Lifting weights ≠ bodybuilding

Stop equating going to the gym — or any other strength-training endeavour — with bodybuilding. There are many ways and training methods you can use while lifting weights, and they yield many different outcomes. Bodybuilding is just one of those outcomes.

Bodybuilding is a sport that uses lifting weights to achieve a certain athletic outcome. It requires every muscle in the body to reach a certain size and to appear distinct from the joint or the muscle next to it. It also requires very little body fat, since fat hides muscle.

And it’s just as good as any other sport. Pursue it if you enjoy it, ignore it if you don’t. The tools of bodybuilding are lifting weights, stretching, running, swimming, cycling, yoga and effective meal planning. Bodybuilders — and plenty of others, actors and sportspeople among them — use those same tools to build what we perceive as an athletic physique. (Athletes can look very different from one another, carrying varying levels of body fat.)

You don’t need to become a bodybuilder, want to become a bodybuilder, or even train like a bodybuilder. Being averse to lifting weights, or even to performing basic bodyweight exercises, is akin to me vomiting violently every time I walk on grass because I loathe golf. The feeling is irrational — I don’t even understand the sport. But my distaste doesn’t stop me from enjoying grass, or from swinging objects for fun or for work.

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