Quenching Your Competitive Fire

Some people are born competitors. Every action they take has an underlying motive of being the best or being first. They compete with themselves and with others, whether the others know it or not. They compete in both their personal and professional lives-they probably would wither up and die without competition. Strength training is an athletic endeavor that can lead you to various formal competitions in weightlifting and powerlifting, as well as to strongwoman contests. Whether or not you eventually decide to match your skill against someone else in a formal competition, you will always be competing with yourself.

The purpose of strength training is to continually lift heavier weights, get stronger, get healthier, and look better. Ultimately, it is always you against the weights. But if your strength training lights a competitive fire within you, go for it. Once you get the competition bug, it can be rewarding to see how you rank among others. You might find that you can outdo the other competitors. In that case, you can progress to more advanced competitions against other strong women. You might also find out that you have a long way to go. You can use that knowledge and experience to fire you up even more in the gym, to strive for increased strength.

Diversity abounds in sports, and it is equally plentiful in the training methods used for each sport. As we learned in the previous chapters, specific training yields specific results, based on the particular exercises you do. If your sport is long-distance running, you won't do very well in a race if you spend the majority of your training time lifting heavy weights in the gym. Likewise, if you are a powerlifter, running marathons won't help you blast heavy weights off your chest. Although strength-related sports are few, they are as different as the many team sports that exist. Because of their differences, their training programs and techniques are different too.

Olympic Weightlifting

Powerlifting

Strongwoman Contests

Sample Programs for Competition