Fitness and Body Building
There are statistics that show that, after years of training in bodybuilding, many of the persons who practiced this sport turned to fitness and bodybuilding. The reasons for this change are different, from the most common ones, like the boredom which intervenes at a certain time, to health problems.
It is well-known that bodybuilding training of the anaerobic type is very demanding. In most cases, aerobic programs are avoided because sportsmen are afraid of losing muscular mass.
Another disadvantage of bodybuilding training is the fact that sportsmen have to work a lot with their chest blocked, in apnea, because of the great weights they use for increasing their muscles.
The respiratory blocking during the forced effort is also known as the Valsalva phenomenon and it was initially studied in the case of weightlifters. Applying this technique can have consequences, in time, rising blood pressure, low blood feedback through the veins, varicose veins, etc. It is obvious that because of the aging process, the blood veins become more rigid, a process favored by arteriosclerosis which appears to younger and younger people. The elasticity of the walls of these blood vessels decreases, so while making force effort with really heavyweights, the sportsmen are in danger of having a stroke, because the vessels can break. This risk is much smaller in fitness. The weights used in this sport are small or medium, because the purpose of doing this sport is not a spectacular hypertrophy of the muscles, but fortifying, putting into relief and reshaping the muscles.
Another advantage of fitness is a richer and more varied area of exercise, inspired by the complex training of bodybuilding but also of many other sports. For example, we find in fitness plyometrics exercises used in athletics, gymnastics, weightlifting, fight sports, etc. These programs have as consequence the forming of much more functional muscles, which can cope with demanding situations in real life, not only with posing during bodybuilding contests.
Because there is no obsession for muscles, aerobic training can be introduced in the programs. Its advantages are: making the blood vessel walls more elastic, decreasing cholesterol, and making excellent prophylaxis of cardiovascular diseases.
Time is another factor that must be considered. While in fitness and body building the simplest divided program requires a minimum of four weekly pieces of training, in fitness, where all or most of the muscle groups are exercised during one training, three non-consecutive days a week are enough. The aerobic exercises can be done either in the free days or in addition to the training in the gym, in this case, the total time of training being of one hour and a half at most.
Passing from bodybuilding to fitness does not have as a consequence significant loss of muscular mass, even if the volume of the muscles is diminished. Anyway, the fortifying and relief of the muscles are not lost. This small loss is fully compensated by the advantages of practicing much more complex exercises and, why not admit, much safer for the health of the people.
