We’re gradually coming to understand that, while genes aren’t irrelevant, we’re not entirely slaves to them. Epigenetics, like neural plasticity, gives us considerable breathing room.
What we are is flexible.
Suddenly work ethic, family life, and even cultural background are relevant to the discussion of natural talent. Might it be that, with the right encouragement and supportive surroundings, we could all be champions?
A whole range of books have attempted to answer this question, notable among these being Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code, and Geoff Colvin’s Talent
is Overrated. All three authors examine talent development in light of these findings,
suggesting that the common variable between mastery in any field, be it music, math, or athletics, is not genetics but practice.
Practice, however, is not just a matter of logging hundreds of uninspired hours. According to “expert on experts” K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University, what defines the high performers is how they practice. Ericsson, the source of the current buzz around talent development, says that achievers go through an intense, directed effort which he calls deliberate practice: “considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well ― or even at all.”54
You become an expert by pushing outside your comfort zone and working on those things just outside your grasp. Deliberate practice skirts the edge of your current skill set while not making for an unrealistic challenge.
It’s through years of deliberate practice, gradually chipping away and refining their skill-set, says Ericsson, that experts are made. And time is certainly the defining factor. The magic 10,000 hour number, cited by Gladwell and everyone else, originates in Ericsson’s research.
A little math puts that in perspective. Any non-leap year contains a little more than 8700 hours. Practicing two hours a day, seven days a week, would take you almost 14 years to reach the mark. An average of 2.7 hours a day, every day, for a decade, is what it takes to become an expert in most any task.
Ericsson believes that this dedication shapes expertise, arguing that the difference in the expert and the average is not so much the genes, but the way the environment brings them out.
Is success in sport then just a matter of a 10-year commitment to deliberate practice? This question has an obvious answer. You can walk down any street, most anywhere in the world, and see a tremendous range of body sizes and types. You see textbook examples of ectomorphs with a lighter structure and heavier-set endomorphs, with most everyone falling into a mediocre of average.
Indeed body size is mostly genetic, as shown by twin studies. Since you can expect the lives of adoptive families to be different, while adopted twin siblings share their genes, you
can get a better idea of which traits result from genes and which result from upbringing. Twin studies routinely show that physical characteristics, like height and bone structure, are almost 100% genetic.
Upbringing has nothing to do with it, which is unfortunate news for those convinced that hard training and strict dieting can make substantial changes in a body.
There’s less information on genetic contribution to traits like the tendency to store body fat or to build and hold large amounts of muscle, so it’s not currently possible to speculate on hard numbers. But, much in the way we see different body types walking down the street, it’s clear that bodybuilder- and powerlifter-friendly traits are largely genetic. Some people are just naturally inclined to hold more muscle, keep lower body-fat, or have more strength-friendly body structures, and the majority of that difference is inherited.
The discovery of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, pronounced “snips”), which are minor differences in an otherwise identical gene shared between two people, shows that even the version of the genes we inherit can make a huge difference. According to what we can see at the moment, there really are hard-wired differences between people, and these will not be changed by lifestyle ― including dedication to the gym. Ericsson himself acknowledges that genetic traits dictating body size are largely outside our control, disappointing all the would-be Mr. Olympia contenders.
Genetic variation neatly explains the “born bodybuilder” type. You’ll always see those people who seem to grow muscle from smelling iron, who respond extremely well to weight training and never have trouble staying lean. Assuming there’s a cluster of genes and genetic polymorphisms that lead to bodybuilding success, absolute success will come down to the luck of genetic inheritance. You could make a similar argument for strength and power sports like powerlifting and sprinting, just as the same would go for sports on the endurance end of the spectrum. Those born with the right bodies are more likely to succeed in certain sports (on average).
We’re almost, if not quite, back to square one. While we can’t radically change our height and build and related traits, the difference in performance between individuals of the
same body type does come down to practice and plain old work ethic.
A top performer is gifted with ‘good’ genes, but it’s also difficult to separate the genetic gifts from the years of deliberate practice. Given two individuals with similar frames ― similar in height, in joint measurements, and in skeletal leverages ― the difference in mediocre performances and crowd-stunning accomplishment will come down to the time spent training.
Absolute records may be outside your scope, but relative progress in muscle mass, body composition, and strength can still be impressive even in adults. We can’t all be Kobe Bryant, but the difference in Kobe and the guy you’ve never heard of with the exact same height and build comes down to practice, support, and work ethic.
Consistent practice working through not-so-great genes yields athletes who are still well above average.
So that’s our target: to think of training as deliberate practice instead of another round of beating ourselves to paste.