Bodybuilding competition has also achieved a remarkably high profile in a very short time. All the major networks have featured top-level physique contests. But despite all this progress in bodybuilding, there are still those who refuse to accept bodybuilding on the most fundamental of grounds - they don't believe it's really a sport at all. Instead, they contend it's some sort of theatrical exhibition, or a muscle oriented beauty contest.

The gist of this argument goes like this.

1. In a bodybuilding contest, all the competitors do is flex and pose. They are judged almost entirely on how they look, not on the basis of any athletic performance. There is nothing inherently athletic about flexing, and while posing may take a lot of skill, it is not that athletically demanding.

2. The athletic effort that bodybuilders make is done when they train with weights in the gym. But they are not judged directly on the basis of that effort - on how much weight they can lift or how many reps they can do with a given weight. Any increase in strength, power, speed, endurance, agility or co-ordination they might achieve - all of which are legitimate athletic qualities - is strictly an incidental by-product of the workouts, not the primary goal.

3. The real point of bodybuilding training is to change body shape, proportion and conformation, which may result in the development of an aesthetically outstanding body, but does not constitute a sport in the traditionally accepted meaning of the word.

But are the meanings of concepts like 'sport' and 'athlete' really all that clear and well-defined? People use these words as if they know exactly what they mean, but when you look at the etymology of these terms it becomes evident that they don't really denote precisely what a lot of people think they do.

Definitions

For example, here are some definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary, which not only gives definitions, but describes how the meanings of words have changed over the course of history.

Athlete - (derived from words meaning 'to contend for a prize'). A competition in the physical exercises, such as running, leaping, boxing, wrestling - that formed part of the public games in ancient Greece and Rome. Athletic - 1) Pertaining to an athlete, or to contests which physical strength is vigorously exercised. 2) Of the nature of, or befitting, an athlete; physically powerful, muscular, robust.

Sport - 1) Pleasant pastime; entertainment or amusement; recreation, diversion. (Particularly associated with the taking or killing of wild animals, game or fish.). 2) Participation in games, or exercises, especially those of an athletic character or pursued in the open air. 3) To engage in, follow, or practice sport, especially field sport; to hunt or shoot for sport or amusement.

Obviously, when we speak of 'sport' nowadays we rarely include 'field sports', that is hunting and fishing. Sport, in the modern sense, usually refers to 'contests' in which physical strength is vigorously exercised. But there are plenty of exceptions. Look in the sports pages of any daily newspaper and you'll see coverage of golf, bowling, table tennis and even motor racing. Not really the stuff you'd expect the ancient Greeks to include in the Olympic Games.

The modern Olympic Games also involve some events the ancient Olympians might not recognize, like synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. What's next - competitive cheerleading?

Modern Sport

In point of fact, the modern definition of sport is extremely flexible and includes a wide range of competitive events involving physical skill. Some of these demand high levels of traditional athletic abilities such as strength and speed; some do not. The standard of performance in sports like basket ball and football, for example, has risen dramatically over the years due to improvements in our knowledge of physical training. The athletes in these sports are therefore bigger, stronger, faster, and have more endurance, so they play that game much better.

In baseball, on the other hand, experts feel that today's players aren't really that much better than those of several decades ago. Why? Because baseball is much more a game of special skills and split-second timing than generalized athletic ability, so the fact that modern baseball players are usually better overall athletes than their counterparts in the past has made relatively little difference in the level at which the game is played.

Sports can be ranked according to the degree of fundamental athletic ability they demand of their participants. Basketball, soccer and hockey are types of athletic competition that require a wide range of athletic skills. Sports like weightlifting or shot-putting involve more sheer strength. World class bowlers and golfers need an incredible degree of talent when it comes to hand eye co-ordination. Boxers in the lighter weights and competitors in table tennis need to be as quick as cats.

Measurement Sports

But sports can also be categorized another way. There are sports of objective measurement - how many, how much, how far, how high, how fast - and sports of form - such as gymnastics, diving or synchronized swimming. In measured events, if you cross the finish line first, nobody cares how good you looked doing it. Proper technique may help you to throw a javelin farther, but you win or lose based on the length of the throw, not on the beauty of your execution of the throw. But in sports of form, how high you go, how far, how wide, how fast, and 'other measurement' considerations are not evaluated directly, but only to the degree that they contribute to the grace, beauty and aesthetics of the physical movements of the athlete's body.

So where does this leave bodybuilding? It isn't a sport of objective measurement, like power lifting. Nor is it a sport involving the execution of a series of aesthetic movements. Even the 'free posing' round of a bodybuilding contest doesn't really involve the evaluation of the movement of the body; rather the judges are charged with evaluating the body while it's in motion. Therefore, if bodybuilding is a sport, exactly what kind of sport is it?

The answer is that it is indeed a sport of form - just a different kind of form than we are used to dealing with. The form associated with gymnastics is dynamic, a form of movement. But the form involved in bodybuilding is a plastic one.

The term 'plastic' in this case means 'the molding, shaping or sculpting of physical form'. Bodybuilding is often described as the sculpting of the muscles of the body, and this is exactly what it is. When the bodybuilding takes place as part of a sports competition, the ultimate result is judged according to aesthetic standards, just as gymnasts or diving is. This result is achieved by athletic means, a lot of hard, difficult and intense physical training. In fact, the demands upon the body of training and diet programs followed by world class bodybuilders are so incredible that only highly gifted, superbly conditioned athletes could be expected to bear up.

Bodybuilding Training

World class bodybuilders are, and have to be exceptional athletes. Bodybuilding training in the gym is a demanding athletic activity. And it is this training that is responsible for shaping and sculpting the body into the final plastic form that will be judged onstage in a bodybuilding competition. The mass, shape, proportion, symmetry and definition of the physique, the degree of muscle separation, the low body fat and resulting displays of striation and cuts, are all the result of highly strenuous athletic workouts in the gym, plus the discipline of following a nutrition program designed to yield maximum muscle mass with a minimum of body fat.

Bodybuilders are sometimes criticized because they become so muscular, develop so much bulk, that other athletic abilities suffer. But this simply means they are specialized, just as all elite athletes tend to be. As far as athletic bodies are concerned, 'form follows function.' You look like what you do.

Bodybuilders may not be good marathon runners, but long distance runners can't lift much weight either. Gymnasts tend to be small, compact and muscular. Discus throwers are beefy and powerful. Golfers do not succeed because of the height of their vertical leap and are rarely slam dunk artists, while all the power in the world doesn't help sink a 3 foot putt on the final hole of the US Open with the tournament at stake.

So bodybuilders are indeed athletes and the training they go through is highly athletic. The ultimate result, the competition prepared bodybuilding physique is a direct consequence of that training, and the plastic form of this physique is what the competitors are judged on in a bodybuilding contest. Therefore, while competition bodybuilding is artistic, it's not an art form, and while it has theatrical and dramatic elements, it is not theater. It's a sport. And it satisfies every criterion of what an athletic contest ought to be.