alright so my question is why do powerlifters often have a “thicker” physique than bodybuilders? (when they diet down of course) I’m wondering if it has to do with using more freeweights over machines? i know the most obvious difference is their training style but even still it seems some of their methods/reps coincide from time to time. so if anyone has any insight towards this im curious to know.
It’s the heavier weights plain and simple. Lots of heavy weights+lots of time=a thick ass physique. The thickest guys on stage are almost always the heaviest trainers, guys like Johnnie Jackson, Branch Warren, David Henry, Ronnie Coleman, previously Dorian Yates… those guys all look or looked like they were made out of concrete as oppossed to the sometimes “soft” looking physique the pump guys have. Watch any of them train and they don’t all train the same, but the basic principle is huge weights on exercises.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
It’s the heavier weights plain and simple. Lots of heavy weights+lots of time=a thick ass physique. The thickest guys on stage are almost always the heaviest trainers, guys like Johnnie Jackson, Branch Warren, David Henry, Ronnie Coleman, previously Dorian Yates… those guys all look or looked like they were made out of concrete as oppossed to the sometimes “soft” looking physique the pump guys have. Watch any of them train and they don’t all train the same, but the basic principle is huge weights on exercises. [/quote]
Nail on the head.
It’s also the exercise selection. You don’t see bodybuilders do deadlifts and squats as much as powerlifters. These two exercises make your torso thick, and “too much” of them is “bad” when you’re a bodybuilder looking for “perfect” proportions.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
It’s the heavier weights plain and simple. Lots of heavy weights+lots of time=a thick ass physique. The thickest guys on stage are almost always the heaviest trainers, guys like Johnnie Jackson, Branch Warren, David Henry, Ronnie Coleman, previously Dorian Yates… those guys all look or looked like they were made out of concrete as oppossed to the sometimes “soft” looking physique the pump guys have. Watch any of them train and they don’t all train the same, but the basic principle is huge weights on exercises. [/quote]
Would the equation be more like this: Lots of heavy weights+ A LOT OF REPS + lots of time=a thick ass physique?
Bodybuilders usually do 12+ reps per set right as opposed to PLers which usually keep their reps lower ot handle as much weight as possible.
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
It’s also the exercise selection. You don’t see bodybuilders do deadlifts and squats as much as powerlifters. These two exercises make your torso thick, and “too much” of them is “bad” when you’re a bodybuilder looking for “perfect” proportions.[/quote]
yeah i was thinking that too. well, i think the squatting is done more than deadlifts anyhow.
thanks for everyone’s input. all pretty good logical explanations.
I would say it has alot to do with the style of training, but also, the fact that a persons physique tends to dictate how they train, a good amount of the time I would wager.
Take most bodybuilders, they are huge now yes, but only after years of work and juicing. Initially they were most likely very lean with very nice aesthetic development. Many bodybuilders probably notice this about themselves and want to improve upon their god-given look.
Contrast powerlifters, who I would say on average are much stockier because A, that type of physique is geared toward powerlifting, and B, many powerlifters did not have the naturally nice lean aesthetic physique many bodybuilders start with. Many powerlifters IMO look like normal guys that happen to either are naturally very strong or work at being very strong, usually a combination of the two.
I would say it is for this reason moreso than the type of training that powerlifters look so different from bodybuilders. The fact that powerlifters improve strength on three lifts at the expense of everything else, does probably have a large impact as well, the muscles in the best position to contribute force to each of the three lifts bulk while leaving other bodyparts lacking in size.
The majority of times you see bodybuilders are in season when they are EXTREMELY cut. When a powerlifter cuts down to 10% or below bodyfat he is still going to look muscular and ripped, but 10% is far from the 2 and 3% bodyfats you see of bodybuilders when competing.
Then you see them in magazines, the job of the magazines is to make them look like bodybuilders not powerlifters. So lighting, brushups are going to enhance certain properties. Most bodybuilders will tell you their photoshoots take hours because the magazine is trying to get the perfect look.
last but not least you have to look at symmetry. Powerlifters spend the most time developing their core. If you have a thick core and arms don’t match appropriately your going to look thicker. Versus somebody with bigger arms, and thicker muscle bellies.
Shadowzz4 that is a pretty good point as well. Sort of a natural selection. An example could be basketball, we can all pretty much agree that being tall is an advantage in basketball and lot’s of basketball players are tall or very tall. The game doesn’t make them taller, it’s just that sort of genetics flourishes and the cream rises to the top.
Live,
Do you mean look thicker/denser dieted down or literally have thicker physiques as in wide abdominals narrowing shoulders etc?
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
last but not least you have to look at symmetry.[/quote]
Sorry I have to post on this. It’s sort of a pet peeve of mine that people interchange symmetry with proportion. Symmetry is right to left sides matching, proportion is the relation of body parts.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
Airtruth wrote:
last but not least you have to look at symmetry.
Sorry I have to post on this. It’s sort of a pet peeve of mine that people interchange symmetry with proportion. Symmetry is right to left sides matching, proportion is the relation of body parts. [/quote]
Sorry to hijack, but Scott M, who is that in your avatar? I’ve been curious for a while now…
[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
alright so my question is why do powerlifters often have a “thicker” physique than bodybuilders? (when they diet down of course) I’m wondering if it has to do with using more freeweights over machines? i know the most obvious difference is their training style but even still it seems some of their methods/reps coincide from time to time. so if anyone has any insight towards this im curious to know.[/quote]
The guy of the “all powerlifters are fatties” thread has almost bodybuildish proportions. Dave something.
Lets not forget that almost all pictures of bodybuilders have then doing some sort of pose… relaxed many perhaps would appear “blocky” .
It’s Yates I do believe, not sure when it’s from but his back is incredible. First guy I’ve ever seen with a lat spread as wide as his shoulders.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
Shadowzz4 that is a pretty good point as well. Sort of a natural selection. An example could be basketball, we can all pretty much agree that being tall is an advantage in basketball and lot’s of basketball players are tall or very tall. The game doesn’t make them taller, it’s just that sort of genetics flourishes and the cream rises to the top.
Live,
Do you mean looker thicker/denser dieted down or literally have thicker physiques as in wide abdominals narrowing shoulders etc?[/quote]
i pretty much mean when they diet down they just have a “thicker” appearance. although they do tend to have wider midsections anyway.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
It’s Yates I do believe, not sure when it’s from but his back is incredible. First guy I’ve ever seen with a lat spread as wide as his shoulders. [/quote]
Thanks man, should have known…
Training like this is just gonna make you thick period. Plus, I think that since most power lifters don’t give a crap about “cutting up” and are always on a perpetual bulk it would tend to make them thicker as well.
R.I.P. Jesse
What does an off season bodybuilder look like? If you said powerlifter you’d be right. What does a cut up powerlifter(think Dave Tate, Dave Gulledge) look like? A bodybuilder.
They aren’t so different yeah?
Trey Brewer is really pissed he spent that time powerlifting getting up to 275 or so at 18 years old I bet.
Edited a long post and made it short.
People see guys like Trey on stage and are trying to figure out how in the hell they get that big and thick. Look here(excuse the crappy ad in the beginning ha)
And you might find your answer. Key phrases in there “I’m the strongest I’ve ever been” “I eat 10-11 times a day” “THREE HUNDRED TWENTY LBS”. How many bodybuilders are willing to have that sort of off season? I’ll give you a hint, Ronnie, old school Nasser, Yates, Kovacs,Trevor Smith(although he never competed) aka some of the thickest most muscular guys around the last 20 years.
So I want to ammend my first post. It’s still the big time heavy progressive weights but also the guys who are willing to not look so photoshoot ready year round ala Jay Cutler or the other guys doing 30 guest posings a year who can pack on that thick muscle.
And hopefully last post for now haha.
People see Trey on the right but seem to have pretty bad amnesia that it took Trey on the left to get there. Tossing around huge weights, not being afraid to gain some fat, then having someone bring you down slowwwwly with diet(not much change from off season necessary) and cardio and you get a massive tank. Great genetics aside, you put any beginning-intermediate weight trainer on that plan and they will become more dramatically larger and denser than anyone around them training for the pump and staying beach bod ready 10 months out of the year.
Whoaly crap! I’ve never seen that dude before, he’s a freaking monster!