Weight training, cross training, weightlifting: which should you choose?

We'll start with a sport that's not well known but which is the foundation for the other muscle-focused sports: weightlifting.

Weightlifting requires specific equipment. Olympic bars and bumpers are designed for safety while doing the exercises. The snatch and the clean and jerk are very technical movements that require commitment to foundational work. If you want to do it, we recommend contacting a weightlifting club or gym. This sport is enjoying a new-found popularity and is being promoted in more and more gyms and fitness centres. Competitions are divided by age and weight groups. The goal is to lift as much weight as possible for the snatch and the clean and jerk. Your final result corresponds to the sum of the weight you lifted during these two events.

Weight training is probably the best known and most popular strength training sport. But what is it exactly? We'll tell you.

Depending on your fitness level and goals, you can begin with minimal equipment or bodyweight exercises, or join a gym where a trainer can get you started. As you progress, it can be easier and more productive to work out at a gym that can offer you heavier weights and more specific equipment. To start, full-body workouts - i.e. those that work all your muscle groups - several times a week can help you build a foundation.

If you want to take things further, you can try a “split” programme: each workout is focused on a specific muscle group, with more intense exercises and a longer recovery period before working the same muscles.

Finally, weight training also involves isolation exercises: rather than doing the clean and jerk like in weightlifting, you do squats, deadlifts and shoulder presses separately. To get stronger and build more muscle, weight training often goes hand in hand with a specific, controlled diet. There are generally two periods during strict weight training programmes: bulking, which is when you build muscle, and cutting, when you lose the fat that you inevitably gain during the bulking phase.

 

Cross training, the newest arrival to the muscle-based sports family, is a popular sport that offers intense full-body workouts. We'll explain.

Although you can try out cross training at home to see what it's all about, generally this sport is done at a gym called a "box" with all the equipment you need for this multidisciplinary sport: pull-up bars, gymnastics rings, Olympic bars and weightlifting bumpers, etc.

The second advantage to training at a box is the community-based environment of cross training. The Workouts of the Day - known by insiders as WoDs - are done in groups with a coach and to music: you simply adapt the weight to your level. Some WoDs are even done as a team. This ambience is more than just a detail - having others there to cheer you on can help you push your limits. If the two or three weekly WoDs make you want to do even more, there are also cross training competitions, organised by the different boxes.

Want to know more? Jérémy, our weight training specialist, talks about how he discovered cross training:

Do you like to push your limits, learn new techniques and work your cardio and muscles at the same time?~You should definitely give cross training a go. The endurance and cardio work also mean you don't have to worry about counting calories if that's not really your thing. Plus, the group workouts are a great change of pace.

 

Are you looking for strong sensations and results, and aren't afraid to adapt your diet to fit your sports goals? Weight training will let you develop your muscular potential, establish your own programme and improve at your own rhythm.

 

Do you put performance over physical results and enjoy perfecting your technique? The precise, multi-joint exercises of weight lifting and specific results might be right up your alley. And one last tip: just try it! Some sports may seem boring from the outside, but when you get into it, they're really exciting. So whether you want to discover something new or get fitter, the best thing you can do is try.

 

And one last tip: just try it! Some sports may seem boring from the outside, but when you get into it, they're really exciting. So whether you want to discover something new or get fitter, the best thing you can do is try.