Fitness Goals and Ancestry

A thought occurred to me today that I wasn't able to find anything about online, so I thought I'd post it here for you all to comment on. I am 5'5", and of pretty solid build. I suspect even if I lost the 40 extra pounds I carry, I'd still be solid. I have a full bust, strong thighs, etc. It's reeeally hard for me to lose fat, but I can pick up muscle like nobody's business. Running? If I'm in danger or on fire, sure, but I have this innate sense that while I could probably train my body to run, my body's just not MADE for running...instead, it's made for lifting or serving as a strong anchor point.

My husband was in the USMC in the early-to-mid 90's, and even after boot camp, when he was a heavily muscled 200 pounds with a neck the same size as his head, his arms never got big. He works out regularly, and can pretty easily get an 8-pack going on his abs, and his legs rival that of an action figure. But his arms, even when pure muscle, just never get BIG, and it's a constant source of frustration for him.

The thought I had was about our individual ancestry. I'm of mostly Scottish stock, with the usual amounts of American mutt tossed in (English, French, Slavic, mostly). My husband is 1/4 Osage Indian, 1/4 Mexican, and the rest is mostly German/American mutt. The Scots were not bred to run - the ones who survived through the centuries were the ones who could hoist a sheep across their shoulders and hike through the highlands. They could wield a heavy broadsword. They withstood harsh weather, and were FIERCE warriors. They often carried lots and LOTS of muscle. They did NOT run long distances. Sound familiar?

You don't typically see large arms on Native Americans or Mexican folks. That's not what either of those lines of ancestry needed to have to survive, right? Instead, they needed lean builds that were made for endurance AND they excelled at things involving fast-twitch muscles (fighting, hunting, etc.) That absolutely describes my hubby. In boot camp, he once completed a fully loaded 12-mile hump with a broken foot that he just tied extra tightly into his boot, and at the end of that hump, he even helped drag two other recruits over the finish line. The man is made for getting through grueling physical feats, and he does it well.

My point is: I can sigh and feel bad that I'll never have that same svelte figure of the girl running next to me at the gym, but why? I'm not made for that, just as she's not made to be able to lift an entire cow over her head (okay, maybe I'm not made for that, either, hah). Hubby will never look like the guys on the cover of muscle and fitness, but he also doesn't have the tiny little bird legs that many of those guys have a hard time getting to fill out. Instead, he's solid muscle from head to toe, all pretty much evenly distributed, and I wouldn't be surprised if he could sprint a mile and then rip apart a burning car with his bare hands.

Thoughts on this? Have any of you considered where your bloodlines come from, and how that might have an effect on the fitness goals you set for yourself and/or have achieved? I think it'd be an interesting thing to do a study on.

:drinker: