Difference Between Weightlifting and Weightlifting (and Why It Matters)
This will be an extremely pedantic post, and I’m terribly sorry that I have to write it. I have been involved in weightlifting for a long time (two words), but about six years ago I became interested in weightlifting (all one word). It turns out that these are two completely different things.
In short, weightlifting is a sport that competes in the Olympic Games in which people dressed in costumes similar to vintage swimsuits lift barbells loaded with brightly colored weights . In one exercise, the snatch , the barbell is lifted upward from the ground in one quick motion. In another, the clean and jerk , the barbell rises to the shoulders and the lifter pauses to take a breath and reflect on his life choices before using another sudden movement to lift it sky high. (You can lift more weight the second way, so these are separate competitions. Each athlete’s best times in the snatch and clean and jerk are added together to determine who wins.)
Weight lifting, in a nutshell, refers to the action of lifting weights—any weights. If you’ve never heard of this distinction or never thought about it when you say or hear the word “weightlifting,” bear with me.
Why does “weightlifting” refer to sports consisting of the snatch, clean and jerk, and the clean and jerk?
The first weightlifting competitions, held in the 1800s, evolved from circuses and stage shows where a strongman would demonstrate his feats of strength to an audience. Sometimes these strongmen would challenge each other and invite judges to check the scales and ensure fair competition. Gymnasts around this time also trained with dumbbells and barbells, and held their own friendly competitions. By the time the first (modern) Olympic Games took place in 1896, there was enough interest in weightlifting as a competitive sport that it had become a major sport.
It took decades after that for competitive weightlifting to evolve into the form we still see at the Olympics. Dumbbell raises and one-arm raises were eliminated; by 1928, the sport had three lifts, each performed with both hands. In 1972, one of them (the clean and press) was removed from competition. That leaves the two-lift sport we know and love today. (We all like it, right? It’s our favorite? Okay.)
The idea of lifting weights for fun and health did not become popular until competitive sports became popular. The name “weightlifting” was already taken, so when some weightlifters decided to challenge each other in other exercises such as the squat and bench press, they had to choose a different name. (And so powerlifting was born.) Other branches also chose names. “The World’s Strongest Man” television programs gave rise to the sport of strongman, in which people (not just men) lift various objects such as rocks, barrels and log-shaped barbells, and no two competitions are the same.
Probably the most famous strength sport is bodybuilding, in which athletes actually lift nothing in competition; they are simply showing off the body they have built by lifting weights. Much of sports culture as we know it today was born out of the bodybuilding style of training, where bodybuilders and barbell manufacturers collaborated to write and publish magazine articles for the masses. If you think of strength training in terms of “reps” or “muscle groups,” here’s why.
You can also, of course, just lift weights. It’s not weightlifting because that’s the name of the Olympic sport; it’s “weight lifting” or “weight lifting” or “strength training” or “resistance training.” You can call it “weight lifting” if you like.
I’m a weightlifter and I agree that this makes no sense.
I hate that I was forced to become so pedantic about this. Weightlifting is a terrible, terrible, no good, very bad name for one of the many sports in which people lift weights. By the way, powerlifting has almost the same unfortunate name; in fact, it is the Olympic lifts that demonstrate strength, and “powerlifting” that demonstrates strength. So people like me continue to protest that we are weightlifters and not powerlifters or bodybuilders, and the average person clutching dumbbells at the gym has no idea why we care so much whether there is a gap between “weight” and “lift”.
The problem, ultimately, is that no one has ever come up with a better name for the sport featured in the Olympics. Some people will call it an “Olympic lift,” which can lead to confusion when you tell your friends you’re doing it but you’re not going to the Olympics for it.
Crossfitters found a workaround by casually mentioning the term “lifting only,” which I support in theory, but weightlifters have not embraced the term. We compete in weightlifting and explain what we mean when we say “you know, weightlifting , weightlifting” by imitating the movement of the snatch. I’m sorry. This is the best we have at the moment.