4 Sports Where Strength is Essential

Discipline and training are necessary when it comes to sports that require strength.

The objective of sports where the use of strength is essential is undoubtedly related to demonstrating the strongest participants. Read along to find out more about strength sports.

Characteristics of strength essential sports

Sports that require strength have been around since ancient times. Competitions were held in order to demonstrate how much weight an athlete could lift, carry or throw.

Weightlifting has been in the Olympic Games since the first event in 1896. The most important aspect of this sport is physical strength, mainly of the arms, but also of the back and legs.

Sports that require the most strength are usually anaerobic. They include high-intensity lifting.

Sports where strength is essential

The first sport that comes to mind is weightlifting, however, while it’s the most popular, it’s not the only strength sport. The following are a few examples:

Weightlifting

Since weightlifting is the most popular strength sport, we decided to place it first on our list. This sport consists of lifting the most amount of weight possible on a bar with several disks. 

There are two well-known competition types when it comes to weightlifting: the deadlift and the two-stroke.  Deadlifts consist of lifting the weights in one go without pauses. Two-stroke, on the other hand, allows for athletes to have a shoulder-height pause before stretching their hands over their heads.

Strength essential sports: powerlifting

Powerlifting is another sport in which strength is essential. It consists of performing three exercises with a bar and several discs: squats, bench press, and deadlifts.

It differs from weightlifting since it consists of three exercises and the bar isn’t raised above the head. While powerlifting is recognized by the International Olympic Committee, it hasn’t yet been included in the Olympic Games.

Tug of war

Yes! The tug of war is endorsed by an international federation. The sport is played by two teams of eight players, who each try to pull a rope that has a girth of 10 cm.

The rope is marked in the center and then again four meters from that line. Once the tug begins, its all about trying to pull the other team towards the center. Tug of war is one of the oldest sports in the world.

Strength essential sports: shot put

This sport involves throwing a steel ball over the greatest possible distance. The first mention of the games is from the Funeral Games of Patroclus. In modern times, it usually appears in traditional competitions in Scotland and Ireland.

The steel ball weighs more than 15 pounds in men’s competitions and eight pounds in women’s events. The launch area is composed of a two-meter circle with a cement surface.

Shot put has been an Olympic sport since the 1996 Atlanta games. During those games, an American athlete; Randy Barnes was able to throw the steel ball 23.12 meters. The female record holder – German, Ilona Slupianek was able to throw the ball over 22.41 meters.

We couldn’t close this article without mentioning the ‘strongman’ competition. It’s another competition in which strength is essential. It consists of different tests in which participants have to demonstrate their strength while transporting, dragging, lifting, pushing, boxing, squatting and deadlifting.