To this day, there are many people who argue that bodybuilding is not a real sport and that bodybuilders are not real athletes as we allegedly do not display any skill during a competition. However, is this actually the case?
I can tell you from personal experience that it takes great stamina, practice and skill to be able to step onstage and display your muscles in their various bodybuilding poses properly. And even if you are a non-competitive bodybuilder, it takes a lot of skill to perform the various basic exercises required of bodybuilding such as placing a barbell on your shoulders and performing some deep squats. And finally, any bodybuilder (whether competitive or not) needs to have an incredible amount of determination in order to adhere to a rigorous training program, a structured diet and rest schedule day in and day out.
In order to settle this argument, I decided to get the answer from bodybuilding legend, top Olympian and IFBB Pro Bodybuilding Hall of Fame inductee Lee Labrada to see what his thoughts on the subject are. See what Lee had to say about this subject in this week's Bodybuilding FAQ - Is Bodybuilding a Real Sport and Are Bodybuilders Athletes? Also, feel free to comment and share your own opinion on the subject.
Comments
So in order to settle the argument, you went and talked to a ………bodybuilder?? WOW I wonder what his answer is going to be. No bias there at all.
Bodybuilders are not athletes my friend. What bodybuilders do is EXTREMELY difficult, takes tons of determination and strength and hard work, but they are still not athletes.
Posing your muscles during “competition” is not a sport or athletic. And just because something is difficult does not mean it is a sport.
Athletes and athletics require strength, power, aerobic capacity, agility, balance, proprioception and speed. Go watch a hockey player or Olympian at the top level of their sport and then come tell me if bodybuilders are athletes.
This is not a knock on bodybuilders AT ALL. I have all of the respect in the world for them, they are just not athletes.
No its not a sport its posing on stage, We are not tlaking about the preparation for the posing but the actually on stage portion. In that case Beauty pageants, Modeling and any other version is a sport as well because they train and diet prior to getting on stage. Yes we have athletes in BB and Fitness and Figure however becuse of the excessive drugs we will never be truely mainstream and taken serious. If we are a sport why are there no serverance packets, retiement payouts, isurance for injuries etc for the Pros. And how many millionair Por fitness, BB or firgure are there out there my friend. The only ones getting rich are Joe Weider, Ben Weider, Arnold , the suppliment companies but not the competitors
bodybuilding is not a sport. It may be a tough thing to do and requires genetics, drive, disclipline and hard work. But what athleticisim do the demonstrate. Posing is only hard because they are so dehydrated they are on the brink of death. they dont try to out lift soneone, they dont run, jump or catch anything. there is no contact or talent involved at all. i have been training and bodybuilding myself for 20 years. and i consider it more of a hobby or a competition than a sport. there is no money involved for the thousands of hours put into it. baseball, football, hockey, basketball etc… minimum pay for a benchwarmer is hundreds of thousands for a season. but they display a talent that not everyone has. Ever been to a bodybuilding show? Most competitors look average and maybe display some muscle but most are guys and girls that feel good at how they look and want to show it off.
Powerlifting, olympic lifting is a sport because you are demonstrating strength that not everyone can do. You either lift it or you dont. Bodybuilders when they loose all blame the judges and cry because they should have won. Its a joke.
Well to even argue that bodybuilding is a sport is ridiculous itself! Anyone with determination can go do curls for two hours and then go home and drink a grip load of protein and take some steroids. Honestly bodybuilders are weak, I work out with 2 of them at my gym with this trainer and they can’t handle the explosive workouts because they’re not athletic at all! I play football and basketball and the guys that are buff in these sports are all natural of they roid because it’s extremely hard to get big when your active. So my point is that they are umathletic and just do weak workouts that i did in 7th grade weight training and just eat a lot and drink a lot of protein
Hugo,
Interesting article, I think a lot of it depends on how you define sports and athletes. I remember Kenny Powers, a character on the show ‘Eastbound and Down’ who is a former pro baseball pitcher was speaking to a triathlete and said ‘I play real sports, not trying to be the best at excercising.’ The statement speaks to the fact that the definitions of sport are somewhat subjective, and I’ve always thought of bodybuilding as more of a performance than a sport. One of the reasons for this is that the winners are selected by judging and this lends a good amount of subjectivity to it all. While I agree that it takes stamina, practice and skill to be a bodybuilder, that’s not a necessary criteria for a sport. Professional wrestlers (ie Hulk Hogan, Dwayne ‘the rock’ Johnson) needed stamina, practice and skill to do what they did but it doesn’t make it a sport.
Why does it matter whether bodybuilding is a sport?
If bodybuilders are athletes, then so are models.
The act of lifting weights to build and sculpt your body is a sport, simply because you are expending a huge amount of energy in the form of working your body’s muscles, and every workout is a game of this sport where your opponent is yourself. Your body itself is your opponent because you are battling its natural inclination to not resist the weight. Hence the term resistance training.
On the other hand a bodybuilding competition is NOT a sport because it is simply an event where muscularity of individuals is ranked. Therefore it is a ranking event and nothing more.
they are not ethletes but they are practicing a kind of sport.
Bodybuilding is a sport it takes proper nutrition heavy lifting hours of hard work and sacrifice we bodybuilders r athlets anyone not agree try what we do bet u can’t hang with 100 rep workouts so put up or shut up