bodybuilding VS. powerlifting

[moose805]

i was wondering what some of the main differences are between training for powerlifting and bodybuilding how do you recomend gaining some real strength

[Heisman]

Look for a thread with this title in the teen section, read my posts in it, and ignore all the others.

[Danz]

Bodybuilding includes:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

- Spot-on nutrition plan
- Protein ingested 6-7 times a day
- Rep ranges from 6-12
- Using "isolating exercises" (Preacher curls, calf raises, etc.)
- Getting Shredded
- Dropping water at contests
- Shaving entire body
- Tanning

Powerlifting includes:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

- Good nutrition, but not as strict as bodybuilding
- Periodizing routines
- Rep ranges from 1-6
- Power exercises (Bench Press, Squats, Deadlifts)

[Barchetta]

BBing is about appearing to be strong, athletic, verile according to a subjective norm. Powerlifting, like other sports, is about athletic performance.

[Biceps]

Originally posted by Barchetta
BBing is about appearing to be strong, athletic, verile according to a subjective norm. Powerlifting, like other sports, is about athletic performance.

I beg to differ. I am a bodybuilder and can bench 430lbs on a flat bench for 5 slow controlled reps. How am I "appearing" to be strong??? Furthermore, I don't use a "lifting shirt", like so many powerlifters do to assist them in lifting more weight than what they can in reality. I am a bodybuilder and use 65lb dumbells in each arm for reps while performing alternating dumbell curls with PERFECT form (no swing, no momentum, just pure strength). So not only am I strong, but I'm also a bodybuilder.

Care to explain to me how bodybuilders are NOT athletic?? First, you should probably define the word athleticism and explain how it equates to bodybuilders not being so. Let me help you. The dictionary defines "athletic" as follows: An athlete is someone who is strong, vigorously active, and robust. Someone who has a muscular build and competes in competitions against others. Someone who has a well proportioned body.

Did I miss something here, because last time I checked, bodybuilders are all of the above as defined by the dictionary! Bodybuilders are strong, vigorously active, and robust. They have muscular builds and compete against others. And they have well proportioned bodies.

I will agree that there are some bodybuilders out there who appear to be stronger than they really are. However, bodybuilders and powerlifters quite simply have different goals and therefore train differently. BUT, you cannot add muscle unless you work with progressively heavier work loads each time. Therefore, even bodybuilders must force themselves to get stronger every time we step foot in that gym. You should not have made a statement that was so widely generalized about all bodybuilders.

I for one would rather have the build of a bodybuilder, and have the strength of a powerlifter to back it up. Therefore I train for both size and strength. There is no sense in looking like a big fat ass or out of shape, even if you can lift an absurd amount of weight. There is no sense in being a skinny little dude either who can lift an absurd amount of weight. And there is no sense in having the powerful image of a bodybuilder's physique and yet not being able to lift sh!t. It's about balance, and I choose to have the size and strength to back it up.

[Biceps]

Originally posted by Barchetta
BBing is about appearing to be strong, athletic, verile according to a subjective norm. Powerlifting, like other sports, is about athletic performance.

I beg to differ. I am a bodybuilder and can bench 430lbs on a flat bench for 5 slow controlled reps. How am I "appearing" to be strong??? Furthermore, I don't use a "lifting shirt", like so many powerlifters do to assist them in lifting more weight than what they can in reality. I am a bodybuilder and use 65lb dumbells in each arm for reps while performing alternating dumbell curls with PERFECT form (no swing, no momentum, just pure strength). I can leg press 660lbs for reps of 20. How am I not strong!! I'm also a bodybuilder, and I'm strong as hell.

Care to explain to me how bodybuilders are NOT athletic?? First, you should probably define the word athleticism and explain how it equates to bodybuilders not being so. Let me help you. The dictionary defines "athletic" as follows: An athlete is someone who is strong, vigorously active, and robust. Someone who has a muscular build and competes in competitions against others. Someone who has a well proportioned body.

Did I miss something here, because last time I checked, bodybuilders are all of the above as defined by the dictionary! Bodybuilders are strong, vigorously active, and robust. They have muscular builds and compete against others. And they have well proportioned bodies.

I will agree that there are some bodybuilders out there who appear to be stronger than they really are. However, bodybuilders and powerlifters quite simply have different goals and therefore train differently. BUT, you cannot add muscle unless you work with progressively heavier work loads each time. Therefore, even bodybuilders must force themselves to get stronger every time we step foot in that gym. You should not have made a statement that was so widely generalized about all bodybuilders.

I for one would rather have the build of a bodybuilder, and have the strength of a powerlifter to back it up. Therefore I train for both size and strength. There is no sense in looking like a big fat ass or out of shape, even if you can lift an absurd amount of weight. There is no sense in being a skinny little dude either who can lift an absurd amount of weight. And there is no sense in having the powerful image of a bodybuilder's physique and yet not being able to lift sh!t. It's about balance, and I choose to have the size and strength to back it up.

[RepubCarrier]

well, the object of bodybuilding to be big, and the object of powerlifting to be strong (through whatever methods are possible, including getting bigger) would lead to a powerlifter being stronger on average than a bodybuilder, assuming certain things are constant. a stronger person is more suited to play sports, and has a higher sprinting speed than a weaker person. that is why he said that.

[moose805]

cant agree with you anymore biceps the main difference that i always saw between the two was that powerlifters have alot more mass on there body wonering if this gave them some exta strength and also whats up with this benchpress shirt its supposed to help you lift more weight or what?

[Biceps]

read below. Double posted!!

[Biceps]

Barchettas' statement was widely generalized and inaccurate. Bodybuilding requires just as much athleticism as powerlifting. And how often do you see competitive powerlifters doing cardio and sprints?? Very rarely. Generally speaking, powerlifters require more calories each day than bodybuilders, and any form of cardio would be counterproductive to a powerlifter. Granted in the bulking stages BB's go through, cardio is counterproductive, but I believe that overall bodybuilders perform a higher volume of cardio and sprints than powerlifters due to a BB's need to keep his/her bodyfat levels lower. Therefore, with the higher volume of overall cardio/sprints a bb performs on a year round basis, I would say that bodybuilders are just as suited to be dominant in sports due to their strength, size, speed and stamina.

LOL!! I just like to debate. No offense dude!!! I would never go so far as to say that bodybuilders are in an overall sense better than powerlifters, or that powerlifters are overall better than bodybuilders. To each its' own.

It is very common in powerlifting competitions for competitors to use specialized shirts that allow them to lift more weight than they could without it. The shirt is so tight in specific areas that it prevents the person wearing it from being able to put their arms down to their sides, much like a bodybuilder with a wide lat spread in his/her back. When the person wearing the shirt lays down on the bench, their arms don't want to go down. In effect, when they grip the bar and lift it off the rack, it acts as a sort of spring board for the lifter, making it harder to get the bar down, and easier for the lifter to fire the bar back up.

The same is used for deadlifting. A suit is used to make it harder for the lifter to squat down and grip the bar. I've seen countless competitors struggle to get down to the bar, but once they grip it, the natural tendency of the suit makes you stand right back up, thereby increasing the amount of weight one can lift.

[RepubCarrier]

Originally posted by Biceps
Barchettas' statement was widely generalized and inaccurate. Bodybuilding requires just as much athleticism as powerlifting. And how often do you see competitive powerlifters doing cardio and sprints?? Very rarely. Generally speaking, powerlifters require more calories each day than bodybuilders, and any form of cardio would be counterproductive to a powerlifter. Granted in the bulking stages BB's go through, cardio is counterproductive, but I believe that overall bodybuilders perform a higher volume of cardio and sprints than powerlifters due to a BB's need to keep his/her bodyfat levels lower. Therefore, with the higher volume of overall cardio/sprints a bb performs on a year round basis, I would say that bodybuilders are just as suited to be dominant in sports due to their strength, size, speed and stamina.

LOL!! I just like to debate. No offense dude!!! I would never go so far as to say that bodybuilders are in an overall sense better than powerlifters, or that powerlifters are overall better than bodybuilders. To each its' own.

It is very common in powerlifting competitions for competitors to use specialized shirts that allow them to lift more weight than they could without it. The shirt is so tight in specific areas that it prevents the person wearing it from being able to put their arms down to their sides, much like a bodybuilder with a wide lat spread in his/her back. When the person wearing the shirt lays down on the bench, their arms don't want to go down. In effect, when they grip the bar and lift it off the rack, it acts as a sort of spring board for the lifter, making it harder to get the bar down, and easier for the lifter to fire the bar back up.

The same is used for deadlifting. A suit is used to make it harder for the lifter to squat down and grip the bar. I've seen countless competitors struggle to get down to the bar, but once they grip it, the natural tendency of the suit makes you stand right back up, thereby increasing the amount of weight one can lift.

yeah you have a point about powerlifters that do not run, because there is no need for them to do so. I am more thinking of an NFL player; would he benefit from powerlifting methods or bodybuilding methods more? the answer is powerlifting. no slooooowwww reps, direct pec work, calf work, bicep work, doing more medial tricep work, attention to the core (no concerns about waistline, bigger waist = more base of power), doing explosive lifts (whether olympic or dynamic lifts with bands). training the CNS for higher intensities. these are all more athletic qualities

[Barchetta]

Bodybuilding style of lifting weights has very poor carry over into performance. The body become but a mere collection of parts. The great majority ofd pro bbers are quite weak for their size when compared to athletes of the same. Bodybuilding rests precipitously between sport and spectacle. If professional wrestling or
roller derby have become synonymous with spectacle, it is not because of their inability to
meet basic definitions of sport Structurally, they meet the outlines presented by Coakley
(1982), who cites physical exertion, competition, and organization as three key traits all
sports must have. Bodybuilding has some unique problems in meeting these criteria.

All three of Coakley's traits can be found in bodybuilding. The International Federation of
Body Building (IFBB) is the dominant organiation in the sport. Contests are highly
competitive, but the physical exertion and demonstration of skills which most people
assume runs in tandem with organization and competition, is conspicuously absent. It takes
place separately and is linked to the contest only as a visual reportage-a posing routine.
This transforms the contest into a nonphysical event that outsiders often see as being like a
beauty contest. Insiders defend against this by claiming that the sport is both sport and art
weight training is the sport, and posing and competitions are the art. Regardless of how
they divide their field, the physical component is not contemporaneous with the organized
competition, raising a claim that it is not a sport at alt but a spectacle. Belly dancing is not a
sport, yet many of its practitioners engage in weight training and enter competitions. Even
with bodybuilding there has been a tendency of late to exaggerate the spectacle with the use
of props and outrageous costuming and makeup (e.g., The Night of the Champions, a
professionnal contests).

Definition of sport is mediated by other factors, however, most notably the media's
willingness to accept an activity as such and the public's acceptance of that decision. Within
the past decade just such a passive acquiescence seems to have occurred through the
dramatic rise in popularly of "trash sports" (Sewart 1983). Bodybuilding rode that crest first
through the attention received by the award-winning film Pumping Iron, and second with
network telecasts of some of the better bodybuilding contests. This supported the view that
virtually any sporting event would generate sufficient ratings, and contests along with prize
money proliferated during the late 1970s. The advent of women's body building made the
most dramatic impact however, because it opened the sport/spectacle to a hitherto excluded
group. And to the thousands of fans who willingly paid as much as $100 a seat to get into
the Mr. Olympia contest the temporal break meant nothing.

[deowal]

Bodybuilders are pussies

and powerlifters are badasses


that's the real difference

[DavePII]

ronnie coleman does deadlifts with 800lbs for 2 reps, bents rows with over 405lbs, front sqauts 585lbs, and this is all in his video. The main theme here is that he is the best bber in the world, yet his training emulates that of a powerlifter.

[fullback82]

Originally posted by P.O.S.
Then would it be food and steroids that give him his mass, not so much his training?

OK, this is really contradictory...

Bodybuilders train for size, but are also very strong.

Powerlifters, Olympic weightlifters, Strongmen, etc. all train for strength, but are also very big.

What is it, besides superior genetics and/or steroids, that allow these guys to develop both while only training for one?

How could a natural Joe Average get close to both maximum size AND maximum strength?

To get the facts straight, Ronnie Coleman has never used anabolic steroids and anyone who truely knows him and his story knows that.

[Pridg01]

Before I go back to bed, this toic was a very badd one...Just result in arguments..This will either be closed or people baned..

just a thought...

I give this thread thumbs down...

Goodnight.

[Biceps]

Originally posted by DavePII
ronnie coleman does deadlifts with 800lbs for 2 reps, bents rows with over 405lbs, front sqauts 585lbs, and this is all in his video. The main theme here is that he is the best bber in the world, yet his training emulates that of a powerlifter.

My point exactly. Bodybuilders also use powerlifting training principles. We're strong as hell too...we just look better than powerlifters!!

Look, competitive powerlifters do not run!! They don't do cardiovascular work, they don't sprint, they simply perform 2 lifts (Bench press and deadlift), and that's it. How are they more well suited for sports??

I agree that powerlifting TRAINING PRINCIPLES may have more of a benefit to the athlete, the football player, the basketball player, etc. But just because athletes in other sports use these principles does not mean that powerlifting is better. Again, powerlifters don't run. They don't sprint. It is conterproductive to their sport while running is critical in other sports.

And I disagree that bodybuilding principles don't carry over well into other sports. Bodybuilding is also about total control of the muscle, whereas powerlifters rely a lot on momentum. The ability to have 100% control over each muscle group, it's position, contraction and movement, is very beneficial to the athlete. That mind over matter connection.

Bottom line is this. Both bodybuilding and powerlifting principles have their place in mainstream sports. To say that powerlifters are better, or vise versa, is plain ignorance.

Barchetta...LOL! You can't even defend yourself in your own words. Look, stay on topic. We're not discussing whether or not bodybuilding is a sport directly. LOL! Besides, try telling Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is by the way the very reason 99% of all of us picked up weights to begin with, that bodybuilding is not a sport.

[Biceps]

Originally posted by deowal
Bodybuilders are pussies

and powerlifters are badasses


that's the real difference

LOL!! I think you're just mad that bodybuilders look better than you do!!

[RogerDoug]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Biceps
[B]My point exactly. Bodybuilders also use powerlifting training principles. We're strong as hell too...we just look better than powerlifters!!

Look, competitive powerlifters do not run!! They don't do cardiovascular work, they don't sprint, they simply perform 2 lifts (Bench press and deadlift), and that's it. How are they more well suited for sports??

Powerlifters do 3-lifts, not 2. You are thinking of the heavyweights that do little lifting. I agree with Pridge on this one, this is a bad topic...

[Biceps]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by RogerDoug
[B]

Originally posted by Biceps

Powerlifters do 3-lifts, not 2. You are thinking of the heavyweights that do little lifting. I agree with Pridge on this one, this is a bad topic...

Any topic that ignites debate is not bad. I think that this is a topic worth discussing, as there are people who are curious about the difference between the two.

Besides, when somebody says something ignorant, do you just stand by, or do you call them out on it?? What if somebody made an ignorant statement about your sport, such as "All powerlifters are fat assess." Would you debate it, or just let it go. It's the same thing here.

And actually, at the last WABDL sanctioned powerlifting meet I was at, the powerlifters were only performing bench presses and deadlifts. It must differ from fed to fed.

[RepubCarrier]

Originally posted by Biceps
My point exactly. Bodybuilders also use powerlifting training principles. We're strong as hell too...we just look better than powerlifters!!

Look, competitive powerlifters do not run!! They don't do cardiovascular work, they don't sprint, they simply perform 2 lifts (Bench press and deadlift), and that's it. How are they more well suited for sports??

I agree that powerlifting TRAINING PRINCIPLES may have more of a benefit to the athlete, the football player, the basketball player, etc. But just because athletes in other sports use these principles does not mean that powerlifting is better. Again, powerlifters don't run. They don't sprint. It is conterproductive to their sport while running is critical in other sports.

And I disagree that bodybuilding principles don't carry over well into other sports. Bodybuilding is also about total control of the muscle, whereas powerlifters rely a lot on momentum. The ability to have 100% control over each muscle group, it's position, contraction and movement, is very beneficial to the athlete. That mind over matter connection.

Bottom line is this. Both bodybuilding and powerlifting principles have their place in mainstream sports. To say that powerlifters are better, or vise versa, is plain ignorance.

Barchetta...LOL! You can't even defend yourself in your own words. Look, stay on topic. We're not discussing whether or not bodybuilding is a sport directly. LOL! Besides, try telling Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is by the way the very reason 99% of all of us picked up weights to begin with, that bodybuilding is not a sport.

mind-muscle connection is pretty much stupid bull****. training slowly, worrying about a waistline, doing biceps and calves, as I have posted, are useless for athletics. better than nothing, but not really that good. powerlifting makes you stronger; couple it with sprint/agility on off days. this is how you train effectively.

[RogerDoug]

Originally posted by RepubCarrier
mind-muscle connection is pretty much stupid bull****. training slowly, worrying about a waistline, doing biceps and calves, as I have posted, are useless for athletics. better than nothing, but not really that good. powerlifting makes you stronger; couple it with sprint/agility on off days. this is how you train effectively.

Bump on that.

[Barchetta]

Originally posted by Biceps


And I disagree that bodybuilding principles don't carry over well into other sports.

How does frying your cns and doing slow controlled reps make one a better athlete??? Why is it that I nor any of my peers uses bbing style techniques with our players??? Why is it that BBers have such trouble crossing over into athletics at a high level?? Remember Franco????? One of the strongest bbers in history, got his ass handed to him by an over the hill, retired o-lifter in the '77 WSM.

[senithe363]

Originally posted by DavePII
ronnie coleman does deadlifts with 800lbs for 2 reps, bents rows with over 405lbs, front sqauts 585lbs, and this is all in his video. The main theme here is that he is the best bber in the world, yet his training emulates that of a powerlifter.

To get that big you have to lift big weights regardless if you're a bodybuilder or a powerlifter.

[Shilling]

This poor guy chose the wrong board to talk **** about powerlifting. Hahaha...

There is a medium though. I think they call it "Power-building"?

[Barchetta]

Originally posted by Biceps
We're strong as hell too...we just look better than powerlifters!!

Most IFBB pros, drugs and all cannot dl 580 without straps, etc. A guy just took that off the floor and put it overhead! Need I say more??

[dookie1481]

Originally posted by fullback82
To get the facts straight, Ronnie Coleman has never used anabolic steroids and anyone who truely knows him and his story knows that.

I think you forgot the "J/K" at the end of your post.

[moose805]

well looks like i posted a pretty touchy subject i was just curious about how the two trained differently for different results

[Barchetta]

Originally posted by moose805
well looks like i posted a pretty touchy subject i was just curious about how the two trained differently for different results

BBers train only for hypertrophy, athletes train for performance. BBers train musculature, athletes train movements. As Pavel said "bodybuilding is the worst thing to ever happen to strength training".

[dookie1481]

Originally posted by moose805
well looks like i posted a pretty touchy subject i was just curious about how the two trained differently for different results

This tends to be a pretty inflammatory subject.