Two Kinds of Size: Why Bodybuilders Aren't Powerlifters, and What Prep Takes Away

Two Kinds of Size

Why Bodybuilders Aren't Powerlifters, and What Prep Takes Away

Opener

If all it took to build a physique was lifting heavy, the strongest guys in the world would be winning the Olympia. They're not.

"If all it took was hard, heavy training, then someone like Larry Wheels would be Mr. Olympia. You can see the difference in look between an in-shape powerlifter and an in-shape bodybuilder."

This lecture explains that difference, and what it means for how you train and how you judge your own progress.

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1. What a pound of muscle is made of

A muscle is not only contractile tissue. The easiest way to see this is to dehydrate it.

"Take a pound of steak. That's muscle, a pound of muscle. If you dehydrate it down to beef jerky, you're left with the actual contractile tissue, a tiny amount. Only about 30% of the steak is actual contractile tissue. The rest is everything else: the blood vessel and capillary density, the glycogen storage, and water."

That gives two kinds of growth. Myofibrillar growth is the contractile part:

"Actual increased protein structures on the contractile tissue of the muscle that make the muscle fiber thicker."