Powerlifting is the quickest way to build strength. Bodybuilding is the quickest way to build muscle mass. Whilst muscle mass and strength are linked, powerlifters are generally much stronger than bodybuilders. The reason for this is because bodybuilders generally train their muscles to a high intensity aiming for a skin bursting muscle pump, where increasing the actual weight used is more of a secondary objective to training intensity. The idea is to make a light weight feel as heavy as possible. Pretty much the opposite applies for powerlifting, where the idea is to use maximum power to lift the heaviest weight possible as fast as you can. In terms of training, typical bodybuilding and powerlifting routines are as follows:

1. Bodybuilding Routine: 4-6 weight training sessions per week, rep range 10-12, time per set 40-60 seconds, 10-20 exercises per session, 1-3 sets per exercise. Routines generally involve isolation exercises, supersets, dropsets, super slow sets, pre-exhaustions, post-exhaustions, etc.
2. Powerlifting Routine: 3-4 weight training sessions per week, rep range 1-5, time per set 5-15 seconds, 4-8 exercises per session, 5+ sets of compound exercises, 2-3 sets of assistance exercises. Routines are based around squats, deadlifts, presses and pulls, with 3-5 minutes rest between sets. A trainee powerlifter usually starts off 2 days per week doing something like:

   5 x 5 Squats
   5 x 5 Bench Press
   2 x 5 Incline Dumbbell Press
   2 x 5 Dumbbell Flies

Prilepin’s Table

Prilepin’s Table shows the optimum range of total sets and reps on a particular compound exercise like squats, relative to your 1 rep max for building power in minimum time. Watch this:

Applying Prilepin’s Table to the bench press over an 8 week cycle, you would start in the 65-70% of your 1RM range, aiming for maximum speed with control completing the relevant number of sets and reps. Build up to 90%+ of your 1RM by week 5 or 6. Continue aiming for maximum speed under control, but by now, your total reps will be about 7 over 4-7 work sets. The aim would be to smash through your plateau, so that you can return back to your bodybuilding routine, lifting heavier weights, thereby achieving a higher intensity and stimulating more muscle mass.

Assuming:

1. your diet contains plenty of clean calories and is moderate to high carb and high protein – use protein supplements!;
2. you sleep 8 hours every night; and
3. you train with maximum effort

then you should gain a lot of strength over the 8 week cycle. Personally, I gained 37.5Kg on my bench 1RM and bigger numbers on the squat and deadlift.

You don’t get that same tight muscle tone with powerlifting and the higher carb diet results in fat gains, but as a bodybuilder, you should know how to shift the fat and retain the muscle shouldn’t you??! If not, read some of our other articles.

Regards,

Martin Procter

My Bodybuilding Background

I’ve been training for a lot of years now. For the first couple of years, I just did lots of curls and bench presses in my garage, whenever I felt like it. As I became more committed to my training, I read lots of magazines, online guides, bodybuilding books, etc., which led to me incorporating squats into my training program. I got results, very good results, so put more focus into my squats, leading to better results. However, I never really did deadlifts that often. About 7 years ago, I combined deadlifts into my training program and my results improved massively.

The Barbell Deadlift

Barbell deadlifts are the best mass gaining exercise, closely followed by the squats in my honest opinion. Not only does a heavy deadlifting workout boost your testosterone levels, but it also works pretty much every muscle in your body, as a unit. There are so many variations on the deadlift, that you will always get good results and never really plateau on this exercise (as long as your diet and rest are perfect).

For best results, I recommend using a weight which is around 75% of your 1 rep max and following a powerlifting style, such as 5×5, i.e. 5 sets of 5 reps. Any heavier and your form can be compromised, leading to injuries. Make sure you follow perfect form, by watching as many videos on Youtube as possible. Power the weight up as fast and as powerfully as possible, keeping your back arched, shoulders back and body tight. Increasing your strength on this exercise will make you stronger on seemingly unassociated lifts, such as the bench press, whilst thickening up your back muscles more than any amount of pullups or pulldowns will ever achieve. You can try higher reps, slow reps, partial reps, etc. to vary the exercise. Just find what works for you and go with it.

Barbell Deadlift Variations

Some people struggle to find good form on the barbell deadlift and round their backs on the lower part of the movement. This is dangerous, as heavy weights can lead to serious injuries over months and years of training. From experience, it seems that people with longer legs and shorter arms and bodies struggle on finding good barbell deadlift technique. Your shins and kneecaps generally take a scraping and even get in the way if you have short arms and a short body compared to your legs and rounding the back seems unavoidable for this type of person. If this applies to you, or you have some other issue with the barbell deadlift, then you should try the Trap Bar Deadlift.

The Trap Bar Deadlift allows you to stand inside the bar and perform deadlifts, with more emphasis on your quads and slightly less on your lower back at the bottom part of the lift. You may be able to lift more weight, safer, using this variation on the deadlift, which will yield better muscle mass gains. If you try this exercise, make sure you start with a light weight and position your hands perfectly centrally, or the bar will twist in your hands. If you get a good grip, you should really enjoy this exercise. Partial deadlifts offer another alternative, but you lose the lower part of the lift, which takes away from the benefits of the exercise.

Deadlift Vs Squats

Both exercises are excellent and should form the basis of all bodybuilding, powerlifting, or other strength training programs. Both squats and deadlifts allow you to work with very heavy weights on a multiple joint, whole body exercise, so provide similar benefits. The squats target the quads and glutes slightly more than the deadlift, but the deadlift works the hamstrings and back muscles much harder.

A good point to consider in favour of the squats though is that when you reach your physical peak, you should generally be able to lift more weight on the squats than the deadlift and more weight means more mass gains. The strongest powerlifter in the world at the moment is Andy Bolton, who can deadlift 1008lbs! His best lifts are (roughly):

• Bench Press – 350Kg
• Deadlift – 450Kg
• Squats – 550Kg

There’s some targets for you! For more information about Andy Bolton, check out his Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Bolton.

Regards,

Promart Supplements

Englands Strongest Man 2011

England’s Strongest Man will be held in Essex this summmer. The winner will be determined as part of the Valhalla Festival of Muscle and Power at Layer Marney Tower on Saturday July 23 and Sunday July 24. Twelve strongmen will battle it out for the title and right to compete in The UK’s Strongest Man 2011 later in the year. I wonder if Terry Hollands is going to reach his potential this year? If not for injuries, he should win UK’s Stongman and be a big contender in the Worlds Strongest Man 2011 at the end of the year.

Arnold Classic 2011

Mark Felix finished in sixth place on his debut at the Arnold Strongman Classic 2011. The strongman competition, started by Arnold Schwarzenegger, was held in Columbus, USA and included five events; Apollon’s Wheel, Hummer Tyre Deadlift, Circus Dumbbell, Manhood Stones and Timber Carry designed to test sheer brute strength. The Arnold Classic offers different events to the Worlds Strongest Man is more entertaining for TV viewers, look out for it on Eurosport, it is repeated regularly.

Mark Felix, 44, who is from Grenada but now lives in Great Harwood, was drafted in last week as a late replacement. He has been a four-time World Strongest Man finalist, but like big Terry Hollands, also seems to have had so much more potential. In previous WSM tournaments he has messed up a few events, where he could have done much better. Felix has one of the strongest backs in the world and there are only a select few who can compete with him on the squats or deadlifts. Hopefully Mark and Terry will both do well this year. It’d be nice to see one of them on the podium.

Mark Felix Typical Daily Diet

Q. What do you eat on a daily basis?

A. I eat little and often. I have around a 6000 calorie intake made up of a couple of protein shakes and frequent high energy low fat meals., lots of fruit/veg, beans, fish, the odd chicken. My daily diet doesn’t differ much, except for when I’m travelling, then its a case of what ever is available, in carbs, its not always a great choice. I travel with noodles and Met-Rx power shots for the extra calories and energy. I also drink at least 2 litres of water ever day. Below is Mark’s typical daily diet, including supplements.

Mark Felix Daily Diet

MMA: Mariusz Pudzianowski loses his third fight to… fitness!

Tim Sylvia beat Mariusz Pudzianowski at the Moosin MMA event in Massachusetts last night, as Mariusz tapped out in the second round. So… what happened? Basically Mariusz did two great leg kicks, then grappled with Sylvia, throwing him to the ground. Sylvia got back to his feet and then tied up Pudzianowksi’s arms and lent his weight on him for a couple of minutes, to drain Mariusz. Mariusz could literally hardly stand for the rest of the round as he was so gassed. Towards the end of the round Mariusz fell over and Tim tried a bit of ground of pound, for the last 30 seconds of the round. Round 2 and Mariousz had not recovered from a fitness point of view, so again he fell to the mat and Tim Sylvia laid on him and did a few head punches, until Marius Padzianowski tapped out.

Verdict on Both Fighters

So, what is the verdict on both fighters? Well, Tim Sylvia used his experience to tire out the stronger fighter, leaving Mariusz in a state where any MMA fighter could have beaten him, so well done Tim for sticking to the plan. Mariusz Pudzianowski showed he has a tremendous leg kick, but he didn’t throw any big punches, which was a bit of a let down for the crowd. It is unlikely Mariusz will be able to retain his size and strength and get fit as well for future MMA fights, as he already consumes a massive amount of food, i.e. 10 eggs, 3 packs of bacon and a protein shake for breakfast and doing cardio would strip away Mariusz’s muscle quicker than shit off a shovel, unless he consumes about a kilogram of protein per day, but how many protein shakes would that be? I think this is unlikely to happen and a change of tactics along with his experience gained from last night are more likely to increase his MMA performance for future fights.

Poor Tactics By Mariusz, or Lack Of Experience?

As a strongman, Mariusz has always trained at full intensity for sets lasting 30-60 seconds and I think he would have had a better chance of winning against Tim Sylvia if he had just thrown as many punches as he could, as fast as he could for the first minute of the fight. I think he would have taken out Tim Sylvia. Instead, he did a couple of kicks, then got into a clinch lasting several minutes, by which time he had no chance. Mariusz will have known his fitness was lacking, so why did he take the fight? Well, I’m sure his Pay-Per-View pay day was a lot better than his strong man pay days and if he had delayed the fight for long enough to get fit, do you think Tim Sylvia would have taken the fight? Maybe… maybe not. Tim needed a win to get back into MMA after a couple of losses in his last fights and I reckon he knew a fight against Mariusz was a guaranteed win if he could last longer than the first two very scary minutes, which Tim managed to tame somewhat.

What will Mariusz Pudzianowski Do Next?

So, what will Mariusz do next (other than Bodypower 2010 at Birmingham NEC on 23 May)? More strongman, or more MMA? Maybe neither. Perhaps he will become a film star, then go into Politics… sound familiar?

World’s Strongest Man

If you were watching last year World’s Strongest Man (WSM) competition, you will remember that Mariusz Pudzianowski just managed to beat Derek Poundstone on the final event, the Atlas Stones. Although Mariusz has shown unbelievable power and consistency in the WSM, it seems that Derek Poundstone may be the favourite for this year’s tournament. However, Mariusz seems to just get better and better every year and may prove everyone wrong again.

Now, here’s a surprise… remember who beat everyone by a mile on the Atlas Stones at last year’s WSM final? Yep, Arild Haugen, who looked to be a definite WSM contender for the coming years. Well, according to various websites, including Wikipedia and his own personal website, he has taken up boxing. This may be old news to some people, but to others I’m sure you would all be as eager as myself to see him in a boxing match with any of the supposed heavy weight boxers out there at the moment. I would expect Arild Haugen to either knock his opponents heads off within 1-2 rounds, or just run out of steam after 3-4 rounds and lose from tiredness, due to carrying so much muscle. I’m guessing there is one major difference between WSM contenders and boxers, i.e. steroids! Hopefully Arild will be able to make his boxing debut without losing any size or strength to keep things interesting. If anypne knows any more about this, please reply to the post.

Note: no details have been released about dates or venues for WSM2009 just yet, but when they are, I will provide information on the blog.

Mr Olympia 2009

The Mr Olympia 2009 contest will be held in Las Vegas between 24-27 September. Tickets for the contest can be purchased from the official Mr Olympia website. Ticket prices vary from $15 to $100+. Other contests will be also be held, i.e. Ms Olympia, Fitness Olympia, Figure Olympia, etc.

It looks as though Jay Cutler and Dexter Jackson are the obvious favourites for this year’s contest, but personally, I think I will be more interested in the Bikini Model Search on the 25 September.