Within the weight game, what are the differences between bodybuilding, powerlifting, and strongman?
Often people think that bodybuilding, powerlifting, and strongmen train the same way to achieve their goals. While at the core we all use weight training as a base, the way we train and the ends to which we aim are often worlds apart.
Bodybuilding
Bodybuilders are attempting to create massive muscles and, when in peak condition, reduce their body fat to unheard of levels. While there are many different theories on the most effective way to achieve this, most bodybuilders take a similar approach. They perform multiple sets of compound exercises (like the bench press, squat, and deadlift) in combination with isolation exercises (the chest fly, leg extension, and lateral raise). The base of the training will have them perform reps in the 12-15 range and try to create growth in the muscles. Strength is a side effect of what they do, not the main goal. As a result, bodybuilders are not as strong as they appear even though they are much stronger than the average person.
Additionally, bodybuilders subject themselves to a dieting period before every contest in an attempt to lose as much fat as possible. They eat low calorie diets and do long periods of cardiovascular exercise. At the contest, they may look their best, but physically, they are at their weakest.
Powerlifting
Powerlifters focus on competing at 3 specific lifts; the bench press, back squat, and deadlift. During a contest a lifter will have three attempts at each in order to lift their maximum weight one time. These lifters then add the sum of their best successful attempt from each of the three lifts to get their total. The lifter with the best three-lift total is the winner. Most powerlifters do the majority of their lifts focusing on the three main lifts with little variety. There is little reason for them to train more than five repetitions and as a result they their joints often develop stress related problems.
A sub-category in powerlifting is the specialist. That lifter will often take a minimum on two of the lifts for the day and focus all their energy on the other one. Typically, they are the best of the day for that specific lift.
Strongman
Originating as a way to test which athletes from different disciplines were the strongest in the world, the sport of strongman has evolved into its own, unique animal. The first few World's Strongest Man contests pitted Olympic lifters, bodybuilders, powerlifters, football players, and others against each other, testing them with lifting common, everyday objects. HEAVY common, everyday objects.
Strongman is a sport that takes the raw static strength of powerlifting and combines it with motion. It borrows from the Scottish Highland Games and old time feats of super-human strength. A competent strongman will have the size of a bodybuilder, the one rep strength of a powerlifter, and the muscular endurance and athletic agility of a football player.
A contest will have five or more events that are designed to test the overall abilities of a competitor. A strongman might be called to press a modified log over head for maximum repetitions, carry a safe or tombstone for distance, load kegs into the bed of a truck, pull a semi for a set distance, or load boulders on platforms. The unusual tasks mean the athlete must have exceptional back and abdominal strength along with total physical conditioning.
Weightlifting
Often referred to as Olympic lifting, this discipline sees the athlete compete in only two different lifts: the clean and jerk, and the snatch. The clean and jerk requires competitors to take the bar from the ground and "clean" it to their chest. From there, they must lock it out over their head in one fluid, explosive motion called "the jerk". The second lift, the snatch, is similar to the clean and jerk, but instead of cleaning the bar up to their chest, the athlete must move the bar from the floor to a lockout position above his head in one motion. When you consider that most of the Olympic level competitors are doing these lifts with close to twice their body weight, it is truly amazing and awe-inspiring to watch.
While they only perform two different lifts, the technique required to develop the skills necessary to move a respectable weight through their means takes decades to perfect. Generally speaking, these guys are the most explosive athletes on earth.
Still, one question always arises: "Who is stronger?" This question is extremely difficult to answer because of the differences between the various definitions of strength. A top level powerlifter going head to head with a strongman would probably have the higher three-lift powerlifting total, but would, most likely, lose all the strongman events. The human body adapts specifically to the stress applied to it. Since a strongman practices events, he gets better at them; the same with a powerlifter. In my opinion a strongman has the best overall body strength out of any athlete. Due to that fact alone, they are the strongest and most amazing strength athletes you will see.
Posted by Ben Hanson at 11:31 AM