Is Bodybuilding 'Easy'?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Some people consider BB a sport,others don’t. The inclusion of BB in the World Games supports the sport status of BB. Now if we accept that it is one,perhaps it helps us to compare it to sports which hold unchallenged status as ‘real’ sports,which is pretty much all of them.

I think the hardest part of BB is staying lean while getting larger,which requires diet attention. The training itself is inherently easier than in a strength sport. BB reminds me of that time as a child when “exercise is good” and just fooling around and having fun and getting a little gassed is considered productive activity,that’s what they thought at school and that was enough.

A BB’er can be happy with getting sore and lactic in the right places. He does not need to care about strength,speed,mobility,technique etc. and to psychologically push himself to new heights with maximum weights. He can employ methods that retard strength development,like lifting fatigued and slowing down a small weight to get that time under tension and the pump.Even partial ROM may be excused. He can switch exercises on and off, if strength in one goes down it’s allright,as long as the target muscles are torn. Just pump out a moderate weight for a while. That’s pretty fun and not stressful at all.

This is not meant to belittle bodybuilding,which I think is cool. Just present the argument for why it seems to me as if it is easier. I’ve seen some BB’s state that they think that it is the hardest sport in the world. Answer what you will.

2

simple does not equal easy

3

fuck bodybuilding is very hard, at least at a competetive level. It’s a lifestyle, you have to constantly watch your diet-whether dieting or bulking- eat all the fucking time and lift very intensely in very high volume.

Strength athletes don’t have the conditioning level of bodybuilders so they only do a few heavy lifts and call it a day. They are much more leaniant on diet also. It pretty simple on how to get stronger in say the big 3 lifts, you do them over and over again heavier and heavier. Its a lot more complicated when your trying to build a symmetrical body that is fucking massive.

Also mobility and technique is important always, but it’s not like it takes years to learn how to squat correctly ext.

I think bodybuilding is harder, the amount of change their body goes through every year is pretty ridiculous and the time and effort they put into it to be competetive is far more then many sports.

I try hard to put on muscle and get stronger, but when I read and watch what pro bodybuilders do I’m simply blown away.

4

it is one of the few if not the only sport that you train for literally every hour of the day as your diet and sleep are so critical to progress.

And if you don’t think bodybuilders need to “push themselves” or focus on their strength, technique, or flexibility, then you must not have been into this game for very long at all.

Bodybuilders do not just “pump out a moderate weight for a while”

And you think the fact that some bodybuilders make exercises MORE DIFFICULT TO PERFORM by changing technique and pre-fatiguing muscle groups, this makes it “easier” somehow?

Do you understand that using a partial range of motion is designed to make an exercises harder?

As opposed to powerlifting where as long as your technique is legal in competiton you use as many muscle groups as possible and use the technique that makes the lift as easy as can possibly be with the only goal being to get the weight up (once…)

5

[quote]shizen wrote:
fuck bodybuilding [/quote]

Fuck bodybuilding? What’s that?

6

[quote]mr popular wrote:
it is one of the few if not the only sport that you train for literally every hour of the day as your diet and sleep are so critical to progress.

And if you don’t think bodybuilders need to “push themselves” or focus on their strength, technique, or flexibility, then you must not have been into this game for very long at all.

Bodybuilders do not just “pump out a moderate weight for a while”

And you think the fact that some bodybuilders make exercises MORE DIFFICULT TO PERFORM by changing technique and pre-fatiguing muscle groups, this makes it “easier” somehow?

Do you understand that using a partial range of motion is designed to make an exercises harder?

As opposed to powerlifting where as long as your technique is legal in competiton you use as many muscle groups as possible and use the technique that makes the lift as easy as can possibly be with the only goal being to get the weight up (once…)[/quote]People like elite weightlifters lift just about every day,some of them two times a day. They vary heavy and light,do all kinds of technique drills etc. A bodybuilder can get away with wrecking himself in the gym once a week and then sleeping and eating until the next period. I’m sort of talking about extremes but this happens. Everyone needs to eat and everyone needs to rest. I train for strength and the only difference is I don’t count my calories. What about the weightclass fluctuations of competing lifters? That requires attention to diet too.

There is a huge psychological gap between doing a set of 15 or how much you can with a modest weight and a single that will require 100% concentration and the attitude that your life depends on it. When you are a BB,you get happy from the pump,failure and post-workout soreness,which indicates future hypertrophy. And hypertrophy does not necessarily result in any significant strength gain. So if you’re swinging the same weight the next time or possibly even less,it will not break your heart because “I’m a bodybuilder” and you can switch exercises around a lot,which excuses some plateau or regression.

I don’t think making exercises more ‘difficult’ makes it harder,no. The thing is,they will still be adjusted to the same principles,going for a lot of contracting around,with a weight that is clearly within your comfort zone,or if it is,you can stick with the partials because all the fibers contract regardless and getting stronger is not the big deal. I guess the major difference is in BB you seek to blow yourself out, while in strength athletics you need to overcome the weight.

7

At an elite level, everything is ‘hard’.

Bodybuilding is easy compared to any kind of strength-related athletic activity.

The one thing that Bodybuilding requires is patience.

All the other sports like Olympic lifting require at least the same amount of patience but also many other things on top of it.

People always bring up the diet factor as being ‘hard’ in BBing, dropping bodyfat% prior to a show while maintaining a sufficient amount of muscle mass etc.

Dieting in BBing is a joke compared to training 2 to 3 times per day, seven days per week, trying to snatch more weight or to row 2000m faster while staying in your weight class or dropping weight to reach it.

Most important factor in modern competitive bodybuilding is your genetics, and you can’t even influence that. (This is not meant to be an excuse not to work hard even if you have “inferior” genes !)

8

As a side note, and I hope people don’t take this in the wrong way as im not having a dig at bodybuilding, but I find it hard to class bb as a sport. At the end of the day competitors are judged on their asthetics. If this can be considered to be criteria for classification as a sport then are beauty pagents and cute kid competitions also sports?

And to answer the question, bodybuilding is not easy. It requires substantial personal sacrifice, and a dedication level bordering on the obsessive. Very few people have the ability to commit to the lifestyle needed to compete, therefore it is infact quite hard.

9

I’d say BB’ing is hard in the sense that it requires discipline over time, like sports training. At a competetive level it does require some extreme dieting (and drug) practices that add an element of risk and even more discipline.

Petrichor has a point about genetics in BBing in sofar as pre-ordaining your ultimate potential appearance and to some extent the speed with which you get there. However, genetics is just as much a factor for most other sports too.

However i’d struggle to call BBing a sport as such unless the emphasis on posing is defined and scored on execution as well as, perhaps more than, appearance. This would change it to a kind of gymnastic muscle display, it’s sort of like that but emphasises size and appearance (e.g. ultra low bf) more.

Who can execute truly controlled smooth transitions, especially with knees bent poses these days, and does that actually matter anyway?

What I mean is if scoring was on execution of key poses and artistry - muscle control, stance, balance etc then it might possibly go beyond a muscle beauty parade with some (difficult) exertion during posing. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with BBing the way it is by the way, just dont see a role for it in the Olympics etc

10

no

11

just because something is hard (and BB is), doesn’t make it a sport IMO.

Golf is extremely difficult, but to me isn’t a sport. I have people get really defensive when I say that, not sure why. It’s like they think I’m saying it’s easy, when I know it’s damn hard.

12

Bodybuilding is definetly a sport. Sportcenter televises highlights from a spelling bee competition. It is a shame they do not give bodybuilding the same respect. Just like the competitors practice spelling endless days and nights bodybuilders put countless hours into their diet, cardio, and weight lifting. It should definetly be recognized on a higher level. Than maybe bodybuilding will become more competitive because steroid testing would be more strict and people who follow laws will have a greater chance in this great sport.

Bodybuilding is not easy.

13

Not this discussion again. It doesn’t even make sense to discuss whether bodybuilding is a sport or not without having agreed on a definition of the word “sport”.

As far as bodybuilding being “easy” and “not stressful at all” goes, that’s just silly.

14

Any sport is not easy. Still, it’s easy to dismiss someone else’s pursuits when you have no first hand knowledge of what it’s like to push yourself in that arena. Hell, I thought BBing was pretty simple at first, but once you start juggling all the body chemistry, and various training protocols… and the constant struggle to increase LBM while still maintaining a degree of leaness,… well damnit, it’s not easy at all!

S

15

yeah bodybuilding is easy thats why everyone is so jacked.

16

What I would say is that the weightlifting part of BB is comparatively easy.

17

Golf is technically a sport. Bodybuilding,well,there could be a height building sport,where the tallest man or woman would win. Or a fatty competition where the contestant with the most bulging body of blubber would win. This is not scorning bodybuilding,just stating the fact that bodybuilding is about showing up looking like some slightly ambigious ideal,not too different from the above mentioned hypothetical contests. There is no objective of doing something better than the fellow (wo)man like in sports.

18

[quote]Alffi wrote:
Some people consider BB a sport,others don’t. The inclusion of BB in the World Games supports the sport status of BB. Now if we accept that it is one,perhaps it helps us to compare it to sports which hold unchallenged status as ‘real’ sports,which is pretty much all of them.

I think the hardest part of BB is staying lean while getting larger,which requires diet attention. The training itself is inherently easier than in a strength sport. BB reminds me of that time as a child when “exercise is good” and just fooling around and having fun and getting a little gassed is considered productive activity,that’s what they thought at school and that was enough.

A BB’er can be happy with getting sore and lactic in the right places. He does not need to care about strength,speed,mobility,technique etc. and to psychologically push himself to new heights with maximum weights. He can employ methods that retard strength development,like lifting fatigued and slowing down a small weight to get that time under tension and the pump.Even partial ROM may be excused. He can switch exercises on and off, if strength in one goes down it’s allright,as long as the target muscles are torn. Just pump out a moderate weight for a while. That’s pretty fun and not stressful at all.

This is not meant to belittle bodybuilding,which I think is cool. Just present the argument for why it seems to me as if it is easier. I’ve seen some BB’s state that they think that it is the hardest sport in the world. Answer what you will.[/quote]

I think you’re missing a few points here. First of all, I can’t for the life of me understand why you talk about getting big while staying lean. Yeah, it’s a ‘healthier’ way to go about BB’ing, but I think most will agree for quicker results, all-out bulk cycles are better for gaining mass, faster. If someone is worried about ‘staying lean’ while bodybuilding, they probably don’t kow shit about bodybuilding or don’t understand what a cutting cycle is.

I don’t see how you can make qualifications that it’s easier than a strength sport. I’ll preface by saying something like this is highly subjective, there is no infallible answer. That being said, it is a completely heinous claim that bodybuilders don’t worry about strength, flexibility, speed, mobility, technique, whatever. All these things can have a very important part of a workout, and any bodybuilder who isn’t working on these components to their health is either ignorant or very fucking stupid. Also, most bodybuilders don’t take a weight they can easily handle for 15 reps. It’s not about ‘moderation,’ it’s about OVERLOAD. Anyone who doesn’t progressively push themselves hard in the weight room is (see answer in italics above.)

The fact is, is that most BB’ers ought to spend 5 or more years developing big strength, through a style that I think should be reminiscent of powerlifting. A lot of people have your logic, though, and I see 150 lb high-school kids in the weight room, doing bullshit exercises with bullshit weight, flexing in the mirror. These are the people that will eventually be happy with their six-pack and tiny bumps in their arms for the beach. Don’t include these people as bodybuilders. Real BB’ers push it to the limit every workout, and if they don’t, they go extra hard the next workout to punish themselves for the last one.

Partial ROMs, switching exercises, and all those things are ‘excused’ because they help stress the muscle and keep variables in the weight room.

19

[quote]Alffi wrote:
What I would say is that the weightlifting part of BB is comparatively easy.[/quote]

You’re a dumbass. I am amazed people let you get this far without informing you of this.

20

[quote]mixinitup123 wrote:
Bodybuilding is definetly a sport. Sportcenter televises highlights from a spelling bee competition. …[/quote]

Bad news for ya bro… making the ESPN highlight reel does NOT classify ANYTHING as a ‘sport’.

I do, however, feel that any activity that pits people against people, is judged, requires ‘talent’, determination and hard work, and there is a winner, is by definition a sport.

We can argue the details 'til the cows come home.

And… no rational person who has ever picked up a weight or gone on a diet with the purpose of changing their body would every call BB’ing ‘easy’. What a useless and senseless way to categorize it.