What do they have in common weightlifting, multi-articulator exercises, cardio sessions and sense of great competition?
All these features mark and the CrossFit® and the Bodybuilding!
There are many similarities between these two disciplines, but also many differences.
That's why we decided to create this list of 6 affinities and differences between these two disciplines. Let's see them together!
Index
6 AFFINITY AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE CROSSFIT® AND THE BODYBUILDING
1) CHOICE OF EXERCISES
During CrossFit® competitions and training, a judge follows the athletes to evaluate the correctness of the exercises, movements and reps, which are pre-established; this allows you to have one constant supervision and less margin of error, but less freedom of choice. On the contrary in Bodybuilding it is the athlete himself to modify the exercises to be performed to focus on certain muscles or to change the goal of his training; hardly a bodybuilder athlete is followed by a personal trainer for every workout, so there is more room for error in performing the exercises.
2) TRAINING CRITERIA
In each WOD of a crossfitter are executed multi-articulator exercises and this allows you to affect many muscle areas in one session. In Bodybuilding, however, a standard workout involves exercises targeted at a muscle category or at most two (example: Monday legs, Tuesday chest and biceps, thorsal Thursdays and triceps, Friday shoulders and call of a lacking muscle). This type of training, divided by muscle groups, ensures that the muscles affected in the previous training have more development margin; also there is one more attention to muscle growth lacking of the single athlete.
3) REST TIME
In CrossFit® they are often offered exercise circuits; here the rest times between one exercise and another are reduced to be able take advantage of the high intensity with high cardio-respiratory effort and high mechanical tension. In Bodybuilding, however, the times of recovery (not only between different exercises, but also between one series of the same exercise and another!) are of significant importance; the higher the loads and the repetitions, the more rest time must be kept.
4) NUTRITION
We know that to get results, one correct and healthy diet it is a key aspect to be respected. Crossfitters see power as the main fuel to be able to push more during WOD; for bodybuilders, nutrition represents one real obsession: the daily diet is calculated per gram based on the phase in which they are ("bulking" or mass phase, where there is a caloric surplus to be able to increase the loads during training and "cutting" or definition phase, where calories are gradually reduced and the cardio activity).
5) TIME UNDER PRESSURE
The goal of crossfitters is to get a number of reps old in a given time lapse or to complete a set number of reps faster than your teammates. In Bodybuilding, on the other hand, one is hardly ever interested in training against the clock, unless the athlete is in a particularly hurry to get out of the gym that day!
6) RESISTANCE TO CARDIO
CrossFit® workouts take a huge amount cardiovascular endurance to overcome WODs and tough competitions, so athletes need cardio components within their WODs. On the contrary, the performance of a bodybuilder they are not based on resistance; the only time we will see these athletes spending time on the treadmill is to prepare for the stage and before the summer holidays; the goal is to lose body fat, do not improve cardiovascular endurance.
What unites these two disciplines is the pursuit of physical well-being and the desire to give the 100% of themselves of the athletes who practice them. To be successful in these sports the key is the balance: in the exercises, in the nutrition, in the commitment and in the constancy.
And which do you prefer?