Pros and cons of powerlifting training. Powerlifter Konstantin Konstantinov: height, weight, biography Powerlifting muscles

We all know that some powerlifters look pretty ugly, they look less muscular than bodybuilders. Name your favorite powerlifter, and I will find you a bodybuilder who makes your idol look like a dwarf in terms of muscularity.
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I agree, many powerlifters are quite fat, and subcutaneous fat makes it difficult to assess their level of pumping. For example, here are photos of Donnie Thompson, Ryan Kennealy and Benedikt Magnusson. As of mid-2011, these guys hold the world records for squats and total, bench press, and deadlift, respectively.
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Everyone understands that these guys are real beasts, but they are certainly not the most pumped up guys in the world. If they tried to cut fat, they would likely lose quite a bit of muscle mass during the cutting process.
One of the most “pumped up” powerlifters is Konstantin Konstantinov, who constantly keeps himself in great shape.
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He's certainly impressive, but when you put him next to Ronnie Coleman, his physique doesn't seem so exceptional.
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At the end of 2010, Stan Efferding won the competition and became the strongest bodybuilder in the world. Stan holds the total record (bench press, deadlift, squat), although he is not the most outwardly muscular bodybuilder.
Look at photos of Stan and other bodybuilders who devote part of their time to powerlifting - Johnny Jackson and Ben White. You'll notice that all three athletes have mediocre lower body development by bodybuilding standards.
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In 1993, Tom Platz, owner of perhaps the largest legs in the history of bodybuilding, entered a squat competition that also included Fred Hatfield, the first man to lift 1,000 pounds in the squat.
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And although Tom's legs were much larger than Fred's, Fred beat Tom by lifting 855 (387.8 kg) pounds, while Tom's maximum was 765 pounds (347 kg). But then they took some plates off the bar and the weight dropped to 525 pounds. Tom clearly won this endurance test, doing 23 repetitions, while Fred did only 11.
The bottom line is that bodybuilders excel at higher reps with lower loads, while powerlifters excel at sets with very high loads and fewer explosive reps.
Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler spoke very honestly and openly about strength and muscle size in his 2010 post on muscle development. He listed all his past records and his current results. He used to train with much heavier weights, but now he is much more muscular, despite the fact that a few years ago he was actually much stronger. That is, lately he has been paying more attention to quality rather than quantity.
How to explain the muscle differences between bodybuilders and powerlifters?

Many lifters and trainers believe that the main thing for muscles is load and tension. This view is too simplistic. In fact, a number of factors must be taken into account. What is the voltage level? What is the duration? What frequency? What type of load? Of course, passive tension is not as effective as active tension in terms of weight gain.
Many believe that continually striving to increase maximal strength is a key factor in gaining muscle mass. But while increasing strength is certainly related to muscle cross-sectional area, there are many techniques that can increase strength without increasing muscle hypertrophy.
Roger Enoki's Neuromechanics of Human Movement (2008) lists seven possible neurological ways to increase strength without increasing hypertrophy:
- increased intensity of signals from supraspinal nerve centers
- decreased coactivation of antagonist muscles
- increased activation of agonist and synergist muscles
- improving the connection of spinal interneurons, which leads to cross-intensification of impulses
- common “input” for motor neuron signal, which increases motor unit synchronization
- increased muscle activation
- increased excitability and changes in connections between motor neurons
All of these adaptations, based on coordination between different muscles, are the most important factor in increasing strength without increasing muscle hypertrophy. Along with neurological adaptations, adaptations include increasing the strength of tissues that are attached to or adjacent to various bones (tendons, extracellular substance, etc.). This can lead to increased force transfer from muscle to bone, which also plays an important role in increasing strength.
Pennation angle (angle of attachment of muscle fibers to tendon in pennate muscles). This angle reflects how individual muscle fibers lie relative to the main axis of load, and it significantly affects the strength of the muscle, regardless of the degree of hypertrophy. In particular, as the pennation angle increases, muscle strength decreases. Interestingly, research shows that bodybuilders have a greater pennation angle than powerlifters, perhaps due to different training methods.
Additionally, there are many ways in which muscles can become larger in size without affecting maximal strength. One of these ways is to increase the number of non-contractile elements in muscle cells. Non-contractile hypertrophy occurs due to an increase in the amount of collagen, glycogen and other intracellular subunits and inclusions, and the overall phenomenon is called “sarcoplasmic hypertrophy”.
Since muscle strength is provided by sarcomeres, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy will have no effect on maximal strength. However, increasing the number of non-contractile elements will significantly affect muscle size.
Increasing the size of type I slow fibers may also affect hypertrophy without significantly affecting maximal muscle strength. Type I fibers are endurance oriented, and their capabilities at maximum loads are very limited. However, contrary to popular belief, type I fibers increase in size with training, although their degree of hypertrophy is 50% less than that of fast-twitch fibers.
Interestingly, bodybuilders have been shown to have 50% more Type I fiber cross-sectional area than powerlifters. This may help you and I understand why Tom Platz showed greater muscular endurance than Fred Hatfield, who had greater maximum strength.
If maximum strength depended entirely on muscle hypertrophy, that is, on muscle size, then powerlifters would be the largest people on the planet, and bodybuilders would use maximum and submaximal loads, rather than using light weights. Simply put, stronger doesn't necessarily mean bigger, and bigger doesn't necessarily mean stronger.
But what makes bodybuilders look more muscular than powerlifters?
It is natural that people gravitate towards what is good for them. In the world of strength sports, those who are more predisposed to progress in strength characteristics are better off becoming powerlifters, and those who are predisposed to increasing muscle size are more likely to become bodybuilders.
Powerlifting takes more into account the ratio of limb lengths, the characteristics of the nervous system, and the refinement of the technique; in bodybuilding, much attention is paid to aesthetics, symmetry, external muscularity and appearance in general.
Strength depends on many factors, but where the tendons attach really plays a huge role in your ability to develop maximum strength. For example, let's take the biceps. You pump your biceps with 25kg dumbbells and you are already halfway up (only 90 degrees), the movement is very slow. To figure out the total muscle load on the biceps (we'll ignore the other flexor muscles for simplicity), we need to divide the resistance by the length of the muscle lever.
So, we multiply the resistance (25 kg) by the distance from the elbow to the dumbbell (40 cm), and then divide by the distance from the elbow to the biceps tendon insertion (for example, 2.5 cm). In total we get 400 (kg*cm).
Now imagine that the same task is performed by a person whose biceps tendon is attached at a distance of 5 cm from the elbow joint. As a result, we will get half the moment of force - 200.
The above example clearly shows us how important the insertion of muscle tendons is in the development of maximum strength. That is, applying the same force, two different people can show completely different results because one of them has a body designed in such a way that the applied force is more advantageously used. The length of the torso, arms, thighs, legs and their proportions also play an important role.
Obviously, the reference sizes and qualities of professional powerlifters and bodybuilders vary. It is also worth considering that there is more money in bodybuilding. A man like Ronnie Coleman could excel in both sports, but probably leans toward bodybuilding due to the fatter wallets and greater opportunities there.
And yet, we still haven't figured out why bodybuilders look more pumped up than powerlifters. By the way, one important observation worth mentioning is that when powerlifters start training like bodybuilders, they always gain muscle mass!
Part 2 - tomorrow.
Author - Brad Schoenfeld
The translation has been completed
especially for the site do4a.net,
Tsatsouline Boris.
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Ben Bruno

Here's what you need to know...

Powerlifters know their stuff. But sometimes non-powerlifters follow the advice of these athletes to their detriment.

Powerlifters teach us to focus primarily on developing strength, while emphasizing the importance of technique, and talk about a narrowed focus. All this is good.

Good powerlifting technique will not always be good for those looking to change their body shape or improve their physical attributes.

Powerlifters prioritize maximal strength above all else, which is not ideal for most gym-goers, who will be more effective at developing their strength by working in moderate rep ranges.

Unless you're a competitive powerlifter, not everything in your training should be the Big 3 lifts. There are other equally effective options.

Today, a lot of strength training advice comes from powerlifters, who base it on the principles of powerlifting.

Do you want to become bigger? Focus on the squat, press, and deadlift, and do some extra work to improve these three core lifts, and you'll get where you want to be.

Do you want to get rid of excess fat? Focus on the squat, press, and deadlift, and do some extra work to improve these three core lifts, and you'll get where you want to be.

Do you want to become stronger? Focus on the squat, press, and deadlift, and do some extra work to improve these three core lifts, and you'll get where you want to be.

I'm surprised I haven't seen any information yet about the Big 3 curing cancer! There's no doubt that powerlifters have a lot to offer gym-goers. I myself learned a lot from them. But for those who are not involved in this sport, but want to get bigger, burn excess fat or develop their athletic performance, powerlifting is not a panacea. As Bruce Lee said: “Collect what is useful. Discard what is unnecessary.” With that in mind, let's look at the pros and cons of powerlifting for those outside the sport.

1. First of all, it is a focus on strength.

What's the most important thing you can take away from powerlifters? The first priority is to create a strong power base. Building strength is beneficial for any fitness goal, whether it's building muscle or burning fat. You can't go wrong if you follow the path of strength.

For powerlifters, it all begins and ends with strength, as it is obvious that strength is the main goal for them. Various goals typically require an emphasis on developing other qualities in addition to strength, but building a good strength base should be a priority. This can also form the basis of a training program for you.

I very often see people giving up on basic heavy strength training when their goals are more related to physique development. Their rationale is: “It doesn’t matter how much I lift, I just want to look good.”

If they're looking to lose fat, they'll likely steer clear of heavy weights and instead focus on high-rep training, combined with a healthy dose of mindless cardio. All of these have their place in a fat loss program, but these tactics should be used as a supplement to a basic strength program, not a replacement for it.

Those who want to build muscle often watch professional bodybuilders who do more isolation, pumping work. They believe that this approach is more effective for building muscle mass. There's nothing wrong with isolation training or pumping - both methods will have their effect if your goal is to build muscle mass.

But there's something that most people don't pay attention to: pump bodybuilders are incredibly strong. They've already built up their strength base and are now pumping with the kind of weights that most skinny gym-goers use for their strength training!

If your bench press max is 200 pounds and you're desperate to build a bigger chest, don't look at bodybuilders doing 100-pound push-ups and think you have to do the same.

Bench flyes with 40kg will certainly help build muscle mass, but understand that before you get to the point where you are doing 40kg flyes, you must first go all out on your bench strength work. Otherwise, you will perform flyes with a weight of ten kilograms, which will not improve your self-esteem.

2. Particular attention to technology.

Another positive point: powerlifters pay a lot of attention to technique. And good technique in powerlifting involves working through a full range of motion, and this is a huge plus.

Many people spend time looking for the latest and greatest program to jumpstart progress, but the problem is that most often they have sloppy technique, they do not work at their full amplitude, which is a consequence of too much ego, lack of mobility, or something else. and another.

While a good training program is undoubtedly important, the best thing a trainer can do for their client is to teach them how to perform the exercises with proper technique. Anyone can copy someone else's program, but what separates a good coach from a bad one is that a good coach will ensure that the program is executed correctly.

From the very beginning, powerlifters practice the technique until it becomes automatic and only after that move on to the next tasks. They know that good technology is more effective and safer. Take note of this and do the same.

3. Clear focus.

The goals in powerlifting are very clear, specific and precise: increase the strength of the squat, bench press and deadlift. Moreover, the goal never changes, remaining the same from year to year. Successful powerlifters strive to ensure that everything in their training program contributes to achieving this goal. They don’t get caught up in extra work that could negatively affect the quality of these main exercises, which is very different from ordinary gym-goers who mark time year after year because they are chasing several goals at once or, even worse, do not have no goals at all, but just wandering aimlessly from simulator to simulator every time.

One day they're obsessed with pull-ups, the next they're doing squats and want a specialized leg program, only to realize two workouts later that it's hard and also sucks, and then decide they need that circuit training they've been talking about. read it in a magazine. Regardless, the most successful people are those who have clear and defined goals and stick to them over a long period of time.

1.Focus only on developing maximum strength.

Powerlifters spend a lot of time training in the one to five rep range. They even have a joke - anything more than five repetitions is already “cardio”. Naturally, this makes sense for powerlifters, since developing maximum strength is their main goal. However, for non-powerlifters, it is unwise to spend all your time training in such a low rep range.

In fact, my clients rarely perform fewer than five reps of any exercise, and most stick to the 6-12 rep range in their strength training. Moderate rep ranges are much safer and also more effective for muscle hypertrophy. Maximum strength is for powerlifters and those who like to show off to their buddies, but for the rest of us, it makes much more sense to develop your strength in the moderate rep range.

By the way, if you really think that anything more than five repetitions is cardio, then it’s time for you to dry out!

2. Good technique is based on lifting maximum weights.

I love that powerlifters rely on technique for everything, but good technique for powerlifting purposes won't always be as good for someone looking to change their body shape or develop physical attributes. There are certainly many similarities, but it is important to understand that in powerlifting the goal is simply to lift as much weight as possible, whereas most gym goers train to improve one part of the body or another.

For example, powerlifters perform bench presses with a high arch in the lower back to maximize range of motion, but we strongly recommend against doing this if you are just looking to develop your pecs or triceps. Additionally, many powerlifters prefer to squat in a wide stance, aiming to drive as much of the glute-driven movement as possible. However, if you are squatting to develop your quadriceps, it would be better to perform the exercise with a narrower stance and also keep your torso as upright as possible.

Finally, powerlifters strive to make their technique as efficient as possible. But for the purposes of building a beautiful figure, it will be useful from time to time to perform exercises in a less effective manner so that you can really feel the weight of the work.

3. Too much emphasis on the Big Three.

Powerlifters believe that the big three exercises should be top of mind, even for non-powerlifters. These three exercises are put on a pedestal, and everything else is pushed aside and viewed as auxiliary and secondary. Again, this makes sense if you're a powerlifter, but for everyone else, it's complete nonsense.

It's great if you have a few key lifts that you focus on and use as a means of measuring progress, but for non-powerlifters, there's nothing magical about the squat, bench press, and deadlift. However, there is nothing wrong with them. I enjoy all three exercises and use them when the situation calls for it, but they are certainly not absolutely necessary, as powerlifters may have you believe.

Extra: Look for your own big three.

Moreover, many people simply do not want to perform these three powerlifting exercises, whether due to injury, or simply because, due to their anatomy, these exercises may not be suitable for you. For many powerlifters, this is sacrilege, and they will call you a girl if you try to suggest anything other than the big three. However, if you are not competing, your program does not need to consist of these “essential” exercises.

The key is to find multi-joint exercises that work for you—that is, they will hit the areas you're targeting, and they won't cause injury. These are the exercises that will truly become yours.

Don't worry if your favorite exercises are classified as "auxiliary" exercises by the powerlifting community. Powerlifters judge exercises based on the weights taken on the squat, bench, and deadlift. But who cares about the weight taken if you haven't been tested on those exercises, or any others for that matter? An auxiliary exercise is something that brings you closer to your goal, whatever it may be.

If you want to build a bigger chest, but you've never felt your pectoral muscles working on the bench press, or if you have shoulder pain doing the exercise, you'll probably be better off with the incline press or dumbbell incline press with a slight incline. If regular deadlifts cause pain in your lower back, instead of persisting with them, try trap bar deadlifts, power rack deadlifts, or Romanian deadlifts.

If you're having trouble with your knees or lower back when squatting, or if your squats feel more like a "good morning" exercise despite working on your form, try front squats, Bulgarian lunges, or trap bar squats.

In short, non-powerlifters can learn a lot from powerlifters, but if you're not competing, be open to new ideas. Listen to Bruce Lee.

Hello powerlifting fans. Today we have a review of another star of our heavy sports - Larry Williams. Lately, the young junior has been setting unreal records in the gym and in competitions. Some athletes will commemorate him as the strongest man on Earth among powerlifters and even strongmen. In the article you can find out the results of the American today. Why is this so, let's figure out what the secret of his strength is.

Larry Williams: biography

Larry Williams was born in 1995. Once upon a time the boy was called a little weakling. Luckily he's not like that anymore. Height – 185 cm, weight – 124 kg of lean muscle mass. At the age of 14, he came to the weight room for the first time, where he decided that he liked to lift heavy weights. The boy grew up in Saint Martin. At that time he did not have money to pay for the gym, so he had to train with different sticks. At the age of 16, he moved to the city of opportunity - New York. There he went to the local gym and started bodybuilding. Six months of hard training and Larry lost interest in bodybuilding. He became more interested in testing his body for power. At the age of 18 he competed in his first competition.

Then in 2015, on February 8, he competed in powerlifting competitions. Squatted 312 kg. Since there are no other results, most likely the bench press attempts were unsuccessful. Already in 2018, he is seriously preparing for the Kern US Open, where he easily takes first place in the category up to 140 kg with a total of 1040 using knee pads. Official best results:

Squat -372.5 kg;
Bench press – 267.6 kg;
Deadlift – 400 kg.

These were the official figures for kilograms lifted in three movements. Of course, those who know him on social networks know that he is now even stronger.

Larry's unofficial best results so far:

Squats – 410 kilograms;
Bench press – 285 kg;
Traction – 420 kg.

As you can see, the young American’s amount has become even larger, so we can already talk about removing the largest record. It belongs to Andrey Malanichev from Russia. Most likely, Larry will compete at the next competition and set an all-time record.

Training program

Larry Williams is an active participant in social networks. You can safely write to him on Instagram. You just need to know English. There is no free training program yet, but you can buy it from 15-25 dollars. It's not that much money for secret schemes. To say that there are no secrets is purely subjective. On his page, thousands of people comment on the increase in results. If anyone is interested, easily write to him in private messages and become stronger.

Strongman: an adventure or a new sport?

A strong person is strong in any activity. This is confirmed by his bench presses at times. The military bench press is especially worth highlighting. This exercise is considered too difficult to perform. Those who have tried to squeeze at least 80 kg over their heads know what the author is writing about. Not so long ago, in the middle of summer 2018, Larry bench pressed 175 kg, which was an extremely large result even for extreme strength athletes. After seven days, Williams presses 200 kilograms overhead. This figure is considered phenomenal for such a young athlete in such a weight category. Despite the fact that the athlete himself is engaged in powerlifting, and the movement was strictly without jerks, swings, and other additional movements.

As the American said, he wants to try to squeeze 206 kg.

Interesting! Strongmen practicing their sport bench press logs and barbells 200-230 kg with a weight of 180 kg. As they say, everything is learned by comparison.

New unattainable champion?

The author of the article is not a prophet to be obeyed. At this rate, Larry Williams' genetics will become unattainable for many modern athletes, even Yuri Belkin. If you calculate the American's current figures, the amount comes out to 1115 kg in knee pads.

The toughest powerlifters have significantly smaller muscles than the toughest bodybuilders. Moreover, neither genetic characteristics nor anabolic steroids are able to clearly explain this difference in size.

It is obvious to any athlete that when lifting barbells and dumbbells in the gym, we are simultaneously building strength and muscle size. One cannot exist without the other, and if a person seriously lifts weights, he must be prepared not only to increase his strength, but also to the fact that he will have to change his wardrobe. But why do some people increase their strength more, while others increase their muscle size more? After all, there are a lot of anabolic steroids in both places, and there are enough genetically gifted athletes in both places. What is the main difference?

There is only one thing left - the difference in training programs. Bodybuilders use more volume work per workout (more sets and reps), use intensity-increasing techniques, and focus more on isolation work than lifters.

POWERLIFTERS VS BODYLIFTERS

Tell me, have you ever observed successful lifters in heavy categories? These are very strong men. Sometimes it seems to me that they can move houses. But what about their appearance? After all, they look completely different from bodybuilders. A tough lifter tends to be much fatter and have less muscle. Moreover, the lifter does not look smaller. More often than not, he looks even more than a bodybuilder when viewed in clothes. But once these guys take off their clothes, it becomes obvious that they have too much fat on them. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. We all know successful lifters who exhibit very athletic physiques compared to their peers. However, this is not the rule, but an exception to it.

Most often, you can hear from lifters something in the style of “It’s better to be than to appear,” or “Jocks have inflated muscles, but we have real ones.” And as proof, any lifter can obsequiously offer a muscleman to press the barbell for one rep. And if you received just such an offer, then consider yourself lucky. Because if the lifter is not in a very good mood or he doesn’t like your hairstyle, then he may offer to squat or pull for once, and without any smile. Where will our successful muscleman be in such competitions? Right. In the ass! He will lose to the elevator operator. Bodybuilders are much weaker than lifters. Their muscles, although large, are weak and useless. This is what is commonly believed. Especially among powerlifters. Just like on television channels, cleaners firmly believe that successful presenters regularly orally pleasure the channel producer. I call this the “Pumped Man Complex.”

During the golden era of bodybuilding, a bodybuilder named Tom Platz became popular. To this day, this personality is known by the entire sports community, primarily for his monstrously large and well-trained legs. Even now, his lower body is the benchmark for professional bodybuilders. What can we say about the 80s? In those days, Tom Platz's legs were something extremely fantastic. But now I want to tell you not about how healthy Tom’s legs are, but about how functional they are. The fact is that in 1993, Tom, nicknamed Quadzilla (height 173 and weight 98 kg), competed with Fred Hatfield (Doctor Squat), who is known to us from the book “The Comprehensive Guide to Strength Development.” This is a world-class powerlifter who won world powerlifting competitions three times, and who, at the age of 45, was able to set an absolute squat record of 460 kilograms with a body weight of 115.6 kg. Fred and Tom (a lifter and bodybuilder) agreed to compete in squats. To begin with, they tried to squat with as much weight as possible at one time. Here are their results at a time:

Fred Hatfield = 387 kg (855 lb)
Tom Platz = 343 kg (765 lb)

Fred punished Tom by showing a much better result (more than 40 kg difference). However, after this the athletes decided to continue the competition and... reduced weight to 238 kg (525 lbs). Then they started doing squats FOR A NUMBER of reps. And here the situation changed to the diametrically opposite.

Fred Hatfield = 238 kg for 11 reps
Tom Platz = 238 kg for 23 reps

Now you can argue for a long time who is better. However, you can't argue with mathematics. At one point the bodybuilder was only 10% behind the world champion (40 kg from 387, approximately), but when it was necessary to show not only strength, but also strength endurance, the lifter lagged behind by more than 50%. This is great! I am sure that if these guys continued to compete in this style, further reducing the weight, or reducing the rest between sets, or continued to do sets in 1-2 minutes, then old Tom would simply trample Hatfield, because the energy of a powerlifter is not accustomed to such a large amount of work and such small periods of rest. You can laugh at jocks for a very long time, inventing fairy tales in the style of “It’s better to be and not to seem”, “It’s bad to have shoes for 100,000 dollars and legs for 10 cents”, etc., but in this experiment many things became clear to me places. But we did not consider the aesthetic moment. I'm not discussing who looked better and who you want to be more like. In this matter, it seems to me, everything is already obvious.

Moreover, I don't want to say that powerlifting is bad or weak. My goal is to convey that if you want to be very strong, then nothing prevents you from being very muscular and lean. It all depends entirely on the training approach and your goals.

Based on the competitions described above, we can conclude that bodybuilders are better at more repetitions with a calm technique, and powerlifters are better at one-time, explosive approaches. What we train, we develop. This is the basic principle of any speed-strength sport.

Both Cutler and Fedorov, extremely massive bodybuilders, are now doing approximately the same thing: they have moved away from the pursuit of weight on the apparatus. Instead, both athletes try to feel the muscles working as much as possible and use more moderate equipment to do this.

DIFFERENT MUSCLES

So, the level of strength and patterns of muscle tension differ between bodybuilders and lifters. What exactly is the difference? I see several main features that differentiate a lifter's muscles from a bodybuilder's muscles:

SARCOPLASMIC HYPERTROPHY more pronounced in the muscle cells of bodybuilders than in the cells of lifters. We are talking about things like glycogen, collagen, mitochondria and even water in the muscles. Jocks, as a rule, have more of all this, because such reserves of nutrients allow them to perform long-term and high-volume strength work. Let me note that we are not talking about the sacromeres (not the contractile elements) of the cell, which directly provide force. We are talking about energy supply, which does not make you stronger, but makes you more resilient. That's why Tom Platz's legs can do power work longer than super-champion squat Hatfield's legs.

RECRUITMENT OF MUSCLE FIBERS IN THE MUSCLE depends on the strength of the nerve impulse. The closer the weight is to maximum, the more fibers are recruited. It is quite obvious that in order to raise 100% of the RM in powerlifting, more complete recruitment and a more powerful nervous command will be required than to raise 70% of the RM in bodybuilding. In other words, lifters train their nervous system to contract maximum muscle fibers at once.

SLOW MUSCLE FIBERS (OXIDATIVE) do not work in lifters' muscles because they use submaximal weights (this work exclusively for fast muscle fibers). However, it is the slow-twitch muscle fibers that can provide additional size to the muscle (which is not important for lifters), and additional strength during long-term work (which may be important). I’ll say right away that bodybuilders have very developed slow muscle fibers thanks to such a popular pumping. But more on that below.

You can often hear arguments about genetics and pharmacology. This is supposed to be the main difference between bodybuilders and lifters.

GENETICS and STEROIDS

I always listened to these statements with a great deal of doubt. Somehow it’s too simple: that guy is so healthy because he shoots a lot or simply because he has good genetics. This is from the same fairy tale where a fat sow chokes on a sandwich, saying that she just has “a big bone.” There was not a single person with a “big bone” in Buchenwald. Everyone was thin and deadly slim….

Of course, genetics plays an important role in any strength sport. Our tendons attach to our bones differently and so one person may have greater strength levels than another simply due to the advantageous leverage of the muscle to bone attachment. You yourself have probably noticed more than once that the strongest people (relative to their weight) are usually not tall. The thing is that they have very good leverage for power work. Short bones require less effort to perform strength work. All this certainly takes place. However, these people exist in both bodybuilding and powerlifting. There is no special distribution system for different sports and therefore I do not believe in special genetics that distinguishes lifters from bodybuilders. Quite the contrary, I am sure that if a person has a talent for strength sports, then he can be made into a great lifter with the same chances as a great bodybuilder.
As for anabolic steroids, it will be very difficult for you to convince me that a lifter will not inject/swallow the required amount of anabolic steroids if he knows that this will help him win. Well, I don’t believe in pure sport and high-level competitions. Sport is like war, minus murder. Sport comes from the word dispute. This is a debate about who is better (cooler, more dominant). It’s like politics: we call our enemies partners, but we ourselves are ready to devour them at the first opportunity. Our human species is still too imperfect to talk about fair politics or sports. This is the same deception and nonsense as talking about the “War for Peace”. If you are a fool who believes in such nonsense, then you can also believe in “sex for virginity” and “9 o’clock news with Kiselev.” Remember the joke “Show-off is more valuable than money”? This easily applies to sports. Therefore, in lifting and bodybuilding, if it is profitable, they will shoot themselves to death. These are the unnamed rules of the competition.

Okay, you say. Well, what is the secret of bodybuilders’ big muscles? After all, just like lifters, they train in gyms with the same equipment in the form of barbells, dumbbells and exercise machines. From the outside, the training is very similar to a passerby on the street. In fact, there are a lot of differences. And each of them is important for us because it stimulates muscle growth. Let me tell you everything in order.

PUMPING

In the 90s, many of our bodybuilders underestimated the importance of pumping. Foreign literature appeared in which much attention was paid to load progression, supercompensation and other cornerstone factors of progress in strength sports. Against this background, pumping seemed like something like masturbation and useless narcissism.

However, years have passed and a number of serious sports experiments have proven that pumping is almost the basis of muscle growth. Why does this pump effect occur when the muscle becomes clogged with blood? The fact is that during strength work we use anaerobic glycolysis as a constant resynthesis of energy from glycogen reserves (glucose). The by-product of this chemical resynthesis reaction is an acid. That is why, the more repetitions you perform, the more your muscle burns with fire (this is the work of acid), the more it acidifies and weakens because lactic acid prevents the muscles from using energy (ATP). Lactic acid constantly transforms into Hydrogen Ions in the process of energy resynthesis reaction. And this is where the magic begins...

Hydrogen ions promote the release of carbon dioxide and dilation of blood vessels, so blood flows into the muscles more intensely and we increasingly feel the pumping effect. Moreover, the more the muscle becomes clogged with blood, the more the capillaries are compressed to allow the blood to flow out. And this leads to even greater pumping (that’s why the larger the muscles, the stronger the pumping effect in them). But this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that blocked capillaries prevent blood from being squeezed out of the muscle and do not allow oxygen to enter the muscle. If the athlete performs slow work with a small weight (and this is what they do for pumping), then the effect occurs on the slow muscle fibers, and not on the fast ones, as with regular training without pumping. The thing is that slow muscle fibers usually do not use anaerobic glycolysis, but aerobic oxidation with oxygen, so hydrogen ions do not contribute to the growth of slow muscle fibers (oxygen interferes). However, bodybuilders, using pumping, block the access of oxygen to the muscles and thereby force growth factors to accumulate in slow muscle fibers (which, by default, is not possible in other sports).

In general, this is a very long topic that requires a separate article. Remember: high reps with light weights are good because it pumps blood into your muscle and promotes burning. Burning is a sign of the formation of lactic acid and hydrogen ions, which are needed for the passage of anabolic hormones into the cell nucleus and reading information about protein synthesis. Pumping in a slow style with light weights and partial range of motion gives you the opportunity to develop slow-twitch muscle fibers, which adds muscle size and endurance. Caution: when the muscle is too acidic (a lot of pumping and long approaches), it is harmful because there are too many hydrogen ions and they begin to destroy the cell by stimulating enzymes in the lysosomes.

LOTS OF REPS PER SET

This is one of the main differences between working for mass and working for strength. This is what first catches your eye when you compare the training of bodybuilders and lifters. The latter work in fewer repetitions. You can often see approaches for one or 2-3 times, while many bodybuilders have never even tried to find out their one-repetition maximum in exercises. A good bodybuilder can most often tell you how much weight he can bench press or deadlift 6-12 times. But he doesn't know his limits for 1-3 reps because he doesn't train in that style.

We can definitely say that few repetitions contribute less to the growth of muscle size than more repetitions in the range from 6 to 12, and sometimes up to 15. It all depends on the speed of the movement. In general, in order not to dive deeply into biochemistry, I will say that if you perform a couple of repetitions in a set, then you do not have time to fully turn on anaerobic glycolysis and the formation of lactic acid with hydrogen ions, which are so necessary to launch anabolic reactions inside the cell. If you're only doing a couple of reps, or just one rep at all, then you don't really need glycolysis because you don't need to replenish your energy (the set ends too quickly). Your one-time reserves of ATP and CrP (phosphates) are quite enough for such work. Everything is logical. Therefore, muscle size from such work grows weakly because it is not beneficial to the body.

By the way, lifters create very good stress while performing low-repetition approaches. This promotes a good release of anabolic hormones into the blood. However, due to the fact that there is no acidification, these hormones weakly trigger anabolism in cells. I would advise lifters to do a lot of repetition (lifting) after doing little repetitive work so that their hormones can express their anabolic properties. But all this, of course, applies only to natural athletes. If you are on steroids, then the level of stress for their production is not important to you.

But again, even if you are a chemical lifter, steroids will not grow your meat well, due to the low level of repetitions and low level of acidification (low hydrogen ions).

WORK UNTIL FAILURE

A very interesting point that is constantly discussed. Is a waiver necessary or not? What is a refusal? This is a situation where you cannot do the work with the projectile yourself. What does this mean? About a very high level of stress!!! That's what's important. The higher the stress level, the more anabolic hormones are produced. Specifically, testosterone and growth hormone.

Did you catch the trick? Refusal is important for naturalists and not important for chemists. The latter can not train to failure because they do not need their own hormone production. The second point is that bodybuilders who train to failure have higher levels of stress than lifters because they deplete muscle energy reserves more deeply and use more intensity-increasing techniques such as forced repetitions.

TIME UNDER LOAD

This is the next factor that seriously distinguishes a bodybuilder’s training aimed at muscle hypertrophy. The point is that what we train is what we develop. A bodybuilder is under stress longer during training. Moreover, this applies both to individual approaches, because there are more repetitions, and to the entire workout as a whole, because there are more approaches.

The longer the time under load, the more resources are needed to do the job. As a result, bodybuilders and lifters have different adaptations. Various reserves of energy substrates in the form of glycogen, water, mitochondria. All this affects the size of the muscle cell and leads to an increase in the diameter of the muscle.

Imagine a typical bodybuilder training his pectoral muscles. Most likely he will have 4-5 exercises with 4-5 working approaches each. Add to this the typical rep range of 6 to 12 and it becomes clear to you that an athlete, even without warming up sets, can easily perform something on the order of 250-300 REPEATS! Even if we multiply this amount by only 100 kg (let’s imagine that this was the average weight on the barbell), we will get a total of 30 tons lifted in an hour or less. Just think about it. A man lifted half a ton every minute for an hour!!! Now do you understand where these muscles come from?

5. ISOLATED WORK

It's no secret that bodybuilders work more and more deeply every muscle in their body. Powerlifters generally focus on compound movements such as presses, rows and squats. Sometimes they do some additional work in the form of biceps and triceps work. However, they cannot match the amount of isolated work and machine work with bodybuilders.

Among the jocks, it is customary to literally exhaust each individual muscle, first with basic work and then with isolated work. For example, a bodybuilder can do up to 4-5 isolated biceps exercises. Moreover, each exercise contains 4-5 working approaches. As a result, the muscle has to accumulate a much larger volume of energy substrates for such long-term and intense work. And therefore this is expressed in a larger mass volume of the muscle itself, unlike powerlifting.

The essence of bodybuilding is to constantly increase the stress on each muscle. Moreover, unlike lifting, this is achieved not by increasing the weight on the bar (this is done only at the beginning of the training), but by increasing the total volume of load on each muscle in the split.

6. REDUCE REST BETWEEN APPROACHES

In order to fit the enormous amount of work on each muscle into one workout, bodybuilders have to use shorter rest periods between sets than lifters.

In powerlifting, it is normal to rest for 2-3 minutes or more between working approaches, because such a long rest allows more lactic acid to be removed from the muscles and thereby helps to realize a more powerful muscle contraction (allows you to press as much after rest as in the previous one) approach). Because in bodybuilding, the goal is not to perform an exercise with as much weight as possible, but the goal is to do as much work as possible during a workout, so the rest between approaches is reduced to 60 seconds, on average. In heavy exercises such as squats, this can go up to 120 seconds. But this is not the rule. More often you can see how, when preparing for competitions or for the beach season, bodybuilders reduce the rest between approaches even more, sometimes to 30 seconds, or even less.

This strategy allows bodybuilders to do much more work per muscle than lifters. The consequence of this is a larger supply of energy components and a larger size of the muscles themselves.

7.BRAIN-MUSCLE CONNECTION

Bodybuilders set their goal to exhaust the muscles as much as possible, and not at all to show strength or speed results with the help of muscles. That is why for jocks the ability to “feel the muscle”, to sense the “neuromuscular connection” is much more important than for lifters. The latter, most often, simply do not understand what they are talking about when they talk about the “brain-muscle” connection.

The bottom line is that the bodybuilder is trying to learn to feel and additionally contract the working muscle in isolation. In lifting, this is not just not necessary. In lifting, this will only interfere, because it will distract from the movement and from releasing maximum force. However, in bodybuilding, a similar approach allows you to further deplete the muscle with additional work. There are known champions who are able to simply kill their biceps by working with 10-15 kg dumbbells, due to a good mental connection.

8. COMPLICATION OF WORK

The goal of a lifter is to lift as much weight as possible. The goal of a bodybuilder is to load as much muscle as possible. That is why the lifter tries in every way to simplify the execution of any movement in order to take more weight, while the bodybuilder tries in every way to complicate the movement in order to load the muscles more.

As an example, we can consider the bench press, a popular exercise both in lifting and bodybuilding. The lifter does everything to reduce the vector of movement of the barbell and use as many muscles and joints as possible, because this facilitates the movement of the projectile. He will use a bridge, he will use a wide grip, etc. On the other hand, a bodybuilder will try in every possible way to make it more difficult for his pectoral muscles, because in bodybuilding this exercise is considered as an exercise for the chest, and not for the triceps, back or biceps. This is why a bodybuilder will use a narrower grip than a lifter and why a bodybuilder will not use a bridge. Moreover, often bodybuilders even raise their legs to a height in order to further isolate the work of the pectorals and minimize the bridge.

In this way, bodybuilders make it difficult for their muscles to work even in typical (general) exercises. This is one of the reasons why bodybuilders bench less than lifters. After all, they do not set themselves the goal of reaping more. On the contrary, their goal is to complicate things, i.e. shake less. This fatigues the target muscle more deeply and is more conducive to muscle growth.

9. METHODS OF INCREASING INTENSITY

Various methods of increasing intensity are popular in bodybuilding, such as forced and partial repetitions, supersets, complex sets, trisets, dropsets, pre-exhaustion, etc. There are a lot of them.

The essence of all these methods is not to achieve a weight result, but to “kill” the muscles even more. To deplete them to such an extent that it is not possible to do this in lifting. The deeper the exhaustion, the more the muscles need energy, the more a corresponding adaptation is formed in the form of increased intramuscular energy reserves. This gives size.

10. SPLIT THE BODY INTO PARTS

A split is the splitting of different muscle days into different days of the week. For example, we can train the upper body today and the lower body tomorrow. This is called a two-day split. It must be said that split is a fairly recent invention in strength sports. This method of training became popular in the second half of the last century. Even Arnold, when he started training in Austria, trained according to the whole-body-at-a-time scheme. And in many other strength sports, this scheme is still actively used. For example, in weightlifting or kettlebell lifting.

What does split give? It allows bodybuilders to do a lot of work on each individual muscle, because more time is allocated for training it. In bodybuilding, splits are most often used to train two muscles (one large and one small), or even one muscle in a separate workout. Imagine you have one hour of training. You need to either train 1-2 muscles, or 6 muscles. When can you do more work on a muscle? Obviously the first, and that is why splits are so popular in bodybuilding. It allows you to perform more sets, repetitions and exercises on each individual muscle. This, in turn, forces the muscles to better adapt to this excess work by increasing energy reserves and size.

CONCLUSION

Is it possible to be a bodybuilder and a lifter at the same time? Is it possible to be not only strong, but also muscular? It's definitely possible. But the principle of specialization in sports says that in order to become the best bodybuilder, you cannot train like a lifter, and in order to become the strongest lifter, you cannot train like a bodybuilder.

The thicker the contractile elements of a muscle, the stronger it is. The difference between bodybuilders and lifters is in the energy of muscle contractions and in the amount of subcutaneous fat. By the way, lifters who start lifting according to bodybuilding schemes grow very quickly. On the other hand, many bodybuilders who start training exclusively for low-rep strength also progress extremely quickly. Related sports. Draw your own conclusions, friends.

What to choose: powerlifting or bodybuilding? What is the difference between these two sports that make us stronger and more beautiful? Read this article and decide on your preferences.

Which sport should a real man choose: powerlifting or bodybuilding, strength or the desire to get a perfectly developed harmonious body? Both of these areas are aimed at working with weights, but powerlifting, unlike bodybuilding, aims to develop physical strength, and not the external beauty of the body.

A powerlifter cares about how much weight he can lift, not how beautiful and proportional his biceps are.

Accordingly, due to the differences between powerlifting and bodybuilding, both the methods and principles of constructing training programs differ.

Powerlifters train to maximize their strength in the triathlons of the squat, bench press and deadlift. Bodybuilders carefully work all the muscles of the body, evenly increasing the size of each individual muscle group, and striving for one thing - a balanced developed body.

However, what if you want to look physically attractive but also want to develop strength? In other words, why powerlifting and not bodybuilding? Or vice versa.

Bodybuilding and powerlifting: differences and similarities

Powerlifting and bodybuilding are very closely related forms of strength training. It should be noted that early bodybuilders in the 1940s and 1950s focused both on increasing strength in the first lifts and on developing specific muscle groups.

However, the availability today of various types of strength training equipment in wide access has significantly shifted the emphasis from the performance of powerlifting lifts by bodybuilders.

The difference between powerlifting and bodybuilding

So why do athletes choose powerlifting over bodybuilding? And, for that matter, why do athletes identify themselves as one or the other? After all, to be considered a powerlifter or bodybuilder, you need to have a certain level of performance.

All powerlifters and bodybuilders start with strength training at first. It's an incomparable, intoxicating feeling when you see your body change with your own eyes within a month.

However, the noticeable changes that occurred at first began to become less and less. And after some time, most athletes are faced with genetics and its limitations in terms of muscle formation. From here there are two options: try to stubbornly move forward, trying to break through the genetic wall with sophisticated training moves on the path to progress, or direct your energy and desire to play sports in another, more measurable and effective direction.

Transitional “20 squats”- Hayes method

If you're trying to continue making progress, you need to expand your knowledge: study strength training and anatomy of the body more deeply so that you can independently create programs that will lead you to the breakthrough you desire. Tons of literature and popular bodybuilding magazines are full of advice and recommendations from bodybuilding stars. Everyone can try out everything from Weider's principles to Mike Mentzer's ultra-powerful training.

What follows is a new round of development for the athlete facing the choice of powerlifting or bodybuilding. His growth resources during this period are competent dietetics and sports nutrition. Having enriched his knowledge, the athlete begins to adhere to the right diet for gaining muscle mass, using cycles of increasing and decreasing nutrients.

At this stage, the training method of “hard gainers” - people who are not genetically predisposed to bodybuilding, as a result of which they have relatively low effectiveness in gaining muscle mass and increasing strength, can be a lifeline for a bodybuilder who has lost hope.

This kind of heavy, but infrequent training with a few core exercises specifically for athletes with this type of constitution was created back in the 1930s by Joseph Curtis Hise, a pioneer in strength training. Hise is considered the creator of the "breathing" squat, using heavy weights and high reps to achieve rapid gains in strength and size.

So, instead of lifting weights 5-6 times a week, doing 10-15 sets for each body part, which, according to most bodybuilders, is considered the only way to gain muscle in the gym, you can start training with a squat breathing program with 20 repetitions of Hayes.

Training according to the Joseph K. Hise method

Athletes who were unable to make progress in bodybuilding, but had not yet become powerlifters, gained 20 pounds of muscle in a month or two thanks to this program. This training is primitive, but not simple. It builds real muscle and increases strength. The center of the program is twenty repetitions and only one approach.

Additional exercises here are not essential, two or three sets of the bench press and bent over row as a representative example of the program is the maximum. What you should be wary of is too much extra exercise, not too little. Whatever this workout lacks in difficulty or volume, it will more than make up for in intensity.

Do this workout twice a week. Just 2 days of training and 5 whole days of rest, not too hard training, right? However, the key to this plan lies in the weight you use for 20 reps of squats.

You start squatting with a weight that you could barely do 10 reps with, but you have to force yourself to do all 20 reps, taking deep breaths between reps, starting with the 10th.

By the 20th repetition, when lifting the bar, you will have a very hard time, but it’s too early to think about rest - lie down on a horizontal bench and do pullovers with dumbbells.

This plan also involves increasing your diet and protein shake intake in line with conventional weight gain programs.

The “20 squats” program will allow the bodybuilder to experience all the delights of a strong body, bring it closer to the consciousness of a powerlifter, and make it clear how to become stronger and “bigger”.

You need to get even stronger to get bigger, and the best way to do this is to train very hard using compound exercises (squats, presses, deadlifts, pull-ups, push-ups, and deadlifts), but don't overwork your body with training too often.

From bodybuilding to powerlifting

Do you know what a powerlifter will say when a bodybuilder shows him his bench press? Probably something like this:

You push your elbows out. You're not a bodybuilder trying to develop your pecs. If you want to use more weight on the bench press, learn to hold your elbows. Also, stop pushing the bar onto your face in an arc. You need to lift it up from your chest in a straight line.

or something like:

You also need to learn how to do a press with an arch in the lower back. As you lower the bar down toward your chest, lower it just below your nipples while strengthening your arch as you try to lift your chest toward the bar without lifting your pelvis off the bench.

Wow! In two minutes, you'll go from thinking you know everything to realizing you know next to nothing about the workouts that make your body truly strong.

Many athletes eventually realize that lifting heavy weights and low reps may build and increase muscle size, but will not make the body strong. Powerlifting is a logical step forward for an athlete who wants to harmonize his physical strength and appearance.

So, is it powerlifting or bodybuilding? Beauty or strength? Probably, the choice is still yours. It is possible that the desire to move from beauty to strength awakens with age, and it is also likely that you can forever remain a supporter of bodybuilding or powerlifting, faithfully following the once chosen direction throughout your life.

These simple rules will allow you to control your training and progress faster in weights:

Lift weights 3-4 days a week.
Make squats the basis of your leg training, the bench press the basis of your chest and shoulder training, and bent-over rows the basis of your back training.
Do small amounts of 5-8 reps, sometimes do sets of 3 reps (heavier weights) for larger body parts, a little more reps for arms and shoulders.
Use gentle cardio 10 minutes before your main weight training session to warm up your body.

You will experience the joy of power and you will truly enjoy being powerful. And this is the first step to powerlifting.

Either way, you benefit when you choose a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise. Choose a suitable bodybuilding training program or powerlifting training and start small.

Sports supplements

Sports nutrition will help speed up the process of gaining muscle mass - protein, creatine, gainer, arginine, BCAA, amino acids. These supplements are specially designed for athletes and fitness-active people of different fitness levels. Such drugs are completely safe, and their effectiveness has already been proven.

Multi-component protein	It is a source of protein of different origins, which allows you to diversify the amino acid composition and make it more unique. Building material for muscles.
Creatine	Participates in energy metabolism in muscle and nerve cells. Widely used to increase strength, muscle mass and short-term anaerobic endurance.
Vitamin-mineral complex	During intense physical activity, vitamins and minerals are consumed by the body faster. They are also responsible for protein synthesis and are the engine of metabolic processes.
BCAAs	Allows muscle fibers to recover faster and provides building material for the growth of lean muscle mass.
Glucosamine and chondroitin	Fills joints, ligaments and tendons with essential substances for prevention or recovery after injury
Dough booster	It will increase the production of your own testosterone, the male sex hormone necessary for the growth and development of muscle muscles.
Whey Protein	The most popular protein supplement for muscle growth. The main source of this protein is whey.
Amino acids	For rapid restoration of muscle fibers and providing the body with a sufficient amount of essential proteinogenic amino acids.

Powerlifting Supplements for Men

Weider | Protein 80 Plus ?

You need to stir 30 g of powder in 300 ml of milk or water. Take 3 times a day. In the morning, before and after training.

The drug provides peak amino concentration within the first 60 minutes after use and maintains it for 5 hours. Therefore, muscles quickly grow and recover, while the athlete’s strength and endurance increases. This protein shake is designed as a nutritional supplement to increase the amount of protein in your daily diet.

Ingredients: calcium caseinate, whey protein concentrate, milk protein isolate, dried egg white, flavoring, thickener: guar gum; sweeteners: acesulfame K, aspartame; calcium carbonate, antioxidant: ascorbic acid; vitamin B6. Contains a source of phenylalanine. Contains lactose. May contain trace amounts of gluten and soy.

Energy value of one serving (per 300 ml of water): 112 kcal.
Nutritional value per serving (per 300 ml of water): fat 0.5 g, carbohydrates 2.3 g, protein 25 g.

Energy value of one serving (per 300 ml of milk 1.5% fat): 256 kcal.
Nutritional value per serving (per 300 ml milk 1.5% fat): fat 5.3 g, carbohydrates 17 g, protein 35 g.

Olimp Sport Nutrition | Creatine Monohydrate?

Dissolve 1 serving (5 g) in 150-200 ml of water or your favorite drink.

Increased muscular work, requiring maximum energy release, is accompanied by increased consumption of creatine phosphate as the most important energy source for the muscular system, as a result of which the body's need for creatine during physical activity increases significantly! In addition to increasing endurance during training, creatine helps increase muscle size. Creatine from Creapure is used.

VPLAB Nutrition | Ultra Men's Sport Multivitamin Formula?

1 capsule 2 times a day

Taking the vitamin and mineral complex VPLaboratory Ultra Men's Sport Multivitamin Formula will help eliminate nutrient deficiency in the body, which causes premature fatigue, insufficient recovery and decreased body tone.

Olimp Sport Nutrition | BCAA Xplode?

Recommendations for use: 1-2 servings per day - before meals or before and after training or before bed.
Recommendations for preparation: 10 g of powder (25 scoop units), dissolve in 200 ml of water. Take immediately after preparation.

The complex stimulates protein synthesis, increases muscle endurance, protects muscles from destruction by cortisol, burns fat, increases glutamine levels in muscle tissue, and strengthens the immune system. Olimp Sport Nutrition "BCAA Xplode Powder" are amino acids with an atypical branched structure. These include leucine, isoleucine, valine. Anyone who has taken BCAAs will confirm: they work! BCAA also suppresses the secretion of cortisol and reduces muscle pain. The obvious anabolic effect of BCAAs, as scientists assumed until recently, is explained by the fact that all three amino acids are active participants in protein synthesis. Moreover, leucine plays a “command” role. It signals the start of the construction of new protein inside the muscle cell.

Trec Nutrition | DAA Ultra?

1 capsule per day.

DAA ULTRA contains a unique right-handed helical shape of aspartic acid, which enhances the synthesis of testosterone from cholesterol. High levels of this androgenic hormone stimulate anabolism and lead to rapid increases in strength and muscle fiber growth. The drug improves the physical capabilities of athletes, stimulates the body's sexual capabilities and increases libido.
Ingredients: D-aspartic acid, capsule shell - gelatin, dye - titanium dioxide, patented blue V, anti-caking agent - magnesium salts of fatty acids.

Geneticlab Nutrition | Elasti joint?

1 dose per day

Geneticlab Elasti Joint contains collagen, glucosamine sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, as well as other additional nutrients such as MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) and vitamin C. Ingredients: Hydrolyzed collagen, methylsulfonylmethane, glucosamine sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, vitamin C, emulsifier - lecithin, regulator acidity - citric acid, food flavoring, sweetener - sucralose, food coloring natural carmine.

Powerlifting Supplements for Women

VPLAB Nutrition | 100% Platinum Whey ?

Application: 1-3 servings per day. On training days, use after training.
Preparation: mix 30 g of powder (2 scoops) with 250-300 ml of water or skim milk

The combined mixture of two whey proteins in VPLaboratory 100% Platinum Whey helps to quickly launch recovery processes in muscle cells, provoking the growth of quality mass and blocking catabolism.
Main features of 100% Platinum Whey:
- an excellent combination of microfiltered isolate and ultrafiltered 100% whey protein concentrate;
- excellent refreshing taste, even when cooked in water;
- high content of essential amino acids and BCAAs;
- the fastest possible absorption of nutrients;
- low fat and sugar content.
In addition, 100% Platinum Whey has the highest biological value, extremely quickly activates and enhances muscle metabolism, and helps maintain clean muscle mass. Thanks to its exceptional qualities, 100% Platinum Whey is the new standard for whey proteins.