LegendaryLife Blog

I got a comment today from a reader of the article I wrote titled LegendaryLife Profile: Mariusz Pudzianowski in which I stated that although bodybuilding has seen huge strives in physique, the same gains in strength in the power lifting world haven’t been achieved. This is the answer I would have given to my younger self knowing what I know now.

Question from Australia:

What I like to know is that these people (as you had mentioned) are from a specific gene pool. Is it possible for a person who does not have the genetics such as theres to achieve strength and fitness not to their level but close to it?

Answer:

Let me be the first to tell you I am not a doctor, sports physician nor expert in the fields of genetics or optimal training so my answer is based off the discussions I have with athletes of all ages, 15 years of studies in the field and personal experiences. Nobody wants to be “second strongest man” so I will re-phrase your question. “Even with bad genetics, can I become the world’s strongest man?” My answer to you is both yes and no. Take this advice at your own risk and don’t even consider following any of it until you understand the WHY behind it.

Yes, you can

Let me be the first to tell you that genetics play a large role in how much strength you can achieve but what is a far bigger factor is your personal ambition to achieve this goal. Some of the most gifted people genetically can amount to absolutely nothing simply due to a lack of desire. If you think you can become the strongest man in the world, then you have a heck of a shot better chance then the average person with achieving this goal. The more important question I have to ask is are you willing to do what it takes? I have met more then my fair share of bodybuilders, gifted athletes and just freaking huge gym rats, by the age of 35 have shot their joints to hell. You see, muscles are capable of growing bigger and stronger up to a certain point far faster then your joins or ligaments can. There are guys who take steroids who can double their strength within six months but let me be the first to tell you that you wouldn’t want to spend one day in those bodies a decade later. Read up on past sports heroes, pro-wrestlers and even great power lifters, what you will find out usually isn’t anything to brag about. Many need hormone replacement therapy the rest of their lives due to steroid abuse, they need a constant stream of sleeping pills and pain killers just to get through the day and their personal lives are a mess. The body can only take so much abuse before it begins to shut off, hence why steroids, growth hormone and a host of other drugs including pain killers must be used on a regular basis just to keep the momentum going or gains from fading. There are exceptions to every rule, but if you really push yourself beyond your physical limits, you will pay a price one way or another.

Ron Coleman for instance looks like the healthiest person in the world, he is HUGE, POWERFUL and quite intelligent but he is completely dependent on “supplements” the rest of his life. He is the result of fantastic genetics meeting incredible determination with lots of help. He is like the 0.1% cream of the crop with an extremely gifted body but he has also been working out most of his life, just look at the photos of him as he progressed in bodybuilding and you will see a slow progression from well built into HULK over an extended period of time. He has earned, in every sense of the word, the body he has but I wouldn’t want to be in his body if he ever reaches the age of 80.

Remember that only in this century was the 5 minute mile broken, somebody had the will to make what others said was impossible, the next day many others achieved exactly the same goal… moral of this story is if you truly believe you can do it, it will happen.

No, you can’t

Now for the cold hearted reality, if you are unwilling to take the drugs, unable to handle the mental stress of lifting huge amounts of weights and don’t have the muscular or bone structure that is capable of supporting massive amounts of pressure then you will never become the strongest man in the world nor anywhere close to it. You may be an incredible one in a 10 million man exception but odds are that you are not. We are all limited by our genetics, sure, drugs allow us to somewhat morph from one body type into another but the underlying structure that supports everything cannot change enough to turn an extreme ectomorph (skinny, has trouble building and maintaining muscles, long arms and legs) into an extreme mesomorph (muscular, builds muscle very easily and athletic build). Your body type is a birthright given by your ancestors, hence why I believe the next revolution in augmenting body types must come at the genetic level BEFORE the body has had time to form itself fully, soon after conception in a petri dish.

Here is my advice to you

I don’t believe in hiding the facts from anybody but before you do anything, learn to eat, train and build goals for yourself to make your dream of being almost as strong as the Bill Kazmaiers of this world a probability. I am assuming your in your teenage years, so don’t even consider taking steroids, growth hormone or any other supplements as they will screw you up big time (protein and creatine are fine). Your body is swimming in testosterone, this is THE TIME to take full advantage of this, eat and train like a madman, strive for 10 pounds of muscle PER YEAR. Work on your foundation, hit the gym and read all you can about bodybuilding and improving your health. After a few years of doing this and once you have stopped growing (your growth plates have sealed), if you still want to be the worlds strongest man, then additional supplementation is a must. I know it isn’t politically correct to say this but you don’t become a 280 pound man with huge muscles by just eating oatmeal every morning. Be warned though, once you take this path there is NO going back. You will have the body of a God for maybe 10-15 years if things are done well but expect a future of erectile dysfunctions beginning after your first cycle even with post cycle therapy (clomid, nolva etc.). Expect to become addicted to pain killers and don’t expect to be in any kind of healthy shape, if your body doesn’t pop beforehand, in your senior years. From one guy to another, to be blunt, if you have the body of a God but can’t do anything with a woman you are deeply attracted to in bed, it will tear your mind apart and crying like a little boy.

My goal is to live to 150 years old, as such, steroids, growth hormones and many other supplements are in my future but I won’t even consider the possibility until I am mid to post manopause (male version of menopause) in my early 40s… even then, these will be maintenance levels of maybe 80-100 mg a week of testosterone, nowhere near abuse levels that are exponentially higher. Sure I will end up with size 18 shoes and cranium the size of a basketball by the time I die but this will be my choice to make. It’s your body and your choice but I would advise you heavily not to even touch drugs of any kind until you have reached at least 200 pounds in bodyweight with a single digit body fat percentage in your early 20s, naturally being the strongest guy in the biggest gym in your town. If you cannot achieve this, then I am sorry but you simply don’t have the genetics to be THE strongest man in the world, you will become strong, no doubt about it… but not THE strongest, becoming instead, best friends with your neighborhood dialysis machine by the time you hit 30 if not sooner with no cute girlfriend or wife to soak up your tears after realizing you just threw away your life.

Where the need for male strength all began

I believe that men, at some primal level, are attracted to being the biggest in the land. For instance, I am slightly taller then Mariusz Pudzianowski but he outweighs me by 100 pounds of pure muscle. If we met in a jungle and had to fight for the last woman on Earth, unless I had a gun, I wouldn’t stand a chance in hell even if I had a baseball bat. Since the dawn of time, animals (including us) have fought for reproductive opportunities for that one incredible, one in a million, female… before wealth came into the picture, which provides security in our modern age, physical prowess was the deciding factor. Women want a man that can protect her and her child from danger. For instance, if you where in a jungle full of tigers, would you want to have a child with Woody Allen or Arnold Schwarzenegger?

The Bottom Line

I know I probably swamped you with more information then you can probably comprehend, I tried to keep it as simple as possible. Your job now is NOT to follow my advice blindly but understand the WHY behind my response. This isn’t even touching the surface of what you need to know, the answers are out there, it’s your job is to find them. Best of luck!

Check out Big Ron Coleman’s Website to get some inspiration as to what IS possible, he IS the strongest bodybuilder out there right now and I think his body looks better then Bill Kazmaier’s or Mariusz Pudzianowski’s for that matter.

See also: LegendaryLife Profile: Bill Kazmaier, LegendaryLife Profile: Sergio “The Myth” Oliva and LegendaryLife Profile: Mariusz Pudzianowski

I have a lot of theories about life that just seem to come to me and are re-enforced through experiences in daily living on this 3rd rock from the sun we all inhabit. Exponential learning of the mind is one of them.

Thinking leading towards success

It’s no secret that the reason for our species success on this planet is due to the complexity of our mind and it’s ability to create abstract thought patterns that can be retrieved at a later date to improve our reproductive success. For instance, there is plenty of scientific studies showing that great apes, of which we are a lineage, are willing to learn sign language in order to get a much prized food item. You even see this in nature with Chimpanzees who use sticks to get termites out of termite mounds to get food. What I am saying is that our mind, when given the incentive, will learn things far beyond what is essential for survival. The massiveness and complexity of our brain is simply due to the constant rewards we received from increasingly being able to exploit the environment around us.

What is the brain anyhow?

Now into something more complex that I am seeing and slowly cultivating in my own mind, that of exponential learning. A brain is essentially a big glob of fat, there is no muscles, no cartilage nor any bone making up the brain, it’s fat! What differentiates our brain from the fat around our waists is it’s composition and blood flow. Our brains make up 25% of our metabolic rates, put another way, a quarter of what you eat simply goes towards fueling the brain. This relative metabolic massiveness of our primary organ requires a lot of blood and as a result, lots of resources to keep at peak functionality. If you give your brain EVERYTHING it wants, then, like the gas you feed to your car, will return to you incredible advances in thinking power. The neurons that construct thought and memory will create stronger bonds, the way our neural mapping is constructed will be far more efficient and optimized for any situation you are experiencing and best of all, when you need access to raw inter-spacial power, it’s there for the taking!

What is the exponential mind?

Much like the athlete trying to break the one minute mile or 9 second, 100m run, the exponential mind is the result of creating the optimal soup for the brain to gather its resources from. The exponential mind is able to routinely come up with concepts based on previous learned relationships and apply them towards issues in daily life. The exponential mind is capable of creating thought processes that optimize the capture and retainment of new, perceived important, data along with its related ramifications. The exponential mind is, most importantly, capable of achieving exponential learning.

What is exponential learning?

Exponential learning is the result, break thought even, that occurs once you are on the path towards creating an exponential mind. Exponential learning is the simple ability to acquire and quickly synthesize new information, chuck out the crap and keep the good stuff at an ever increasing rate. It has nothing to do with being smart or IQ but more importantly, the filtration of information. For instance, in case you didn’t know, the television you may be watching right now is actually receiving ALL the channels it’s capable of receiving, much like a radio, the dials you turn or press are simply choosing which filter to apply on this mind numbing amount of data. The ability for exponential learning is the same, the ability to efficiently filter information that is relevant and important only to you. Why waste brain power towards something that you have no interest?

Our brain has finite resources, just like the television, but unlike a television, we cannot go buy a bigger one, so the only course of action to get more out of it must be through the initial filtration process.

How to create an exponential mind capable of exponential learning?

Much like the working out your muscles, the filtration systems within the brain must be exercised. For me, I have learned to automatically wipe out useless information on a daily basis, we all do this already, but being able to choose ahead of time to do this takes some practice. For instance, if you are going to visit your in-laws but have no interest in being there but have no choice, you can decide ahead of time to forget the entire evening as it’s occurring. The next day, you will remember you visited your in-laws but have no clue about what happened. You have created an effective filter that is similar to selective amnesia. Practice doing this, over and over… after several months, you will begin to get the hang of it and simply get better at it.

Advantages of exponential learning

Now the flip side of exponential learning. What possible advantage to controlling your minds own gate keeper provide in your life? Plenty! The first is that once you are able to efficiently, consciously, select what goes in, you can then keep your brain working on things that ARE important to you. For instance, if you want to learn how to play the guitar, not wasting the minds resources on useless information bombarding your brain, well, you can acquire this skill in a fraction of the time. The additional advantage is that you will quickly learn that one thought or skill quickly compounds itself into another at an increasing rate, exponentially! Much like a snowball rolling down a hill, it gets bigger, more powerful as it acquires more snow. Soon, your mind will be swimming in what you want it instead of having to waste precious resources bumping into useless junk.

The Bottom Line

The mind is a terrible thing to waste, optimize what you got!

I love weight training, it’s one of those things that no matter how your day is going… it will always be there to give you the ultimate challenge… the one against yourself!

Weight Training: the natural drug (dopamine)

If you don’t follow a weight training regimen, you are missing out on the best natural drug in the world called dopamine. Unlike alcohol, alcohol or other poisons people use to get over their life’s hurdles, those produced by the body as you reach and beat new challenges only provide benefits to your life. It costs nothing to get a rush of adrenaline right before you attempt your first 300 lbs squat or the sense of achievement once you complete your first 20 consecutive chin-ups after having lots of trouble completing only one a few weeks earlier. Dopamine is what is released when Cocaine or other hard drugs are used… so you can imagine the invincibility and absolute power that you feel after an intense yet very rewarding workout.

What does Weight Training Provide?

Weight training helps every aspect of your life!

Self-Esteem

It feels great walking next to a mirror and seeing the body that many WISH they had, there is nothing wrong with vanity when you work so hard on diet and training to achieve the body you want. It also boosts self-esteem when people stare at your arms or a lover comments at how much they enjoy the sight of your body. I am by no means a mass monster but walking into a gym with mass monsters and holding your own, sharing mutual respect feels amazing to me!

Central Nervous System Optimization

Weight training increases the efficiency of your Central Nervous System, making everything you do in life that much more enjoyable. From improving the quality of sleep to being able to eat twice the amount of anybody else around you without having the gut to show feels great! The ability from all these internal efficiencies also allow you to run up a mountain without running out of breath, improve all the senses within your body and, ultimately, get more out of every experience!

Business Relationships

Weight training improves both your mental and physical projection that comes in very handy during any type of business related activities. Nothing shows strength like the ability to give a vice-like grip when shaking hands… there is nothing worse then giving a limp handshake! Sadly, most business people have a gut to match their wealth, when you walk into a meeting with a solid body and mind… you have a large psychological advantage over your client when tough negotiations are needed. People want to be around success and nothing says this as strongly as a powerful physical presence with a mind to match.

Dangers of Weight Training

If you are following an intense, multi-faceted regimen, over training and injury can pop-up anytime. I guess in this way, I am very lucky as I have never been injured in any way during the almost decade and a half I have been working out. Pushing your body to it’s limit just doesn’t cut it if you are trying to go beyond old plateaus, you need to go BEYOND them on a regular basis. The wear and tear on a body caused by this constant progression towards harder and more intense activity requires regular breaks and changes in exercise philosophy, otherwise you end up going backwards instead of forward on the road of health.

Another danger, one not discussed too often, is the simple addiction to very tough physical activity that forms within the mind, at least in my case. Whether your body is capable or not, the mind is a strange being that can temporarily suspend the reality you live within. Your mind says “that’s only 20 extra kg… you can do it!” but your body is yelling “what the heck are you doing to me!”. The problem is when your mind says to the body “you’re right” in the middle of a rep, the power you thought you had evaporates right away and you are screwed if you don’t have spotters. This has happened a few times to me over the years but I always use supports and spotters so no big deal. If you cannot do an exercise safely, don’t do it! Also, I can’t walk next to any type of chin-up bar or exercise related equipment without wanting to jump right on it to see how much weight or reps I can crank out!

I would say the third danger is also psychological, you begin to develop a mentality that you are better then other people (especially those who don’t workout). My entrepreneurial line of work only helps augment these feelings and sometimes my God complex gets the most of me but I must often remind myself that others didn’t have the same opportunities as me, the same will power for achievement or simply have other goals in life then my own.

Bipolarity of Weight Training Challenges

There are two distinct aspects of weight training that seem at odds to one another sometimes start to appear only after years of hitting the weights.

Psychological

Every once in a while, I hit a psychological barrier in my training, sometimes adding just 2 more kg to a bench press feels like I threw on 10x that amount of weight. The mind just cannot fathom lifting anything more then the body had just accomplished. These are tough sometimes, physically, the body has no problem accomplishing these tasks but the mind just gets in the way. Anybody who tells you that the body is stronger then the mind hasn’t pushed themselves hard enough.

Physical

This is the opposite problem of the psychological one. Sometimes, the mind says “no problem” but body just cannot bring itself to find the necessary resources to make the task at hand happen. The bodies engine has run out of gas and there is nothing you can do about it but give in to its demands. These happen more often then the psychological barriers that get set-up within your mind but are just as devastating, sometimes they go away during the next workout, other times, they stay for weeks if not months.

I have found changing your routine when hitting a rut is the best way to blow away these limitations, a new frame of mind and changes in diet will do wonders!

The Bottom Line

The body is a tool of the mind, separating the two is simply impossible.

In the futile effort of many baby boomers to hold onto their youth as the effects of aging take their toll – many are moving to the a possible fountain of youth – Human Growth Hormone (HGH).

What is Growth Hormone?

Growth Hormone (GH) is a protein secreted by our pituitary gland which essentially tells the bodies cells to grow and multiply. Originally this hormone was taken out of cadavers (dead people) but due to the high risk of acquiring Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), modern science now reproduces Growth Hormone synthetically. The “Human” addition to the Growth Hormone refers to the fake or synthetic derivative.

Why is HGH used in the medical profession?

The most common use of Human Growth Hormone was for treating children with biological retardation (ei: falling behind height curves) as a result of their own bodies not producing enough on their own. It’s also used in the case of people injured who can benefit from an increase in rapid muscle and bone mass production or to counteract conditions which lead to severe wasting. You must inject HGH to realize its effects, simply taking a pill, no matter the concentration of HGH present, DOES NOT WORK.

Why do people self-medicate (used loosely) themselves?

Although this has been in the news over the past few months, from Sylvester Stallone being caught entering Australia with a case of these hormones to the chronic abuse of HGH by athletes (bodybuilders in particular), there are various reasons for people taking the leap.

1.It works!
Inject enough HGH into your body and you WILL notice a dramatic change in not only your bodies composition but also strength and size. I have read report after report indicating that the users experience a rejuvenation of sorts, from amazing sleep to soft new skin and everything in between.

2.Easily available
Since HGH is synthetically produced, theoretically an unlimited supply can be created, although this has done little to cut treatment costs (running from $10K to $40K US a year), it does mean that finding sources, both legit and on the black market are easily found.

3.Everybody is doing it
Hey, if celebrities can do it, we can to right! WRONG… a rapidly growing population of baby boomers finding it socially acceptable to screw around with their hormonal balance does little to help “the cause” when supplementation isn’t medically warranted. If your friend jumps off a bridge, does that make it any safer for you to do it as well?

Hey, if it’s so great – why doesn’t everybody inject HGH!

Now, I know that most likely you are neither born with Acromegaly nor a professional bodybuilder so to the average baby boomer, what does HGH supplementation mean? What are the consequences? Well, think of Growth Hormone as gas. When you want to drive faster down the highway, you put “pedal to the metal” and as a result, end up loosing fuel efficiency at the cost of greater speed. Although not proven scientifically, the signs seem to indicate that taking extra GH has the same effect on your lifespan, sure you look great but at the cost of longevity. There is also a number of risks with HGH supplementation that you should know about as well, none to be taken lightly if I may add as they are avoidable by not taking it in the first place such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, joint pain (may become severe), decrease in insulin sensitivity, change in body morphology (increase in bone and muscle with reduction in fat), feeling of “pins and needles” on feet and hands and an increase in fluid retention.

Extremes of Growth Hormone Production and Supplementation

I would love to be 9ft tall weighing 850lbs of raw muscle but to be honest, life would be pretty cool being the planets only super hero Jokes aside, there are some severe consequences to having too much HGH in your system at any age.

Remember Andre Rene Roussimoff (also known as Andre “The Giant”) – he was a “up to” 7 ft 4 weighing over 600lbs (depending on the promotion). He was probably among the strongest people on earth and grew like a weed during his youth. The consequence of all this extra GH running through his veins? Acromegaly, which essentially is an over-production of tissue, bone and size which caused him severe pain once he got out of the great teenage years. Although he lived a very full life due to his condition, he also suffered greatly through many surgeries to relieve pressure causing pain throughout his body simply due to its bulk. Sadly, we cannot adjust our genetic potential as a species to fit extremes of most kinds.

Bodybuilders are incredibly abusive of HGH, unlike Andre “The Giant”, their growth plates have sealed up (ei: can’t grow in height) so with their constant self-induced injections, they simply grow across. If you notice in the past 15 years, bodybuilders these days, especially in the pro-ranks all seem to be 9 months pregnant, have a very strong (almost caveman like) facial features and most importantly, wider then most houses. You, my friend, are seeing what HGH can lead to when taken to medically unsafe, extreme quantities. Sure, these guys are approaching 285 lbs “cut” with almost no bodyfat to be found but I hope these extremes help you understand what “too much of a good thing” can cause.

HGH = Cancer?

There is heated debates as to how much a role GH plays in cancer production but more importantly, if supplementation with HGH causes or makes a Cancer worst then otherwise would have taken place. Cancer is essentially healthy cells going into overdrive, multiplying like crazy due to hormonal, physiological or genetic instructions – to say that GH may be like adding gas to a flame isn’t a stretch as all cells have GH receptors, it actually sounds very logical to say there is a cause/effect going on here. I believe the jury is still deliberating on this but keep this in mind, it isn’t something to be taken lightly.

Will I ever take HGH?

What bothers me most about medically unwarranted long term use of HGH supplementation is the benefits/consequences of self-medication are unknown… like laser eye surgery, I prefer to wait a few decades till clear guidelines to minimize risk are established. I am lucky in a way, baby boomers fighting against their own mortality will lead to incredible advances in Gerontology (treatment of age related conditions) that will benefit my lifespan greatly, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a doctor told me in a few decades to take it, that I would of course.

The Bottom Line

If you want to play with fire, don’t complain if you get burned.

Our bodies are full of cells of every type and nature but the two most commonly known yet least understood are our red and white blood cells.

White Blood Cells

White blood cells can be seen as an important line of defense within our bodies… they travel all throughout our bodies through the blood stream with only one goal, finding bacteria, viruses or any other type of foreign intruder that somehow got into our bodies and wipe them out! Our skin is an incredibly difficult barrier for germs to penetrate but once they get through (either from a cut, infection or other methods), they have incredible access to every vital system within our body. Put another way, white blood cells can be seen as the anti-virus software that kicks in after your passwords have been compromised on your computer.

They carry with them a number of weapons such an antibodies and the ability to actually devour their intended victims. They also have one more weapon up their sleeve, if they find a bug that is too powerful for one or a few white blood cells to handle, they can call up re-enforcements… how is that for smart! They are in constant motion throughout our bodies, always on high alert and willing to attack anything that seems abnormal.

Although they can live for a few weeks in our bodies if chance is on their side, white blood cells usually die off and get recycled by our bodies. They are brave little soldiers that work tirelessly to keep us in top shape.

Red Blood Cells

White blood cells are to defense what red blood cells are to transportation. Their entire purpose is to simply bring oxygen to cells and take away their buildup of carbon dioxide as efficiently and effectively as possible. They get their color from the hemoglobin protein they carry within them, hemoglobin contains the element of Iron which is great at binding to both oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Every cell in our body requires oxygen to keep it alive and as a byproduct, carbon dioxide is produced and constantly builds up within our cells. If oxygen isn’t replenished and the carbon dioxide taken away, cells will slowly suffocate from oxygen deprivation or die in their own waste. The environment within our bodies is just as difficult and treacherous as the one we live in day to day.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Red blood cell are like white blood cells, they are in constant production by our body but red blood cells can last up to 100 days. They do a wonderful job within our bodies but sometimes things don’t always go the way intended. For instance, our red blood cells have a nasty habit of taking up carbon monoxide over oxygen if we live in polluted environments or smoke… causing us to essentially suffocate much like our internal cells from lack of oxygen.

Their shier numbers may also be a precursor of larger problems in our bodies, such as a count of over 50K white blood cells in a drop of blood may be indicative of Leukemia.

So, now you know the good and the bad but what about the ugly? Well, the worse part of having all these cells going through our body is that it causes a lot of wear and tear to happen all over the place, both on the production and removal end of things. For instance, did you know that the majority of your stool is really dead blood cells! Yep… although trying to imagine a body without any need for blood is extremely difficult so I guess somethings are necessary evils.

The Bottom Line

Blood cells are what keep us alive, why not return the favor by giving them a proper diet to live off!