Is Bodybuilding a Sport?

Ironman Collie wrote: »

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