When asked, “what do you like better? Powerlifting or Bodybuilding?” My response is usually, “I prefer the Powerlifting community.” There are things about each “sport” that I enjoy (or I wouldn’t do either). But as far as the people involved, I do prefer the powerlifters over the bodybuilders. They, or perhaps I should say, “we” are still less “mainstream.” Powerlifting meets offer more to their athlete’s than bodybuilding shows. Your peers and competition seem to really want you to do well and to grow stronger. In Bodybuilding, even those that want to see you do good, usually don’t want to see you do as good or better than them. Powerlifting I have met some people that I genuinely love. Same with bodybuilding but I found I had to sift through a lot of people I generally don’t particularly care for before I found them. In powerlifting, I found influencers that want to change the world and make big impacts for others. Where in Bodybuilding I have found that most people are only out for themselves.
Then there is the commercialization. Bodybuilding is inundated with it. Bodybuilders have turned into cheesy salesmen that will put their name on anything to try to seem popular and/or important. Watering down the integrity of the sport. In my short time in Powerlifting, I’m saddened to watch it happening in our community already.
Successful, well respected, even idolized athlete’s staring blankly at their phone camera’s repping products that they don’t actually use, and if they do they know damn well they don’t work. This makes me really sad. Can’t we just be athletes? I mean can’t we just lift and share trade secrets without selling ourselves out?
I started in Bodybuilding during a time before the internet. We couldn’t wait till the season started so we could see our fellow underground friends. We called one another and trained together, sharing trade secrets and helping one another get bigger, stronger, leaner. We posed. We were artists meeting in the rusty, sweaty, old school dank gyms creating art together using blood, sweat, and tears. Not bogus products that are mostly manufactured in the same manufacturing plant. Same shit. Different label. One of the worst things that happened to the art of Bodybuilding is it started selling sex and over the counter snake oils. It’s made for a very fake, commercial shitty atmosphere. My fears of Powerlifting shifting focus is happening right before my very eyes.
Just when I thought I found a safe place to find my true self, I am watching a repeat of what happened to my first love, Bodybuilding. This really saddens me. I don’t want another amazing sport to become tainted and corrupt as bodybuilding has. I also ask that those of you following people trying to sell you anything other than a belief in yourself to consider if that’s who you want to emulate. It’s not for me. If you happen to be one of these misled individuals, you are a brand. You are lessening yourself to benefit a company that does not care about you or your best interests. Stop pitching the piles of crap these cons are producing!! It makes you look bad and it’s very damaging to the individuals in your sport who look up to you if you. It makes you untrustworthy. People look up to you. It's your responsibility to direct people in the right direction. Please stop selling yourself short and embarrassing yourselves. Unless you've truly had an experience with something that has made a substantial difference in your performance, please, stop looking like cheesy salespeople and get back to the essence of our sport. Which, I love because it empowers people. Remember why you started.
