Which sport complements bodybuilding?

For some athletes, bodybuilding cannot be considered a sport in its own right. For them, for a practice to be considered a sport, it must be able to express itself in competition and call on very precise techniques and rules.

What's more, this practice is only of interest if it is combined with another sport, with a view to improving the practice or performance of that sport.

Practising with another sport

Having practised bodybuilding for a year as part of my Judo training, and then for 19 years as a sport in its own right, I can confirm that bodybuilding is as much a complement as a sport in its own right.

Nowadays, and for several decades now, sportsmen and women of all disciplines have understood that weight training has become an essential part of improving their performance. In fact, by practicing bodybuilding in parallel with their discipline, they can work on muscle strengthening and on muscle groups that are little or less solicited than those linked to their specificity. The aim is to maintain a balance in muscle mass, thereby limiting pathologies and traumas.

A demanding discipline

Specific training of the muscles involved improves resistance, strength and performance.

This makes it an essential part of any athlete's performance.

However, many people consider that bodybuilding alone is more maintenance than sport. And yet, the degree to which it is practised, its objective and all that goes with it make it a genuine sporting discipline.

A sport in its own right

As soon as the objective is to improve performance, transform the physique or even compete, the practitioner is no longer a simple practitioner, and bodybuilding becomes a discipline in its own right, known as weightlifting or bodybuilding.

This change in practice implies a substantial investment of time and energy. Training becomes daily, or even twice-daily in some cases, and is subject to planning.

Practitioners will establish precise training patterns. They'll plan their workouts according to their short-, medium- and long-term objectives.

Rigorous training required

Different techniques will be used for different purposes.

diet will be adapted and planned in line with the objective and/or deadline. This adaptation won't take place over a short period of time, but year-round, because bodybuilding and performance are closely linked to a healthy lifestyle and diet. Physical fitness and performance are certainly a reflection of hours of hard training, but also of the quality of your diet.

Athletes in the most popular disciplines use bodybuilding to complement their own training. Bodybuilding is one of the parameters in the same way as sports nutrition, specific training (techniques directly linked to their discipline) and the planning of their training sessions with a view to achieving their objectives. It's this set of parameters that makes it a sporting discipline.

If we take this principle as a starting point, then we should consider that extreme bodybuilding, which takes into account the different parameters of training planning, the use of specific techniques and a healthy lifestyle (diet, planning of rest periods), is a sport in its own right.

Conclusion

Depending on the athlete's goal, bodybuilding can be either an ideal complement to improving performance in a discipline, or a real discipline in which the athlete seeks to produce a performance (plastic and aesthetic performance, or lifting the heaviest load possible, powerlifting).

It's up to you to decide what you're looking for in bodybuilding!

Author Alexandre CARPENTIER

Bodybuilding Champion N.A.C 2012

Alexandre shares his bodybuilding experience with MegaGear blog readers