I've never really pursued any in and of themselves....I've trained for sports, that's how I started, and I was an average at best athlete, but a weightroom junkie as one college scout described me, lol. I always gravitated to the weight room because it was one thing that came easy to me.
I am not being biased here or being an ass, but I think most people who have ever picked up a weight for any reason would agree that Olympic Lifting is the ultimate. if they don't, that's fine, but they're wrong, lol.
Back in college I visited some family the one Summer, and I was at a gym on a day pass, and I saw these 2 guys, jacked bodybuilder physiques, each grab an end of a bar loaded to 135 to pick it up and put it in the rack to warm-up for squats.....I didn't know whether to laugh or throw up, lol....I had power cleaned more than twice that and stuck it in the pins to squat, and they were more jacked than me.....not by much.....but I was natural, except for a little Halotestin, lol (for all the Primo and Winny fags, Halo is a real man's drug by the way)......but my point is if you can clean a bar and properly rack it, you caqn do anything, front squat it, put it over head, drop it behind the neck, back squat it, bring the grip out and do anything with a snatch grip....shrug a bar off your back.....o-lifting, for me, is just the ultimate when it comes to picking up weights.
As far as the work each takes.....BB is a lot of ''out of gym stuff'' with diet that makes leading a normal life very difficult, plus at a high level, you're looking at living your life on massive and dangerous and outright stupid doses of drugs. Some of the more genetically blessed folks can get away with more than others, but it's tough.....most, not all, but most train like bitches or don't even know how to train, or both, lol , but OUT of the gym, NO athetes work harder.
PL....well, I am not a fan of what PL has become, but I respect the work of the athletes....out of the gym, even world-class guys can live a fairly normal life. Eat what they want, hold down a good career, be a good family man (or woman).....I am sure at certain points of the year things tighten up, but most PLs, including the best of the best can lead a normal life, gym 4 days a week, full time job, wife/kids, a trip to Mickey D's won't kill you, that kind of stuff. Many abuse drugs to be the best, and that's tough......many carry around enormous amounts of bodyfat (purposely) to be the best, I don't know....I feel ya, but if you're concerned about it, shed a little and compete at 308 or 275, if not then don't complain about lugging around all that extra shit and go shatter some records. these guys do truly do it for the love.....the sport gets NO media attention, it isn't and olympic sport, there is NO money in it, nobody really cares about it except for a cult following, and the modern sport with all the equipment has even become very criticized among the iron brotherhood.....but something drives people despite no glory, and my hat is off to them.
O-lifting, I won't even get into world-class, if you want to be a top National lifter, even in the freaking US, you have to live, eat, sleep, breath training.....no athlete trains harder..... out of the gym, many don't pay much attention to food choices, and quite a few smoke and drink, lol....but I don't know of a more physically demanding sport IN the gym. Out of all the iron sports his is the most respected (well, TECHNICALLY throwing and sprinting are iron sports in disguise that are more respected), but I mean the 3 purely lifting-related sports. O-lifting is a sanctioned olympic sport, and it doesn't have the stigma of being any more drug-riddled than any other sport, even the mainstream ones.
Al, that was a damn loaded question, lol...and I am sure I pissed some people off, but it's my opinion, and like assholes, we've all got one, and we're all big, tough lifters, so get over it........but I like ya Al, so I wanted to offer my opinion.
Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
