Who's your team in the fitness industry?
The fitness industry has and continues to grow a MASSIVE following. As that following grows as a whole it is creating very polarized and die hard "teams". Now, at this point there are far too many teams to list and more are being added to the industry every single day. Hell, if you want a workout where you strap bungee cords to the ceiling and jump around there's people doing that nowadays.
So what's my point? My point is regardless of the "team" you're on whether it's bodybuilding, powerlifting, Crossfit, Orange Theory, pilates etc etc, 9 times out of 10 you think your team is the best (obviously). This can be for a number of reasons which I'll get into and many times it just comes down to simply that you like one better than the other... However, in our humble opinions you shouldn't pledge your allegiance to any team completely and we'll explain why.
Keep in mind I'm not going to go over every single style of fitness here, I don't really feel like writing a 300 page article at the moment. Just understand that a HUGE percentage of people in the fitness industry don't consider themselves apart of any team. They hit the gym on their own, go for a run or bike ride etc and that's the extent of that. This is fine, there's nothing wrong with that. But, chances are if you get more serious about fitness goals you'll find yourself "joining a team" sooner or later. These are some of the largest teams, in terms of following and some of their pro's and con's.
Team Bodybuilding:
Bodybuilding is easily the heaviest hitter in the fitness industry. Think I'm wrong? Can you name a bodybuilder? Yeah. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is literally a global, household name just because he was literally crowned the most jacked man on Earth 7 years in a row. It has the largest following in terms of numbers of people doing it and it definitely has its benefits and downfalls.
It will make you look good. This is a fact. No, I'm not talking about the guys with traps bigger than my quads. A serious bodybuilding routine can accomplish any goal you have when it comes to aesthetics. Want to be shredded? Bodybuilding routines and diets are the most efficient way to get there. Want to have massive arms? Insert last sentence here. My point is whatever your goal is as far as how your body should look, bodybuilding can most likely accomplish. It's why they call it an art, you can sculpt and manipulate your body to where you want it.
Isolation. This is more a subset of bodybuilding, but it's a pro none the less. Any athlete on any "team" of the fitness industry can benefit from bodybuilding isolation movements. If you have a muscle imbalance you need to correct, hypertrophy work on the weak points can be a huge benefit to correcting your imbalance. This has benefits for athletic performance as well as injury prevention/recovery.
You won't be functional. Alright calm down bodybuilders. Are there some athletic, strong dudes who are bodybuilders...yes. I'm saying if you want to be the most well rounded, functional athlete possible you aren't going to get there doing a bodybuilding routine. Something tells me Lebron James doesn't isolate his triceps twice a week and cut carbs to shred up before a game.
Team Powerlifting:
Powerlifting isn't nearly as glorified as bodybuilding and it's understandable. A large percentage of very successful and famous powerlifters don't have ripped abs and aren't on muscle magazine covers. Powerlifting focuses on one thing and one thing only...power. You are trying to lift as much weight as humanely possible many times just for one rep. Powerlifting is the epitome of pure strength.
You will become very, very strong. Keep in mind, I'm assuming you either know what you're doing or have a coach that does. But, if your goal is to move as much weight as possible make absolutely no mistake...powerlifting is where you should be. Think of powerlifters like alligators or crocodiles. After about 5 seconds most of the time they aren't very effective. But, for that 5 seconds they are the most powerful creatures alive. These are the guys that can deadlift 4-5 times their bodyweight and squat small cars for a few reps. Relax, I'm talking about the guys who powerlift and powerlift only...
Powerlifting movements are great for strength and conditioning. Just because you do heavy deadlifts or squats doesn't throw you into the powerlifting camp for life...powerlifting exercises are a fantastic way to build power and strength for athletes. It makes you exponentially more explosive as most movements are shocking your fast twitch muscle fibers. It can help you be quicker, jump higher, hit harder etc. (if done correctly)
You're more functional than a bodybuilder, but. Okay so you're most definitely stronger than bodybuilders and can move faster etc...but powerlifters have their limitations (the majority of powerlifters). If you're serious about powerlifting, you're more than likely maintaining a high amount of body fat, relatively. You won't find many powerlifters doing cardio because doing cardio can literally decrease your strength output (why strongmen are so fat). While deadlifting 800lbs is most definitely badass keep in mind you're doing something the human body wasn't exactly built to do. The risk of blowing out your back, knees, hips is definitely there and it happens to those guys all the time (the most intense ones), usually after doing it for years and years on end.
Team Crossfit:
Crossfit has become INSANELY popular all over the globe. You see these places pop up all over the place like it's the next Starbucks. Crossfit is highly intense, involves complex olympic lifts and a ridiculous amount of cardio. If you've ever seen the Crossfit games you'll understand right away how intense it really is and the people that compete there are debatably the most in shape on the Earth.
It can get you in incredible shape. Now, there's some weird theory here that highly intense circuit training was created by Crossfit. Crossfit didn't invent or even reinvent the wheel they simply franchised it. Regardless, the style of training can get you in amazing shape in strength and cardio aspects as well as aesthetically. Many people who do Crossfit benefit greatly and it has become somewhat of a cult mentality, which isn't a bad thing. If you do Crossfit you're all in on Crossfit and if it pushes you to workout, great.
Olympic Lifting is for olympians... This is in the name. Olympian's use olympic lifts because their entire program is based off of those lifts. They are the most professional at it which makes them the most efficient, which makes them the least likely to injure themselves (and they still do). People who are looking to get in shape DO NOT need to be doing olympic lifts. I can strengthen the same exact muscle groups as a snatch clean with other exercises much more efficiently and safely than a snatch clean. Anyone in Crossfit is immediately going to dispute this and claim it's not dangerous if you do it correctly. Yes, it absolutely is. Using olympic lifts for an average client is maximizing risk while limiting reward. This isn't an opinion, this is factual. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning has conducted studies on this and found factual evidence of very high injury rates. Bottom line here...Olympians blow out their shoulders/backs etc doing these lifts not to mention a middle aged man/women just trying to get in shape.
Pull-ups are not a form of cardio... That's all about that.
So, what do we do?
We have built our personal programs to be a hybrid. This IS NOT a claim that we invented this style of training. Quite honestly, it's what we were introduced to at 14 years old and it's what we stuck with. Do we think it's the best way of training, of course we do...for us. We aren't bodybuilders, we aren't powerlifters, we aren't cardio machines. We pride ourselves on being hybrids. We use bodybuilding routines, powerlifting movements and do plenty of circuits and explosive work.
Being a "hybrid" means that we try to be as strong as possible, while staying aesthetic as well as staying fast, athletic and functional. This sounds amazing right? Why wouldn't everyone just do that? Because you have to sacrifice all of them to have all of them. If I let myself gain a lot of weight...my deadlift skyrockets and my cardio/speed goes to hell. If I cut up and go too low on body fat percentage my strength drops dramatically. See what I'm getting at?
This is the true yin/yang of our training program. But, we see results in all aspects of what we want and it works for us. The bottom line here is this may not be ideal for everyone. You have to outline what your goals are and choose your team accordingly. All the "teams" of the fitness industry aren't listed here. Like I said in the beggining, a VAST majority of fitness world belongs to none of these. They just go to their local gym for an hour three times a week and that works for them. There are people who do all three "teams" or even more. It varies for each person. Figure out what you want...and sometimes that goal will change in time, but you can always just switch teams.