Flex UK - June 2017

POWER

BODYBUILDING

HOW TO COMBINE BODYBUILDING

AND POWERLIFTING.

Powerlifters and bodybuilders

are like quarrelling brothers.

Some diferences they can never

fully bridge and yet, for better

or worse, they remain closely

related. They do many of the

same exercises. Bodybuilders

squat, deadlift, and bench press,

just as powerlifters may crank

out sets of triceps extensions,

barbell rows, and dumbbell lyes.

A few bodybuilders—most

especially Johnnie Jackson,

Stan Eferding, and, in his early

years, Ronnie Coleman—have

combined powerlifting and

bodybuilding to great efect.

They’ve ended the tif and used

a lower-rep, power-intense

approach to bodybuilding to

become both stronger and larger.

RAISING THE DEAD

The powerlifting and bodybuilding

connection has been long and

strong. Two-time Mr. Olympia

Franco Columbu started as a

European champion powerlifter in

the ’60s. His best reported lifts of

a 341-kg deadlift, 302-kg squat,

and 238-kg bench press are

remarkable when you consider

the 165-cm Sardinian strongman

competed at around 84 kg.

Though not quite as strong, his

best friend Arnold

Schwarzenegger also powerlifted

competitively, deadlifting 322 in

his last meet in 1968 when he was

already Mr. Universe.

Let’s zero in on the deadlift,

because unlike the squat and

the bench press, deads have

had an uneasy relationship

with bodybuilding. In fact, if

you look at the routines of most

champion bodybuilders before

the mid-1990s, deadlifts are

rarely there. To dead or not to

dead was one of the chief things

that separated powerlifters from

their bodybuilding brethren,

and it was mostly the rare hybrid

powerlifter-bodybuilder who

POWER
BODYBUILDING
BASICS

powerlifts—powerlifts—

deadlifts, and deadlifts, and

bench presses—bench presses—

in your workout in your workout

programme.programme.

Do the powerlifts

first in your leg first in your leg

(squat), back (squat), back

(deadlift), and (deadlift), and

chest (bench chest (bench

press) routines.press) routines.

powerlifts, powerlifts,

LIFT

66 FLEX| JUNE 2017

PAVEL YTHJALL

TRAINING STYLES