Caveat
What I would like to do first is add a caveat to the notion of accepting yourself for who you are and that is "AND work on improving yourself as a whole and bettering your weaknesses". The whole idea of resistance training and body sculpting is to try to get better. To become bigger and stronger and improve weak areas. Making progress is part of what it's all about so whilst we should accept our limitations, we should also avoid accepting them so much that we create beliefs that limit us more than the physical limitations do. For example if you have small calves, you believe that they will never grow and therefore you do not train them or put very little effort into training them then they won't grow. If you believed that you could improve and took action towards it then your calves probably would have a better chance at getting bigger over time. At the same time if you can see your genetic calf structure isn't very good, it might be reasonable to believe that your calves probably aren't going to be as big as Ben Pakulski's calves at any time in the near future or perhaps ever. Attitude is important. You must be able to be both positive, driven and realistic all at the same time.
Don't listen to Will Ferrell
A famous karate master named Shoshin Nagamine said this about limiting yourself:
"He is human and so am I. I cannot develop my own potentialities when in the trap of self-limitations. I must discard this self-limitation. If he practices 3 times, I must practice 6 times." - Shoshin Nagamine
Obviously this applies directly to karate practice but we can easily see how this can also apply to other activities like bodybuilding and indeed life in general. That is, whilst some physical limitations do exist for all of us, more often than not our limitations are largely in our mind, created by ourselves. It is interesting how far you can go by believing in yourself, discarding limiting beliefs and taking action.
Accepting Yourself
What I do want to talk about is accepting yourself because I think people really beat themselves up over their physique related achievements. Essentially what you need to realise when we are talking about physical structure is we all have genetic weak points - areas of the body where visually our attachments make our muscles look a certain way, muscles that don't respond very well to training, areas of the body that tend to hold more body fat than others, structural asymmetries and bone structures that shape our frame. Some of these things we can do something about, others we have no control over. If a muscle doesn't respond well to training, you can generally still make progress over time. If your bone structure isn't the way you'd like it to be or your muscle attachments make your biceps look bunched up with no peak, there is nothing you can do about those things. Instead of beating yourself up, instead resolve to take action towards the things you can influence and accept or ignore the things you cannot.
Everybody has the potential to improve themselves, but not everybody has the physical potential to be a world champion bodybuilder. In fact very few people have that potential. Unfortunately these days everybody thinks they are going to make it to the top. That's the thing about being at the top, somebody has to be there and only one person can be. Not every single person can be at the top, otherwise there would be no top. - I think I just said the word "top" four times in three sentences -. Anyway you get my drift. I encourage everyone to be the best they can be and strive for excellence but at the same time delusion and a lack of realism isn't going to help and tends to just create eventual disappointment. Remember like I said a few paragraphs back - stay positive, driven and realistic!
Back to the original topic. Generally you'll find even the very best in the world have weak points in their physiques. Several time natural world champion Shevon Cunningham has legs that self admittedly don't respond as well as his upper body. Looking at Doug Miller's physique, most people would consider him the best natural bodybuilder of our era and yet his chest lags a little compared to the rest of his physique. In my case my posterior chain excluding my glutes are lagging behind (back, hamstrings and to a lesser degree calves). Even the great Arnold Schwarzenegger had trouble bringing up his legs. My point being if some of the best bodybuilders in the world (not placing myself here by the way) all have weak features in their physiques and they are at the top of their game then you can certainly be alright accepting that you have weak points too and it is ok.
Again in my case, I do know that my back and hamstrings are weak areas. My calves used to be very weak for probably the first ten years of lifting. These areas I know might never become strong points. My back is never going to look like Doug Miller's or Nsima Inyang's and I am ok with that. But that sure as hell doesn't stop me from working hard to improve it! My calves have a large medial head and small lateral head. That is still the case in terms of relative structure but because I've been focused on making sure they improved, they have now become respectable and I am reasonably happy with their development. It might have taken thirteen years but they grew. If I had given up after one or two years then they wouldn't have changed at all. I have been training my hamstrings multiple times per week for years. Sometimes I have been training them four to five days per week. The improvements are small but they are there because I am relentless in my attitude and in my approach. So again, don't focus on perfection. Perfection is impossible. Focus on improvement. If you do that, there is a strong chance that you will get better and if you don't you can still be satisfied with the effort you put forth.
Thankyou for reading. I appreciate everyone who follows myself and the perspectives I share in this blog. Have anything to add? Leave a comment below or on social media. As always you can contact me via the details provided below if you want to speak to me about my coaching services.
Muscle Academy contact details:
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- Evan
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