Building Muscles for Size and Strength
Posted in: Muscle Building Workouts
Although I work out with weights, I don’t really see myself as a bodybuilder. The reason I don’t, isn’t because I don’t compete, but, because I didn’t simply train for cosmetic reasons – as hardcore bodybuilders tend to – but wanted to train for functional reasons, too: to be strong.
Equally, I don’t entirely train for strength and throw all hope of looking good out of the window as the hardcore big, fat-carrying power lifter does. I wanted to train to look good, too.
So, the quick way to describe what I do, I guess, is ‘weight training’. Although this is a generic description which lends no favours to those truly interested in how I got to be a: big, and b: strong. (If I were to go into more detail, I’d say bodybuilding and strength training.)
But, that’s just the problem… most people seem to think each and every phrase for weight training (bodybuilding, weight lifting, weight training, power lifting, strength training) means the same thing: you work out with weights, therefore you are…
In this article I’d like to talk about how bodybuilding and strength training are different, and how they are similar, to clear up any confusion over the terms so you can better understand the approach you need to take to achieve whatever goals you have in mind. It’s about being optimal to suit your needs.
Bodybuilders train merely for cosmetic reasons. They want huge muscles, and low body fat, and tend to care very little for strength. Although, to be truthful, what man doesn’t want to be strong… and what huge bodybuilder wouldn’t be strong by comparison to the average guy, anyway?
Bodybuilders tend to work out in a more aerobic way. That is, they lift heavy weights (granted), but do so for higher repetitions, because that’s more optimal for muscle size.
Now, the weight they lift is sufficiently light to allow them to lift for fairly high numbers of repetitions. Whereas, a power lifter/strength trainee would lift a much heavier weight, one in which they can only manage maybe 5 repetitions per set, at the most.
The results they get from this is higher explosive strength, but, it isn’t an optimal way to train for overall muscle size, and will do very little for helping achieve higher reps (even with a lesser weight.)
In all honesty, I’m not sure how useful bodybuilding practices will be to the explosive needs of the power lifter. Undoubtedly, they’ll help you lift heavier weights in a higher rep range, but that’s not really what power lifting/strength training is about.
But, bodybuilders (Arnold professes to this) have long used regular strength training sessions to give density and hardness to their muscles which Arnold believes those who don’t, lack.
My advice to you is this: simply decide what you want the most, and make the majority of your program about that. If it’s bodybuilding for cosmetic reasons, you’ll be doing higher reps with less weight. If it’s strength you want, you’ll not develop the muscle size bodybuilders do, but you’ll end up much stronger in the lower rep ranges.
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