There is a guy on YouTube I listen to while at the gym who give very solid workout advice. For those interested, check out Mike Israetel, founder of Renaissance Periodization and a sports and exercise scientist. He’s funny, knowledgeable, and very, very strong. He’s also super open about his own use of anabolic steroids to grow his muscles, while being very clear that he doesn’t recommend it for the vast majority of his listeners (me included).
Today I was doing the dishes and tuning in to his comment about 8 time Mr Olympia, Ronnie Coleman. For those of you who’s knowledge of bodybuilders starts and ends at Arnold Schwarzenegger, here is a photo:
The thing I took away from the show was that that at the very, very top, there is often a significant about of luck that is required to win, and you need to be good in areas that you originally didn’t think super important.
For Ronnie and elite body builders, it isn’t enough to be ultra disciplined with insane genetics and a fastidious training and diet plan. At his level, the big decider was how well your body could handle the “gear”, aka steroids.
For Ronnie, apparently he had this god-tier ability to maximize the main effects (muscle growth, rapid recovery etc.) while minimizing the side-effects (mood destabilization, health risks etc.). Apparently he could take almost super-human doses of this stuff for months and be, just, fine.
I was thinking about who else fits in this category. Keith Richards, guitar player for the Rolling Stones, lived a life that should have put him in the grave by by 27. Heroin, cocaine, tobacco, alcohol. Massive amounts, night after night, year after year. He turns 83 this year and I think still tours. How? He’s obviously rich enough to afford great healthcare, but honestly, its genetics.
Lebron James has played almost 1900 NBA games, and missed under 200 due to injury in that entire time. Add in his time with Team USA and the All Stars, and he has missed under 10% of games due to injury. For the first 15 years, that number was under 5%. The average league wide is a tad under 20%. Again, there is training and healthcare, but having elite recovery skills and durability is the different between a great player and one of the GOATs.
Finally, Warren Buffet. When he hit retirement age, his personal net worth was $19 billion. Not too shabby! But instead of retiring, he stuck with Berkshire Hathaway as CEO, and now, at 95, he has grown that to a tad under $150b. Yes, inflation. Yes, he’s good at what he does. But the number one reason that he is so loaded is that he lived for a really, really long time.
As the kids say, some people are just build different.
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