I grow tired of bodybuilding publications attributing fast muscle growth to superior genetics in order to avoid mentioning the prevalence and importance of steroids. From my perspective, the outstanding majority of athletes with truly superior genetics do not necessarily get involved with competitive bodybuilding in the first place. Young kids with athletic potential are pushed in the direction of football, basketball, hockey, baseball, track & field, etc (basically all of the mainstream sports that public schools or private academies provide).
From my perspective, if bodybuilders were the creme de la creme of genetics that they stubbornly insist they are, they would have been real professional athletes. Bodybuilding is sort of an activity turned hobby turned profession that anybody at any level can pick up, whereas with competitive collegiate and professional athletics only the best genetic freaks will be ushered in that direction by discerning coaches and recruiters.
To start, I am not impressed with the young photos of Ronnie, Jay, Chris, etc. They were average, relatively lean kids. If you were to take a sampling of the top 10% youth from any public or private academy, they would have easily put Cormier, Cutler, etc. to shame. Don't even get me started on Nasser, Don Youngblood, Cicherillo, etc. before they were involved in the sport. Obviously there are some exceptions (Arnold, arguably Dorian).
I'm not saying genetics play no role. Bodybuilders always cite that each individual will react differently to an AAS regimen, but this is anecdotal at best because only a small majority have seriously dabbled with the concentrations and dosages necessary to build a pro-calibur physique. And come to think of it, when one thinks of how the AAS market is saturated with counterfeit gear, there simply isn't a large enough sample size to draw a conclusion as to how the average Joe would respond on gear compared to Prince, Cicherillo, etc.
Personally, I think genetics is a crock of shit, similar to the bodybuilding eating fraud. You don't eat 400g of protein daily to build muscle. Its the exact opposite correlation. You eat 400g of protein a day to maintain newly hypertrophied muscle. Of course a guy like Ronnie Coleman needs an insane amount of food, he is over 300 freaking pounds of pure muscle! I think the same issue applies to genetics. Bodybuilding is forced to point the finger at something other than steroids for obvious reasons.
The average natural lifter, in his lifetime, will never put on 10% of the muscle a seasoned veteran can put on in a single offseason. People are only so dumb and recognize that stuffing yourself with food will only give you indigestion and eventually make you fat, so voila, he must be a genetic freak to put on so much quality muscle in such a short period of time. Even though the average man will never administer over 40 injections of bodybuilding substances, painkillers, and poisons, hell even if he did, he would not be Ronnie Coleman! (thats the logic apparently).
You can point to training, but the average Division III college football player trains inordinately harder than the average IFBB pro. Look at Bob Cicherillo. He says you can be "hardcore" training on the Cybex row machine! Give me a f*cking break! There are innumerable athletes who train extraordinarily hard on a regular basis and will never acquire enough muscle to even compete at the National level. The only variable that is absolutely unique to professional bodybuilders is their gear regimen, it is that simple. You have football players and average men out there eating boatloads of food, training for hours on end, busting their asses with the heaviest weights they can manage.
Lastly, it is not a secret that many who become actively involved in bodybuilding have Napoleon complexes. Outstanding physical genetics would never lead to an internal feeling of inferiority or insufficiency to this extent.
Bodybuilders, on average, are shorter and stumpier than usual and not particularly attractive relative to average citizens.
In conclusion, I am just stating my opinion and hope to facilitate some discussion on this topic.
I find it extremely cynical that professional bodybuilders who spend 1000s of dollars on pharmaceuticals readily assume that 95% of the population could not build a comparable physique even if they took an equivalent amount of gear. Its an ignorant assumption and its completely unfounded because most are unable or unwilling to take the requisite measures. Even those that are may struggle to find legitimate gear because the market is absolutely flooded with completely counterfeit shit or vet-grade shit that leaves huge, warm, pussy abscesses.
