Competition or Recreation

[Cantplankwell]

I wonder how many of you in the Olympic lifting stream lift purely for recreational purposes and do not lift to compete?

[olyw8lifter]

I don't know about others here, but I lift for both. I mainly started to lift recreationally, but then I started to compete and I love it!!

However, I could see myself stopping competition and just lifting for fun in the future. I've also gone decent periods of time without competing and it doesn't really bother me. I don't see the need or feel I have to compete often like others.

[JosephDubya]

I wonder how many of you in the Olympic lifting stream lift purely for recreational purposes and do not lift to compete?

I would love to compete but I've had too many shoulder injuries. I can't snatch over 115 without stability issues... Ironically I can clean 275 though :|

[BrownBear1968]

I practice weightlifitng recreationally, but I alrealdy participated on two events.

The main goal was to use adrenalin to raise 5/10 kg on my PRs.
Such goal was reached in both competions. In the first event I raised 45/70 to 55/80 kg at 2016. And in the second, I raised my PRs to 70/90 kg (cat. 105+/master).

Master category was provided by organizers and I brought home gold medals from both events. This was not the goal. I was competing only against myself.

[ChristineMN]

Recreational purposes for me. I'm super competitive so I think I'd like competing, but I can't get with the uniform. So instead, I'm just focusing on competing against my own record(s).

[mayurihana]

Definitely recreation, but competition is more of the aftermath of pushing yourself. In all though, ultimately I think we just love the feeling of beating ourselves in terms of strength over time - becoming better versions of ourselves.

[olyw8lifter]

Recreational purposes for me. I'm super competitive so I think I'd like competing, but I can't get with the uniform. So instead, I'm just focusing on competing against my own record(s).

Easiest way to overcome that is just get a singlet that you think you'd like and train in it. Do that a lot and you'll get over the feeling on the platform.