From Basics to the Best: What Factors Change?

In any sport or hobby, there are inevitably going to be different things that can impact your results, obviously, and there are always different levels of competition and achievement. For example, in football, at the absolute lowest, you have people who just play for fun and play catch, then playing Football in gym class, then you have high school Football, then college level, then NFL or CFL professional teams. As you get further and further along that continuum, the amount of measurable difference between the best and the worst is going to be smaller and smaller--after all, there is a reason those players got to the level that they did, it was because they were better than everyone else when they were at the lower levels.

The interesting thing is, while the gap between the best of the best and the worst of the best becomes smaller, the relative difference that said difference makes becomes proportionally wider. I'll use powerlifting as an example, because the numbers are easy to use.

Let's say that two beginning lifters are squatting: one works his way up to 350 lbs, but the other can only lift 200 lbs. Then, after a while of lifting, they work their lifts up: the first person (A) gets up to 450 lbs, then the second (B) gets up to 400 lbs. The gap is smaller, but the first guy is still lifting less than the first. Then, much later on, lets say they are both competing at a top level powerlifting meet. Person A is squatting 600 lbs, and person B is squatting 575...that's a 25 lbs difference. If they were at this same relative difference earlier on, or something similar, they would be lifting around (for example): A) 300 B) 280-290 (somewhere around there). However, if that were the case from the beginning, then the person B might have actually overtaken the other guy, or at least be on equal terms.

The point I'm trying to make is that things which might seen to make little difference for a beginner, might make even less quantifiable difference to an intermediate or advenced lifter or bodybuilder. However, The impact that these things are going to have is going to be infinitely greater because the calibre of competitor has gone up.

What does this have to do with bodybuilding?

Far too often people take advice from very experienced people in this sport--as they should--but what they don't take in is the context of that advice. Is the person they're taking advice from a national level bodybuilder, or even a pro? Are they really targeting their advice to maximizing the things that matter at your level? Timing your breakfast to be at 7:30 AM instead of 8:00 AM is going to make almost no difference for you at a lower level--but the 2% difference it will make could be a difference of 1st place and 2nd place for a pro.

All you need to know, is don't sweat the small stuff that doesn't need to be. Know what you're trying to accomplish and do that--you can only work up from that.