Description
If you know anything about the sport of bodybuilding, you have undoubtedly heard the names Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronnie Coleman. Probably considered the two greatest bodybuilders of all time, they have 15 Mr. Olympia wins between them (Arnold has 7 and Ronnie has 8). During their respective careers, they took the sport of bodybuilding to new heights with transformative physiques. Arnold had the big chest and biceps while sporting a small waist and Ronnie just dominated the competition with his sheer size and conditioning. However, unbeknownst to many, these two legends shared a common training trait that enabled them to build significant muscle tissue: they both trained for powerlifting (i.e strength) before committing to full-time bodybuilding.
Merritt (2020) had this to say about Arnold’s exploits:
Arnold competed in at least three powerlifting meets over 18 months in 1966-68, progressing rapidly from a 1290-pound (585 kg.) total to just shy of 1600 (725 kg.). The latter high mark was set at the 1968 German Powerlifting Championships, where, at 20 and already Mr. Universe, he won the heavyweight class while dressed in ordinary gym clothes. His best official lifts were: squat 474 lbs. (215 kg.), bench press 441 lbs. (200 kg.), and deadlift 683 lbs. (310 kg.)
Ronnie Coleman was a physical specimen in that even though he trained for bodybuilding, he would still throw in heavy powerlifting movements to test his strength. In the prime of his bodybuilding career, Ronnie was able to back squat 800 pounds for 2 reps, bench press 495 pounds for 5 reps and deadlift 800 pounds for 2 reps (Lifting Vault, 2020). These numbers are truly remarkable in that he would perform them weeks out from bodybuilding shows when he was at a very low body fat percentage!
Personally, my own lifting journey was a little different from Arnold and Ronnie. For a large portion of my lifting career, especially the early years, I spent countless hours training like a bodybuilder with moderate weights and moderate reps. I would occasionally venture into lifting heavier weights, but I stayed the course for the most part with regard to working in the 6-12 rep range. Honestly, I didn’t like to squat, bench or deadlift at the time, so that gave me a great reason to never lift with maximal weights on these exercises…lol. However, even though I mainly disregarded the big 3 movements, I still managed to get up to 220 pounds with a decent physique.
My training stayed this way until my late 20’s and early 30’s when I started following some training programs that had me perform lower reps and heavier weights on compound movements. I loved seeing my strength go up and also noticed that my muscles were becoming harder and denser. Subsequently, I transitioned into full-time powerlifting around 2015 and did my first meet that same year. I would go on to do two more powerlifting meets within the next few years where I had moderate success with personal bests of a 585 squat, 370 bench and 650 deadlift. But, the main realization or epiphany that I had from matriculating into powerlifting was the effect it had on my ability to gain muscle size.
During my years of competitive powerlifting, I went from a bodyweight in the low 220’s to a bodyweight in the mid-to-upper 230’s. The weight that I put on was a good portion of muscle with limited body fat accumulation. What caused this to happen? The dedicated heavy lifting had enabled me to gain strength which I could then apply to muscle hypertrophy movements! This was recently backed up in a study by Carvalho et al (2020). In their study, they measured muscle mass and strength between two groups: one group did 3 weeks of strength-focused training (4 sets of 1-3 reps) prior to 5 weeks of hypertrophy training (4 sets of 8-12 reps) while the other group only did 8 weeks of the hypertrophy training. The results were demonstrable as the strength and hypertrophy group ended up displaying greater muscle growth and strength gains than their hypertrophy-only counterparts.
I found out that not lifting for strength had been the restrictor plate on my muscle growth! I had never truly trained for strength before and my body responded to the new stimulus by getting bigger than ever! And I believe that is the key that a lot of bodybuilders and lifters in-general miss out on. They never really endure a period of training where they lift near-maximal weights to see how strong they can get. Brad Schoenfeld, a foremost researcher on muscle hypertrophy, lists one of the mechanisms to stimulate muscle growth as “mechanical tension.” In his book, Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy, Schoenfeld describes it as the “primary driving force in the hypertrophic response to regimented resistance training and at the very least initiates critical hypertrophy-related intracellular signaling following resistance exercise” (2021, p.30). When heavier loads are lifted for a sufficient period of time through a full range of motion, the body senses the stretch-induced mechanical loading and responds by stimulating mTOR, which sets you up for a powerful anabolic muscular response!!!
To be fair, however, it is important that each lifter spend time working through different rep ranges to maximize their hypertrophic adaptations. And that’s where the Strength-Induced Hypertrophy Program comes into play! We start you out with 8 weeks of heavier loading on the compound exercises (plus accessory movements) before switching gears in the final 8 weeks to use the newly acquired strength for different phases of hypertrophy training. This will take advantage of the full scope of rep ranges and have you stimulate your muscles through a whole new process!
References
Carvalho, L et al. (2020). Is Stronger Better? Influence of a strength phase followed by a hypertrophy phase on muscular adaptations in resistance-trained men. Research In Sports Medicine, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/15438627.2020.1853546
Lifting Vault. (2020, September 21). Peak Ronnie Coleman As A Powerlifter [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/6Z6rHSP9PJI
Merritt, Greg. 2020, October 1. How Strong Was Arnold? Retrieved from https://www.thebarbell.com/how-strong-was-arnold/
Schoenfeld, Brad. (2021). Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics
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