I am going to make a blasphemous statement that will probably lead to massive riots. Bodybuilding is the hardest sport out there. I will get to why in a second, but first let me share some history for you. 

On Sept. 18 the 50th Mr. Olympia was held in Las Vegas with Phil Heath winning his fourth title. An accomplishment that would not have occurred had it not been for the perseverance of Ben and Joe Weider and Eugene Sandow. The Weiders are the ones responsible for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fame. Sandow is the founder of modern bodybuilding. 

The sport itself started back in the late 1890’s when it became popular to show off massive feats of strength. Unfortunately, these men were also fat, until Sandow showed up. At the time, he had not only good strength, but also balance in his physique that caused people to want to be like him. 

He eventually began traveling around Europe promoting competition for bodybuilding and by 1901, the first show was held. Fast-forward to 1965 where bodybuilding was in the midst of the golden age yet there was no way of determining the best of the best. That’s when Joe Weider comes in. 

He founded Mr. Olympia that year and crowned Larry Scott as the champion (for those of you fond of the preacher curl it is actually called the Scott curl). The next 5 decades saw the crowning of 13 champions; Arnold claimed seven Lee Haney with eight, Ronnie Coleman grabbed eight, Dorian Yates with six and both Jay Cutler and Phil Heath with four. 

Now back to my original statement. Bodybuilding is the hardest sport. Not to take way from other sports like football, which are very difficult in their own right, but bodybuilding is different in many ways. 

First and foremost it’s an individual sport. That’s right, no coach, no teammates, not true support other than your own mind. Now sure, some people have lifting partners, but the most successful lifters usually train by themselves. 

The second point is the training style. In most sports the weight training involves either explosive training or heavy training. In bodybuilding, most of the time it is high-volume training. Most bodybuilders will do anywhere between 25 to 50 sets for a specific muscle group whether it be arms or legs. If that’s not enough, the workouts are intense. 

Now I know most of you reading this are going to cry foul claiming you train hard and I am just going to call BS. Over half of you do not train legs or if you do you cannot even get past a quarter squat and at least 90 percent of you have the energy to talk to your buddies in there for five minutes. That is not intense. 

If you want intense do four to five sets of 12 reps per exercise with 30 to 60 sec in-between each set. That’s intense and you should be drenched in sweat and exhausted when you’re finished. 

The third thing that makes bodybuilding so difficult is the diet. When I talk diet I am not talking Atkins or weight watchers I am talking pre-contest dieting. 

The purpose of the pre-contest diet is to lose body fat (get down under 5 percent) and build or maintain muscle. 

Most people who weight lift can eat a diet that allows them to maintain right around 10 to 15 percent without a problem, but that’s not the hard part. 

The hard part comes when you have to manipulate your calorie intake. 

Each and every meal has to be weighed properly in order to know for sure how many grams of carbs, fats and protein you are consuming. Still not much of challenge the week before the contest is the hardest. 

For that week carbs must be under 30 grams per day and then you must eat a lot of carbs at least 24 if not 48 hours prior to coming onstage. If you time it wrong, it can mean the difference from first to last place.

The final reason is a little and it is nothing we can control and that is genetics. The size and shape of our muscle, bones and joints are controlled by genetics which means there is really nothing we can do about it. 

If you have short muscles with small bellies, too bad, no bodybuilding carrier for you. 

Oh sure, every sport has their genetics for speed and size, but in those sports hard work goes a long way in bodybuilding you can work your butt off and still lose to a person with better genetics and half the work ethic. 

I want to wrap things up by saying all sports are difficult and challenging and we all have our opinions about which is more difficult than the other. 

In the end given the information I have presented I think it is safe to say, that bodybuilding is one of, if not the, toughest sport out there.