Emotionally/mentally strong vs. actual physical mass

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I was in the weight room for FB practice (mostly guys a year ish younger than me) and it got me thinking:

It doesn't matter how much actual physical potential your body's condition has as much as your mental focus/ emotional maturity.

No wonder there's so few Olympian Aspies lol.


Anyways anyone care to comment?

I'd argue the opposite in some aspects. Yes, you're right, mental strength determines about everything. But, many athletes I've met, at least in individual sports, aren't really social butterflies. I know it's this way in figure skating, most of the people are introverted I've met. The ones that stick around just for a place to hang out or whatever or make friends never stick with the sports for too long, as there needs to be a lot of internal drive. And the powerlifting/Olympic lifting type sports, I'd argue most people doing those are socially awkward as well. IE, Mark Rippetoe, Louie Simmons, etc, never got married, and they're in their 50s. In a lot of ways, Aspergers helps in these sports, as at least for me, I can concentrate on special interest things for quite a long time (I once attempted repairing a bike for about 12 hours straight.) I remember a study too, saying most top level swimmers were alexithymic, which means they don't know how they feel, which is characteristic of Aspergers much of the time.

But no, muscle mass doesn't matter a whole lot. It's helpful to a point, but in sports in general more muscle mass without the strength behind it only cuts your power to weight ratio down, so unless you're playing a sport like football (no weight classes!) it's pointless to be huge without power behind it.

But many people with Aspergers have incredible drive because of their harder lives, so this translates to sports, too. If everything inch has to be struggled for, then once you get to sports, you're used to the reality of that already.

If your head isn't in training, your body won't be into it as much. I have my days where my heads just not into it, but I do as much as I can, or take a day off, and afterwards I aspire to do much better for my next workout session. I don't think being immature has much to do with it, I think it's your drive to succeed that matters. Do you have the energy to focus and force yourself through, do you want to succeed enough or not? Mass and functional athleticism do not always go hand in hand. Check out most olympic lifters, for weight lifters they generally have the best strength, power, cardio and overall athleticism, and are the least blown up muscle wise of them all.