competitive bodybuilding = male beauty pageant
Do it for health, vanity and longevity but don't try to put it in the same category as boxing or hockey.
Exactly. If you think about what makes a bodybuilder a bodybuilder and what makes a fitness competitor a fitness competitor, there is little difference.
1. Both diet and exercise to have the lowest amount of fat they can for onstage.
2. Both lift weights as probably the most difficult thing they have to do. The weights aren't alive; they can't fight back or do anything different than they did the last time (nothing!).
3. The real judging for a fitness/beauty pageant and bodybuilder competition is the bathing suit round.
4. Guest posing for body builders equal T&A models at car shows.
So overall, the only difference between the two in training is the amount of weight they lift. In fact, we have bodybuilders constantly telling us it's not the amount of weight you use but the form and technique. And the amount of weight you lift isn't even judged in contests. You could say that it implicitly is judged by their body, but Jay Cutler has disproved this for years.
So the amount of weight you lift doesn't matter either in competitive bodybuilding. What's even left? Chemistry and genetics.