By: Ford Wilder
To start, there are many types of weightlifting which have different focuses.
The main two are athlete training and hypertrophy aka bodybuilding training. Hypertrophy training focuses on improving the physical appearance of one’s body, while athlete lifting focuses on improving a person’s physical abilities. I believe that athlete training is better and here is why.
First, many athletes don’t receive the correct guidance and lift in the best way possible. This is because they either did not listen to their school’s strength coach on whats best, or they don’t realize they should be training for athletic abilities and not just their appearance. I fell victim to this before I understood the importance of training like an athlete. I did athletic lifts my school strength coach had us do and I listened to him. But outside of school lifts, I found myself at the local gym lifting purely for aesthetics(appearance). I firmly believe in going the athlete lifting route because I saw the changes in my athletic performance once I started to train like athletes are meant to. Not only that but my physical appearance even got a lot better. I would more than likely be more filled out if I kept training for appearance, but I would not have gotten any more athletic.
Next off, I also think that training to become more athletic is more enjoyable than bodybuilding. I can do many more dynamic movements that include plyometrics, med ball slams, sprints, etc. By doing this my body is a lot more flexible and my range of motion and explosiveness continue to increase unlike those who train for aesthetics. Hypertrophy weightlifting consists of many isolated movements where a person is sitting down in almost every exercise. This is because it allows for a greater stretch and isolation of the muscle which will allow for muscle fibers to more efficiently tear and grow back bigger. But by doing this I noticed I was a lot stiffer, and my athletic movements were about as fluids. This is why athletes should stick to training for abilities and not appearance. Also, many people believe you do not build muscle unless you lift for hypertrophy. This is completely false. Athlete training consists of many exercises to build muscle and become more explosive at the same time. I saw the results myself being on an athlete-based training program. I built plenty of muscle all the while becoming more athletic.
Ultimately, if you are an athlete I do not think it is even a question of whether a person should hypertrophy or athlete train. The benefits of athlete lifting far outweigh those of hypertrophy training. I believe lifting in the correct style can make or break an athlete’s performance.
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