Are certain gene pools more inclined to have muscle mass?

[paulinkansas]

I rented a furnished house yesterday afternoon to 2 guys. There were 4 other guys in the group that were not with them when I showed the 2 the house. They are all from Cuba and are doing specialty construction work here. Only 1 of them could speak a little English. I went there in the evening to collect the weekly rent. All 6 guys were in the living room, wearing jeans and no shirts. I'm fairly decent sized but these 6 Cubans made me look like a dwarf. Felt like I was in an NFL or MLB locker room. No homo. A couple of the guys made a circle with their left index finger and thumb, and pushed their right index finger in and out of the circle. I told them to go park at the convenience store 3 blocks down the street and some ladies will strike up a conversation. They didn't understand. So I said "Tres blocks (and pointed in the direction). Gas station." They understood.

[EliKoehn]

I think you should do another experiment and eat only Cuban sandwiches and the diet of a Cuban, for several weeks and see what you notice.

Probably just hard physical work all their lives. If they weren't related then it would be kind of unusual for rare genetics to be the relevant factor.

[SuffolkPunch]

Doing construction work - so already a biased sample...

In all seriousness, Lyle did a lengthy piece about US weightlifting a while back. It addressed the question of why some populations such as those of West African descent were more muscular. Turns out they are actually not - on average. But the variance is higher which means you get more outliers (not using that term technically correctly but you get the idea). So it's not just more muscular guys but more fatties and more skinny guys too.

[EliKoehn]

Doing construction work - so already a biased sample...

In all seriousness, Lyle did a lengthy piece about US weightlifting a while back. It addressed the question of why some populations such as those of West African descent were more muscular. Turns out they are actually not - on average. But the variance is higher which means you get more outliers (not using that term technically correctly but you get the idea). So it's not just more muscular guys but more fatties and more skinny guys too.

Not being deliberately controversial with this topic, but I think that observation applies primarily to African Americans, since they were selectively bred, put to hard work, and according to some research fed quite a lot, for generations during the slavery era, whereas the contemporary population of West Africa itself was not - nor even most of the working free population of the United States.

I have a peer-reviewed article investigating the diet of North American slaves saved from my days as a history student, but unfortunately have lost my access to the database it came from since graduating or I would post for reference.

[Casca]

Yes, genetics makes a huge difference. I lived in Florida for almost 6 years, most Cubans are not genetically more muscular than any other race. But yes, genetics makes a huge difference. Some guys look like they lift without lifting. Some guys are gonna have to lift and go on cell tech to look like they lift. There may be a variance of it between races, but every race is going to have guys like that.

[SuffolkPunch]

Many Jamaicans have a gene named ACTN3 that makes them great sprinters
Many Kenyans and Ethiopians are the best marathon runners
Maybe I'm wrong but Slavs (Russians& co) have the most records in bench, squat and deadlift.
Strongmen - many Scandinavians, Icelandics, Baltics.

When it comes to hypertrophy, I don't think it is specific to a certain region, since there are all types of BBs from many regions. But probably some people have certain genes and grow muscles faster.

Funny, Cubans are pretty short, from what I see - 5 ft 6 in is their average height.
And I've very rarely seen huge construction workers.

There is a gene from Eastern Europe (Croatia/Serbia region) called the Dalmatian hip - which produces shallow hip sockets and enables easy ATG squatting which can help with olympic lifting.

[ManwittaPlan]

I rented a furnished house yesterday afternoon to 2 guys. There were 4 other guys in the group that were not with them when I showed the 2 the house. They are all from Cuba and are doing specialty construction work here. Only 1 of them could speak a little English. I went there in the evening to collect the weekly rent. All 6 guys were in the living room, wearing jeans and no shirts. I'm fairly decent sized but these 6 Cubans made me look like a dwarf. Felt like I was in an NFL or MLB locker room. No homo. A couple of the guys made a circle with their left index finger and thumb, and pushed their right index finger in and out of the circle. I told them to go park at the convenience store 3 blocks down the street and some ladies will strike up a conversation. They didn't understand. So I said "Tres blocks (and pointed in the direction). Gas station." They understood.

joe rogan asked yoel romero about cubans genetics. yoel said you go to cuba, a non athlete 60 year old cab driver looks lean and athletic.

[TheShadowMan]

Genetics has a part in things, but I think the bigger factor is the lifestyle. Construction by nature keeps a person consistently handling weight, sometimes heavy sometimes light(that takes care of any ''shock the muscle'' techniques) - I mean that's like a successful program right there. And they're always out there doing it, burning extra calories in the sun. It's no wonder construction workers look the way they do, their job has every reason to change their bodies to handle it's demands. It's a winning formula they follow naturally, what many at gyms try to replicate with their routines. Plus they're motivated to keep doing it, because as tough as that job is, it's what pays their bills too. Add it all up and it's like, do you even need a gym anymore?

[ManwittaPlan]

Genetics has a part in things, but I think the bigger factor is the lifestyle. Construction by nature keeps a person consistently handling weight, sometimes heavy sometimes light(that takes care of any ''shock the muscle'' techniques) - I mean that's like a successful program right there. And they're always out there doing it, burning extra calories in the sun. It's no wonder construction workers look the way they do, their job has every reason to change their bodies to handle it's demands. It's a winning formula they follow naturally, what many at gyms try to replicate with their routines. Plus they're motivated to keep doing it, because as tough as that job is, it's what pays their bills too. Add it all up and it's like, do you even need a gym anymore?

Great example!

If you look at Francis Ngannou he’s had a freak physique for a fighter. He used to work in a sand mine every day after school from age ten. Never lifted weights but looks way more muscular than a majority of the members on this site. Starting at a young age makes a difference.

[weiss1967]

genetics make no difference. It is coconuts.

[EliKoehn]

There is a gene from Eastern Europe (Croatia/Serbia region) called the Dalmatian hip - which produces shallow hip sockets and enables easy ATG squatting which can help with olympic lifting.

AFAIK there's also a "Gaelic hip socket" gene that many people of western European origin have, which makes this particularly hard.

[ManwittaPlan]

He took steroids to look like he looks now. Most of them do.
Genetics matter a lot, but to a certain level.

do a comparison shot of your pics next to his

[EliKoehn]

^^ He says he's eastern European so for lifting he probably does have above-average genetics, if I had to guess. He's got a point with the winning powerlifters/strongmen tending to come from this region.

[paulinkansas]

Everyone on this forum is pretty neutral to rental properties and real estate. So I was renting 2 furnished houses to 10 Cubans. They stayed a week and moved out to somewhere cheaper. I was charging $800/week for each house and they have cable, wifi, full kitchen, washer, dryer, gas and charcoal grill, all bills paid, nekkid women paintings in the bedrooms, everything.

Why would they do that?

Last year from Memorial Day until Christmas I had about 5 places rented out to different workers from the same company.

[EliKoehn]

Everyone on this forum is pretty neutral to rental properties and real estate. So I was renting 2 furnished houses to 10 Cubans. They stayed a week and moved out to somewhere cheaper. I was charging $800/week for each house and they have cable, wifi, full kitchen, washer, dryer, gas and charcoal grill, all bills paid, nekkid women paintings in the bedrooms, everything.

Why would they do that?

Last year from Memorial Day until Christmas I had about 5 places rented out to different workers from the same company.

$800 per *week*? Didn't you say that you live in a bad area? You must be Paul the Monopolist.

[paulinkansas]

$800 per *week*? Didn't you say that you live in a bad area? You must be Paul the Monopolist.

$800 per week for a house that sleeps 4-5 is the same cost as 2 cheap motel rooms for a week. Each motel room has 2 beds.

Had to chase 3 other people away from this kind of business to have a monopoly in this town. I've got 83 beds.

[Garage Rat]

I believe this can be true.
If your mother and father are muscular or their parents were you may have the propencity to develop or muscle better than someone who does not.
In my many years of training I've seen guys that hardly lift or have low intensity with a good muscular base,big arms,chest shoulders,legs ,back what ever.
I myself had to work my ass off for every inch of muscle.

[ManwittaPlan]

I believe this can be true.
If your mother and father are muscular or their parents were you may have the propencity to develop or muscle better than someone who does not.
In my many years of training I've seen guys that hardly lift or have low intensity with a good muscular base,big arms,chest shoulders,legs ,back what ever.
I myself had to work my ass off for every inch of muscle.

Do you remember skip lacour from the early mid 90s?

I remember reading an article where he said his brother was almost as big as him and never touched a weight or dieted. Genes can take you pretty far !

[ManwittaPlan]

And older thread.
https://forums.musculardevelopment.c...nd-his-brother

I cannot see the photo, but some of the opinions:
- Skip said his brother has never seriously done weights for any amount of time, but he is 6'3 compared to Skip at 5'11
- his brother is actually a good example of real bad genetics...big joints,wide waist, narrow shoulders
- Looks like the guy on the right has all the genetics. Guy on the left is just tall
- so this thread exists just to say that the fat guy in the pic has good genetics??
- This thread is a fail

I guess his brother was just big (tall and fat)

nah, i've seen his pics in an old muscle media 2k article...bill phillips was getting a boner talking about it. not sure if you were ever into bodybuilding but if you saw him you'd understand about the genetics comparison. he didn't have bodybuilding genetics to look impressive in pictures (small joints, narrow waist like skip did) but he was not some big fat guy, just a strong looking dude.