How BodyBuilders Ruin Everything...

[Tresbien]

Hope you are all in for a good laugh, courtesy of the the Look Better Naked Blog:

'Powerlifters are unintentionally the cause of certain undesirable (bad) things.

Because of powerlifters:

1. People who are new to the gym copy their routines. The result is a confusion of their original goal of looking and feeling better with a nebulous and confused desire to become stronger.

For some reason the dominant male in the gym tends to set the pace for other people. Don't ask me why this is, it just is. People just assume that what he is doing is "correct." If the dominant male happens to be, incidentally, a powerlifter, then everyone suffers.

Powerlifters care about strength.
Bodybuilders care about muscle development.
Because of this, each train DIFFERENTLY.
Different training leads to different physique changes.
Strength for bodybuilders is a side effect of training for muscle growth.

Look up pictures of the best powerlifters. What do they look like?
Barrel-chested and pudgy? Pear-shaped?
Do they look like they even exercise?
I would provide images/links but I'm not trying to be mean.

Powerlifters did not set out with a goal to look that way, that's only a consequence (a side effect) of their quest to lift very heavy weights (numbers).
There are no pure powerlifters who look like bodybuilders. None. Zero.

How to tell if you lift like a powerlifter (which does not necessarily mean that you're going about it correctly, just lifting according to what you "see"):

If you try to lift weights that are too heavy for yourself, but sure look impressive (to you), you might be a powerlifter. A tell-tale sign is that you bounce the weight off your chest during bench press.

If the weight is so heavy that you MUST rest 3, 4, 5+ minutes to recuperate your strength to do another set, then you might be a powerlifter.

If you do every exercise just like this, you are definitely a powerlifter. Expect to look differently; just not the way you had hoped before you "learned" how to lift.

2. People who are new to the gym sometimes copy powerlifters who wear belts as a fashion accesory--all the time--even during upper body exercises. This is like "protecting" the core from doing its job, and so the core becomes underdeveloped. Two benefits of squats are improved strength and condition of the core, and sinewy development of the lower back. These two benefits are deleted if one wears a belt all the time. Why not wear pretty colored belts instead of the drab leather or wear a matching purse too?

3. People mistakenly believe that the squat movement ends exactly when the knees hit 90 degrees. Powerlifters do this to maximize the amount of weight that can be lifted. Going past 90 degrees does not cause injury. Bad, improper lifting form during squats cause injury; especially if the lifter is attempting too much weight for himself. link Powerlifting squats are different than bodybuilding squats, and cheat the quadriceps from full development.

Ideally, the quadriceps should be stretched at one end of the movement, which requires going past 90 degrees. Think about the biceps curl--at one end (the top) of the movement, the triceps are fully stretched while the biceps are fully contracted. Oppositely, at the end of the triceps extension, the biceps are fully stretched. You wouldn't cut your curls short, would you? So why cut your squats short? Use a Smith machine sometimes or all the time.

4. People who are new to the gym tend to think that forced reps with a spotter is the way to lift weights.

5. Powerlifters' favorite question: "Uh...Whaddya Bench?"

Just because one can lift a certain amount of weight; just because one is able to lift it, does not mean that lifting like that all the time will lead to good benefits. '

[Young Athlete]

What the hell....I want to smack this guy across the head...........with my weights that are to heavy for me........then drop my max dead lift on him

[mjh]

http://look-better-naked.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-powerlifters-ruin-everything.html
The guys from sherdog showed up to set him straight.

[eLvarouza]

Here's a nice example of a powerlifter looking much, much better than 99% of all people who describe themselves as "bodybuilders":



Hell I'd rather look like a powerlifter than a bloated, puffy bodybuilder anyway.

[mjh]

I just read this again and it's just insane how wrong it is. It's not even a difference of opinion sort of thing, it's just plain ignorant.

1. pl'ers are by far the minority. If you want to blame someone for crappy routines, look no further than the local bodybuilder. They're more likely to be the alpha-male, strutting around like they own the world.

which goal is more nebulous, strength or aesthetics? Which is more easily quantified? the guy clearly knows nothing about powerlifting, and can only equate superheavyweights with pl'ers.

2. any decent pl'er scorns the over-use of belts, wraps, gloves etc

3. no knowledge of the rules of powerlifitng. and we all know, who is more likely to be doing partials, pl'er or bb'er? and fer chrissake, he endorses the smith machine!

4. forced reps (ie, cheating for ego weights)... pl'er or bb'er?

5. one more time... overvaluing beach muscle lifts... pl'er or bb'er?

this must have been a troll job designed to get some traffic to his shitty blog.

[Young Athlete]

Get the pitch forks and torches were going to get this guy

[bigwhat62]

dang, my blood is boiling right now! beyond ignorant. i want to see that chump say these things to ed cohen or captain kirk. those dudes would compress him into a tin can.

[jamesm]

"Use a Smith machine sometimes or all the time."

You have got to be kidding me.
This guy needs 5 across the eyes for that statement alone

[LiftingNerd]

I actually thought that article was funny. It was funny because I just imagine how dumb someone has to be, to want to piss off the group of people who think putting a house on their back and squatting it is a fun time, and I laugh at such a terrible idea.

Also...

"I have mastered the one inch pump."

makes me laugh every time.

[7611masari]

Hell I'd rather look like a powerlifter than a bloated, puffy bodybuilder anyway.

Bodybuilders are kind of creepy looking in my opinion. I think it's because their heads look so tiny. I like men who have muscles, but don't have muscles merely for the sake of having them, you know?

[Mouse]

Who cares what anyone else thinks?

Not me - 5x5 it is.

[oi_joe]

i thought i was a good article.

i laughed even typing that lol. what a load of shite

[johnnyo]

Tresbian, show up at my garage and I'll show you how a man lifts weights.

[mjh]

Tresbian, show up at my garage and I'll show you how a man lifts weights.

uh... you do know he didn't actually write the original post, don't you?

[bigwhat62]

Tresbian, show up at my garage and I'll show you how a man lifts weights.

uh... you do know he didn't actually write the original post, don't you?

haha!