I once believed, and perhaps a part of me still does, that strength and physical aesthetics is a matter of inputs and outputs: a given expenditure of effort in the three areas of proper diet, sleep, and training. The cumulative result being that how your body will look and perform is how you may have envisioned it from the beginning. Anyone who has consistently trained over the years knows, however, this is not the case. While it is true that we have a significant amount of control in how we direct our bodies in order to look or perform a certain way, at a certain point, we encounter what our genetics is really able to offer us. For many, this discovery that we simply don’t have the desirable amount of lean muscle mass in our calves or forearms—two areas which are arguably the most difficult to stimulate relative to other parts of our bodies—is met with indignation. A smaller minority may view this as a kind of challenge, but I’d surmise that the vast majority of lifters don’t quite hold this view.