6 Types of Weight Training

Though I only made drastic progress in getting fit during my last three years, I have been a fan of weightlifting for practically all my life.

As a teenager and I would religiously read Muscle and Fitness magazine.

I can still remember the first time I saw and bought my first Muscle and Fitness magazine. It was in the late 70’s and I was a huge fan of Lou Ferrigno who was playing the Incredible Hulk on TV. I saw him on the cover of the magazine on a cover of Muscle and fitness and started reading the magazine for the next 10 or more years.

I read about the great bodybuilders of that era; Arnold Swarzenager, Franco Columbo, Frank Zane, Rachel Mclish and Cory Everson.

Of course reading about it and following through with action is two different things. If only I had the wisdom back then to do what I am doing now.

I would weight lift, but never consistent enough. I wrote notes that I still have, but I never learned to apply the balanced diet that was needed to see my body really change like it has now.

The good thing about all the reading I did back then was it stuck with me so that once I really made the necessary diet changes I have now made, the knowledge of how to build my body is already available to me.

You have a choice

There are actually a lot of different ways to strengthen your body. In this article I am going to give a very brief overview of the various disciplines of strength building.

Not everyone is the same. Each person is driven to achieve their own goals. Hopefully this article will help you decide what you want to pursue and how you ought to carry out that goal.

There are actually 6 ways you can go about building your muscles and strength. One may appeal to you, but something else may appeal to others.

The six systems of strength building are Calisthenics, Bodybuilding, Powerlifting, Olympic lifting, Strongman, and Crossfit. Here is the breakdown.

Calisthenics

All of us were introduced to Calisthenics as a child in school. Push ups, sit ups and jumping jacks were taught to all of us in our PE class.

This is really a foundational strength building style that really stays with us throughout our lives.

No equipment is necessary, you can use your own body weight to get a good workout. This is my wife’s preference when she exercises.

You can either come up with your own workout or find a group to join. There are gyms that offer group sessions such as boot camp training which is a combination of calisthenics, aerobics and stretching that a lot of people like to do.

If you don’t want to be sociable in the gym and want to workout at home, especially during these days of Covid-19, DVD workouts such as PX90 offer a very good Calisthenics workout.

Bodybuilding

When one thinks about bodybuilding the first thing that pops into the mind of most are those massive musclebound men and women who compete onstage. There muscles are so large that they have lost all mobility.

The truth is these musclebound Bodybuilders are the extreme of the sport. Bodybuilding is simply the idea of shaping the body into the best shape you can.

Back in the 90’s there was an exercise show called Bodyshaping. Fitness athletes such as Cory Everson and Kiana Tom would teach how to properly do exercises and encourage others to follow their example.

What they taught was not to get big and massive, instead the idea was to tone and become a healthy fit person.

The average person will never get super massive through weightlifting unless they are genetically gifted or they use drugs that can have harmful side effects.

I personally love bodybuilding, but my ideal shape is nothing like the massive ones that you see.

To me, the ideal physic is the old bodybuilders from the 50’s before steroids came into popular use. Individuals such as Steve Reeves, who starred in several Italian Hercules movies had the type of body I’m striving towards.

Bodybuilding could also be called body shaping or body sculpting because the main goal is growing and shaping muscles rather than obtaining strength. Sure you get stronger, but the real goal is to work all your muscles at various angles so that they become more visible.

To accomplish this goal bodybuilders will workout 4 to 6 times a week and generally they do a variety of exercises where they can handle 8-10 reps per set and do multiple sets to encourage growth.

Powerlifting

Powerlifting’s goal is pure power, not appearance. If you want to train your body to lift insane amounts of weight then Powerlifting is what you want to do.

Powerlifting competitions consist of just three lifts: the Bench press, the Squat and the Deadlift.

These are the three exercises that are the core of any type of workout, but for the powerlifter this is it.

There are a couple of warnings if you want to pursue powerlifting.

First, if this is what you want to do, find a partner. Never do this alone. In bodybuilding you are using moderate weights that you can handle or control for several reps, but in powerlifting you are using much heavier weights for a single rep. If you can’t handle that much weight you can be in trouble really quick if you don’t have a spotter.

Second, using as much weight as powerlifters do can put a strain on joints like the knees. Make sure to take precautions to protect your joints with the appropriate wraps.

Both of these reasons are why I never pursued powerlifting. First, I tend to workout by myself and secondly after being overweight most of my life I have weak knees which wouldn’t mix well with powerlifting.

Typically a powerlifter works out 3 to 4 times a week doing sets of 1 to 6 reps with as heavy weight is possible.

The next three I’m not as familiar with but here is what I can tell you about them.

Olympic Lifting

Olympic lifting is similar but not the same as powerlifting. Powerlifting deals with pure strength, but Olympic lifting takes power which is a combination of strength and speed.

There are two lifts in Olympic lifting, the barbell snatch and the barbell clean and jerk.

These two exercises require speed and momentum to accomplish the movements and looks nothing like what happens in powerlifting.

Also, it looks nothing like bodybuilding because you are using momentum to lift the weight when a bodybuilder tries to limit momentum to work the muscle.

Strongman

Strongman competitions can be interesting to watch. They remind you of by gone days when communities would get together a couple hundred years ago and the strongest men in the town would compete by throwing logs or picking up stone.

The strongman competitions are growing in popularity because it can be very entertaining to watch. Competitors not only have to lift heavy object but they have to carry or pull the object certain distances while racing against others doing the same.

If you have a competitive spirit this may be something you might be interested in check out.

Crossfit

Crossfit and other brands such as HIIT (high intensity interval training) and boot camp training use a combination of aerobics, calisthenics and with Crossfit Olympic style lifting to create a high intensity workout that burns fat and builds muscle.

These type workout usually occur in a group setting so if you are a social person who would like some support in your fitness journey this could very easily be the route you might want to explore.

One good thing about this is the only motivation you really need for programs like this is to show up. Your instructor is there to help you with the motivation to get the job done.

So there you have a basic idea of your options when it comes to building strength and muscles. Hopefully, if you don’t have a favorite muscle building activity already, you may get an idea of what you want to try.

As always have a wonderful and blessed day.