can and will still get stronger. But yeah, since last year and a half I’ve been going towards more muscle building, and it actually pays more to me ahahah
I’ve had surgery on both knees, both wrists at 27 (doctors were baffled about my wrists), too mobile shoulders, bad ankle. I am 185cm and I have 17 cm wrists. (because some guy, way smaller, with bigger wrists, was complaining) ahahah. I don’t have a frame that is capable of displaying much strength. I’ve never been fast at sprinting (even right now) or super explosive, I just trained really hard my jumps and plyo
Yeah no he’s crazy if he thinks that ahahah. At 19, naturally, he was push pressing 315 for 5, and military pressing 270 for 4 when older.
I am 30 and currently my lifts that I could do right now 100% would be 75, 110, 150, 200. These are like american highschool numbers ahahah
He must have compared himself to some bodybuilders (because yeah there are crazy gifted bodybuilders natural, or just taking a bit of gear, that barely train or train like pussies and have incredible results)
15.2 here
If he’s a worm I’m a dust mite
What programs were they? Did you ever have a go at Sheiko?
Well then, like you said, you have to work even harder ahahah… Is it that bad a thing though? I’m sure I’ll be a better coach than a genetic phenom because I know what sucky is, and searching for whatever min/maxing to get gains
“À vaincre sans péril, on triomphe sans gloire.”
I should learn French before I die
Oui oui baguette
@Voxel @aldebaran @alex_uk my thoughts on the genetics debate is strangely simple: it doesn’t matter to me. I presume I have pretty poor genetics, but none of my “big picture” goals require good genetics. I can expand on this more later, but it’s nearly food time, so in a hurry.
Work for this arvo (bonus press session):
Clean and Press:
Worked up to some easy singles at 60kg
Trap bar press with chains:
5 x 5
Dips: some
Seated dumbell press: some
Smith machine behind the neck Z-press: 30-10-30
Y-raise: some
Facepull: some
Notes:
Respect
Well you’re right. No matter what they are, we cannot change our genetics anyway ahah
Now you are “that guy” at the gym
@Voxel technically it was WGSMBtNZP
@aldebaran give it a try sometime, there’s some serious stability involved there.
@Voxel just to revisit from earlier, I thought I’d have a more profound and deep answer for this, but I’m not sure I do.
Honestly, the question was more just a general musing to get the thought started in my head. I’m not planning to push conditioning hard right now, nor am I making a serious attempt to lose weight, quite the reverse. From now until Christmas my only real training focus is that 80kg press and what I need to do to make that happen. Everything else is in maintenance mode at best.
Love the focus, 98 days to make it happen! (Someone randomly sent one of those stupidly early countdowns to Christmas today - came in useful here though!).
We’ve had one on a board at work since the counter was over 200.
Oh wow that’s terrible, I get that it’s important in retail but 200 days out…
It’s because she’s mental, there’s no other value to it.
I am once again so pleased to see this. Get that back huge and those shoulders wide! That’s all I could think about when I envisioned pressing a 275lb keg overhead: just how broad I would have to be to make it happen. I can still visualize my shoulders stretching out like some sorta anime character.
Like this dude
