I recall watching some black and white video of Soviet paratroopers.
(found it)
In it they did some impressive PT, gymnastics, and what is likely sambo as it looked like karate drilling.
One could easily watch the video and think “Damn, that entire unit must be made up of elite athletes. Some of that shit is superhuman.”
It’s when you hit that thought you need to stop and think for a second.
Likely that video was a paratrooper unit of, wait for it…elite athletes.
The Soviets had units like that, units made up of elite athletes. They were often Spetznaz. A Spetznaz Colonel that defected touched upon this in a book he wrote, forgive me for no link, or title. I don’t remember it, but do remember I’d read it after looking up the PT standards of Spetznaz. Use your own Google Fu.
(Update : Google Fu is no longer necessary, I found linkage for the book.)
Back to the real point:
You should never view another’s abilities as superhuman.
Claiming genetics is mostly a cop out.
I was looking at track and field events and noticed a couple of events that I thought were dominated by black/African athletes, are in fact won by them, but the #2, the silver medalist is often an Eastern European.
Don’t just say it’s cause they’re Russian.
While growing up I recall kids going to the now cliched fat white kid cop out of “he can dunk/run fast/whatever cause he’s black” excuse and thinking “why don’t you hit the weights hard, run your bleachers and see if you’re capable as well you lazy fuck”
Some are born gifted, and some become gifted by years of hard fucking work.
You won’t know until a year or two, maybe five or ten down the road, but that’s only if you try.
It’s NFL strong to clean 405+, yet there are high schoolers hitting in the 300s, maybe even the 400s.
My PR is still 275, but I know I’ll hit 405 in my lifetime…and jerk it overhead. I was stuck at 205 for years, then one day I finally hit 225, and it’s still getting better.
(Inspirational, yep I’ve linked this video before.)
As I high school freshman I was told I’d never bench 225. That took me till around the end of my junior year. 315 didn’t happen until 21. I feel very confident saying 2018 will see 405 should I pursue it. That would make it about a decade from sub-135 to 405+.
I’m 50/50 on whether hearing I have good genetics should be taken as an insult or as a compliment. I’ve been hearing it a lot as of late.
-J
(The link to rosstraining where I first saw the vid because…Google Fu it can work wonders. I watched that vid almost 3 years ago, and at the time of rough draft writing I didn’t know where I’d seen it. This was almost linkless…the horrors!!!!)