The black pill of athleticism

[Vali2003]

I‘ve realized more and more now that the highest Level of athleticism there is has little to do with hard work, and much more with talent (how strong your fascia tensegrity network is).

This is like people saying all that matters in dating is looks, just that it‘s actually true for athleticism. And what is looks in dating, is the state of your fascia in athleticism. 

Check out my first post about this if you have no idea what I’m yapping about. I suggest reading my latest comment. The OP was bad. 

I noticed the black pill in myself recently as strong as ever. I play basketball and I’ve been working on my jump shot for a while, making small steady improvements over time. Now, my fascia tensegrity strength has taken a big leap, and all of a sudden I can easily hit 7/10 threes, several steps behind the three point line without any additional training. It takes very little effort because the movement relies much more on elastic energy than it does for most people. I would try to explain the feeling more but it makes little sense as pretty much no one here will have reference experiences for this.

Aside from my personal experience, it makes sense that the mainstream muscle-based view of athletic performance is missing something. Look at this nine-year old girl for example:

https://www.instagram.com/lucy.milgrim/?hl=en

She regularly beats BOYS in wrestling who are her age, and much bigger than her. Her muscles have reached nowhere near maturity obviously. So where is the power coming from to overpower a boy of her age who, judging by muscle-based theory, should be much stronger than her. And don’t say technique. Why would a girl of her age have such a big technical advantage over other kids the same age as her. 

Another example: Lebron James. Why was he SO SO much better than everybody else at his age? Like he literally was in another dimension compared to his peers. He wasn’t the only kid in the USA who’s 2,09m with a 2,13cm wingspan. And don’t say it’s because he may have marginally more fast twitch muscle fibers than others.

There are many more examples like this, where the difference in skill/competency in an athletic endeavor is not explainable through the current paradigm. 

This new paradigm will completely shift the landscape of athletic performance, injury prevention and injury treatment. The mechanism I propose in my other post is likely highly flawed, but, really, it doesn’t matter. As soon as more people start to experience this paradigm of how the body functions, it will rush through the world like an earthquake. I’m looking forward to it, because it will level the playing field, but hopefully it won’t take too long.

We all know how resistant humanity is to paradigm shifts — probably for good reason.

[Sugarcoat]

I think running long distances is a kind of sport that has a lot to do with pure hard work. More so than genetics.

If you were chased by something dangerous, you could run wayyy longer than you run on your work outs.

What separates the pros of long distance running from the average is that the pro simply works harder, gives up way later than the average does.

It’s a mental sport primarily. How much you can push the body consciously before you give up. 
 

Theres some exceptions to this, like for example Dean Karnazes who has something genetic where his body clears lactic acid much faster or something, giving him a significant advantage.

Short distance running on the other hand is more so genetics though.

 

Edited September 5 by Sugarcoat

[Schizophonia]

So what.

You do running because it’s pleasant.

Edited September 5 by Schizophonia

[Schizophonia]

@Vali2003 My name is Valentin and am born in 2003 lol

[Vali2003]

@Sugarcoat

It has to do with hard work. But running for people who have poor fascia health is much more effortful. Look at what happens to David Goggins when he runs an ultramarathon. His body completely breaks down, while other people get out of it with much less damage. 

Really, you have to imagine it as the body functioning in a completely different manner if you have good fascia health. You automatically get propelled on to your forefoot and the momentum effortlessly carries you forward while running. 

This is not a technique that you use. It’s a physiological change the body goes through over several years. It’s a neurological metamorphosis where the body becomes more and more elastic and holistic. Once your body has changed in this way it’s permanent and does not require conscious effort. 

Also, on the notion of hard work. Once your body functions like this, physical activities stop being super effortful. They become like free play and are a lot of fun. Which is why super talented people often “work hard” and do a lot of sports, because they’re so good at that it just becomes pure play and fun. 

 

[Vali2003]

@Schizophonia Legend

[Vali2003]

@Schizophonia I don’t know. I feel the pain, and overcoming your limits is actually a big reason why people like running. 

[Sugarcoat]

3 minutes ago, Vali2003 said:

@Sugarcoat

It has to do with hard work. But running for people who have poor fascia health is much more effortful. Look at what happens to David Goggins when he runs an ultramarathon. His body completely breaks down, while other people get out of it with much less damage. 

Really, you have to imagine it as the body functioning in a completely different manner if you have good fascia health. You automatically get propelled on to your forefoot and the momentum effortlessly carries you forward while running. 

This is not a technique that you use. It’s a physiological change the body goes through over several years. It’s a neurological metamorphosis where the body becomes more and more elastic and holistic. Once your body has changed in this way it’s permanent and does not require conscious effort. 

Also, on the notion of hard work. Once your body functions like this, physical activities stop being super effortful. They become like free play and are a lot of fun. Which is why super talented people often “work hard” and do a lot of sports, because they’re so good at that it just becomes pure play and fun. 

 

I think Goggins body breaks down because he pushes harder than most

I don’t know enough to comment further but I still stand by my point that the pros just push harder- then the difference between the pros themselves might be genetic

[Vali2003]

@Sugarcoat yeah probably plays a role, especially in things like ultramarathon running.

Still, speaking from experience, I know that being able to push through discomfort and exhaustion is pretty much impossible — for most people — if you feel that your knee is gonna blow out, ankle gonna twist, lower back acting up or something similar like that. So your fascia fitness plays a big role, still. 

 

[Sugarcoat]

9 minutes ago, Vali2003 said:

@Sugarcoat yeah probably plays a role, especially in things like ultramarathon running.

Still, speaking from experience, I know that being able to push through discomfort and exhaustion is pretty much impossible — for most people — if you feel that your knee is gonna blow out, ankle gonna twist, lower back acting up or something similar like that. So your fascia fitness plays a big role, still. 

 

Yea if you have injured something from running it’s hard to push through because we’re designed to avoid pain. But for people without that I’d say it’s mostly about how hard you push

[Vali2003]

@Sugarcoat  Pushing hard opens some doors for sure. I remember after I read this one book of David Goggins, I think Can’t Hurt Me, we had a plank challenge with my basketball team that we were supposed to practice for that summer. The winner got some reward. I didn’t practice a single time and was able to last like 7 minutes, just by being able to endure the pain. I lost the challenge, but was quite shocked by how far you can go just by enduring pain. 

 

[Vali2003]

This is another misconception that people have about pro-athletes. They think that pro athletes just work inhuman amount of hours and that is what separates them from other, less successful, athletes. But the truth is, it’s not them being able to endure working so hard that makes them better. It’s their bodies’ ability to put in thousands and thousands of hours and reps without breaking down, which obviously turns them into way better athletes over time. Other people also attempt to do this, but their bodies just can’t take the load, and sooner or later the injuries start piling up.

You see, when you are less fascia driven (less holistic), 1) Your body will fatigue quicker as you’re using more energy and less elastic recoil. For example, your shoulder muscle will be fatigued, when shooting jump shots. For a fascia driven athlete this doesn’t happen even closely to the same extent. The energy, even for a jump shot, comes from the abs, lats, and glutes. I can shoot hundreds of jumpshots without fatiguing. Traditional biomechanics paint an incomplete picture that doesn’t account for differences in fascial tensegrity strength. 2) As your fascia works less optimally, with every rep you put in, energy will leak at your ankles, tibialis, hips, knees and your joints will suffer more and more. 

I wanted to say something else, I think, but I forgot what. 

[Sugarcoat]

12 hours ago, Vali2003 said:

@Sugarcoat  Pushing hard opens some doors for sure. I remember after I read this one book of David Goggins, I think Can’t Hurt Me, we had a plank challenge with my basketball team that we were supposed to practice for that summer. The winner got some reward. I didn’t practice a single time and was able to last like 7 minutes, just by being able to endure the pain. I lost the challenge, but was quite shocked by how far you can go just by enduring pain. 

 

Cool you did that! I’ve been trying too, to push my limits lately, i notice I stop way before my body gives  out

[Sugarcoat]

12 hours ago, Vali2003 said:

This is another misconception that people have about pro-athletes. They think that pro athletes just work inhuman amount of hours and that is what separates them from other, less successful, athletes. But the truth is, it’s not them being able to endure working so hard that makes them better. It’s their bodies’ ability to put in thousands and thousands of hours and reps without breaking down, which obviously turns them into way better athletes over time. Other people also attempt to do this, but their bodies just can’t take the load, and sooner or later the injuries start piling up.

You see, when you are less fascia driven (less holistic), 1) Your body will fatigue quicker as you’re using more energy and less elastic recoil. For example, your shoulder muscle will be fatigued, when shooting jump shots. For a fascia driven athlete this doesn’t happen even closely to the same extent. The energy, even for a jump shot, comes from the abs, lats, and glutes. I can shoot hundreds of jumpshots without fatiguing. Traditional biomechanics paint an incomplete picture that doesn’t account for differences in fascial tensegrity strength. 2) As your fascia works less optimally, with every rep you put in, energy will leak at your ankles, tibialis, hips, knees and your joints will suffer more and more. 

I wanted to say something else, I think, but I forgot what. 

I’m open to that as I don’t know enough 

[Basman]

I can't talk about the specific factors that determine performance within the human body, but's obvious that genes are completely fundamental to any kind of athletic endeavor. You could be born with non-functioning legs. Or retarded. Maybe the odds of that are small but not zero. By virtue of having relative height and good health you already got decent genes for athleticism.

You could say that genes are like the fundament that you build your house on top of. It's going to be much harder to build a house in a swamp compared to flat grasslands with lots of limestone close by. It is not only harder to build a house in a swamp compared to grasslands, but your also limited in what you can achieve aspirationally. A tard can never become a world class athlete. The hard work of being an athlete is optimizing your body and skill, but no amount of hard work is going to beat a gorilla in an arm wrestling duel. 

On 05/09/2025 at 2:24 PM, Vali2003 said:

https://www.instagram.com/lucy.milgrim/?hl=en

She regularly beats BOYS in wrestling who are her age, and much bigger than her. Her muscles have reached nowhere near maturity obviously. So where is the power coming from to overpower a boy of her age who, judging by muscle-based theory, should be much stronger than her. And don’t say technique. Why would a girl of her age have such a big technical advantage over other kids the same age as her. 

I'm not sure if this is a good example if the boys she is up against don't also receive the same amount of training and attention as she does. She's clearly been groomed to be an athlete from a very young age and been training regularly. I imagine the parents involvement in the training regime of the boys boils down to just driving them to training.

[Vali2003]

@Sugarcoat There were some strategies in his book on how to endure pain, and push through it, but I don’t remember all. One of them was to remember a past moment when you pushed through something that first seemed impossible/really difficult to do, as a reminder that you can do it again. I found that quite effective, but haven’t used in a while.

 

 

 

[Sugarcoat]

30 minutes ago, Vali2003 said:

@Sugarcoat There were some strategies in his book on how to endure pain, and push through it, but I don’t remember all. One of them was to remember a past moment when you pushed through something that first seemed impossible/really difficult to do, as a reminder that you can do it again. I found that quite effective, but haven’t used in a while.

 

 

 

It’s funny I have bought his book “can’t hurt me” but haven’t read it . 

[Vali2003]

@Basman

Of course, a mostly healthy and functional body is a base-requirement to do any kind of athletics. 

I’m saying there’s a deeper level than having a functional body or not. That, within this range of functional bodies, there’s a something (fascia tensegrity strength) that gives the best of the best, the (huge) edge over the rest. And that this thing matters much more than hard work. Because hard work is easy if your body is like this, it’s fun.

The problem is, the term “fascia tensegrity strength” is useless since it means nothing to most — again, lack of reference experience. 

I tried really hard right now to find a suitable metaphor to explain what it feels like, but it’s so difficult. You gotta imagine. When I shoot a jump shot now, or run, or jump, I first feel my abs contract. Then I feel how my abs pull on my glutes which activates them, since they’re connected through fascia. If I’m doing a movement with my upper body too, like throwing a punch for example, or pushing somebody, the energy will transfer to my upper body — coming from the glutes and abs.

When I walk, I feel the tensegrity structure throughout my whole body. My feet activate, my glutes activate, my abs activate which are connected to my lats, my lips seal shut automatically. It feels a little bit like a shoelace being tightened, throughout my entire body. Maybe that gives you some sense of what I mean by tensegrity structure. It’s nothing that most people have come into contact with before.

About the example. You’re right that it’s not perfect. But I think the argument that she beats boys her age just cause she’s been groomed to be an athlete from the onset is a relatively weak argument. There are many parents who want their kids to be a star athlete and train them from young age. I don’t think this would make up the difference that’s between them in terms of muscular strength. But maybe she only fights really amateur boys. But then, again, there aren’t many other girls — if any — who do this.

[Vali2003]

@Sugarcoat It’s a fun read. His life story is absurd.

[Sugarcoat]

1 minute ago, Vali2003 said:

@Sugarcoat It’s a fun read. His life story is absurd.

It’s so brutal right.