HighIntensity.net View Mike Mentzer Bodybuilding Topic

Mike says that a HD routine is primarily a strength routine right? A muscle must get stronger to get bigger. Why is it that we don′t train like powerlifters? Powerlifters train for strength and so do we but we want the showy muscles too. How come some powerlifters (even in the olympics) have big blocky bodies and others look like pro bodybuilders? Is that just genetic or do they train differently to each other? Do they take different drugs which would explain some of the different looks?

I just read the book "Beyond Bodybuilding" by Pavel and he has some very interesting stuff to say especially about training frequency, training to failure, and overtraining. I will talk on this stuff more after I get some feedback on the above stuff.

good point bigtav

i don′t know why more people don′t train like powerlifters. train for some relative power at times and alos apply those power lifting principles to higher rep ranges for hypertrophy. throw in a lil blood volume training here and there and i think thats all you need.

as for blockiness, that has everything to do with genetics and bodyfat levels.

bigtav,

That′s exactly what Mike used to say! He actually said a bodybuilding program is essentially a weight lifting program. I′m not sure what the TECHNICAL difference is between a weight lifter and a power lifter, but they′re the same in theory. Both are trying to lift heavier weight. That is what we should all be trying to do.

Darrell

Remember though that a powerlifter, for bench press anyways, cuts out a lot of range of motion. Like, they will lift in a fashion that takes advantage of their proportions in order to move weight acording to the rules.

Bodybuilders usually do the exact oposite and they just pump away, going heavy once in awhile.

I think the best approach is to get as strong as possible on coar lifts in close to perfect form where you are still ′feeling′ the muscles.

As for blockyness, all genetics and body fat, like said in the above posts. I have seen bodybuilders that looked worse than powerlifters and so forth.

I think the absolute best routine one can do is a three way split with the big lifts spaced apart to make strength gains each time, and that will usually equal the most progress. On the third day, you should work a totally different way with isolation excersises and so forth for weak spots only if the overall power routine ceases to work.

how one benches in competiton has nothing to do with what was stated above. Big Tav meant why not apply powerlifting methodologies to bodybuilding ever. and its a good question.

certainly you could apply powerlifting principles to the bench press where you bench in a normal safe manner.

something to think about big tav;

NO powerlifters term the word intensity as how hard you are pushing yourself and none of them train to failure. if so VERY RARELY. no olympic weight lifters ever train to failure. bodybuilders are the ONLY w8lifters who feel they need to lift like this and feel they need to take a set to a "LIMIT". old time bodybuilders never ever trained to failure. Steve Reves, Pill Pearl, V. gironda, jon grimek, clancy ross, etc. these were all natural bodybuilders and in my opinion looked phenominal. I think its a very sad truth that bodybuilding has been around for decades now and the science of training keeps getting worse and worse and worse, atleast on a wide scale basis.

Sort of gets you thinking