Bodybuilding vs Powerlifting

At some point in your lifting career, you might decide to specialize in either powerlifting or bodybuilding training. Therefore, it’s important to understand exactly how these two styles of lifting differ in order to maximize your training efforts.

So, what is the difference between powerlifting vs bodybuilding? Powerlifting training aims to increase maximal strength, especially in movements such as the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Bodybuilding training is less concerned with how much weight is lifted but aims to maximize muscle hypertrophy (growth) as much as possible. As a result, everything from the exercise technique and programming is going to look a lot different.

Bodybuilding Basics

Bodybuilders train to create the perfect physique, which is muscular, symmetrical, and balanced. Bodybuilders use exercises like a sculptor uses a chisel to build and shape their muscles.

Like powerlifting, bodybuilding is also a sport, but many bodybuilders have no intention of competing. Instead, they want to develop a physique that’s pleasing to the eye rather than one that’ll win Mr. Olympia! Bodybuilders often train (and diet) in seasons – bulking and cutting. They eat more and train harder to increase muscle size during a bulk. When they feel they’ve built enough muscle, they then diet away any unwanted fat that’s obscuring their muscle definition in a process called cutting.

The Basics of Powerlifting

Powerlifting is a training style where your focus is to increase the amount you can lift for three primary lifts: the bench press, squat, and deadlift. The aim is to lift a maximal amount of weight—training is designed to encourage increases in strength for these three lifts over time.

Powerlifting is a competitive sport, but those interested in this style of training do not have to have a goal of competing. Training is performed at near maximum effort, usually at low repetitions, although some training sessions may have lower weight and higher repetitions while working on technique. Technique is essential for improving the amount you can lift over time.

Bodybuilding benefits

Even if competing in a Speedo isn’t your jam, bodybuilding training exercises can help you build muscle and boost your overall fitness. Here are just a few benefits of the sport.

Helps you build muscle mass

If you want people on the street to start asking you to rescue cats from trees or lift cars off people, bodybuilding is a pretty solid place to start. Bodybuilding training using medium-to-heavy weights for 8 to 12 reps of multiple sets per muscle group is the best way to build muscle mass, according to a 2016 review. And that muscle isn’t just for show. Boosting your muscle mass comes with a host of other health benefits. Increased muscle mass is linked to improved insulin sensitivity, reduced body fat, improved levels of fats in the blood, and a higher resting metabolic rate, according to research from 2015. And according to a 2018 review, it may also delay, counteract, or even reverse age-related muscle loss.

Encourages better nutrition

If you need a reason to revamp your nutrition, bodybuilding might be a good fit. While all high performance sports involve dietary needs and considerations, diet and nutrition are integral to bodybuilding training and culture. The focus is on optimizing the nutrients you eat and monitoring your calorie intake. And it’s not necessarily about restricting calories. You’ll need to get enough nutrition to fuel your body as it builds muscle.

Pro tip: There are plenty of reasons to eat well that have nothing to do with the number on the scale.

Gives you plenty of aerobic exercise

Aerobic exercise (aka cardio) is important for any well-rounded fitness regimen. While powerlifting often prioritizes all those weight #gains over cardio, bodybuilding never skimps on getting your heart pumping. Getting enough aerobic exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight, boost your mood, and relieve stress. Regardless of your motivation for getting moving, a combo of aerobic and resistance training is definitely ideal for any balanced fitness routine.

Benefits of powerlifting

Powerlifting training using heavy weights and lower repetitions is incredibly beneficial — even for non-competitive lifters. A few of the potential benefits of powerlifting training are meeting performance-based goals and increased functional strength and bone density.

Bone density improvements

Using heavy weights for low reps is effective for improving maximal strength, including increasing bone and connective-tissue density. Studies have shown that lifting close to your 1RM during training provides the greatest stimulus to bone and tissue growth, compared with training at a lower intensity.

Improvements to functional strength

Given that the movements used in powerlifting develop maximal strength across the biggest muscles in your body, powerlifting can improve your overall functional strength for performing day-to-day activities. In particular, heavy squats and deadlifts build the strength and core stability required to avoid throwing out your back while bending over or standing up, especially as you get older.

Performance-based training goals

While improving your health or appearance may be your primary motivator for training, having performance-based fitness goals is a good way to stay motivated while striving to meet your long-term goals, such as improving your health. Powerlifting focuses on measurable performance improvements regarding how much weight you’re lifting. The positive feeling of getting measurably stronger week-to-week or even month-to-month is incredibly rewarding and helps break up the monotony of simply going to the gym. Not everyone is motivated by numerical improvements in the weight they lift. However, if you’re someone who enjoys the feeling of measurably improving at an activity, powerlifting is a great training option.

Differences between Bodybuilding and Powerlifting:

Bodybuilders train for pure size, where as powerlifters train for brute strength. Training for the powerlifter implies training in a very low rep range - 2-4 reps and many singles is the crux of the powerlifter's routine. These reps are completed with maximal poundage and extremely long rest periods.
Bodybuilders are more concerned with diet and concerned with appearance than powerlifters. A powerlifter clearly doesn't care about appearance, as the main goal in the sport of powerlifting is to move as much weight as possible. Proper diet either makes or breaks a bodybuilder's appearance, and that is why it is imperative for bodybuilders to make smart food choices!
Have you ever seen a powerlifter do cardio? We didn't think so. Bodybuilders focus not only on strength training and diet, but on cardio as well. When losing fat or preparing for a contest are the goals of the trainee, cardio is absolutely key for bodybuilders!
Bodybuilders train with "the big 3," but also train with compound movements and isolation exercises - something powerlifters fail to do. Powerlifters do train every body part, they just do it in a different manner. They focus on full body lifts rather than several accessory lifts to target the muscles.

Which Is Best for You

If you are trying to decide between powerlifting and bodybuilding, it's first important to understand that these training styles are very different. If your primary goal is to gain strength in the three main compound lifts, powerlifting may be ideal, especially if you plan on competing. If you wish to build muscle size and symmetry, bodybuilding will probably work best.

A simplified version of bodybuilding that focuses on both strength increases and muscular growth, with different cycles of programming throughout the year is a good compromise. Unless you plan on competing in bodybuilding shows, you can take a more relaxed approach to your training than is typical for competitors, especially when it comes to incorporating fat loss and nutritional strategies, which can be extreme to the point of being unhealthy.

Bottom Line

Bodybuilding and powerlifting operate on different points of the same continuum. Both use weight training to influence muscle adaptation and performance, but the overall exercise selection, load, sets, and repetitions vary depending on the outcome of interest.

In order to truly excel at either, the athlete needs to train specific to their goal – but that doesn’t mean that dabbling in the opposing style doesn’t bring some benefits. In some ways, the differences can be assets for the average gymgoer. Spending time in both disciplines can keep training fun and ensure the gains flow. No matter the choice, the synergy between the two methods lends itself to creating a stronger, more jacked athlete.

14.09.2022