[quote]Teledin wrote:
Depends more who they crowd themselves around I think. You are going to get smart ones from all nationalities, and same with morons. I tend to find eastern Europeans get it right more than not, but that tends to be because they crowd themselves around like minded people - a lot using home grown principles as a means for success. I don’t think I have yet to see one foreigner from Russia/Ukraine, Balkan region, Poland, Lithuania, etc. not make at least some decent progress at some stage. They also tend to be a lot quicker to ask questions to the bigger guys in the gym, rather than avoid them and try to work out what ‘the secret’ is.
Like I said there are exceptions. I also find the above group, specifically those born in Australia, tend to spin their wheels and make very very limited progress.[/quote]
I know who is going to make some progress at the gym I train pretty much as soon as they start. They are the guys that will come up to me and other guys that actually look like they lift and ask them stuff and then actually listen to what they say.
Maybe in some cultures the youth are more likely to be humble and follow the example of those ahead of them. I also agree with most of what Mr popular said
Deliberately leaving aside the incendiary issue of nationality for now, I’ll say that people learn in different ways and at different speeds. Some intuit better than others, some need detail. Any competent teacher will tell you that. Personally I want detail, descriptiveness and the authoritiveness that comes from experience, not theory, when I seek advice.
I’ve been asked for workout/diet programs and I used to spend an hour devising one for a guy only for him to say, “Ahhh, it’s too hard”. So now, I set the bar (pun inteneded) at the point where the guy has gone to a couple of ‘Fitness First’ type operations and not liked the sales tactics used by some scrawny 170Ib fucker to entice him into paying for the first 5 years, or he has gone out and bought equipment.
At that point (friends/famiily included) I KNOW he’s serious and I’ll help him out.
Don’t think it comes down to the country as much as the gym you train at… I would say though in the UK we are obviously not going to have as many 300lb+ benchers as the US just because our culture is a little different with regards to food (though increasingly similar) and our culture is different with regards to our athletes, football (soccer) and cricket players do not tend to hold much muscle mass. As I’ve said before, Rugby is our only saving grace for serious training and mass, outside of that you need to actively seek out the ‘big guy(s)’ at the gym or move gyms.
The number one training tip by far is surely just to copy whatever all the big guys are doing (if thats your goal) and adjust when adjustments seem obvious because of training experience. Something I’ve overlooked for far too long, I still tend to avoid asking questions enough, but I’m sorting it…
My two cents:
in the U.S. strength training is alot more common than, say, Europe. This, I think, is largely because of football. Most big strong guys I see over there have started lifting quite young, while playing football in school, and just kept getting better and better. I see American kids outlifting by large the majority of grown-up man from Europe, myself included.
Here everyone is into soccer (the true football), which consists of nothing else but running around for long periods of time. You will see lots of people here who are always ready for a jog, or a marathon, but in the subject of strenght training, most just start on their 20’s or later and are just trying to get their swole on, not training to be a bad motherfucker.
Very good points from everyone. I understand it a lot better now lol - that it’s not so much to do with a nations general genetic make-up, but rather circumstances (role models, self sufficiency, social environment, information etc).
[quote]its_just_me wrote:
On a related note, I have noticed that you hardly ever see a black guy get too distracted or obsess over the details. They are more likely to learn by experience/instinct (they tend to just get on with it more)…
Or maybe my experience/observation is too limited?[/quote]
Yeah I think that one black guy in Scotland is probably making progress right now!
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