Don’t get me wrong, I understand they’re athletes and work tremendously hard, but they all have their bellies hanging over their belts. Wouldn’t be less fat make it easier to lift a weight since you’re also not lifting your own fat?
In: Biology
when you build muscle, you also gain fat. that’s unavoidable. most “bodybuilders” go through two stages, the bulking phase (gaining muscle and fat) then the cutting phase to reach their ideal weight and keeping as much muscle mass as possible. men and women are different. men are able to reach 2-4% body fat, while women are generally unable to go less than 10-12%. so men may look way more ripped/lean compared to women. bodybuilding also cuts down to super low bodyfat percentages for aesthics, since that’s the main focus of competition.
however, for power lifting, it’s a bit different, you need to stay functional and having some fat is actually beneficially as it prevents injury. the 87+kg category, and competition like the worlds strongest man/woman, has no upper limit on weight, so you want to build as much muscle as possible and not worry about cutting the fat to meet the weight class. so most competitors there look huge. but if you look at all the other weight classes where there are upper limits on the weight, then those competitors will cut down to a lower body fat percentage.
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