Innate traits and trainability

These notes combine advice from 52 reviewed passages across 40 workouts.

Overview

People are born with different aptitudes, and everyone has a talent they were born with. Static work can suit one person’s body while other training suits another. Body type and individual responses can make people progress quickly in some movements and struggle in others. Everyone’s body works differently. Coordination can be developed through training, but innate characteristics can limit how far an athlete can go, which is why elite levels stay out of reach for many. [12] [27] [49]

Initial difficulty with a movement is normal, and practicing it builds strength whether you start strong or weak. Skill difficulty varies substantially between individuals. A movement that is easy for one person may be difficult for another. [24] [42]

Body type and sport aptitude

Strength is an inborn human capacity, first used in hunting. Running is a natural human capacity, and humans have run since early history, including for hunting. Everyone has a point where strength becomes difficult, and unlimited strength does not exist. [1] [18] [43]

A short stature with thick legs and a large upper body favors progress in weightlifting. Naim Süleymanoğlu’s lifting success came from a body anatomically suited to lifting, with very short stature and unusually thick legs. In deadlifting, shorter stature and thick legs affect leverage, and being closer to the ground can make pulling from the floor easier. [4] [28] [34]

Height affects planche progress. People around 1.60-1.70 m can hold the planche comfortably after a point, while taller people face more difficulty. Body structure such as height and leg length can give a decisive advantage even when training is similar. [16] [45]

Back strength, abdominal discipline, and leg explosive power are real associations. The idea that calves are purely a gift of genetics is only partly accurate. [36]

Trainability and its limits

A gymnast at a real level is rare, about one in ten thousand, because high-level gymnastics depends on a combination of anatomy, learning ability, appropriate training, and support. [3]

People differ in how quickly they deconstruct and imitate movement patterns, similar to how mathematical ability varies between people. Some athletes cannot master a complex movement despite years of focused practice when movement perception is insufficient. One gymnast with excellent double backs and triples never understood the twist. [13] [14]

Repetition volume alone does not guarantee mastery of a skill. Individual background and activity context matter. [35]

Basic handstands can be taught to many people, while one-arm handstands need much more focused work and are difficult to teach broadly. [21]

Different athletes have different apparatus-specific aptitudes. Rings especially demand very good static strength. People can have different natural aptitudes for different skills, such as being talented at the front lever while others are more suited to the back lever. [15] [50]

Talent, practice, and apparent ease

Exceptional bodyweight skills should not be automatically attributed to innate ability. They may reflect substantial specific strength and many hours of practice. A performance that looks effortless is often the result of much more training. What people call talent can be the product of high-level training from an early age. [46] [47] [51]

Talent can compress the time needed to reach an advanced skill. A gifted street acrobat may perform in two years what another athlete has spent ten years working toward. [40]

Talent can remain undeveloped when a person’s life does not intersect with a path where it can be cultivated. It can still emerge when they try. [37]

Choosing training that fits your body

Progress in abilities that match your bodily predispositions is always better. Find the ability your body has and train it. A body predisposed to calisthenics may respond differently to sprint-style training. [30] [31]

Match the planche variation to your build. With a strong back, the lean planche with scapular protraction suits you, so practice it often. [25]

When personalizing progression estimates, collect age, sex, and weight. These inputs bring the estimate closer, but individual variation in metabolism and muscle fibers means it will still differ between people. [44]

People differ in both preference and bodily predisposition for sprinting versus endurance running. Different people suit different training styles, and HIT is intended to impose additional stress. [33] [48]

Flexibility and mobility

Coach’s claim

Unusually pronounced back flexibility can be genetic in some individuals. Some people can bring the hip into certain positions easily, and in some cases this ability is genetic. [2] [19]

Coach’s claim

Some people have shoulder mobility that is genetic and cannot be fully developed through training. In the case discussed, training the rotational muscle was sufficient. Some people have naturally greater shoulder looseness that is present from birth. [9] [20]

Coach’s claim

Some people have tighter muscles that are harder to stretch, while others have looser muscles. These differences are anatomical, and flexibility work can still bring substantial improvement, potentially to a full split. [10]

Coach’s claim

Some aspects of flexibility are genetic, but daily stretching can still bring a person to their own appropriate range. A clean bridge and split do not guarantee extreme openings. [17]

Coach’s claim

Wrist flexibility is limited in many people and is partly genetic. Flexibility may reflect both anatomical predisposition and dedicated stretching. [26] [29]

Hold the hand sideways or slightly toward the back when supporting weight on the hands. [26]

Sex differences

Coach’s claim

Women tend to be more flexible and coordinated, while men tend to have greater static strength and power. [7]

Coach’s claim

Women often show greater endurance in core and plank-type movements, while push-ups may be harder for them but can be strengthened through training. Female advantages in leg endurance and flexibility, along with lower explosive and general strength, are tied to childbirth-related anatomy. [38] [39]

Coach’s claim

Stretching capacity tends to be better in women and increases faster. Dips tend to be harder for women. [41] [52]

Inherited traits and their limits

Coach’s claim

Arm circumference may have a hard ceiling. Taking a 30 cm arm to 50 cm is thought to be impossible without steroids, and even with steroids the training maximum would be about 40 cm. [8]

Coach’s claim

What a person develops may be passed on genetically to the next generation. [22]

Coach’s claim

Exceptional precise memory, such as recalling what is written on a specific line of a specific page, is considered hereditary and may not be developed through practice. [11]

Coach’s claim

Adaptations like the Bajau people’s larger lung capacities, about 25-30 percent above typical, are thought to come from generations of adaptation and to be inherited. One person’s training is unlikely to replicate them, though descendants may develop them after generations of living that way. [5]

Coach’s experience

In his own case, explosive-power training would have made him a runner, but his shorter height would have been a disadvantage where milliseconds and forward reach matter. [6]

His planche came suddenly one night. His 1.77 m height made the skill harder. [16]

His father has a large wrist genetically but a weak one. A large inherited wrist does not necessarily mean a strong wrist. [23]

He himself lacks wrist flexibility, which he attributes to genetics. [26]

His body is poorly suited to swimming. Despite effort and good technique, he cannot swim very well because his muscle structure is short. [32]

Sources

1. 2024-01-13, 3001.8-3006.5s

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2. 2024-01-27, 2802.8-2809.8s

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3. 2024-03-01, 6909.3-6922.8s

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4. 2024-03-04, 4807.9-4816.4s

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5. 2024-04-05, 53.9-80.6s

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6. 2024-04-23, 2476.4-2489.7s

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7. 2024-04-25, 6082.7-6103.5s

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8. 2024-04-28, 3508.5-3517.7s

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9. 2024-05-10, 5273.9-5282.1s

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10. 2024-05-25, 4186.3-4200.7s

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11. 2024-06-15, 3585.9-3595.2s

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12. 2024-06-15, 3754.5-3778.5s

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13. 2024-06-15, 3792.3-3814.2s

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14. 2024-06-15, 3845.6-3873.0s

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15. 2024-06-15, 3951.7-3976.1s

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16. 2024-06-27, 2206.0-2221.9s

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17. 2024-07-09, 4029.4-4043.4s

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18. 2024-07-11, 2851.5-2855.4s

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19. 2024-07-11, 3874.2-3886.3s

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20. 2024-07-11, 3888.9-3899.4s

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21. 2024-09-11, 456.1-465.8s

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22. 2024-09-14, 2361.3-2374.4s

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23. 2024-10-17, 1721.5-1734.4s

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24. 2024-11-04, 2097.0-2104.3s

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25. 2024-11-10, 3706.8-3724.5s

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26. 2024-12-27, 2218.0-2227.3s

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27. 2025-01-02, 3037.1-3044.9s

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28. 2025-01-07, 5883.2-5900.8s

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29. 2025-02-22, 3684.2-3688.9s

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30. 2025-02-22, 3695.5-3698.9s

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31. 2025-02-22, 3788.7-3804.3s

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32. 2025-02-22, 3804.3-3817.4s

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33. 2025-02-22, 3953.2-3972.7s

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34. 2025-03-11, 4901.0-4915.8s

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35. 2025-03-31, 5406.7-5435.5s

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36. 2025-04-18, 3541.6-3550.8s

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37. 2025-05-02, 48.5-65.7s

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38. 2025-05-11, 2641.5-2663.8s

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39. 2025-05-11, 2666.4-2702.9s

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40. 2025-05-15, 3986.6-4003.5s

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41. 2025-05-19, 6868.9-6873.6s

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42. 2025-05-23, 5009.5-5018.1s

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43. 2025-06-06, 4159.1-4168.4s

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44. 2025-06-15, 4045.4-4080.3s

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45. 2025-09-28, 2288.8-2312.7s

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46. 2025-12-18, 3163.4-3195.1s

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47. 2025-12-18, 3195.8-3212.7s

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48. 2025-12-18, 927.2-950.0s

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49. 2026-01-23, 4319.8-4325.6s

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50. 2026-05-27, 1796.9-1802.9s

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51. 2026-06-16, 5389.3-5400.8s

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52. 2026-08-04, 2892.0-2898.2s

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