What do you consider yourself...

[DZLS]

It seems to me alot of the people here do not consider themselves bodybuilders, and are mostly concerned with strength / size gains only...

I see alot of people criticize isolation movements and tell others to only do squats / deads / rows & presses...

I myself do all of the above, but also have no problems throwing in some cable stuff, isolation dumbbell movements, leg curls, extensions and the other "defining" exercises...

I'm just wondering what the majority here consider themself to be here...

I refer to myself as a "bodybuilder"... I guess my first concern is not with strength, but with aesthetics... to me, the strength comes hand in hand with your muscles getting larger, albeit not as much as if you are lifting the heavier weights...

I also don't think it takes huge weights to develop a world class physique...

These are just my opinions, and would like to hear others...

 

[DZLS]

i guess another area that i feel alot of people do not consider themselves to be bodybuilders is the amount of food they reccomend people eat...

i guess for a pro to eat like an animal is one thing, cause they will go into a cutting cycle, before comps, but most of us here, i presume are not competing, and want to look good year round, and not a fat slob in the winter months to cut down for spring / summer...

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

Sexy.

 

[Cynical Simian]

I think you summarized the problem with trying to compartmentalize things pretty well in your description of how you regard yourself. Unless at or trying to reach a professional level in one of the categories, most people are in something of a steady state between them, trying to gain strength in the big compound lifts and not going through periods of extreme high or low relative bodyfat.

 

[DZLS]

but to me that is what compensates a "bodybuilder"... muscles for looks, strength being a secondary concern, with being able to see the muscles (i.e. low bodyfat) being a large concern...

a power lifter normally doesn't give a rats ass how much body fat he's carrying... a weight lifter is probably the same way...

at least in my eyes...

 

[asdfzxcv]

I consider myself to be a combination of weightlifter and olympic lifter as I am focusing mostly on the big lifts like squat,dead,overhead press as I am slowly learning the olympic lifts.I dont really care about my appearance at all,but I make sure I eat good clean wholesome food as I want to stay fairly healthy and as lean as I can.

 

[musketeer]

Sorry diesel, I'm none of those! I'm just a guy who want's to be:

Healthy
Strong
Athletic
Posessing Great Body Image (make my GF's skin crawl!!)


And I don't know the difference between a weight lifter and an Olympic lifter!

 

[RipStone]

Powerbuilder. I train like a PLer, but eat clean like BBer. However, I dont really concern myself with bulking/cutting cycle that much. If I see myself getting a little too pudgy, then I will cut calories and vice versa. But they are not planned cycles. I watch my weight/bf% cus I want to looks nice for the ladies though. Also, I eat clean and exercise to be a healthy person and feel good. My main concern with lifting in increasing my strength and if some size comes with that, great.

 

[Protobuilder]

Can I just cut and paste musketeer's response? LoL I thought "weight lifters" meant "oly-lifters" but b/c they're two diff't categories in the poll, I picked weight lifter. I lift as part of an overall health/fitness plan. Lifting is my primary focus and I strive to get stronger in the big compound lifts. I probably eat like a bodybuilder, b/c you need to to gain muscle w/out becoming a blimp. IMO, just lifting heavy and getting stronger on big compounds will make you look bigger and better than 99.9% of the population. I don't see the point in all the BB'ing "extras" b/c I'm never going to compete and don't think it'll make that much difference until you really get to the top of the heap, which I never will and am not interested in. I'd rather have the big, thick, healthy, muscular look of an American football player. And I didn't choose powerlifter b/c I suck at it and don't train for heavy singles, etc.

 

[DZLS]

the reason i separated the Oly and weight lifters is because i consider an Oly guy as someone who is mainly doing explosive lifts while using good form...

a weight lifter does not limit himself to the Oly lifts, and will add some other exercises into the mix...

a power lifter to me, is not real concerned about form... they are just looking to move as much weight as they can in one rep without blowing out a sphincter...

maybe someone else can give their definitions of each category...?

i guess another way to put it is in rep ranges...

BBer - various reps ranges, various tempos, strict form...

weight lifter - medium rep range, more explosive, little less form...

power lifter - low rep range, explosive, however you can get it up...

Oly lifter - low rep range, explosive, strict form...

???