The Competitive Applications of Weight and Strength Training
Looking at weightlifters in gyms, you might think that they are born to carry heavy equipment for the rest of their lives. However, a look back in time dictates that the sport began years before such facilities existed. The Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks have artifacts that depict weight training objects made out of bags weighted with sand. Although weightlifting is seen as a way to take care of our body, it was more of a means to survive in the past.
Weightlifting Creates Warriors
The benefits of weight training are embraced as a way to facilitate health. The common goals associated with it are losing weight, osteoporosis prevention, strength, agility, mobility, and general fitness. Lifting weights is a proposed way of managing various diabetes, arthritis, and Parkinson’s disease conditions.
Meanwhile, the more established forms of competitive weight training are still popular, including Bodybuilding, Olympic Weightlifting, and Powerlifting. Most people train to improve their health, fitness, and appearance. Another reason is to prepare for sports competitions.
The goal of weight training in sports is to increase the athlete’s performance by building strength, power, and agility. While the best program for this goal is up for debate and depends on a person’s physiology, some trainers favor exercises that mimic dominant movements involved in sports. Other trainers focus on building general strength and power as the foundation for enhanced performance.
Shaping a Warrior’s Body
Aside from being a sport, bodybuilding is also a form of recreation. Competitive bodybuilders develop muscular bodies to the extreme to compete for recognition during formal championships. A bodybuilder’s physique contains low levels of body fat and firm size and shape.
Through a wide range of exercises, they can develop even small muscles to enhance body features further. This form of bodybuilding considers how the body looks more than the weight it can carry.
The Rise of an Olympian
In a competition held every four years, lifting weights is an event of its own. Olympians compete for a gold medal through matches in weightlifting. The sport is highly technical and requires much practice and training for perfection.
Unlike bodybuilders, weightlifters do not have to get their body fat as low as possible to highlight muscle definition. Competitive weightlifters carry more fat at 10 to 15% of body weight. That’s around 6 percent for men.
Where Can I Train?
Gyms and health clubs have facilities for general weight training with free weights and machine weights for gym-goers. Meanwhile, for professional athletes, specialized studios are the best option as they consider the safety precautions required and teams of spotters and handlers.
Conclusion
Unlike other sports, weightlifting, bodybuilding, and powerlifting are less popular. More people should try it out for their health and the way they look. It takes a lot of training to understand why lifting is a beautiful sport. But through gyms and health clubs that offer training programs, hopefully, more people might be encouraged to challenge their bodies and breach their limitations.
Award Winning Fitness offers a top-notch powerlifting training program that takes your skills to the next level. Join us today by signing up on our website. Together, let’s seek to build strength and power.