subject: Get Huge and Ripped with Powerbuilding [print this page] Get Huge and Ripped with Powerbuilding Get Huge and Ripped with Powerbuilding
One of the most frustrating things about the world of bodybuilding, weightlifting and fitness is we all want to build muscle but have less fat. But many of us have found ourselves caught in the vicious cycle of bulking or cutting as it seems (or so we've been told) that it's almost impossible to focus on both at the same time. The problem is when we're bulking we tend to gain more fat that we planned only to turn around and have to lose it. When we're cutting it seems we lose some of the hard earned muscle we gained in our bulking cycle (me personally, anytime I've tried to 'cut' I ended up smaller and weaker). If you're like me you get frustrated just thinking about it.
I've heard many people say to me that you can't do both; you have to either focus on building muscle mass (bulking) and not worry about gaining extra fat or you have to concentrate on getting ripped (cutting) in which you'll lose some muscle mass. Despite what many say I believe you can build muscle and keep your fat down simultaneously with a weight training technique I like to call powerbuilding. Powerbuilding is basically a mix of powerlifting and bodybuilding training styles. This is an excellent way to build dense muscle mass and enhance muscle definition.
You'll start out with a compound exercise such as bench press for chest, deadlifts or barbell rows for back, squats for legs, and seated barbell press for shoulders. You'll do heavy weight with low reps for this exercise such as 3-4 sets of 5-6 reps. The idea here is to overload your muscles by going heavy. Your next exercise will be similar (a compound exercise for that body part) but you'll increase the reps a little more to let's say 6-10. Move to a third exercise which could be a compound or isolation movement and do 8-12 reps. Finally you'll perform an isolation exercise at the end of your workout for sets of 15-20 reps. On your first heavy exercise you'll focus on power and strength. But for the remainder of the workout you'll concentrate on muscle contractions and feeling the muscle work throughout each set.
Here are a couple of powerbuilding workouts with a detailed plan and information:
