Sometimes people at the gym or people I coach will ask me: Wolf, I’ve been lifting for 3 or 5 or 8 or 10 years, whatever the case may be, and I’m not even close to as big or as strong as you are. What’s the deal with that? In many cases, the deal is simply genetic potential: just as some people are natural born basketball players, pianists, and chess players, so too with lifting. Of course at the very top levels almost everyone is a natural born ace, so the difference there comes down to work ethic, studying the domain, strength and conditioning program, etc. But obviously Larry the software engineer with a 15 inch vertical jump would not have become an NFL running back even if he’d done the perfect strength and conditioning program with perfect nutrition from the age of 15 and studied the game 24/7.
While I don’t have professional level genetics, I have always been above average in the athletics department and that has definitely helped me. But genetic potential aside, that’s not the ONLY difference between me and most people at the gym. Because not all “I’ve been training for ten years” statements are created equal, even when true. Right before New Years I made a strength standards post in which I divided people into categories based on commitment to training, rather than how long they’ve been doing it. While commitment level and how long you’ve been training can be related - often you start off as a casual but get really into it as a whole lifestyle after a while - they certainly aren’t correlated 1 to 1.
The categories I used in that article were as follows:
Basic lack of 1st world frailty
Regular person strong
Really strong
Recreactionally competitive lifter
Competitive lifter
Elite lifter
While it’s true that those with high genetic potential are more likely to stick with and dedicate more time to lifting and climb the ranks to become elite lifters, people with average to above average but unexceptional genetics can get to at least category 3 for sure, often category 4, and occasionally cat 5. Check out that article for the details and numbers that make up each category.
I used to be in cat 6 as I defined it, not because I could have won IPF Worlds or the American Pro or anything like that, but because I could’ve qualified for most national level meets that weren’t a special invite-only meet for the big names in the sport. You could add a 7th category like “champion level lifter” or something, to distinguish higher level lifters from someone like me, but since powerlifting is a niche enough sport, for the purposes of an article aimed at a more general audience I’m satisfied with my 6 categories. But I was in cat 6 was a few years ago; since then I’ve focused a little more on coaching and my social life, and am now only in cat 5.
So we see these categories are fluid and we can move between them over time, like Thomas Sowell reminds us about income brackets:
“Only by focusing on the income brackets, instead of the actual people moving between those brackets, have the intelligentsia been able to verbally create a “problem” for which a “solution” is necessary. They have created a powerful vision of “classes” with “disparities” and “inequities” in income, caused by “barriers” created by “society.” But the routine rise of millions of people out of the lowest quintile over time makes a mockery of the “barriers” assumed by many, if not most, of the intelligentsia.”
That said, even being in cat 5 takes a much higher level of dedication than most people are willing to put in. While I don’t train quite as much and for quite as long as I did a few years ago, I still put in 5-7 hours a week when I’m going easier and 7-9 hours a week when I’m going harder, even now as a cat 5. I would often go over 10 hours when I was cat 6. Additionally, 90-95% of my meals are homemade and made specifically to ensure I get adequate protein and total calories; I never find myself out and about thinking, “Oh wow, I’m hungry, I haven’t eaten in 6 hours, guess I’ll find something nearby.” When I say never, I mean literally never. Organizing my food intake to ensure I get enough protein and such, not skipping meals or suddenly realizing I haven’t eaten in 8 hours, is just as much a part of my planning as the training itself. Not most of the time, but all the time.
What percent of the people who “have been training for 5 years” have trained for 8-10 hours a week, or more, for any length of time? Of the small % who have, what % of those have planned out their nutritional intake at least 90-95% of the time to ensure proper recovery for muscle building? Almost none. And that’s not all. I also plan almost all my vacations and travel around being able to still train - I may train twice a week for 75 minutes instead of my usual 3-4 times a week for 2 hours or whatever, but I almost never travel without taking this into account.
I also miss some social events to train. While I absolutely do not recommend becoming an anti-social hermit, there will be plenty of times when training conflicts with a social event and you have to make a choice. Just yesterday, I was invited to a lunch that I really wanted to attend with some friends and an up-and-coming YouTuber with over half a million subscribers, who it would’ve been cool to meet. But attending would’ve required that I miss training for the day, and I had no way to make up that particular session in a way that wouldn’t have messed up my whole training week, so unfortunately I had to decline.
To put things in perspective, I did attend a dinner party of about 20 people (and 2 dogs) the previous evening, so I got some good socializing in for the weekend already. Like I said, don’t be an anti-social hermit in order to train. However I still would’ve really liked to go to this lunch, but I chose training instead because it’s that important to me. How many people who say they’ve trained for 5 or 10 years or whatever, have done the following: put in 8+ hours a week at the gym, planned their nutrition out at least 90% of the time, never traveled without access to a gym with a proper squat rack, and eschewed some social opportunities to get their lift in? And have done all of that for ten years or more? Not very many. Not very many at all.
Don’t misunderstand me: there is absolutely nothing wrong with the choices most people make. But to once again reference our friend Sowell: there are no solutions, there are only trade-offs. If you train 3-5 hours a week, plan your nutrition 75% of the time, and go on 4 weeks of vacation a year where you don’t have proper gym access - you’re still doing better than at least 95% of the general public, maybe 99%.
But you’re choosing a trade-off. Your “But I’ve been training for 10 years, why can’t I squat 600 or bench 405?” is not the same as mine. And that’s perfectly OK. I’m not judging you for it. You just don’t then get to complain about the difference in results as a consequence of those choices.
I think the same applies for people trying to lose weight too. The consistency and absentminded “dedication” to eating too much and too many bad foods contributes. It all adds up, good or bad. We have to choose the trade-off as you quote from Sowell.