Thanks to organizations like CrossFit, Hookgrip, and the general increase in physical culture, the sport of Weightlifting is on the rise. But there are still a lot of misconceptions about Weightlifting. Let’s take a look: Myth #1: Weightlifting is Powerlifting is Bodybuilding There are a group of sports called “Strength Sports” which include: Weightlifting, Powerlifting, Bodybuilding, Strongman, Heavy Athletics and Throwing, and CrossFit. They all share certain qualities, much like the way football, baseball, and basketball all share similar qualities. But the general public tends to lump all these sports together, despite them being very distinct from one another. If you’re just someone who likes to exercise to stay fit, I don’t expect you to know the difference, but there’s cringeworthy amount of “fit pros,” Bodybuilders and Powerlifters that don’t even really know the difference. Each sport has its own skills, rules, and competition, being good at one doesn’t necessarily mean you’d be good at another. Back in the day when Bodybuilding and Powerlifting were first coming on to the scene, it wasn’t uncommon for athletes to compete in multiple strength sports. In fact, originally in Bodybuilding you would have to also compete in Weightlifting or Powerlifting to earn points. As time went on, and competition got tougher and tougher, athletes began to dedicate themselves to one or the other to maximize their results. Today there are few people who compete in more than one with extreme success. Take a look at the collage below to see each athlete in their element. Notice they’re all performing different skills, and have varying body types.

Myth #2: It’s called “Olympic Weightlifting” If you hear someone refer to the sport of Weightlifting as “Olympic Weightlifting,” “Olympic Lifting” or “Oly Lifting,” you can be sure that the person  probably has little-to-no first hand experience with the sport. The sport is called Weightlifting. Of course this drives Powerlifters and Bodybuilders nuts, who want to insist that they are “Weightlifters,” but just training with weights is not the same as the sport of Weightlifting. In fact, the IOC (international Olympic committee) recently went on a cease and desist spree for any gym or business calling it “Olympic” Weightlifting, as they own rights to that word. If you want to learn more about why we don’t call it “Olympic” Weightlifting click here. If you’re a Powerlifter, say you’re a Powerlifter, if you’re a Bodybuilder, say you’re a Bodybuilder, but if you don’t compete in Weightlifting, don’t say you’re a Weightlifter. Myth #3: Weightlifting is complicated Go read just about any op-ed or technical article about the sport, and you’re likely to find an opening statement mentioning how technically challenging the snatch and clean & jerk are. It’s true that they have technical components, but I’d argue no more than a lot of other sports such as golf, or even baseball. The difference is, many sports rooted in sound technique are taught at a young age, and have structured instruction and progression through schools and other programs. While Weightlifting has been around for a very long time, it’s in its infancy of popularity and growth. Many people coming in to the sport are adults with full time jobs, and injuries from previous sporting careers. What other technical skills do you pick up as an adult? Is playing the guitar the most technically challenging thing in the world? No, but as an adult you’d probably still struggle with it a bit for the first few years, especially if you weren’t learning in a formal setting. Many people don’t have access to a good Weightlifting coach so they follow online programs or videos. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to realize it could be a slight handicap. Myth #4: Weightlifting will make you bulky Despite speed, technique, and flexibility being a big part of the sport, it’s still mostly about being really strong. With that said, bigger muscles do not mean stronger muscles. This is a difficult concept for people not involved in coaching to understand. Without getting too much into the science of it, Weightlifting is largely dependent on your nervous system and how efficiently it works. While most people will get stronger if they grow bigger muscles, that’s not the ONLY way to get stronger AND it’s not an option for a Weightlifter since there are weight classes. There is a point of diminishing returns with growing bigger muscles as a means to get stronger, and if you weigh too much, you’re going to be competing against people who have bigger frames and can handle more muscle with more efficiency. The smallest weight class in Weightlifting is the women’s 48kg(106lbs!). These women lift some seriously impressive weights, and often don’t have physiques that would make you think they work out, nevermind compete in a strength sport. Check out the photo of America’s tiniest Weightlifting Champion, Morghan King. She can put 200lbs+ overhead, more than double her body weight. If you think she’s too muscular, you have a seriously distorted idea of what a healthy body looks like.

Myth #5: Weightlifters aren’t strong To be fair, this is only a foolish belief held by a small group of people in Powerlifting. There are a handful of coaches NOT involved in Weightlifting that espouse this idea as if it were fact, but to quote a random person the internet, regarding this topic: The solution always seems simple when you’re ignorant of the problem. Many people argue that American Weightlifters spend too much time worrying about technique, and not enough time working on being strong. In Powerlifting, you really only have one physical attribute you need to worry about developing: maximal strength. Unfortunately, there a variety of skills and attributes needed in Weightlifting to be successful, and simply being “maximally strong” isn’t necessarily going to help. What does that mean? You could increase your strength in the squat, deadlift, press, etc… and not see any positive return on snatch and C&J…which is where it matters since those are the competition lifts. Elite level Weightlifters are some of the best athletes on the planet, and while they may not squat or deadlift as much as Powerlifters or Strongman competitors, that’s a product of them not needing to, and I have no doubt that if many of them made the transition to other strength sports, where their focus could be on those things, they would do very well for themselves. Here is American Weightlifter and 3x Olympian Kendrick Farris squatting 270kg(594lbs) for a set of 5. Note that he doesn’t use any assistance equipment like in Powerlifting such as knee wraps or a belt (which will add 5-15%). Using a 1RM calculator that puts his theoretical 1RM some where around 685lbs. Figure in 5% if he used wraps and a belt, that puts him at 720lbs. That’s nearly 90% of the American record in his weight class in Powerlifting. A lot of math, and what ifs…but you get the point, Weightlifters are strong as heck. It’s also worth noting that Weightlifters squat deeper than Powerlifters or Strongmen, a point that people in the latter camps always say doesn’t matter. Anyone who has taken a high school physics class knows that it does. It takes greater energy to move the same load a greater distance. I won’t begrudge Powerlifters for squatting only as deep as necessary for their competition, but having the ability to squat big weight through a full range of motion does deserve extra respect.