Well you couldn't be more wrong. As a matter of fact, genetics had nothing to do with it.
Take the sport I loved when I was a few years younger: football (Aussie Rules, of course). I lived for the game and no matter how hard I tried, my skills improved but my body didn't.
And this was the irony. I really loved the game. I knew what I had to do. But I just didn't have the body to do it.
I was 145lbs of nothing.
There was more meat on a butcher's pencil.
I was the player on the team who made you scratch your head and say, "What on earth is coach thinking?"
I was the player the other players loved to see on the other side.
I was the player who got tossed off the ball like a rag doll.
I was the young man who one day said:
My big moment came with the news I had the chance to trial for my state's football team.
But it was also my worst moment. The selection committee didn't pull any punches. I remember overhearing them from the locker room:
"He's far too weak and skinny for this level of competition."
One of the assistant coaches felt sorry for me and offered some blunt advice: "Put on 25lbs and come back next year."
He might as well have said, "Put yourself on the moon."
But I decided to take on the challenge.
For the next twelve months, the gym became my life.
I didn't know it then but on that day I started a long journey of trial and error, of success and failure, and for you, the discovery of the learnings that can save a lifetime of guesswork.
Like they say, a wise man learns from other men's failures.
Of course, I started out like every other poor soul does when setting out to put on weight and build muscle:
I read dozens of fitness magazines.
I scoured the net, searching hundreds of websites, forums and fitness blogs for advice and tips… searching for reliable information – only to come out even more confused and conflicted.
I read every book and watched every video tutorial I could get my hands on.
I picked the brains of the massive guys at the gym – disheartened to find that most of them turned to steroids in order to achieve their gains
The more I tried to understand what to do, the more I became convinced there had to be a better way to communicate the technique of building muscle.
And – more importantly – not just communicate it, but get results… because I sure as eggs wasn't getting any.
Speaking of eggs – I was LIVING on eggs. And steak. And a routine of repetitive, exhausting gym sessions.
Then one day, one of my mates said to me "I thought you were working out to put on weight?"
"I am," I replied.
"Well your workout isn't working out, is it mate?"
And he was right.
