Weightlifting on the Rise

By. Stephen DeBisschop

2/10/19

In the past few years weightlifting culture has been on the rise. People have been getting memberships to gyms or creating their own gyms at home more and more frequently; and the high protein diets and powders that come with these intense workouts have become more common too. The exact cause for this rise in popularity is impossible to pinpoint exactly but a large part of it comes from new understanding by health experts. Before weightlifting was seen as something for bodybuilders, if you wanted a more general fitness or toned body you did cardio workouts. This has changed now, but still the exact reasons for weightlifting vary from person to person.

Benjamin Egan is an all around large person; he’s tall, overweight and has a big personality (in a good way). Ben exercises in order to lose weight but also now with another goal of being able to meet the military’s fitness standards. Although he does less weightlifting now, he currently has an HIIT routine (High Intensity Interval Training). Ben did weightlifting largely because he disliked cardio workouts and because it’s what his friends were doing too. Although his workout routine has changed, weightlifting does offer a path to Ben’s goals. Diet plays a role in Ben’s routine as well, currently he is on an intermittent fasting diet and often uses protein powder.

Kyle Ollmann is tall and slim, in both physicality and temperament he both compares to and contrasts with Ben in many ways. Yet he does weightlifting too. His goals are the complete opposite of Ben’s. For a while Kyle was underweight for his height and he turned to weightlifting to help remedy this. Not only that but he has found that weightlifting gives him something to do and goals to achieve, and this helps keep him happy. Like Ben Kyle diets to supplement his workouts, generally he tries to eat more at every meal and eat high protein foods as opposed to foods high in carbs. Kyle’s introduction to weightlifting, as he puts it, was from being essentially bullied by one of his friends for his weight.

There has been a rise in weightlifting culture and high intensity workouts in general in recent years. There are certainly lots of reasons for this rise, obesity has only continued to grow as a major health issue for one. I think weightlifting in particular though, has become so popular because it is rather versatile. Ben and Kyle both serve as great examples of this, both have very opposite goals, but when weightlifting is supplemented with a diet and other specifics both can achieve these opposing goals.

Works Cited

https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/fat-loss-training-wars.html

Image credits: Why the Weights https://whytheweights.com/