 Ladies and gentlemen, Sal and Mike back with another video today. We're going to be talking about genetics, maybe goal setting, what you can plan to achieve and what you are capable of, but before we get started be sure to give that thing a thumbs up, a subscribe, check out links below to my podcast and also Twitch. We're streaming five times a week and I'll see you there. I tweeted out once and it stirred the pot, stirred the tea a little bit on the Twitter's. People were upset, but I said that genetics outweigh hard work. And now I know that's a little bit deflating for all those that may think they're not as genetically gifted or that want to be a professional or that want to be elite in any topic, whether it's math, powerlifting or basketball, you think that your hard work day in and day out will get you to the top. And I'm not saying that hard work doesn't help and that hard work isn't necessary. All I'm saying that is if someone has hypothetically 10 out of 10 genetics in powerlifting and I have six out of 10 genetics in powerlifting, it's nearly impossible for me to be stronger than individual one class A over here, even if I outwork him. Now clearly if he never finds powerlifting and never lifts, he'll never reach any kind of goal. But if he lifts a little bit, maybe doesn't put in that much work. If he puts 60% effort in and I'm putting 110% effort in, he's still likely to beat me. And that's just sadly how our world is manufactured. That's how we're put together. Genetics rule all when it comes to nearly everything. And I bring this topic up because we got a viewer, a subscriber comment that I'm going to answer below and my man writes, New to the channel, but I absolutely love the content. I was wondering if you could cover what are some realistic strength goals for a healthy individual. I'll sometimes hear that a 500 pound squat, 400 pound, actually I don't know what. He puts these numbers in weird order. Oh, here we go. 500 pound deadlift, 400 pound squat, 300 pound bench and 200 pound overhead press you should maybe aim for. Now this is such a broad question and we're going to try to chop it down and give you guys some information from there. But it depends on obviously your body weight, right? If you're trying to deadlift 500 pounds and you weigh 100 pounds, 150 pounds, it's going to be a little bit more difficult. If you're built a little bit bigger, a little bit broader, maybe a little bit taller, 500 pound deadlifts is more possible. And again, genetics is going to play a role. Can every male over the age of 21 potentially deadlift 500 pounds? I can't say that for certain. It's nearly impossible. There's some people that will literally just walk into the gym. Let's say, case A, 5'8, 22 years old, 200 pounds. Case B, 24 years old, 5'8, 200 pounds. They both just go in, decide to deadlift because they saw their favorite YouTuber Omar Esoth on the internet talking about how great deadlifts were and they just start deadlifting one day. Case A, let's call him Bobby, Bobby's a great name, Bobby deadlifts 400 pounds on his first attempt ever. It was absolutely not attempt, first workout ever. Absolutely horrific. But he got it off the ground and locked it out. Case B, let's call him Connor because that's a great name and that's the guy that makes this channel run. He comes in a deadlifts for the first time in his life and he literally can't get more than 275 pounds off the ground. Now this isn't necessarily indicative of what their ceiling or potential is, but it's a case that genetics and general strength and what you do pre-game, you know, maybe case A would play basketball or football his whole life and case B played golf his whole life. That's not what to say, that's neither here nor there. So it's not necessarily where their ceiling is, but it can give us a look into what their potential might be. Obviously, the first time you deadlift ever, you're pulling 400 pounds, you probably have a higher ceiling than if you struggle to get 315 off the ground the very first time. Now these are obviously super hypothetical because there's other factors within genetics rather than just the strength you were born with or the capability you have within there. Because powerlifting, there's multiple things. We have the stimulus we have to look at, the stimulus from training, from strength training and how you adapt to it. That's a genetic component of its own. How well you recover, how well actually your muscles adapt and grow to training itself varies person to person. You may be 140 pounds and super weak, but you may be a high adapter to the stimulus and where your roof or your ceiling of potential is very, very high. The opposite may be the case as well. You may be 200 pounds and have a good amount of muscle, kind of look jacked, never lifted away in your life, but you don't adapt to stimulus or training that well. A low adapter and your ceiling may be a little bit lower. You just got a little bit of a head start on some others. The other factor is just coordination. Coordination, body control, body awareness, being an athlete, whatever term you want to call it. That will also play a role in powerlifting. Obviously the skill of powerlifting is slightly below potentially something like basketball or soccer or football where there's multiple movements involved. You have to move in a wider range of motions in different varied ways, but there's still coordination of getting proper form because if you have proper form, you're less likely to get injured even though you may get injured and you're more likely to lift more weight and adapt over time. So again with our cases A and B, if someone is highly body aware and a good athlete, their ceiling may be a little bit higher because they may be able to get better form quicker. Then the last in powerlifting, which is probably the only thing that everyone agrees upon for some reason, even though genetics, again, they rule all. Hard work is a factor, but it's not going to out work good genetics. Longevity, patience, programming, all those are a factor, but in my opinion they don't outweigh genetics. It's just a fact. That may rustle your feathers and it may put you down, but reality is if you don't have the genetics begin, you probably won't be a world record holder regardless of how hard you work. I'm sorry to break it to you, but that's the honest truth. The last factor, which is the only factor that powerlifters actually talk about are strength athletes in the genetic conversation is leverages, right? If you're like a freaking gorilla and your knuckles are hanging on the ground when you're standing upright, people will all agree like, oh, that guy's probably got a pretty good build, the deadlift, he could probably deadlift a good amount of weight. And if you got stumpy little arms like me and a little bit broader chest, oh, that guy's probably going to be a great bencher. He got tiny little femurs and you can hit depth without even thinking about it on the squat. You have more likely advantages to get good at the squat and lift more weight, but because of those other factors, as I mentioned, how you adapt to stimulus, your muscle fiber types, how good of an athlete you are and how good you can control your technique and build up technique over time, how well you adapt to overall training, plus the mental challenges, which you know, we can argue nature versus nurture and free will and all these things. That's a big rabbit hole. We're not going to go down today, but you can argue that's genetic as well, how someone will persevere over time and grind out the taxing monotonous sport that is powerlifting over five, 10, 15 years. That may also be genetics, but it does play a big role in your success in the long term. All these factors combined will decide how much weight you can lift. What does that all mean? Well, honestly, it probably doesn't mean much. I don't think that you should look at life in the way that, well, I only can, you know, with my genetic calculations, I could probably only deadlift 700 pounds and that's not a world record. So I'm never going to deadlift. It makes no sense for me. I don't think that's the proper view on it and I don't mean to discourage anybody when I'm talking about genetics being the ultimate factor in everything we do and being a limiting factor to the success you have in basically everything we chase down in life. All I'm saying is that it is a factor, maybe the biggest factor, but we have to look at what we enjoy, what's healthy, what we want to do with our community and our free time. And I think powerlifting is one of the best options to allow people to grow, not only physically, but mentally, you can get better at a task. The monotonous task of grinding out powerlifting can bleed into your life, the hard work it takes to do the little things correctly and hopefully you can transfer that into your business, into your relationships, into your life itself, into caring about yourself so you can live a happier, healthier life. So I don't think again that we're all going to be world record holders. There can only be one in each weight class and there can only be one overall. So if that's your overall goal, by all means, don't let my talk stop you chase it down, but I also don't think that you have to be number one on the podium to enjoy powerlifting or chase it down. You can't guess or estimate what your overall potential or goals are until you are really deep into the game and even setting smaller goals in powerlifting for the long term are going to be better. If you just started lifting, you've been lifting two months and you squat 225, you bench 135 and you deadlift 275. Let's set incremental goals every six months. Let's try to add maybe 15 to 20 pounds on your squad or deadlift and maybe 10 pounds to 20 pounds on the bench and rinse and repeat. The more advanced you get, the more experienced you get, the more longevity you have in the game. Now you can get a little bit more precise with your goals because you know after five years or after 10 years of lifting weights, how you adapt, how you can train. Hopefully you're a little bit smarter in with your programming or nutrition or your sleep and you can get a better estimate of what your potential is. But ultimately, there's no real way to tell or guess. So is there a general standard of strength for men, women, old, young or middle-aged, there's not that we can't just say, Hey man, go and get a 500 pound deadlift because every man should deadlift 500 pounds. Hey miss lady, madame over there, my queen, go and get a 315 pound deadlift because every righteous woman should deadlift 350 pounds. It's absolutely impossible to say. I think setting long-term goals is awesome. I think shooting for the stars is awesome, but you always have to have real reachable goals in between on your way there. Again, I don't talk about genetics ruling all to discourage you. I do think that everyone has to work hard, but I'm just saying that genetics is the most important factor and will determine one's success or not success in a sport. And I also think that you shouldn't determine your success within a hobby or a sport to stop you from enjoying the process, enjoying the ride and gaining other factors from powerlifting itself. Besides a big total, there's much more to this sport. There's much more to life than how many pounds you lift on one day in a competition. Know that, know the truth. I appreciate you guys. Give this thing a thumbs up. I'm selling my comment below what you guys want me to cover next time, whether it be a diet, a program, a different conversation, a different topic, whether it's sports, nutrition related. Let me know, I'll catch you guys in the next one. I'm selling my, I appreciate you.