A nice genetic gift you have is that you are not starting where you need to lose fat. That helps to focus your training and diet to putting on muscle.
But you have a huge genetic liability. You need too much validation. You must get your motivation from within.
Are you good at any athletic sport? That is a rather good indicator in some capacity to excel in other sports, like, for instance, bodybuilding or powerlifting.
How strong were you at your strongest? What lift? With how much weight and how many reps.
You should have little trouble achieving 10 pullups (all the way down and back up) with a month of training pullups. If you cannot get there quickly, I’d say your genetic potential is far lower than you would like to know. You are not trying to pullup much fat tissue.
In medicine, I think they say normal for things like height are within 2 or 2.5 standard deviations. That will include 95+% of people. On this whole site, I doubt we have more than a handful that are over 3 standard deviations to the right of normal (for BBing or strength potential). The genetics needed to be a pro IFBB, are probably 1/1000, to be a good pro 1/10,000 to be an Olympia winner 1/100,000.
Being even significantly above average (let’s say right at 2 standard deviations to the right of normal), means you have shit genetics for pro bodybuilding. Still, out of 100 people, only 2 have better genetics than you (you may be the most developed at your local gym), and you still have trash genetics for pro bodybuilding.
The guys at the top are absolute freaks.
I do believe we have plenty of people here that are normal, that have noteworthy strength and size. Normal guys can do lifts like 4 plate bench presses if they work hard. They can have muscular physiques that look good on the beach. They just have terrible genetics for being the biggest dude around that has a tiny waist, huge arms, symmetry, muscle shape and 5% body fat.
I I’m a senior now and all my sports are over. Played football and wrestled, didn’t start as a runningback because I was too small. I was a good wrestler though. When I was 16 I benches about 205 at 140 bw, but wasn’t really lifting then and haven’t lifted since. I’m strong for my body weight, i can do around 16 pull-ups with good form
To clarify, by bodybuilding i don’t mean winning the Olympia, or even nearly stepping foot on a stage of that caliber. I meant more of amateur, natty bodybuilding shows. Obviously, I do not have 1/10,000 genetics or even 1/1000. I meant more do I have a solid base to where with enough work I could reach the top 10% or physiques or maybe even top 5 based on the pictures I provided
literally getting to the gym and actively pursuing hypertrophy goals for a few years would do that for you already. there is no definitive way to know how well you will do at something without trying - why would bodybuilding be any different?
If we said “no, your genetics are shit and you’ll be average forever”, would that make you never want to set foot in the gym again?
Damn, I really hate responding to threads like this because I feel they really enable a whole host of psychological issues, but I feel safer to answer your questions with questions.
If we all say you have awesome potential, what would you do?
If we all say you have shit genetics and should give up now, what would you do?
These are dumb. The worst thing in the world for your physical, emotional and mental health is to keep reading this thread… or any other social media for that matter. I’m not being sarcastic or hyperbolic. Go out into the world and do what you enjoy.
Honestly, you’re close to that right now because you’re not fat. I have averageish genetics and with years of training, it isn’t common for me to see a better physique at the beach, especially when I’m lean. I’m 5’10" and 210 ATM. A little softer than I’d like, but I still have abs. I’d look my best probably at about 190 and diced imo.
If you get yourself to a lean 180 lbs (visible abs) at your height, you are probably in the top 1 percent outside of college settings.
To clarify the numbers, in the 20-ish year history of this forum (and well beyond 100,000+ members), there have been exactly two guys that went on to become IFBB pros. One of them went on to win the Olympia.
I don’t want to hijack this dude’s thread further, but there are plenty of tales to tell. The callout threads, the “How Do You Train” threads, the guys whose post count and results never quite matched up…
