This was discussed and I reckon most would go with this option.
There’s a reason why even powerlifters do a ton of work with ”higher” rep ranges and use also nonspecific movements.
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Note: I read up to 500 replies and had to skip ahead because this is rough going through for me.
I recall the old argu…uh I mean threads 10 - 15 years ago where one specific poster would always argue that he was a bodybuilder even though he had never stepped onstage and would never post pics or just get angry whenever anyone brought up bodyfat levels….
That aside, I’ll offer two thoughts on one sub topic that I see people knocking back and forth over…
1- I spent my first few years with the piss poor advice of a few “older” gym goers that I should Just focus on getting stronger if I wanted to get jacked. At the time I knew nothing about diet or actual training and after a couple of years I was benching 3 plates a side but looked nothing like I could actually do so.
2- there was a “personal trainer” in the gym I frequented when I was competing regularly. He looked like crap and had a huge ego. Whenever anyone asked him about bodybuilding his response was that he was a “powertlifter” despite the fact that he had never competed, didn’t have any impressive lifts (except when compared to the multitude of high school kids who trained there), and in all honesty threw the term around as an excuse for his average at best physique.
I’ve always considered myself fairly strong for a BBer (likely why I had a few surgeries over the last several years), Thibs himself commented on it when we trained together waaaaay back when in ‘09,.. BUT I never trained for strength when I actively pursued bodybuilding nor would I even call myself a power lifter because there’s a hell of a lot more that goes into that training than just being a naturally strong dude and I’d never be disrespectful like that.
(This thread has seriously gotta be the most traffic the site has seen in years… now I understand why they let a certain old school poster make the repeated mess of threads he used to on the daily)
S
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There’s nothing unclear or vague about doing a very specific kind of training.
When I said that someone can be doing powerlifting training and you claimed that was vague, that lends me to believe that you don’t even know what powerlifting training is. Has you ever heard about specificity, cycling, periodization, accessory work for weak points, focus on the big 3?
No, they’re just gatekeepers because they don’t know that there’s a specific training style or methodology that goes along with powerlifting or bodybuilding. They’re so inept they think it strictly boils down to stepping on a platform in front of some crooked judges for external validation.
Do you think he’s back?
By your logic there was never a powerlifter, athlete, or doctor in this world until someone certified them.
I give up.
You just descripted some main principles of strength training.
Example: Specificity is major topic conserning powerlifting. Some do very specific PL training, other very unspecific training, but still compete.
So specificity in training don’t work as a metric for defining powerlifting.
Mike T said it best: Focus on transference, not specificity.
I can still give you some reading recommendations if you want to get to know this subject?
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Then by your logic there’s no difference between bodybuilding training and powerlifting training.
How about I send you a link to the Sheiko program and a link to a bodybuilding program so you can finally learn that they are not the same?
Who scorned you? Why is this so important to you as someone you focuses strictly on hypertrophy?
You want uncertified doctors?!
You actually failed to address my question carrying on with the gate keeper accusations, both you and the “others” are setting definitions, yours is equally viewable as a gate keeper attitude, you just have a wider gate.
Since I focus on hypertrophy, I am a bodybuilder and not a powerlifter because powerlifting has its own unique training and methodology.
You guys want to pretend Sheiko and bodybuilding program are both the same unless someone competes. Backwards logic
So you’re saying certified doctors had to exist before doctors could? Wow.
How did you end up to this conclusion?
Have you read anything concerning Sheiko, or just looked the programs? Just curious.
Because when I said that someone is doing powerlifting training by applying its methodology, you said “no they’re just strength training.”
Guess powerlifting training and bodybuilding training are the same since they’re both under the umbrella of strength training. That’s how irrational your argument is.
According to the backwards logic of some people in this thread, if identity depends on external approval, then nobody was ever a powerlifter, athlete, or expert until someone else certified them. Yet competitions, records, and federations exist because people trained and mastered the practice first, not the other way around. Denying the validity of training outside a platform ignores the very foundation that makes the sport possible.
Someone in here has even admitted that if they pulled 500 in a meet and 700 way later on outside of it, they would literally believe that the strongest they have ever been is when they pulled the 500. 
There were faith healers, medicine men, witches etc, but you cannot legally call yourself a medical doctor without certification.
Likewise powerlifting didn’t exist before the competition classified it, it was general strength training using lifts that later became classified as powerlifts.
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You’re conflating regulated professions with voluntary practices. Medicine requires certification because it’s a legal and safety-regulated field calling yourself a doctor implies professional authority over others’ health. Powerlifting, on the other hand, isn’t a regulated profession; it’s a training discipline defined by what you do, not by institutional approval. Competitions formalized the lifts that people were already practicing, not the other way around. To claim powerlifting “didn’t exist” until it was classified is like saying people didn’t box, paint, or play music until someone invented tournaments, galleries, or conservatories. Institutions organize and record existing practices, they don’t create them.
Hey guys guess what. When I was 10, I pulled 135 in a powerlifting meet. I haven’t competed since, but now I pull 500 in my 30s all alone. Guess the strongest I’ve ever been is when I pulled that 135 at 10.
Depends. Are they actively training to be a pussy? Do they use catnip? Do they know all the words to the “Meow Mix” jingle? Have they appeared in a professional Broadway musical?
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You had the balls to compete when you were 10, what happened?