Do you struggle to lose fat? Do you have difficulty building muscle? Does your cardiovascular endurance suck?

Are you putting in the necessary time and effort into your daily workouts?
Are you remaining disciplined in the kitchen with your diet?
Are you staying focused on your health and fitness goals 24/7?

If you know that you’re doing everything to the utmost of your ability both inside and outside of the gym to transform your physique and improve your overall health, yet are still not achieving the results you want, then perhaps your lack of results are not due to a lack of effort. Perhaps your lack of results are due to a lack of good genetics.

Don’t Blame Me, My Genetics Made Me Do It 

Now before you decide to blame your genetics for everything bad about yourself, step back and assess the amount of time, effort and work that you’ve put into your workouts and your diet on a consistent basis for the past few years. Could you be more intense with your training? Could you have more self control with the types of foods that you put into your body? Could you honestly say that you’ve utilized all of your resources and have tried anything and everything to lose fat and build muscle but to no avail?

I’ve worked with plenty of people over the years who have informed me that no matter how much time they spend in the gym and no matter how strict they are with their diet, that they cannot produce results or significant changes with their physiques. However as soon as I begin to work with most of these people and assess and analyze  how they’ve been training and what they’ve been eating, I notice two common themes: a) They’re either not training hard enough and/or not being more disciplined with their diet or b) They’re either training wrong for their specific training goals and are eating incorrectly for their particular body type.

Understanding Your Body

If you’ve read my weekly blogs on our website, checked out my daily fitness posts on our Facebook Group Page, and follow me on Instagram, then you’ll know that I’m a firm believer in learning how our own bodies operate and function. I like to know how our bodies respond to the demands of intense physical activity, and the different types of macronutrients we should feed ourselves to help us recover faster from this intense training. I believe in creating and following a customized training program and nutritional plan that is specifically designed for the individual of whom I am working with. I don’t believe in generic training advice, cookie cutter programs, or fad diet plans. And I also don’t believe in using my genetics as an excuse as to why I cannot do something or look a certain way.

Reality Sets In

With that all said, the fact remains that life is not always fair. There are people put here on this planet who are born with gifted genetics and talents. Not everyone can play basketball like LeBron James or think like a Bill Gates or understand the principles of investing to make money like Warren Buffett. And the same can be said for the results that we can achieve with our physical statures. Not everyone who trains hard and eats clean is going to look like a fitness model. And if you’re one of these people then you just need to accept that. When I was younger I wanted to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. So I trained and ate just as he claimed he did in the books and magazines for two years straight. After 24 months of intense training and regiment dieting I still looked nothing like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I definitely looked better and felt better about myself. I achieved the results that my own genetics allowed me to achieve and was satisfied with the final product.

Work With Your Genetics, Not Against Them

Regardless of whether you’ve struggled with your weight your entire life or cannot add muscle onto your frame no matter how heavy you lift or how much protein you consume, your mission to achieve the ultimate physique is not completely lost. You just need to start thinking outside the box. Rather then following some generic workout program that you find online or jumping on the bandwagon of the latest fitness fad or cookie cutter diet plan, step back and learn your body type. Do you have a fast metabolism or slow metabolism? Are you an Endomorph or Ectomorph? Hell, perhaps if you’re lucky enough, you might even be a Mesomorph. And if you don’t even know  what type of body type you have, then you have no right to accuse your genetics for your lack of results.

Learning to Evolve

I’m not the strongest guy in the gym nor am I the best bodybuilder on the stage. I’m not the fittest athlete in this industry nor am I the healthiest trainer in my profession. I’m a constant work in progress and therefore I am always evolving. I’ve learned what works for my body and I’ve learned what doesn’t. As a I become older I continue to learn as I’ve had to modify the way I train and the way I eat. Exercises that use to work for me don’t work for me anymore. Foods that use to agree with my system now make me feel bloated and constipated. The times have changed and I’ve had to adjust my thought process so that my body can change accordingly with them. I can’t change my genetics and nor do I need to.

So rather then waste your time trying to fight your genetics learn to accept and appreciate them and work with them to create the best possible YOU that YOU can be.

“Your Genetics Pull the Gun, Your Lifestyle Pulls the Trigger”
Mehmet Oz

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance