Bodybuilding is slightly different to just going into the gym to train for strength, power and fitness, although it does encompass these things. Bodybuilding is generally defined as using weight training as a mechanism to change your body appearance. Now the word bodybuilding invokes images of giant muscular men with their clothes tearing in places that they don't normally tear, but this doesn't necessarily have to be the case, in fact that level of muscular development required years of dedicated and highly specialized training and nutrition to achieve. Here are a couple of the pros and cons of bodybuilding, so you can decide if it is a path you would like to try.
Advantages
1. Firstly, bodybuilding allows you to gain or lose body weight at will when used in conjunction with diet. It is relatively easy for over or underweight people to attain a more 'normal' build by being disciplined and following good weight training workouts and dietary advice.
2. It is possible to develop quite large amounts of strength in a relatively short amount of time when you work-out using weights. The added weight causes your body to adapt much quicker than if you were simply performing repetitive tasks. The extra strength you gain can become quite valuable in the course of your daily life for a number of reasons. Your daily tasks can become much easier, and the extra strength you now have is handy to have in case of emergencies or unexpected tasks. Having strong limbs and good core strength will likely help you avoid injuries, serious and minor, including back and shoulder problems.
3. Bodybuilding allows you to isolate and target any muscle group, regardless of how small or large they might be. This means that you can target and train your lower back if you find that you get fatigued in the lower back when at work, which could lead to injury. Alternatively you could increase the size and strength of your arms if you need added strength to be better at a particular sport. This is different to general fitness training, which provides smaller more general improvements across the entire body.
4. You won't outgrow your equipment, as you might do when you do calisthenics. No I don't mean you outgrow your body, I mean that for calisthenics you are restricted to using your body weight, and once your body has adapted to this load it is hard to see further muscular and strength improvements. With bodybuilding, you simply add more weight to the dumbbell, barbells or weight machines to force your body to grow and adapt.
Disadvantages
So there are a couple of disadvantages you might want to consider before undertaking bodybuilding exercises, just to make sure that it is what you are looking for:
1. The first disadvantage is that bodybuilding is quite repetitive and can become boring, especially if you follow the same program for a long period of time. If you change your training program regularly though, the boredom is reduced. Furthermore, the more you progress into bodybuilding, the more detailed and specific your workouts will become which keeps the boredom at bay as well, as you're constantly monitoring tweaking and improving your training programs.
2. If you're looking for cardiovascular fitness, bodybuilding isn't ideal for this. You will actually need to perform targeted endurance training to improve this. While bodybuilding is primarily concerned with building muscle, advanced bodybuilders still actually add quite a lot of cardiovascular exercise to their programs I order to minimize body fat and appear ripped.
There you have it, some of the main pros and cons of bodybuilding. If you think that bodybuilding is something that you would like to try, simply visit your local gym and see what facilities they have available and advice they can give you.
Alexi has studied and worked in the health and fitness industry for over 10 years and specializes in health, lifestyle and fitness topics. Alexi has a number of websites that provide valuable information on equipment that helps you get the most out of your training sessions. You can read all about weight lifting gloves for women at his website about Harbinger Gloves.
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