Powerbuilding
rather than a one-rep max weight on squats
or deadlift. If the abdominal and oblique
muscles respond best to endurance-based
stimulation, rather than maximal-weight
stimulation, then increasing bodyweight and
forcing your core to support a much greater
amount of muscle mass 24 hours a day will
add more core hypertrophy than picking
up heavy weight. This is what we saw in the
2000s with bodybuilding. The bodybuilders
were getting up to over 300 pounds in the
off-season, and their physique was suffering
because of it. Prior to that period, bodybuild-
ers were still squatting and deadlifting heavy,
they just weren’t getting as big as they do
today. The only variable in the situation is the
overall bodyweight of the bodybuilders, not
the act of doing heavy squats and deadlifts.
Lastly, powerlifting as a training style isn’t
an optimal plan for expansive muscle growth.
Powerlifting isn’t about creating big muscles,
it’s about moving big weights. A powerlifter
can out-squat a bodybuilder of the same
weight, even though a bodybuilder’s quads
will be much more developed and larger
than a powerlifter’s. If bodybuilding training
is all about size and growth, then why would
powerlifting cause growth in a bodypart more
than bodybuilding would? If powerlifting
elicits more muscle growth than bodybuild-
ing, we’ve all been doing something wrong for
a long time.
The Answer
The answer to the questions is heavy squat-
ting and deadlifting won’t blow out someone’s
waist and ruin their chances on a bodybuild-
ing stage. There are plenty of bodybuilders
gifted with strength who have squatted and
deadlifted big numbers but have not suffered
from ever-expanding waist syndrome. There
are also plenty of powerlifters who have been
gifted with aesthetic body types who have
maintained a trim waist and low body fat
while practicing heavy squats and deadlifts.
Once examined, the reasoning to stay away
from squats and deadlifts for bodybuilding,
physique, figure, and bikini competitors just
doesn’t hold up. The fact is, everyone should
be doing these big exercises because they
will recruit the most muscle fibers and lead
to building the best physique possible, trim
waist and all. iM
ironmanmagazine.com | april 2017 83