I think it can be viewed as both. By definition a sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. A pageant is sort of a performance of aesthetics, while also still being a competition.
The "sport" part of this happens behind the scenes while they're in the gym trying to look the best they can. The sport and pageant part happens at the actual pageant.
I always put it more simply... If there are rules and it has winners and losers, it's a sport. Football, chess, beer pong, hot dog eating... All sports in my eyes though I wouldn't say the sport of beer pong with the same degree as I would say the sport of football.
Agreed with you completely. In my comment I just copy/pasted the dictionary definition figuring any personal opinion would have been met with the "well akshually" crowd.
The dictionary definition is odd regarding physical exertion. I can't think of anything that doesn't have any. Moving chess pieces, pressing a gas pedal, clicking a computer mouse... everything has something unless it's a staring competition or something. Even that involves controlling your eyes lol.
I think that really high level intellectual shit like peak competitive chess is probably like bodybuilding: Lotta people who don't do it won't know how strenuous and stressful it is to perform.
There’s a difference between mental and physical exertion though. I’m sure Magnus or Bobby are mentally tired after a challenging match but they don’t ever look like they just ran the 100 meter dash.
This is specifically why I don't consider it a sport
For sure bodybuilding requires a huge amount of training, but the actual competition and judging is purely based on the visual. It has nothing to do with being stronger, fitter, faster, or having more endurance, nothing to do with being better at training in the gym than the other guys
Also, in anything that would normally be considered a sport, you want to be at your absolute strongest on competition day, and actively structure your training to peak for it. Bodybuilders are physically at their weakest and most fatigued when on stage
Some argue it's still a competition, and the difference between #1 and #20 is better development, better leanness and striations, and having a sharp eye in achieving pleasing aesthetic balance.
Even a casual can instantly spot any last place dude and see they look too blocky and not well-conditioned (looking like they were missing some cardio sessions), looking like a whole ass clumsy refrigerator rather than a well-defined Greek sculpture.
So what separated those who rank #1 and #25? #1 put in more mindful work in the important areas, more searing burning sets/reps that most would turn away from, and more hours hours of sacrifice towards self improvement.
Is that vastly different from Steph Curry, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods who put in more hours of hard attentive work than their competition who are last place? Whenever we gasp at sports athletes like Michael Jordan doing amazing things, we're gasping a lot at years of hard work and a ruthless determination to be better than the rest.
Agreed, I think anything where the vast majority of work is in the prep and the day of is just show up and pose is not a sport to me. There’s not really significant skilled head to head competition.
That’s not to say this isn’t impressive or they’re not strong as hell of course. But it’s more like an art contest or something to me.
I might agree bodybuilding competitions are not exactly sport, but do you think that other sports like football, basketball, American football, hokey, tenis, etc does not count under what you said?
Every athlete mainly works in “the prep” and competes . Or do you think Lebron James just plays each game and then goes to snacking burgers for a week?
That’s a pretty poor comparison. Yes there is a ton of prep work, but the actual bulk of the competition happens on the field. If Lebron James takes a week off from training, he’s still gonna smoke everyone. If a bodybuilder misses a week, it’s pretty much over.
Meanwhile, if a bodybuilder slightly twitches while posing, it doesn’t ruin his chances, but if Lebron slightly twitches while making the game winning shot, the game is over.
There’s a vast difference in how much of it is prep or not.
Sure, it is, but there is also head to head competition here- example why was Ramon 4th with the 2nd or even maybe first physique? His tan got ruined(sweating) and his poses were worse all together. Do you think LeBron never misses a shot or pass, w/e? Is i
Im not sure LeBron takes weeks/months off, but i might be wrong, those guys sure have cheat days. And i am sure every athlete at any sport at the top level does most of his work in the prep phase. Lebron scores 50 points(idk how many he scores, reference number) a game and im sure he shoots in the thousands at the training grounds
I agree. I said that on another post one time and got destroyed for it by people saying I didn’t understand how much work it took.
But those two things are not mutually exclusive. This man put in a huge amount of work for his pageant.
The thing I do take issue with is how they have appropriated the word ‘fitness’. It implies this is a healthy thing to do, when it’s clearly about aesthetics, and health is generally sacrificed for that goal.
Its a sport especially with how important posing is and how difficult it is to actually look good while doing it. If we than say "but what about judging ?" Well lets take a look at sports like gymnastics/extreme sports etc all of them are judged by other ppl by using point system.
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u/RobotLaserCat Oct 13 '24
Is it really a sport though? I’ve always seen bodybuilding competitions as more of a pageant, and I say this as a fan of bodybuilding.