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Keyser Soze · 05-02-2006, 05:08 PM

Just to throw in my 2cents on a subject of intense interest to me...

I think of genetics as that propensity towards a very specific trait. Could be height, or eye colour etc, could be general beauty/handsomeness, the list goes on.

Now, for BB purposes, what interests me is a persons LATENT Lean Muscle Tissue (LMT) stock. I define this as the amount of LMT he had aged 18, before eating like a BB'er or lifting weights. The common wisdom is to divide the human race into 3 somewhat overlapping groups, ectomorphs, mesomorphs, and endomorphs.

I have these two young cousins, females, one 19 and the other 14. Same biological parents, same food etc. One parent is large, though not as large as me, and the other is short, she's 5'4" and not particularly heavy-set. The 19 y.o is tall and svelte, she has a catwalk physique, probably a size 6. The younger one is very robustly built, only 5'5", but already has a Baywatch figure, and getting larger. If she put her mind to BB'ing, she'd simply blow minds away. Genetics.

Now, as we all know, latin women commonly have wide hip-structures, black women (and men) usually have generous glutes. Lenda Murray need never do any isolation work for her glutes - already plenty of them, and I'm sure they respond automatically to squats/deads etc.

What I've also noticed - and I apologise in advance for stepping onto potentially dangerous ground - is that certain nationalities have disproportionately high numbers of mesos, for whatever reason. I'm thinking here about Samoa, Poland and Nigeria, and all 3 have contributed with the same disproportion to the "Strength" sports - BB'ing, Powerlifting, and Boxing, despite their lack of facilities for those sports.

I've seen plenty of people from all 3 countries - and although those people ALL seem to have the 'meso' gene, they had something even more telling in common - lack of stress. None of those nations suffers greatly from western types of stress (although I expect that will change shortly in Poland). Cortisol, as I'm sure you all know, is a deadly enemy of anabolisis.

That, plus a cultural emphasis on the high consumption of food (being big, even via fat, is a virtue in Nigeria/Samoa), lead to good breeding grounds for people with large latent LMT.

Elsewhere in the world, mesos tend to be thin on the ground and evenly scattered throughout the world; though environmental factors like plentiful cheap protein and lack of stress can certainly bring a few combination body types into the fold, people don't tend to stray far from their ancestral potential. For example, in America, latinos with plentiful consumption of dairy/meat/fish products tend still to remain somewhat smaller, shorter and slimmer than their anglo counterparts, although they are clearly larger than their Mexican/PR cousins.

There MIGHT be a delayed generational effect...perhaps it takes several generations of good nutrition and circumstance to even things out...we won't know until then.

KS

05-02-2006, 05:08 PM	#4 (permalink)
Keyser Soze Banned Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Harrow, London, England. Posts: 729	Just to throw in my 2cents on a subject of intense interest to me... I think of genetics as that propensity towards a very specific trait. Could be height, or eye colour etc, could be general beauty/handsomeness, the list goes on. Now, for BB purposes, what interests me is a persons LATENT Lean Muscle Tissue (LMT) stock. I define this as the amount of LMT he had aged 18, before eating like a BB'er or lifting weights. The common wisdom is to divide the human race into 3 somewhat overlapping groups, ectomorphs, mesomorphs, and endomorphs. I have these two young cousins, females, one 19 and the other 14. Same biological parents, same food etc. One parent is large, though not as large as me, and the other is short, she's 5'4" and not particularly heavy-set. The 19 y.o is tall and svelte, she has a catwalk physique, probably a size 6. The younger one is very robustly built, only 5'5", but already has a Baywatch figure, and getting larger. If she put her mind to BB'ing, she'd simply blow minds away. Genetics. Now, as we all know, latin women commonly have wide hip-structures, black women (and men) usually have generous glutes. Lenda Murray need never do any isolation work for her glutes - already plenty of them, and I'm sure they respond automatically to squats/deads etc. What I've also noticed - and I apologise in advance for stepping onto potentially dangerous ground - is that certain nationalities have disproportionately high numbers of mesos, for whatever reason. I'm thinking here about Samoa, Poland and Nigeria, and all 3 have contributed with the same disproportion to the "Strength" sports - BB'ing, Powerlifting, and Boxing, despite their lack of facilities for those sports. I've seen plenty of people from all 3 countries - and although those people ALL seem to have the 'meso' gene, they had something even more telling in common - lack of stress. None of those nations suffers greatly from western types of stress (although I expect that will change shortly in Poland). Cortisol, as I'm sure you all know, is a deadly enemy of anabolisis. That, plus a cultural emphasis on the high consumption of food (being big, even via fat, is a virtue in Nigeria/Samoa), lead to good breeding grounds for people with large latent LMT. Elsewhere in the world, mesos tend to be thin on the ground and evenly scattered throughout the world; though environmental factors like plentiful cheap protein and lack of stress can certainly bring a few combination body types into the fold, people don't tend to stray far from their ancestral potential. For example, in America, latinos with plentiful consumption of dairy/meat/fish products tend still to remain somewhat smaller, shorter and slimmer than their anglo counterparts, although they are clearly larger than their Mexican/PR cousins. There MIGHT be a delayed generational effect...perhaps it takes several generations of good nutrition and circumstance to even things out...we won't know until then. KS Last edited by Keyser Soze; 05-02-2006 at 05:14 PM.