Let’s have a sanity check. Suppose we take an elite Powerlifter and had him totally convert to a bodybuilding program while totally abandoning his Powerlifting training principles.
Within about three years, would he be unable to achieve the same level of hypertrophy as the same person would achieve who never was a Powerlifter? There might be some body balance regions that had little activation doing solely Powerlifting programs. But that could have been covered through assistance exercises during the same period as Powerlifting (this is what I did.)
After three years of pure hypertrophy training, an elite ex-powerlifter would absolutely be capable of achieving the same or greater level of muscular development as someone who’s always been a bodybuilder. There wouldn’t be any permanent limitations from being a powerlifter, they would just have to unlearn certain habits
I haven’t read any 5/3/1 books but from looking at it from a bodybuilding perspective, I can say I wouldn’t recommend it if the goal is pure hypertrophy. It sandbags most sets, isolation work is optional, not prioritized. It was written by a powerlifter, it is used heavily by powerlifters
I think the way you set up that question makes it so that 5/3/1 is immune to criticism unless someone has read a book on it. Let me as you this question instead. Do you think I need to read a book on it to be able to assess whether it’s good for hypertrophy when hypertrophy is already my area of focus?
Or consider the inverse. Would a powerlifter need to read a book on hypertrophy in order to assess whether a routine is good for powerlifting or not?
Yes we do see this, but I don’t think we see any actual bodybuilders or bodybuilding coaches telling people to do this. I see These articles more directed as just people who go to the gym and want to gain some muscles and get stronger. In terms of training efficiency and the amount of time people have to train. These articles give people options to get a decent job done in a small amount of time. Most people don’t have the time or commitment to do a proper bodybuilding program.
Then allow me to ask this: Did he not know how to train like a bodybuilder or did he know how, but just too weak minded to have the discipline to do so?
But I am in a position to say that it’s definitely not classified as a hypertrophy program. Apparently there’s many variations of it and it has to be heavily configured towards hypertrophy. But then if a routine is so elastic it can be modified into any other type of routine, then what’s the point?
Alan Thrall has admitted in his videos on his journey in switching to bodybuilding that there were indeed things he was ignorant about, not that he was too weak minded to have the discipline to do so.
It would be a false dichotomy to think, “well, either he already knew how to train like a bodybuilder or he was too weak minded.” He could have also just been ignorant and that’s not a bad thing
Powerlifting is not the evil pursuit that destroys a person’s ability to train like a bodybuilder. Leave out your “unlearn certain habits.” It is worthless word addition. The first makings of a word salad.
I see the misunderstanding now. I didn’t say he had to “unlearn bad habits”, I said he had “unlearn certain habits”. It’s not that one is worse than the other
I would not say you are in that position, no. Not from an uneducated position. If you did some reading, you would see 5/3/1 BBB spends about 90% of its time in the 10+ rep range.
But at least we agree it’s not a powerlifting program
I think you were assuming that I didn’t know about BBB. The fact that BBB exists doesn’t negate the fact that 5/3/1 had to be heavily configured to work for hypertrophy. 5/3/1 in its original form was not designed for hypertrophy
