What would you look like with 117% larger muscles and 73% more muscle fibers? Well, researchers are one step closer to making those pipe dreams a reality.
(For all you science geeks, like me, here’s the study link. If you can’t be bothered with all that “science stuff”, this picture should make everything perfectly clear.)
When scientists get to the point where sports-based performance can be affected on the genetic level, where do we draw the line between cheating and “doing every last thing possible to insure success?”
In a sport where everyone else is on drugs, is Barry Bonds really a cheat?
Here’s the thing:
You can cheat all you want, but achievement still comes down to one basic formula: sufficient motivation, proper application, and consistency.
Without sufficient motivation, you won’t have the drive to do everything that is required in order to achieve your goals. When the going gets tough; when that piece of cheesecake starts calling your name, when the urge to skip a workout turns into the urge to skip seven of them, when it is oh so tempting to set the weight down for a second to rest your hands for that last rep in the deadlift, it is your motivation (your compelling reason for achieving your goal) that will kick you in the ass and say, “Not this time, friend.”
Without proper application, you’ll merely be spinning your wheels. In simpler terms, if you find a program that works, follow it! If you know you’re supposed to strength train, but your strength training consists of a couple of sets of light curls and a leg extension instead of relatively high-effort squats, presses, and chin-ups, then the principle didn’t fail you; your application was incorrect.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you won’t be either. Without consistency, you won’t have enough of a repeated stimulus to cause changes to occur in your body. Just as a master violinist wouldn’t merely practice all of one day before a performance at Carnegie Hall (what a practice session that would be!), you can’t expect to gain 6 inches on your vertical leap or lose 3 inches from your waistline in a single workout. It takes some time for your body to manufacture these changes, and repeated reminders!
There is much disdain for modern day bodybuilders because of the massive amounts of drugs they take. However, they don’t just take the drugs, sit back, and relax while their muscles swell. If they don’t lift the weights, they won’t grow – period.
Even for cheaters, there’s no way around the “magic formula”: If you want something, you need to work to get it!
Keep this in mind when you see all the supplement ads and gizmo infomercials. They may be selling you a “shortcut”, but it’ll take a real vehicle to get you to your fitness goals.
By the way, in my eyes, Hank Aaron’s still the real Home Run King.
Filed under: Research (Studies, Reports, etc.), The Mental Game
