Bodybuilding Forums

Is it possible to get good hypertophic gains (you know, the LOOK of big muscles) alongside good strength gains?

Or do you have to settle for one or the other?

Would like your experienced opinions

Until just a few years ago Olympic lifts were part of most bodybuilding competitions. Minimum lifts were required to compete, and lift weight counted against your final score.

So, yeah. And on a personal note, isn't it obvious that you build both strength and size at the same time? Sure, a bodybuilder may not necessarily be as strong as a powerlifter of the same size, but every bodybuilder I know is immensely strong compared to your Average Joe.

--Matt B.

There is a sweet spot (as I've read before) between hypertrophy and strength. 8-12 is not primarily on strength. I'm thinking MAX-OT or (maybe) HST might get a combination. Although THT does have 2 weeks of heavy weight which would help in strength gains. MAX-OT is 4-6 reps to failure by the way.

andrewpmast wrote:There is a sweet spot (as I've read before) between hypertrophy and strength. 8-12 is not primarily on strength. I'm thinking MAX-OT or (maybe) HST might get a combination. Although THT does have 2 weeks of heavy weight which would help in strength gains. MAX-OT is 4-6 reps to failure by the way.

I usually aim for 7-11 reps, sometimes when bumping up weight I'll be down to 6, and it's done plenty of both for me. The slightly higher reps are good for a little while to make sure your form is perfect, and the lower reps are good to bump you over the hurdle of 12 reps of perfect form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZc6J89b ... re=related

So, obviously you can have mountains of both simultaneously. In fact, you could easily argue that its impossible to have an elite level of one without the other.

There's that explosive/sprinting element I'm really interested in, demonstrated perfectly also. No wondering about tension levels. Imagine the signals/contractions/power/form when exploding then controlling/reversing the weights direction.

Functional, real core activation, workout also.

Uplift wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZc6J89b1-E&feature=related

So, obviously you can have mountains of both simultaneously. In fact, you could easily argue that its impossible to have an elite level of one without the other.

There's that explosive/sprinting element I'm really interested in, demonstrated perfectly also. No wondering about tension levels. Imagine the signals/contractions/power/form when exploding then controlling/reversing the weights direction.

Functional, real core activation, workout also.

That man is part machine, part animal - an incredible athlete and deservedly world champion. I absolutely LOVE watching world's strongest man. One of the Brits (well he's actually Eastern European but now a national) Jimmy Marku, works in a salsa club in central London. I was walking past there one night at a fortuitous time to see him forcibly ejecting 2 guys. I don't think they realised who he was at the time, but when they ended up half way into Charing Cross Road they may well have been asking. These guys throw 20kg metal oil cans 10m in the air 'for a bit of a laugh'! Never fails to amaze me just how athletic these guys are despite being absolutely massive, I have tremendous respect for what they do. Mark Felix is another great British athlete of this sport.

Strongmen amaze me too. And I think they are the proof that massive people can have great fitness and athletisism.

richard-a wrote: One of the Brits (well he's actually Eastern European but now a national) Jimmy Marku, works in a salsa club in central London. I was walking past there one night at a fortuitous time to see him forcibly ejecting 2 guys. I don't think they realised who he was at the time, but when they ended up half way into Charing Cross Road they may well have been asking. These guys throw 20kg metal oil cans 10m in the air 'for a bit of a laugh'!

YES! Too bad he didn't hurl them over the bar 10m in the air...

undertaker610 wrote:Strongmen amaze me too. And I think they are the proof that massive people can have great fitness and athletisism.

Hey, little guys can be amazingly strong too, not just the massive people! My DH may only throw a little over 4 meters high right now, but considering that weight is almost a third of his body weight, I think that's pretty frickin' amazing!

Yeh, undertaker and Richard, actually, what most people don't understand is that the reason top weightlifters and strongmen can perform the way they do is because of supremely functional flexibility and speed. The flexibility, speed and acceleration required to perform the movements, and move the extreme weights escapes most people, because of blinkered, closed thinking, along the lines of, 'muscles making you slow, clumsy' etc. Yet most people are totally incapable of getting into the positions required for an olympic lift with no weight, and could take as much time as they like... its not going to happen, because most people have an extremely limited idea and understanding about their bodies.

Its why its so valuable to be open to learning, to trying new things, to observing without blinkered bias, because amasing possibilities always exist, despite ignorance thinking they don't or cannot. In any moment there is a myriad of possibilities, limited only by our beliefs and imaginations. Imagine going back just 100 years in time, and trying to convince the majority of people about, and explain modern technology to them. Most people would have been incapable of believing it, or conceiving it, viewing it as crazy and impossible, only because of extremely rigid, closed beliefs, despite the fact that modern technology does exist, it is possible.