NOT DRUGS, NOT GENETICS, JUST CRAZY

Lord help me I’ve been on the internet again, and I have a feeling one of you is to blame.  Someone took the photos I posted way back on entry 1 when this whole thing got started and uploaded them to a subreddit with the goal of determining if the person in the photo is natural or on steroids.  From there, much comedy unfolded, but thankfully with it came an opportunity to write, learn and educate, and thus I have the chance to write this post.  The more you get exposed to the paradigms of others, the more you get to understand your own operating paradigm, and through this process we find where the disconnects exists.  Fundamentally, during this experience, those that originally assumed I was a non-natural trainee discovered that the difference between them and I didn’t exist on a chemical level, nor did it exist on a biological level, but simply on a cognitive level.  It wasn’t drugs, it wasn’t genetics; it was being crazy.

Maybe even THIS crazy

The debate over my photos went in a pretty predictable pattern. First, accusations of steroid usage were based purely upon the appearance of certain bodyparts, because that’s apparently a thing now.  Somehow, WADA can’t tell if someone is on drugs unless they knock on their door at 0400 and demand a urine sample right there on the spot during the off season, but meanwhile there is a crack team of superheroes on the internet that can manage this amazing feat with just a photograph.  From there, they used alleged statistics to for certain know that I was on steroids, to include my height and weight combined with the exact bodyfat percentage they were able to determine from some blurry photographs.  Once again, I had to go sit naked and fasted in a bodpod with a swim cap on to get my bodyfat measured to within a 2% margin of error, but these experts have eyeballs that are so highly calibrated that they can tell within a fraction of a percentage, and they of course have SERIOUS hardcore studies to back up their findings.  And then, once that was all said and done, they looked at my youtube channel and from there could absolutely conclude I was on steroids, because I was “above elite” on lifts.  And again, these “elite” determinations were taken from a SERIOUS website that had lots of graphs and numbers that absolutely concluded without a doubt what was in fact an elite lift, irrespective of the fact that most of those very elite lifts wouldn’t even grant you entry into World’s.  But, once again, I digress.

Some were willing to concede to the ability that I may in fact be the natural trainee that I am, but from there we went in an equally silly direction; superior genetics.  The fact that I’m 32 and have been training in some manner since I was 14, and had been engaged in athletics since I was 6, was of zero consequence to the discussion; I simply MUST be in possession of superior genetics.  It’s the “no true scotsman” all over again, where the end result dictates the method, rather than the other way around.  Not only did I have these superior genetics, but with it I was apparently beholden to a moral imperative wherein I MUST “share my secret” with the rest of the natural trainee world, once again disregarding the fact I’ve been writing a free blog once a week for over 5 years now.  Since I was “gifted”, I now owed it to the world to share my gift.

Another gift no one really wants

And from here, things took a real interesting turn.  I refuted the charge of superior genetics under the baseline that, traditionally, one does not consider needing to train hard for 18 years to accomplish something an indication of superior genetics, and shared that I have had to make sacrifices along the way in terms of health.  Things turned ugly here, as people became outright upset that I would dare to get injured in pursuit of getting bigger and stronger.  The sheer notion was abhorrent, and I was called things such as irrational and crazy.  And I don’t refute that.  I am both of those things…but I am also big and strong.  And my goal was never to be rational or sane.

This is where we find the disconnect, and why large demographics of people have come to assume that anyone more successful than them must be using performance enhancing drugs; these people are operating under the paradigm that everyone ELSE must be as preoccupied with avoiding injury and being rational as they are.  These people cannot fathom the notion of someone willing to push hard enough that injuries occur, that pain is encountered, that sacrifices get made.  They believe that all people engaged in the pursuit of getting bigger and stronger do so thinking that being big and strong would be dandy, but being injury free is the goal.  They believe no one would want to blow out all the blood vessels in their face on a super ugly max effort set where form goes out the window and you just hold on and grind until the rep is over.  And when you believe that everyone else is training with the exact same lack of intensity as you are, it’s easy to believe that anyone achieving superior results must be using some sort of chemical assistance to get you there.

Sure, Lance Armstrong WAS juicing, but he ALSO didn't look like this when he trained

This is what I harp on when I talk about how some folks just plain don’t understand what effort means, and in turn, why they don’t get the results they want.  They’ll swear up and down on a stack of Bibles that they’re always busting their ass at the gym, but the truth is, they’re only pushing as hard as their own internal governor is allowing them.  They’ll approach right to the point where progress may finally start happening, and immediately ramp back down before they run the risk of actually succeeding.  And they’ll spin their wheels for years and make marginal progress at best, and assume this is an indication that they’ve reached their genetic limit.  Bullcrap.  Your genetics have TONS of potential, but they need to be unlocked, and that occurs through significant and consistent stressors that push you well outside your comfort zone and FORCE growth as the only possible recourse.  And yes, this is riding a razor’s edge, and it means sometimes you’ll push too hard and get hurt, but it’ll ALSO mean that, even while hurt you’re still ahead of the people refusing to do so.

I suppose the lesson out of all this rambling is that, if you see someone more successful than you, maybe it’s because they “cheat”, maybe it’s because they’re gifted, but maybe it’s because they’re simply working harder than you are because they are crazy.