That's right. Bodybuilding, in its classic form, may have the greatest overall impact upon your health of any activity. Skeptical? Keep reading.

Bodybuilding strengthens bones and tendons, preserves lean body mass and increases both strength and endurance without the pounding of aerobics. Bodybuilding improves fitness.

Let's discuss bodybuilding's advantages, relative to other popular activities, in terms of 1) improving our three fitness variables and 2) keeping us healthy.

Improving Fitness

Here's a look at how bodybuilding stacks up in the three areas of fitness.

Cardiovascular Fitness

Among the greatest myths in exercise physiology is the notion that resistance training does not affect cardiovascular fitness. Hogwash!

First, heart rates have been shown to decrease in weight-trained athletes, similar to what has been demonstrated in aerobic athletes. This is probably due to the documented increase in stroke volume (the amount of blood your left ventricle ejects per beat) from resistance training, producing a more efficient heart.

Second, many researchers have found a decrease in blood pressure resulting from weight training. Fleck and Dean (1985) found that bodybuilders had lower peak and average blood pressures than controls or novice lifters, suggesting that bodybuilding may produce positive blood pressure adaptations. Also, Hagberg et al. (1984) reported that resistance training induced a greater reduction in blood pressure than jogging.

Third, aerobic capacity (VO2max) can be improved with weight training. Of course, you know that circuit weight training (moving from one exercise to another with very brief rest periods) will increase aerobic capacity - probably due to the constant movement required as in aerobic activity. But even non-circuit, conventional weight training has been shown to improve VO2max. For instance, Stone et al. (1983) found a 90% increase in aerobic capacity resulting from Olympic Style weight training (typically high intensity, low rep ranges), with the greatest increase corresponding to the highest training volume (mores sets and reps). Since bodybuilders train somewhere between these two extremes (circuit and Olympic style) and with high volumes, it's likely that VO2 increases from bodybuilding would be at least as great as those shown by Stone et al.

Are these improvements as good as those seen in aerobic training? Of course not. Bodybuilding does not train that system as well, though oxygen consumption during resistance training has been shown to approach a baseline aerobic level (60% VO2max). Regardless, I want to dispel the myth that either something is aerobic - producing cardiovascular benefits, or it isn't. There are far too many shades of grey here. Bodybuilding does improve parameters of cardiovascular fitness and efficiency, sure. But don't overlook this important aspect of the iron game.

Muscular Strength & Endurance

Compared to aerobic activities, bodybuilding obviously wins hands down. Not just in magnitude (greater strength and muscular endurance), but in terms of the number of muscles trained. A tenet of bodybuilding is to train all muscle groups in different movements to maximize development. Far too many aerobic activities only strengthen and increase endurance in certain muscles (usually lower body), and only in particular movements (running, for example). Even power lifting, a cousin to bodybuilding, pales in this comparison since power lifters do not typically train for muscular endurance (high reps).

Flexibility and Coordination

The concept of a muscle bound weight trainer just doesn't hold up anymore in this new era of exercise physiology. If flexibility is compromised in a bodybuilder, it's because he/she did something wrong (failed to use full range of motion, train both sides of joint, etc.) In fact, a preponderance of evidence indicates that weight training increases flexibility in those joints that are trained. Furthermore, Jensen and Fisher (1979) found weight trainers to be second only to gymnasts in a comprehensive array of flexibility tests.

In addition, coordination is developed in bodybuilding, perhaps better than any other activity. Complex, multi joint movements using a full range of motion are standard in bodybuilding, enhancing overall coordination. One can see the clear advantage bodybuilding has here compared to activities such as cycling, running, or swimming where movements are more rigid and set. Pick a movement at any joint. Chances are that bodybuilders, in some way, train that motion. Not so with other activities. For this reason, I have often said that bodybuilders may be the most coordinated of all athletes.