Adding a pound of muscle on legs helps you deadlift more and squat more.
Adding a puond of muscle on chest,arms,upper back helps you only on bench press.
So if you lift in a certain weight class and can affort only this much muscle,wouldnt it be smart to concentrate on developing legs(mostly hamstrings) and low back&abs to total more while having smaller upper-body and small bench?
Let me give you an example!
Lets say powerlifter Joe Average competes in 220 lb.class.
Joe squats 500 lb.,benches 450 lb. and deadlifts 550 lb.
His total is 1500 lb.
Joe desides to concentrate on getting his lower body stronger at expence of upper-body strength and mass.
After some time Joe squats 700 lb.,benches 200 lb,. and deadlifts 700 lb.
His new total is 1600 lb.–a hundred pounds more at the same body weight!
come on that was a terrible example lol. who wants to have a weak body part?
none of this makes a lick of sense.
[quote]redsox348984 wrote:
come on that was a terrible example lol. who wants to have a weak body part?[/quote]
Ok,I did put 200 lb. bench just to get the attention,but what do you want more?
Bigger total or bigger bench?
I am just asking if this strategy would make bigger total at the same body weight.
Remember in PL (and anything else) you can add strength without adding size, so that kind of makes the point moot. You are correct, however, in the general thought that it is much better to be good at either squat or deadlift than to be good in bench. If you out bench somebody by 50 lbs you crushed them, but it is not uncommon to out pull somebody by 50 lbs. Bench specialists don’t always make the best totalers.
Why are you so concerned with gaining a pound of muscle. If you are at the edge of your weight class and are so lean that you can’t loose any bodyfat why don’t you concentrate more on technique of the lift. Why worry about whether or not you gain a pound of muscle? Why not gain a pound overall some on upper body, some on lower body? Then all lifts would improve. Isn’t that the overall goal.
My biggest thought here is most peoples technique isn’t perfect, hell I know mine isn’t perfect. And technique will have a bigger affect on how much you can lift.
I just competed in a powerlifting contest here in Iraq (I’m USAF currently deployed) and there was a guy there that had a lot more muscle then me. But I still won. I weighed in at 251, he weighed in at 260. I beat him on all three lifts because his form was horrible.
Why are you so concerned with gaining a pound of muscle. If you are at the edge of your weight class and are so lean that you can’t loose any bodyfat why don’t you concentrate more on technique of the lift. Why worry about whether or not you gain a pound of muscle? Why not gain a pound overall some on upper body, some on lower body? Then all lifts would improve. Isn’t that the overall goal.
My biggest thought here is most peoples technique isn’t perfect, hell I know mine isn’t perfect. And technique will have a bigger affect on how much you can lift.
I just competed in a powerlifting contest here in Iraq (I’m USAF currently deployed) and there was a guy there that had a lot more muscle then me. But I still won. I weighed in at 251, he weighed in at 260. I beat him on all three lifts because his form was horrible.
I don’t see what’s so hard to understand about the idea, but I’m not a powerlifter, so I can’t really say whether it’s a good or bad idea.
[quote]luburic wrote:
Let me give you an example!
Lets say powerlifter Joe Average competes in 220 lb.class.
Joe squats 500 lb.,benches 450 lb. and deadlifts 550 lb.
His total is 1500 lb.
Joe desides to concentrate on getting his lower body stronger at expence of upper-body strength and mass.
After some time Joe squats 700 lb.,benches 200 lb,. and deadlifts 700 lb.
His new total is 1600 lb.–a hundred pounds more at the same body weight![/quote]
It doesn’t work like that.
Sure, your legs actually do the major pushing of the weight, but do you really think a guy who can only bench 200 is going to have enough upper body strength to support 700 on his back?
On the same note, since you want to remain balanced to some extent (row relative to bench), it would be damn hard to support that much weight on a deadlift with toothpicks for arms and no upper back mass.
The concept “sacrifice one lift to raise a total”, works only to some extent, as the human body works as a unit… not a single lift machine.
[quote]PaulR wrote:
Why are you so concerned with gaining a pound of muscle. If you are at the edge of your weight class and are so lean that you can’t loose any bodyfat why don’t you concentrate more on technique of the lift. Why worry about whether or not you gain a pound of muscle? Why not gain a pound overall some on upper body, some on lower body? Then all lifts would improve. Isn’t that the overall goal.
My biggest thought here is most peoples technique isn’t perfect, hell I know mine isn’t perfect. And technique will have a bigger affect on how much you can lift.
I just competed in a powerlifting contest here in Iraq (I’m USAF currently deployed) and there was a guy there that had a lot more muscle then me. But I still won. I weighed in at 251, he weighed in at 260. I beat him on all three lifts because his form was horrible.[/quote]
Lets say you compete in 165 lb.weight class,have 6% body-fat and your total is not increasing.
Can you lose some muscle from upper-body to add muscle in legs .That way you increase 2 lifts-squat and dl.
[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
none of this makes a lick of sense.[/quote]
A 200 lb. powerlifter benches 400lb.,deadlifts and squats 500 lb.
His bench makes only 28 percent of his total!
HIS BENCH MAKES ONLY 28 PERCENT OF HIS TOTAL!
Why should he concentrate on benching more,when he can build both squat and deadlift with developing bigger and stronger legs!
[quote]redsox348984 wrote:
come on that was a terrible example lol. who wants to have a weak body part?[/quote]
What is more important to competitive powerlifter–his bench or his total?
[quote]Houshin Akai wrote:
luburic wrote:
Let me give you an example!
Lets say powerlifter Joe Average competes in 220 lb.class.
Joe squats 500 lb.,benches 450 lb. and deadlifts 550 lb.
His total is 1500 lb.
Joe desides to concentrate on getting his lower body stronger at expence of upper-body strength and mass.
After some time Joe squats 700 lb.,benches 200 lb,. and deadlifts 700 lb.
His new total is 1600 lb.–a hundred pounds more at the same body weight!
It doesn’t work like that.
Sure, your legs actually do the major pushing of the weight, but do you really think a guy who can only bench 200 is going to have enough upper body strength to support 700 on his back?
On the same note, since you want to remain balanced to some extent (row relative to bench), it would be damn hard to support that much weight on a deadlift with toothpicks for arms and no upper back mass.
The concept “sacrifice one lift to raise a total”, works only to some extent, as the human body works as a unit… not a single life machine.[/quote]
I agree with most what you said,but let me remind you of some facts–
1.most people can support much greater weight on their back,than they can squat
2.most powerlifters can rack pull more than they can deadlift–they need more leg strenght,not stronger arms
3.most powerlifters spend most of their time trying to build bench,but bench makes less than one third of total
4.if you build your squat,your deadlift will follow.The other way around is not true to the same extent.
Stay strong!!!
[quote]PaulR wrote:
Why are you so concerned with gaining a pound of muscle. If you are at the edge of your weight class and are so lean that you can’t loose any bodyfat why don’t you concentrate more on technique of the lift. Why worry about whether or not you gain a pound of muscle? Why not gain a pound overall some on upper body, some on lower body? Then all lifts would improve. Isn’t that the overall goal.
My biggest thought here is most peoples technique isn’t perfect, hell I know mine isn’t perfect. And technique will have a bigger affect on how much you can lift.
I just competed in a powerlifting contest here in Iraq (I’m USAF currently deployed) and there was a guy there that had a lot more muscle then me. But I still won. I weighed in at 251, he weighed in at 260. I beat him on all three lifts because his form was horrible.[/quote]
I am talking strictly about powerlifting in certain body weight class,when you cant afford to gain to much muscle.
Powerlifter with biggest total is stronger than bench-press record holder.
Well, since you asked the question and will only agree with the answer you want, then yes, that’s the absolute best way to do it.
You’re right. Great observation. You’re super smart. Way to go.
[quote]SWR-1240 wrote:
Well, since you asked the question and will only agree with the answer you want, then yes, that’s the absolute best way to do it.
You’re right. Great observation. You’re super smart. Way to go.[/quote]
Everything I said, I backed up with arguments.
Nobody proved that I am wrong either.
I am waiting to see a post from some competitive powerlifter to give his honest opinion.
Why would I abandon my point of view just to agree with others?
Either post something useful or live your sarcasm at home.
[quote]SWR-1240 wrote:
Well, since you asked the question and will only agree with the answer you want, then yes, that’s the absolute best way to do it.
You’re right. Great observation. You’re super smart. Way to go.[/quote]
LMFAO. I thought I was the only one that noticed that shit.
Nah, the only time you back off on a lift is if you are focusing on another, but it is athree lift sport and you need to be prepared to do your best in all threelifts because you don’t know what will happen on meet day.
You keep your muscle mass down by keeping the reps down and skipping the buffet.
jmo
jack