Weightlifting is a great adjunct to any physical fitness routine. Because it builds muscle, which burns more calories than fat burns, weightlifting raises your resting metabolism. This means you’ll burn more calories than you used to, even just sitting around.
Additionally, weightlifting strengthens bones to help prevent osteoporosis and promote good joint health.
Weightlifting as a sport
Weightlifting is also a competitive sport – probably one of the oldest in the world. Some early tribes chose their leaders by seeing who could lift the heaviest rock. In some cases, small battles could be avoided by two tribes engaging in such a competition and accepting that the winner got the spoils. Competitive weightlifting goes all the way back to the very first Olympic Games in Greece.
Modern weightlifting – the way it’s practiced on the World Circuit and in the Olympics – goes back to the 19th Century “Strongman” competitions originated by George Baker Windship. In 1896, the Olympics committee was unsure whether to include a weightlifting event. They did include two – a dumbbell and a barbell competition – but the 1900 games skipped weightlifting altogether. For the next few decades, weightlifting came and went as a category of Olympic events.
The 1920 games saw the first weightlifting competition that resembled the modern Olympic weightlifting category. Finally, competitors were broken down into different weight classes, and medals were won based on how athletes performed in three lifts rather than one. In 1928, the jerk, the snatch and the press became the three standard Olympic weightlifting events. In 1976, the press was eliminated from the competition, but otherwise little has changed.
The International Weight Lifting Federation (IWF) was founded in 1905 to oversee competitive weightlifting events including but not limited to those in the Olympics. There are also many regional and amateur weightlifting competitions not governed by the IWF.
Filed in Strength Training
Updated: August 25, 2010
Copyright: September 1, 2010
