The population is polarized into two groups, one believes that anything can be achieved with hard work, and another one believes that genetics is everything. It is important to understand which factors are controlled by genetics in order to determine their importance.

Bone structure: How long and thick the bones are is determined by genetics and there is nothing that can be done to change that. Generally, wide shoulders and narrow waist are considered to be better for aesthetics. This is something beyond one’s control. Yes, training the shoulders makes them wide but it does not make a big difference. Brian Buchanan is a good example of someone with extremely wide shoulders and a tiny waist.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vin Diesel, Jason Statham have wide shoulders and wide waists.

A person with narrow shoulders cannot become wider than a person with wide shoulders by birth with any amount of training.

The length of the arms plays a big role in strength. Long arms are favorable for deadlifting, simply because the person does not have to bend over a lot. Short arms are favorable for bench pressing again because it reduces the range of motion. Limb affects exercises like the squat. People with longer legs and short torsos will prefer low bar squatting while people with shorter legs will prefer high bar squatting and would be able to stay upright during the execution of the movement. When it comes to calisthenics, taller guys will find it more difficult. In exercises like the planche, front and back levers, tall guys will have difficulty balancing just like a pencil standing upright.

Muscle insertions: A way to check muscle insertions as recommended by internet experts is to see how many fingers can be put in the gap between the forearm and the bicep. The smaller the gap, the better genetics the person has. The internet experts then give the example of Arnold Schwarzenegger to motivate people saying that, “he had a bicep gap and still he became Mr. Olympia.”

But, this test is highly suboptimal as the bicep is not the only muscle in the body. The test does not check other muscles like the legs, shoulders, chest, back, triceps, forearms, and neck. Some people may have good bicep insertions but their other body parts may have poor insertions. Arnold probably has the best pectorals in the world. Even though his biceps might be slightly less than perfect, his chest is the best the bodybuilding community has witnessed. The finger gap test is only good for checking bicep genetics. Still, muscle insertions do play a big role in how aesthetic a physique looks. Generally, bigger muscle bellies and less gap between the muscle insertion and joint are considered more aesthetic. The number of abs a person has is also genetic. All of this is not in the person’s control.

Muscle size: Some people like Louis Cyr are born with big muscles like Louis Cyr who weighed 18 pounds at birth.

Generally, people born with big muscles get even bigger after resistance training. Some are not born with big muscles, but with resistance training, they start growing fast and can even surpass the people who had bigger muscles by birth. Some grow muscles at a slow rate but with 10-15 years of training, they can develop big muscles. And some minority of people with poor genetics just do not grow. Also, muscle gain has diminishing results. People put on a good amount of muscle in the first couple of years of training but after that, the results slow down. This factor is in the person’s control to some extent. Resistance training is required to build muscle but the upper limit is set by genetics. One cannot predict that upper limit without a few years of proper training.

Hormones: Naturally, hormones like testosterone do not have an impact on muscle size. People with lower testosterone can build more muscle than people with higher testosterone if they have more muscle fibers.

Muscle fiber types: People with more slow-twitch muscle fibres have better endurance even though they will not put on a lot of muscle mass. This is beneficial for endurance sports if not for aesthetics. People with more fast-twitch muscle fibers will be able to pack on size easily. Also, how a person will respond to steroids is determined by genetics. So, yes genetics is everything. No matter how hard one trains, one cannot build more muscle than his genetic limit. A person with poor genetics can train till he bleeds, take steroids and get nowhere near to what Ronnie Coleman achieved naturally.

All of these factors are important if one wants to compete in bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman, and other sports. But, for average people, none of this matters. No one will say, “I won’t talk to you because you have 5 finger gap in your bicep.” Working out is for improving health, living a long and happy life without getting bedridden or having to rely on medicines. Here, ripped abs, 20-inch arms, four plate bench press do not come into play. Unless one is planning to compete, one should not even think about genetics. Even if aesthetics are the primary goal, people with average genetics can develop a good physique after years of training. A person can look impressive without huge muscles, Brad Pitt, Chuck Norris are good examples of this.

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