Female Fitness & Bodybuilding
The history of bodybuilding has presented its fair share of controversy ranging from external prejudice (lies about the lifestyle’s inherent negative repercussions on the human body) to internal miscarriage (anabolic substance abuse) but thanks to the men and women who’ve made a real discipline of it and endured it for a life long career, well let’s just say they’ve helped it reach the pinnacle of today’s sportive standards.
This article will focus on some of the lies and misconceptions surrounding it’s inception as well as why it took so long for women to freely engage in weight lifting disciplines without being viewed as abnormal.
Bodybuilding Vs Fitness
“Fitness” as a definitive term for denominating a discipline which is based on bodybuilding techniques but aimed at a somewhat “moderated” muscular evolution of the human physique has today become the label under which many females engage in positive body enhancing training.
This sub culture of extreme hypertrophic competition bodybuilding has not only gone from strength to strength since the early 90s but continues to grow gaining more and more popularity amongst women of all ages and demographic.
So why did it take so long for this type of fitness training to hit the everyday woman ? Why was female involvement in bodybuilding and fitness training frowned upon by society ? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons.
Anti Bodybuilding Physicians
The biggest trouble makers were probably the countless physicians who were advising about the risks of getting into a bodybuilding lifestyle. See it wasn’t just about lifting weight’s, bodybuilding was considered a lifestyle changing process which would take you away from the natural growth and evolution of a regular human. Weight lifting and body sculpting was just considered wrong! Freak of nature ? You Bet!
The common message from the medical community was that bodybuilding would detain the natural growth process in teenagers, and cause arterial atrophy in adults and in the best scenarios it would lead the weightlifter down the path of cardiovascular complications. Some even went as far as it being a cause of impotence. The limits to which physicians were going to blacklist this form of resistance training was limitless. Bodybuilding was a big no no in their books.
Naturally if men were getting all these warnings then when it came to women, the bad name bodybuilding was being given by certain people, plus the public’s ignorance of its techniques made it even more unacceptable for females. So how did female bodybuilding lay its seeds amongst all this hate ?
Female Bodybuilding Roots
It’s true that women had few chances if any to become acquainted with the benefits and advantages of this marvelous discipline. In fact the calumnious affirmations took as long as the late 70’s to meet their end, and even though “female bodybuilding” contests can be traced back to the 60’s they really weren’t such, and would pass for mere “bikini open” show offs.
In fact it wasn’t until 1978 in Canton, Ohio that Henry McGhee promoted the “U.S. Women’s National Physique Championship” which is regarded by many as the first real female bodybuilding contest.
By 1980 professional American female bodybuilder Laura Combes won the first NPC (National Physique Committee) women’s contest, which became the top amateur rank contest for ladies. The sport went from strenght to strength and despite minor setbacks such as Combes untimely death in 1989 (she was found dead at her Odessa apartment due to alcohol poisoning). It was the success and promotion of these early events that led to the female fitness revolution of the 90s, and certainly characters like Laura Combes were part of the reason why female bodybuilding and fitness finally reached the masses.
Today the whole medical community corroborates on the advantages body shaping may provide to human health, and thankfully it doesn’t exclude the feminine public. Regular weight lifting sessions can get phenomenal results for women, resistance training gives the body an agile and harmonious development which other methods simply fail to deliver.
Modern Views
By now the fever of “female fitness or bodybuilding” has not only found its way through to most modern gymnasiums but most trainers and gyms are starting to include classes and special training sessions to satisfy its growing demand.
Body shaping for women, if conceived as a constant and moderated set of exercises, can make that physical ideal which first led them to the gym a reality. Not only is it suitable for loosing unhealthy fat pounds (an extremely common reason for women hitting the gym) but it helps shape your body making it stronger, more shapely and in many cases more attractive.
By shaping your body through a combination of weight lifting, cardiovascular resistance and a well balanced diet you gain more than a beautiful body, you gain confidence, a reduction in stress levels, a strong immune system and of course increased strength and endurance to engage in every day activities. Female bodybuilding is here to stay, and with all the benefits outlined above, why not!