Bodybuilders are not to blame. That would be a fitting way to begin this article. A couple of years ago, I happened to read what I thought was a very good article. It discussed the divide between bodybuilding training and strength training, particularly between bodybuilding and functional strength training. I never got around to translating it, but the ideas it raised have stayed with me to this day. I will not bother looking it up now, because as a bodybuilder with a deep respect for powerlifting, I have thoughts of my own to share on the subject.
Bodybuilders, bodybuilding and bodybuilding training have come under plenty of attack. The critics fall into two camps.
There are members of the general public who think bodybuilders may be big, but despite their size, they are very weak. They also see bodybuilders as disgusting narcissists. The same old story, right? These baseless complaints, born of spite or sheer stupidity, no longer bother me, but I cannot stay silent about the criticism coming from the other camp.
There are athletes, and coaches too, who believe bodybuilding training is the worst thing anyone who goes to the gym could possibly do. Let me quickly add that I am not referring to anyone in Estonia in particular. But browse various foreign forums and you will often find a very dismissive attitude toward bodybuilding training.
What is the main argument?
The main argument is that bodybuilding training is highly impractical, is not functional and does nothing to help with everyday activities. Mindless pumping, countless isolation exercises and methods that inflate muscles unnaturally are the worst things you could possibly do in the gym… that is the attitude of quite a few people who weigh in. What can I say to that? Those of us who take this seriously know exactly how we train, how we approach things and which training methods we use to reach our level. Of course, some rely more heavily on leg extensions and leg presses. Others cannot imagine building their legs without squats or lunges. But that is beside the point. I know perfectly well what makes an exercise functional and what functional training means, as, presumably, do those who say bodybuilding training is not functional in any way. I would argue that bodybuilding training, in all its variety, is also highly functional (to what extent is another question), but proving that is not the purpose of this article. What utterly baffles me is why those who stress how impractical bodybuilding training is always forget that making exercises functional or practical is not the goal of bodybuilding training in the first place. Just as a powerlifter, for example, does not earn a trophy or medal for having a bigger or smaller belly, but for the kilograms lifted. The goal of a bodybuilder’s training is to become the man or woman on stage with the biggest, leanest, most striking and well-proportioned muscles. Whether that fifteen-rep set of leg extensions, which effectively stimulates sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, is functional does not interest a single bodybuilder. They do not care, because that is not the goal. Functionality is about functioning: in a sense, being able to perform and get things done. Functional strength training aims to improve performance in particular movement activities (such as sprinting), or further enhance movements with particular characteristics (fast movements) through strength exercises performed using appropriate methods (for example, using fast squats to improve a vertical jump, which already requires rapid contractions). None of this has anything to do with a bodybuilder’s goal.
Although heavy squats often help a bodybuilder gain muscle mass (heavy squats are good for building muscle), absolutely nothing goes wrong if a bodybuilder skips squats and builds their legs with, for example, sets of 50 reps on the leg press. If two people building their legs had the same genetics, but one had gained most of their leg mass through squats and the other through leg presses, it is very likely that the strong squatter would also perform somewhat better in activities requiring speed (jumping, sprinting). For better or worse, knowing this, or even finding it to be true in practice, counts for nothing in a bodybuilding competition. If those legs are good enough (big, with clear muscle separation, lean and bulging with veins) to succeed at European or world-level competitions, it makes no difference whether they were built by doing 5 x 5 with 210 kg or sets of fifty with 3 plates. That is the essence of bodybuilding, and you cannot fault it for that.
The physique is what is judged; what matters is how you look on stage compared with everyone else. The criticism that bodybuilders are weak clearly falls into the same category. If someone were to take that bodybuilder doing leg extensions with 3 plates and put them under a squat barbell, it might indeed turn out that they cannot squat much. Look, the footballer next to them did a set of six with 140 kg, while the bodybuilder only managed four. Of course, the most common comparison is between bodybuilders and powerlifters. Fortunately, this mostly happens only among the general public. “Look, they may be big and muscular, but they cannot lift as much as my uncle did at a powerlifting competition.” But that is a separate topic that deserves a more detailed explanation.
So if a bodybuilder walks up to a shot-putter, discus thrower or powerlifter and asks, “How come you squat so much, yet your legs do not look half as impressive as mine?” it sounds just as silly and stupid as a powerlifter challenging a bodybuilder with, “I may not have leg muscles like yours, but I can still squat a much heavier barbell than you for three reps.”
It is time people understood that bodybuilding training and functional strength training (including powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting) are intended to achieve entirely different goals. True, many of their effects overlap, since both involve training with weights, and the rep ranges overlap to some extent too.
If you see a bodybuilder with 88-centimeter thighs at your local gym endlessly doing leg presses and leg extensions in every leg workout, you have absolutely no right to go over and tell them that what they are doing is wrong or is not functional. If you do, you are the one being stupid.
If a strength exercise that a bodybuilder performs to achieve their main goal (undoubtedly muscle mass) also has functional benefits for many everyday movements, physical abilities or other sports, that is a very good thing. But in terms of the bodybuilder’s training goals and priorities, it is merely a bonus. In much the same way, no powerlifter gives a damn about how they look. If their squat is 380 kg, their bench press is 275 kg and their deadlift is 390 kg, then that is all that matters.
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Come and train! ArtGym
