Is Bodybuilding a Sport?

I wouldn't consider it a sport because judging it is purely subjective. I also wouldn't really consider a body builder as healthy or an athlete, their body is taken to the extreme but I'd imagine if they took part in many sports they'd be useless at them due to their bulk. If you ever notice in MMA that the big overly muscular guys usually end up getting their asses kicked because they lack agility.

I've heard storeys about body builders on motorbikes stopping every half an hour because of cramps due to their chest muscles making it hard to hold handlebars.

Most of the people who don't think bodybuilding's a sport
probably think golf is.

As for there being no exertion involved in competition, try being onstage for 2-3 minutes and then tell me there's no exertion

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Everybody wants to be an athlete.

......but nobody wanna do no heavy ass skills training?Doesnt have the same ring to it.

itsgrand wrote: »

I think that some bodybuilders may take an unhealthy approach,like severe lack of cardio or a diet filled with too many supplements. But I also think bodybuilders can be the the healthiest humans if they combine cardio with their workouts,and have a diet full of organic foods with some supplements too. I recently read an article about bodybuilders of the past being seriously strong AND able to run for miles on end. They push their bodies,then compete with others who have taken the same tough road as them to see who has worked the hardest,who has perservered through the diet and who has gone through the most pain in the gym to achieve the "perfect body". This is why I think it should be regarded as a sport.

Body builders that work to compete may certainly not be doing themselves any favours and as it is well documented the current fashion of very very low BF% pushes people to make very radical lifestyle choices to cut back and dehydrate to get that final cut look on the stage. Not healthy.

Aesthetics is not performance and so there is really no set standard of achievement as fashion changes the yardstick of what constitutes a winner also changes. This is contrast to say the 100m sprint where time is still time.

I think it is a sport in the sense that olympic lifting would be considered BB by most people. But there ae too many activites that are labelled as sports that are not and more join them every year as people campaign to get their hobbies listed as olympic events. Labels...

Hi all,

I feel compelled to write on my own experiences as a bodybuilder, both on and off the stage.

To say bodybuilding is not a sport is hurtfull when you truely believe in something and strive to be the best you can be in it. The training regime for a competitive bodybuilder especially leading up to a competition is astonishing and possibly the most physically and mentally demanding training you can go through. The dedication needed is stagering. But the personal reward and sense of accomplishment when you finally get up on that stage blows you away, more so than any other sport I have ever being involved in.

To say there is no skill in it comes from someone who has never tried to understand how amazing the human body is and how it can be trained to overcome any obstacle. The knowledge needed to train CORRECTLY comes from hard study of form and constant training to adapt the body to new stresses and routines to teach your body memory to make your movements more fluidlike and make your body stronger to work better in these movements, sounds exactly like what other athletes do, doesn't it.

People like to poke fun at bodybuilding, because of the steroid stigma attached to it and that is what is stoping the sport from becoming more mainstream and even inclusion as an olympic sport. Where steroid's do play a part in some areas of bodybuilding, others like myself practice natural bodybuilding and believe me the results can be equally outstanding.

Just as an example, I will briefly explain competition lead up for myself just to give an indication to those who don't understand what is involved.
Training is all year round but when you decide to do a competition it has a big affect on how you approach your training, I like to start out with very heavy training to "bulk up" (try to get the mass on before you start the diet phase), everyone is different and their body reacts differently, hence the individual nature of the preparation. For me I start strict diet 3 to 4 months out from competition and I do not stray from that diet at all. This means approximately 7-8 meals a day (small manageable meals, not 10 lb steaks as people believe). Your body no matter who you are works better this way, any nutritionist will tell you this as your body has a constant source of energy every few hours and does not need to hold onto fat because it thinks it is not going to get more energy from say 7 in the morning till lunch time. Training is strict with up to 2-3 hours a day as well as lots of cardio contrary to peoples beliefs (after all your heart is the most important muscle you have).

Everything you do down to your sleep patterns, keeping yourself positive to keep the body in top condition, working on your weak areas because bodybuilding competitions are judged by muscle symmetry, fullness, vascularity, and muscle proportion and other factors NOT just who is the biggest. All this training and dedication, the getting up at four or five in the morning to fit in a session before you go to work, the sacrificies you make socially (no drink, junk food, not even a drop or a crumb) all for the love of your sport and the elation of getting up on stage knowing that you done your best and put in the hours and dedication that any professional athlete would be and is proud to be able to adhere to.

The seven compulsory poses, take believe it or not a hell of a lot of practice to execute properly and to hold in a seemingly relax state when every fibre in your body burns on every pose on stage. The free pose routine is precise and timed and created to expose the muscles in their fullest tension, which you should try and hold a very tight pose for a period of time and see what it feels like.

Everything involved in bodybuilding leads me to a better place, the confidence it can instill, the sense of achievement and the knowledge that only a very very small number of bodybuilders ever make it to the stage has to be testimont to the training regime and dedication needed to be a bodybuilding sportsperson.

My apologies for the longwinded reply, but I hope you can draw some more knowledge about bodybuilding from my post and hopefully at least one person might change their mind, and see it as a sport!

Regards and good wishes
Collie

Ironman collie- no one is disrespecting the dedication, training or discipline needed to be a competitive bodybuilder. The debate is whether it's a sport. The reason I don't think it's a sport is because you are not really competing against anyone else. You're really just being the best you can be. If someone is better than you in boxing, you can get a lucky knockout, if another soccer team is better, you can get a lucky penalty.

If someone's better than you on the stage, there is no skill, tactic or formation that will disguise the fact that he is better than you.

That's what makes it a pastime IMO.

itsallaboutheL wrote: »

What about hiding weakpoints or emphasising strengths in callouts?

Accepted, but still not a skill. Not comparable to a 147 in snooker, 180 in darts or a hole in one in golf.

Ironman Collie, I really wouldn't mind most of this, you certainly shouldn't feel hurt.

Some can argue they're not, but many are just compelled (and content) to snipe, to varying degrees, at efforts/feats/motivations they can't really fathom.

I'm not really at all into BB and personally find a lot of the usual aesthetics fairly unappealing but yeah, tonnes of respect for anyone who's able to/inclined to/disciplined enough to compete at it.
Not a "sport"? Don't care.

@ ironman collie. I've trained with a lot of lads who were competing over the years and usually they haven't a clue about who's entering. Maybe that's just them! I'd assume the higher the level, the more lads would know their competition.