What is the difference between fitness and bodybuilding? This question is very often asked not only by beginners who come to a fitness club for the first time, but also by more experienced visitors who try, but still cannot find this fine line between these types of physical activity. In this article we will try to understand how they differ, what goals they set for themselves, what target audience they are designed for, as well as some other related issues.
Introduction
In order to understand the difference between fitness and bodybuilding, we will first need to consider each of these concepts separately. This must be done based on the considerations that very often people who visit a fitness club claim that they are engaged in bodybuilding, although in fact what they are doing is the most natural fitness. In this case, you will wonder - maybe it’s all about the load? Or maybe in the duration of the workout? Or is it all about intensity? Yes and no and more. However, let's figure it out.
Let's start with the fact that both fitness and bodybuilding have the goal of working on your own body. Initially, fitness arose as a lightweight alternative to bodybuilding. Fitness literally translated in English means fitness or conformity. This is a kind of health-improving physical training system that helps maintain a healthy lifestyle. Well, you say, doesn’t bodybuilding pursue the same goals? Absolutely true, but as I said a little earlier, in a basic sense, fitness differs from bodybuilding in a more simplified approach, that is, lower requirements for the training process as a whole.
If the main goal of bodybuilding is to build large amounts of muscle, and the essence of, for example, sports related to bodybuilding is the number of kilograms lifted, then the goal of fitness is to achieve muscle tone, a fit figure, visual attractiveness and an athletic physique. By the way, even more differences are noticeable in competitive fitness, where the difference between fitness and bodybuilding lies in the absence of excessive muscularity and, especially, vascularity, which manifests itself due to a strict diet and, above all, drying the body.
Content Matrix Example
In the sports niche, it is important to take into account both “evergreen” topics and events, issues, and nuances that are relevant for a specific period. The first includes exercises, principles of PP, selection of equipment. The second includes what is important right now, but will go away later: the peculiarities of classes at a specific time of year, during quarantine, and the like.
At the same time, you need to maintain a balance between different types of publications. As a sample, you can use our table - a content matrix for a fitness trainer for two weeks.
Content matrix for a fitness trainer
Content plan template
What is the difference between fitness and bodybuilding?
The origin of fitness was due to several reasons. First of all, what is important for understanding these reasons, the birthplace of fitness, as well as bodybuilding itself, is the United States of America. We are talking about this because the first reason for the emergence of fitness was the mass obesity of the American population. The fast food culture imposed by widespread advertising has always had a huge influence on the American population, which, along with the concept of consumption, has led to uncontrolled obesity in the nation, with which something urgently needed to be done. The problem of obesity was so acute that programs for the development and popularization of fitness in the initial stages were sponsored directly by the state itself.
The second reason for the emergence of fitness is bodybuilding itself, or rather the competitive part of it, which has a negative reputation due to anabolic steroids. This is the most natural scourge of bodybuilding, with which no one has been able to do anything over many years of struggle. The thing is that the main goal of bodybuilding is precisely to build large muscle volumes. And since the means by which this goal is achieved are limited only by considerations of ethics and humanity, which are not familiar to many bodybuilders, what happens is what happens to most competing athletes, if not everyone uses steroids. Fitness, in turn, does not set such a goal for itself, which means that all sense of using steroids disappears.
The third reason for the emergence of fitness, as an easier variation of bodybuilding, is professional competitive female bodybuilding. If the previous paragraph discussed the problem of using anabolic steroids in general, then a separate problem is the use of steroids by women. It's all about the nature of their action. If a man tends to look muscular, even if this muscularity is excessive, then a woman obviously doesn’t like huge volumes of muscles, but the matter doesn’t stop there. The nature of the action of steroids on the female body is such that they cause irreversible changes in it, which methodically turn a woman into a man, which causes a disgusting and repulsive impression.
The fourth reason that distinguishes fitness from bodybuilding is the desire of both the state and numerous federations to instill in the broad masses the cult of a healthy lifestyle. This is also realized through the creation by the same bodybuilding federations of more simplified versions of competitions, in which less stringent requirements are imposed on athletes. Thus, in women's bodybuilding in 2011, the category of fitness bikini was introduced, which values a toned figure, a rounded butt and minimal muscularity. And in 2012, a mens-physical category was introduced for men, in which it is enough just to have an athletic physique.
Category “Muscle gain”
Within which you will become acquainted with the following articles:
- “How to build muscles at home?” – you will learn how to progress faster at minimal cost than your friends from elite fitness clubs!
- “Muscle recovery after training” - you will learn why proper recovery is no less important in bodybuilding than training. Practical schemes and methods of restoration at the link above!
- “Stretching after a workout” is about how stretching affects muscle growth, health and attractiveness.
- “Latissimus dorsi” – we study methods of training a muscle that allows you to create a wide, powerful back, behind which you can hide anything and anyone.
- “Calf training – various options” – methods of training the calves that will allow you to “break through” the stagnation in the progress of this capricious muscle.
- “Overtraining - symptoms, treatment, prevention” is an overview of a disease that all athletes should avoid. We detect overtraining in the early stages!
- “Back muscles - the composition of a stone wall” - we break down the back muscles into individual muscles, pumping which allows you to create a “hero’s back”.
- “Muscle cutting” – learning to get rid of excess fat without muscle loss. We tone the muscles, improve the proportions of the figure with the help of “drying”
- “How to pump up biceps at home?” – we pump the most popular muscle among beginners at home.
- “How to quickly recover after a workout?” – simple ways to restore muscles after training for those who need to recover as quickly as possible.
Problems with Definitions
Also, fitness should not be confused with gymnastics or shaping, which require completely different criteria for working with your own body. Despite the fact that we are talking about fitness as a lighter version of bodybuilding, it is still worth understanding in which niche these concepts are considered. Nowadays popular types of physical activity, such as callanetics, Tabata or Zumba, and so on, are usually summarized by the concept of “fitness”. In the broad sense of the word, bodybuilding itself can be called fitness, but I propose not to confuse the concepts and call callanetics callanetics, tabata - tabata, and zumba - zumba. Fitness in the context of its comparison with bodybuilding is working in the gym with the same dumbbells, barbells and machines, but with less load, lower intensity, and a shorter duration of the workout.
Another feature that distinguishes fitness from bodybuilding is nutrition. When we once again encounter the confusion that encourages people to perceive fitness as something half acrobatic, half dance, we are also faced with the ingrained stereotype that supposedly in order to achieve the desired result, you must first of all lose weight. Moreover, lose weight on a specific diet, which excludes either some cereals, or some fruits, or generally all fermented milk products. So, in this case, you need to understand that all these weight loss, diets and other refusals of seafood must be left to those who do not understand or do not want to understand the evidence of a healthy diet, which must be nutritious.
But let's get back to fitness and bodybuilding. As you and I again know, the task of bodybuilding is to methodically and systematically build muscle mass. In order for weight to actively grow, you need to consume more calories than you expend. If you want your mass to grow faster, you need to create a large surplus of calories entering the body, which in turn will also require increasing the intensity of strength training so that it is muscle mass that is built up, not fat. So, in terms of nutrition, fitness differs from bodybuilding in that it does not aim to build up such significant muscle volumes, which in turn does not provoke you to consume large amounts of food.
By the way, it wouldn’t be amiss to talk about recovery as the third integral component of any type of physical activity. How fitness differs from bodybuilding in terms of recovery, in the broadest sense of the word, is primarily the amount of time that is needed for this. Bodybuilding, due to its high workload, intensity and duration of training, places very high demands on the recovery process, which require not only rest between training days, but also a certain duration of sleep and, no less important, a specific list of food products, supplements and medications. Fitness, in turn, due to lower loads, does not impose such strict requirements on the recovery process.
Additional recommendations
Good header design, high-quality visuals, useful and interesting content form the overall impression and personality of the trainer. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to all details.
Photos and videos
Nowadays, the use of downloaded images from the Internet or faceless banners with text in posts is not encouraged. It is important for social network users to feel somewhat closer to the account owner: at least to see his photographs, and not template pictures.
Seraphim Chursin treats visual content responsibly: “This is always a big problem. It happens that the text is written, but it is difficult to find an image. I rarely take pictures specifically for any post. But since the photographs were needed, and they also had to be thematic, I had to do this. In general, I love being photographed. It also helps that at events there is always a photographer.”
Delegation
You can manage the account yourself, or you can delegate this task to SMM specialists. Here everyone decides for themselves: someone wants to work on their page alone, while others are either not interested in doing this or don’t have time to study marketing on social networks. Therefore, the correct approach can only be considered the one that is primarily comfortable for the coach, and also which brings greater results.
Alena Reshetova believes that high-quality content can only be written personally: “I have a lot of ideas, and categories under hashtags in my head, and topics. Physically there is not enough time. I live and work more offline.”
Even despite the lack of time, this approach is especially good for trainers with a unique methodology, since clients primarily go to this person to train.
To make your task easier, you can use the SMMplanner service, which allows you to plan stories and posts in advance. It’s easier to devote 1-2 days a week to working on content, writing a new post every day and posting it (and sometimes even forgetting to publish it).
Linking posts to stories
Stories are no less important than posts. With their help, you can play games, do surveys, and notify about new publications. This is a good way to attract more attention to your account.
Activity
In any niche, it is important to stimulate activity on your profile: invite subscribers to discuss, offer to like and write comments, participate in polls and games in stories, and so on. You can also hold competitions and conduct live broadcasts to increase coverage.
A fitness trainer's account should be interesting and lively. Since competition is high, the potential client needs to be given the most detailed information about professionalism and approach, and to make this unobtrusive, reputational and educational content is used. It is not necessary to call for training or invite you to marathons in every publication: it is much more important to develop a personal brand on social networks so that the user, even without active advertising, has a desire to become a client of this trainer.
Competitive fitness and bodybuilding
As mentioned earlier, one of the main ways to popularize fitness and bodybuilding is through competitions in which athletes demonstrate their shape and thereby show what a person leading a healthy lifestyle should look like and be in. The main idea that both competition participants and organizers want to convey is that being slim, athletic and fit is cool, fashionable and modern. Since everyone, both national and international bodybuilding federations, is trying to follow this trend in the literal sense, over time each, following the general trend, introduces the most massive and popular competitive disciplines, such as men's physics or fitness bikini, but not only .
Experienced athletes react differently to fitness disciplines that are introduced into the bodybuilding competition program. One way or another, they all note the difference between fitness and bodybuilding precisely in terms of training and preparatory load, since competitions in fitness disciplines place significantly fewer demands on muscles, relief and vascularity, which play a decisive role in bodybuilding. Otherwise, the basic goals of participation in both fitness and bodybuilding are similar - this is to demonstrate a harmonious physique by posing on stage in front of judges. In both the first and second cases, the judges evaluate the athletes in comparison with the rest of the participants, and then in the qualifying stages they select the top three and then the winner.
Regarding those tournaments that are held primarily by the International Fitness Federation, it is worth saying that they are mostly a beauty contest. Yes, of course, there is an element of comparative posing in both fitness and bodybuilding, but one of the main differences between fitness and bodybuilding, in addition to less stringent requirements for the athlete’s competitive form, is the presence of a choreographic program, which often includes artistic and even acrobatic elements. And if in a bodybuilding competition program a free program involves only free posing, then in competitive fitness a choreographic program is a mandatory element of an athlete’s performance program.
Judges evaluate athletes based on many parameters, not just muscle size or the number of somersaults or somersaults performed during a free program. They also evaluate makeup, makeup, skin condition, posture, gait, confidence on stage, in other words, the entire image of the athlete as a whole, how he behaves on stage in front of the public and judges, how attractive and convincing his person is from a physical point of view forms. Also, another difference between fitness and bodybuilding is the weight categories, which in heavy bodybuilding allow athletes with massive muscles weighing over 100 kg to compete, while in the fitness category such outstanding volumes are not welcomed, but rather the opposite.
An equally important element of the competitive program that distinguishes fitness from bodybuilding is clothing for performances. For the average competition viewer, everything is a little more obvious. As you know, in the men's bodybuilding category you can only perform in special swimming trunks. This is the only thing an athlete should wear on stage. At the same time, the mens-physical category implies the presence of shorts up to approximately knee level, and this rule is also strict. In the women's categories, everything is a little simpler; only a special swimsuit for performances is allowed there, although according to the rules it also has a certain list of restrictions. In other words, in terms of the differences between bodybuilding and fitness categories in terms of clothing, the difference is more than obvious.
