In this video we discuss about how very genetically gifted bodybuilders look like before they touched weights. First off I looked for some photos of bodybuilders from Google, before and after. Its not an easy task as it seemed – most of the stuff you will see were pictures of bodybuilders before they competed when they were obviously in shape – mostly because most of them previously played sports too from a young age, rarely would you see pictures of them as adults (or adolescents) without training.
But I did get a good one from Dorian Yates, Jay Cutler, and Kevin Levrone:
That one was Jay Cutler (the other pictures are shown in the Youtube video). As you can see he had a pretty good frame already even as a kid. But if he wore no clothes it was hardly even noticable. And teenagers would rarely be out of shape anyways since this is the period where you would have very high testosterone levels and you will rarely get flabby even if yo don’t train. I wonder how would Jay look like as an adult, slacking off for years – that would be interesting!
Another interesting photo that people would mostly cite as an example for this is Phil Heath:
But I don’t find this example as a good fit to answer the question, simply because obviously Phil is already very genetic and he played sports. Even if his team did not make them lift weights for conditioning, it still disqualifies it for the “when they did not train” – obviously he was still in shape, because he played sports – AS EXPECTED. There are better examples.
There are other examples of guys like Heath who played sports. Most bodybuilders found bodybuilding while they were practicing their sports and found out one day that they have good genetics for bodybuilding while lifting weights to condition themselves for their respective athletic endeavor. And some of them like Seid, get themselves injured (Seid tore his ACL while playing football) and end up focusing on bodybuilding instead:
In that video we also shared the methods (courtesy of Bony to Beastly https://www.youtube.com/user/BonytoBeastly ) of how to determine your structural genetics for building muscle such as getting your V-taper, Wrist thickness, and Muscle Belly insertion for your biceps. Ideally you would be better off with a thick bone if you want to build the most muscle, but I sometimes doubt that for bodybuilding – as obviously small joints is an advantage – it brings the illusion that your muscles are larger than they actually are (as discussed in the video). Many pro bodybuilders actually have small joints. At the same time a shorter bicep muscle belly is actually good too, since (like some pros) shorter biceps tend to bring a much coveted PEAK when flexed!
In that video I also shared some pictures of myself when I was slacking off. I consider myself to be a hardgainer since I am naturally a skinny guy, but it turns out that my bone structure is quite good and I also scored high on the V-taper test. I think my T levels are also great and the fact that I don’t really gain fat even when I am bulking and eating like a pig and my libido is always as high as when I was in high school. But there are times when I forego training and in the photos I’ve shown in the video I did not train for a year:
I am just like most of you guys! I slacked off because of life, and because I was trying to make ends meet – having a job (at night) kids, and bills to pay. And sometimes I get laid-off and I needed to concentrate my time and effort to making dough. But I am not giving myself excuses I know its not right to forego your body – that is why I always get back! And you should too!
All in all, genetic or not genetic, if you dont train- you will eventually suck! Good genetics mean squat if you’re not training – you will eventually F#ck your body up like I did and end up looking like sh!t (or a stringbean in my case). Yes – great bone structure and good genetics are advantageous..but to be able to see the full reward of your gifts you must redeem it by busting your ass in the weight room! Or else you will look just like everybody else with your potential staying that way – a potential forever. Neither should you be discouraged by crappy genetics! Keep in mind that people like Zyzz, or Brad Pitt were naturally HARD GAINERS! They were narrow shouldered and have thin bones – but look at the physique they managed to achieve:
I hope you liked the video; what do you think? Are you a genetically gifted individual? Did you do the bone tests? How did it go? Leave the comments! and subscribe to my videos so you won’t miss an episode – and hit that bell notification icon on youtube so you will be notified when I release the next video. The next video will either be about Hyperplasia or Supplements. Want me to talk about another topic? Then leave a comment! GodSpeed, A-Lifters!
If this article was helpful, I am sure our book Real Talk Muscle will help you even more in your quest for muscle gain. Check it out you can read the first few chapters as well.
