After having read the previous chapter, many of you are probably asking yourselves this question: how can I know just what my potential for developing large muscles is? Unfortunately, there exists no surefire method for accurately assessing an individual’s ultimate potential. There are certain traits, however, that suggest to the aspiring bodybuilder just where he might be headed.
Individuals inherit characteristics peculiar to their parents and not common to the species as a whole such as facial appearance, hair color, and blood type. These characteristics are fixed in the individual and not subject to progressive alteration. Other inherited characteristics such as intelligence and physical size are not fixed, and they can thus be altered from the outside.
The genes (hereditary material within a cell) responsible for mature body size can’t find expression in an individual deprived of adequate nutrients during the early stages of maturation and growth. The very same applies to the full development of a person’s intellect; deprived of early intellectual stimulation, a person’s intellect will not develop very far, even if the hereditary material for it is present. These environmental influences are necessary for the development of normal levels of physical size and intelligence and for the development of above-normal levels—levels beyond those required for the carrying out of tasks involved in day-to-day living—of size and intellect; a person must expose himself to demands and the performance of tasks greater than those encountered in the course of daily living. In the case of developing larger than normal muscle size, a person must expose his muscles to progressively increasing levels of high-intensity training. And in the case of developing a superior intellect, a person must regularly attempt increasingly complex mental tasks. Improvements never result in either case merely by repeating things that are already easy.
While it is true that anyone can improve upon his or her existing levels of muscular size or intellect by following the advice mentioned above, in all cases limits will exist and there is yet no means by which mankind can transcend them. (Soon this may change as genetic engineers continue to unravel the mysteries of the DNA molecule.)
Along with certain psychological factors necessary in pursuing a goal to its fulfillment, there are definite inherited traits that represent the single most important consideration in building a championship physique. While anyone can improve upon his starting level of development, only a select few will become top champions, and these are the ones with the greatest abundance of the required inherited physical characteristics.
These characteristics offer the aspiring bodybuilder a guide to where he is headed—and indicate areas that may require greater attention during training.
While an infinite variety of body types exist, authorities have concluded that there are three readily identifiable types that recur most often. Dr. W. H. Sheldon categorized an individual’s body by analyzing the degree to which each of the three types was present. He called his system somatotyping.
The three somatotypic variables are endomorphy, mesomorphy, and ectomorphy.
• Endomorphy refers to the tendency toward soft round body contours. A typical endomorph is squat, having a round torso, thick neck, and short, fat legs and arms.
• Mesomorphy refers to the tendency toward being muscular. A mesomorph is built square and strong, having broad muscular shoulders, powerful chest and limbs, and carrying little bodyfat.
• Ectomorphy refers to the tendency toward linearity or slimness. Ectomorphs are usually tall and always thin in the torso and limbs. They carry little bodyfat or muscle.
Mentzer (left) was pure mesomorph.
In assessing an individual’s predisposition towards building a championship physique, it is essential to consider bodily proportions, which are determined by the length, thickness, and ratio of a person’s bones.
The bodily proportions normally associated with the ideal bodybuilding physique are broad shoulders, narrow hips, and arms and legs of medium length. Bodybuilding legends Sergio Oliva (from the 1960s) and Steve Reeves (from the 1940s) are excellent examples of how well-balanced proportions can benefit a bodybuilder.
While bones must be large enough to support a heavy musculature, they can’t be too large. Otherwise they’ll obliterate the beautiful lines that are the hallmark of the bodybuilder’s physique.
While skeletal size and formation enable an individual to support massive muscle structures, the ultimate size a muscle might develop to is actually dictated primarily by its length. In other words, a muscle’s length dictates its thickness: its width will never exceed its length, otherwise it would be unable to contract. A biceps muscle that is one inch long will never be more than one inch thick, or one that is two inches long, two inches thick, and so on. The bone to which the muscle is attached is of no great significance—instead it is the length from the tendon attachment at one end of the muscle to the tendon attachment at the other end that determines how much mass a muscle will appear to have.
Genetic potential varies across a broad continuum.
However, a bodybuilder with short biceps does not necessarily possess short muscles throughout her body. The length of any specific muscle seems to be a random feature within any given bodybuilder’s musculature, with differences usually existing from one side of the body to the other and from one body-part to the next. It is the extremely rare person who has uniform muscle length and/or size over his entire body.
“It is the length from the tendon attachment at one end of the muscle to the tendon attachment at the other end that determines how much mass a muscle will have.”–Mike Mentzer
Muscular definition also is largely determined by your genetic heritage.
Just as people are genetically programmed to increase the size of certain muscles, they also inherit a certain number of fat or adipose cells. The distribution of these cells is genetically determined as well. The average nonobese person possesses approximately 25 to 30 billion fat cells, the moderately obese about 50 billion and the very obese as many as 240 billion. This wide range may help explain why some people find it a near impossibility to keep fat off permanently.
Muscle fiber density-the amount of fibers within a given cross section of muscle-determines the mass potential of a muscle.
Racial and geographic background determines in large part where fat is deposited. People from colder parts of the world, like Germany and Norway, have much of their fat distributed in the abdomen and torso areas, which helps insulate the internal organs from the extreme cold and maintain a steady core temperature. People from warm areas, such as Africa, naturally tend to store less fat subcutaneously in order to allow body heat to escape, thus maintaining a cool body. These types store more fat internally and in the area of the buttocks from where it can be mobilized more readily for energy in times of privation and/or famine.
Modern man’s exposure to extreme temperatures has been enormously minimized with central heating and air conditioning. Despite that fact, researchers have documented proof that civilized man is programmed for fat deposition by blueprints laid down by his forebears of the Ice Age. Nevertheless, given the criteria by which we judge the modern bodybuilder, the darker races tend to have an advantage in terms of leanness and extreme muscular definition.
Somatotype, skeletal formation, muscle length, and fat distribution are genetic traits that are more or less visible and therefore ascertainable to a high degree of accuracy. However, muscle fiber density and neurological efficiency—two inherited features that play a role in determining ultimate potential—are invisible. Estimates of the amount of muscle fibers within a given volume, or cross-sectional area, of a specific muscle can only be approximated through biopsies.
Fiber density, like muscle length, determines the mass potential of a muscle. The more fibers per given volume of muscle, the thicker that muscle’s potential to develop. Nevertheless, rather than attempting to procure such an expensive medical procedure, give your training some time to see how rapidly your muscles thicken.
Neurological efficiency refers to the relationship between the nervous system and the muscles. How nerves innervate the muscles and how they are activated by the brain determine the degree of muscle power and the number of fibers required to produce a certain movement against a certain resistance. People with high levels of neurological efficiency have the ability to contract a greater percentage of fibers during a maximal effort. In an all-out effort the average person may contract 30 percent of the fibers within a specific muscle. A few people may have the capacity to activate as many as 40 percent, while a blessed few may manage 50 percent. The ability to contract a high percentage of fibers increases contractile capacity, thus enabling more intense exertion. In terms of endurance this is a disadvantage, but a great advantage for stimulating growth or single attempt efforts.
No matter what your genetic potential, you can still improve your levels of muscle mass and strength by training with high intensity.
We’ve all witnessed the Sisyphean efforts of the zealot who seems to train harder than anyone we’ve ever seen, yet never shows any visible signs of improvement, or two individuals who follow the same training protocol and while one makes good progress, gaining in strength and size seemingly with every workout, the other appears to be making no progress at all. Since genetically mediated traits such as height, sunlight stress tolerance, and intelligence are expressed across a broad continuum, it occurred to me several years back that the ability of the human body to tolerate the stress of exercise (particularly high-intensity exercise), being a genetically mediated feature, would likewise be expressed across a broad continuum. Even a casual observation will reveal that, with regard to height, there are tall people at one extreme and small people at the other; with regard to sunlight stress tolerance, there are light-skinned people who burn easily (including those genetic anomalies known as albinos) and dark-skinned people who can spend hours in direct sunlight with little to no burning at all; similarly with intelligence there are those with low, almost nonexistent IQs at one extreme and genius IQs at the other. And, of course, there are almost as many variants within the gradation of high to low as there are individuals. A similar situation exists with regard to one’s genetic ability to tolerate (and respond to) the stress of exercise. Exercise is a form of stress to the body much like the stress of ultraviolet light is. Just where in the continuum of innate adaptability to exercise stress each individual will fall is mediated by their genetic predisposition to tolerate and adapt to the stress of high-intensity exercise. If one can adapt quickly, then the opportunity to train a little more frequently will be possible (whether it would be desirable, however, is another question that I will address later in this book); whereas if one falls somewhere on the other side of the continuum, it would be impossible for him to tolerate and adapt to frequent training sessions and would be better to take such stress in moderate doses and infrequently. I will go into this component in greater detail later in the book, because, of the traits just listed, an awareness of this factor permits you a range within which to manipulate it.
Mentzer (right) discusses a point about proper Olympic weightlifting technique with fellow bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno (left) as the two prepare to compete in ABC television’s “The Superstars Competition.”
For the moment it is important to keep in mind that limits will always exist and as these limits are probably of a genetic nature, there is little we can do to alter them. So, if you have made an honest assessment of your potential and realize that you are limited, don’t despair. As a person’s potential is something that can only be accurately assessed in retrospect, you’ll never really know what you might achieve unless you train hard and go on to realize that potential. When Arnold Schwarzenegger started training at age fifteen, he had no way of knowing what his future held. It was an unrelenting drive and ambition that made him achieve so much in the sport of bodybuilding.
Those of you who train in commercial or public gyms with other bodybuilders have undoubtedly encountered those who obviously possess extraordinary physical potential, yet never seem to go as far in the sport as they might. More often than not, this can be directly attributed to a paucity of the required psychological factors needed to develop a top-notch physique. While the world is teeming with untold numbers of genetic anomalies in possession of a motherlode of all the necessary traits for building large muscles, the incidence of those exceptional individuals also in possession of the necessary ambition and intelligence needed to actualize their potential is much less.
Given a representative cross section of 100,000 normal males, there might be 20 from that number who have an extraordinary physical potential for developing a muscular physique. Of those 20 thoroughbreds, perhaps five with the drive and determination required to take up the hard training for the length of time needed will be able to actualize a good percentage of their potential. The number will be small because it requires an obsessed nature to pursue any endeavor to its limit. To go on and come up with someone from those obsessed five with enough intelligence to discover what is actually required to realize his potential will prove more difficult since such traits as ambition and intelligence are less tangible than physical ones.
How does a person go about cultivating the psychological traits necessary to develop a great physique? Again, a certain amount of intelligence is inherited while another portion is determined by environmental influences. Don’t allow yourself to become that one-dimensional type of individual whose entire existence revolves around the gym and training. You will never increase your knowledge of exercise physiology and nutrition by looking at pictures of your favorite muscle stars all day. Broaden and diversify your interests to include things other than bodybuilding. This will aid in deepening and broadening your mind, which will help you to keep your new perspective on bodybuilding in sight and in proper focus.
While there may be things you can practice to increase your drive, I feel it rests with the individual to cultivate that germ of ambition that lies within all of us. Only a very tiny minority make it to the top in any arena of endeavor, and it’s usually those who want it the most.
Mentzer remained an avid reader throughout his lifetime-philosophy, psychology, and the novels of Ayn Rand being his favorites-but he also read the news intensely in order to keep abreast of the goings-on in the world outside of the gym.
