I often hear people say " I don't lift weights because I don't want to get bulky"; this fear seems to be based on the appearance of body-builders especially women. This often leads me down the road of differentiating the 3 different weightlifting sports and the physical adaptation that takes place in people who compete in these sports. The three sports I am talking about are: body-building, Olympic lifting, and power lifting. I am going to give a little bit of an idea of what is contested in each of these sports and link a few videos of each sport in order to allow you the reader to see the difference.
I will start off with the most widely known in the United States which is body-building. Body-builders tend to "target" muscles to work on. This is done through various techniques involving free weights as well as machines in order to isolate certain muscles. The end goal for body-builders is to be as muscular, lean, and proportionate as possible. Body-builders will often have very large upper bodies as a v-shape is judged favorably. I have provided a few examples of bodybuilders below.
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| Arnold Schwarzenegger |
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| Sarah Dunlap |
One thing that I also think is important to keep in mind when looking at many body builders is that steroid use is very prevalent in the sport. Coupled with high rates of steroid usage is the long term commitment these people put into their training; years not months of consistent never miss a training day type of training.
Next I would like to talk about power lifting and olympic weightlifting. I am going to group these two together as the rep range for training is fairly similar and the end game is the same, be as strong as possible. The difference between these two sports is the lifts which they do for competition. Power lifting competitions are comprised of three lifts which are often termed the "slow" lifts; the lifts used are the deadlift, squat, and bench press. In olympic lifting only two lifts are contested which are the clean and jerk and the snatch; these lifts are often referred to as the classic lifts. I have provided some pictures of athletes from both sports both male and female below.
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| Pyrros Dimas World Record Snatch (Olympic Lifting) |
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| Female Back Squatting (Powerlifting) |
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| Marilou Dozois-Prévost Snatching at 2008 Beijing Olympics |
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| Cody Lefever Deadlifting (Powerlifting) |
The above pictures show highly competitive athletes in their respective weightlifting sports with Pyrros Dimas being arguably the best weightlifter ever. These men and women have a high amount of muscle tone and extraordinary strength but do not possess the insane vein popping muscles of a pro body builder. I hope this encourages you to look further into the training methods which will give you the body that you are looking for. Regardless of your goal in mind their is a training protocol that can help you get there.
If you have further questions on how the training protocols of these elite athletes can help you meet your goals feel free to call me at 801-448-5692, email me at dsackettfitness@gmail.com, or leave a question below.
