Some people swear they have the answer.
The die hards of both bodybuilding and powerlifting will claim they know best.
So what's the truth? What is the best fitness program to take on for muscle growth?
The good news is we might be on the way to learning more, thanks to a good study (1) that sheds some light into one of the common questions of all: how many reps for muscle growth?
THE STUDY
20 males with weight lifting experience of a minimum of 3 sessions a week for at least 12 months were recruited, while some had a decade of experience under their (weight) belts. (See what I did there?!)
Divided into two groups, they either did a powerlifting style program or a bodybuilding (hypertrophy) program for a total of 8 weeks.
Both groups performed the same workouts, working the chest, back and legs, with the same exercises we'd do here in the real world, eg incline dumbell presses, barbell back squat, as opposed to just silly pin based machines or anything like that.
The powerlifting group performed 7 sets of 3 with a 3 minute rest, while the bodybuilding group busted out the good old fashioned 3 sets of 10 with a 90 second break.
Both groups went to failure.
WHAT THEY FOUND
The researchers measured the biceps to ascertain which group experience the most hypertrophy.
And which group grew the most?
Well.....they were both basically identical - with a 12.6% increase in the biceps for the bodybuilding group and 12.7% for the powerlifting group.
And as far as strength went obviously the powerlifting group came out on top; 4% better off on the bench press and 3.7% for squats.
Furthermore, the hypertrophy group also improved their 1RM - which backs up what I'm telling people constantly: you get stronger when you get bigger, and you get bigger when you get stronger.
It's impossible to get one without the other - both changes occur in the two types of training.
DIET
This as we know is a big part of the game and wasn't/couldn't be tracked over the 8 weeks.
However, subjects did receive a 24 gram protein supplement on training days.
The cost of keeping tabs on a diet during 8 weeks is obviously huge but also notoriously inaccurate - people aren't always honest when it comes to what they eat!
TIME SPENT LIFTING
Now ofcourse a traditional powerlifting workout does tend to take more time due to the rests between sets.
This particular hypertrophy program took just under 20 minutes, while the strength workout required more than an hour - even though the exercises were all the same.
So for the identical muscle gains - the hypertrophy program was certainly better in terms of the clock.
We all live busy lives and the shorter time spent in the gym the better.
At this stage, this seems to be one of the positives of a hypertrophy style workout - the same gains in less time.
Further to this, the researchers also point out:
"The [bodybuilding] group could have endured additional volume in their routines while those in the [powerlifting] group were at their upper limits of tolerance.”
Something else to think about too.
INJURIES
I've mentioned before that low reps have led to injuries for me personally.
As I always tell you, anecdotal evidence means precious little in the world of science - but in this case it is backed up.
The researchers say:
"Two of the 10 subjects in the [powerlifting] group dropped out of the study due to joint-related injuries…The injuries occurred despite direct supervision by trained personell. In contrast, none of those in the [bodybuilding] group reported experiencing a training-related injury”
Now this is very important.
Go for gold with your low reps - but not if it's going to cause injury.
It's all about living to train another day.
The guy spending 3 hours a day on a painting will get it done faster than the guy who spends 8 hours a day on it, but has to stop for months at a time to recover.
Now this is by no means a conclusion that low reps are any worse than high reps - because so far we don't have any definitive scientific data to conclude this.
I'm just simply saying, if the powerlifting style workouts don't work for you, then shy away from them for your own good.
Also, only the biceps were measured during this study and this research only examined a short period.
We can't say that the same results would have occured during this study over a longer time as we simply don't know.
But the other question posed by the researchers is, what if we were to combine a combination of both loading schemes? Would that be better?
The researchers admit that this requires further examination, however it's this ideology that has many people recommend a combination of both high and low reps as I did a while ago in this article.
CONCLUSION
At this stage, there's no final word.
Chose whichever type of exercise program you like the most - just be concious of the time it takes you to do it.
Clearly, a weight training program of both types will bring you results.
More research is required before we know to favour any one type of training over another, in respect to muscle gains.
However, one thing seems clear, a bodybuilding (hypertrophy) style program takes less time for similiar muscle gains and seems to pose a reduced injury threat.
It's one of the reasons why most people perform a bodybuilding program in their gym workouts, as opposed to powerlifting programs which can potentially spur on an injury for the inexperienced lifter.
The million dollar question now seems to be whether or not both training programs together are superior.
So now we have to just sit back to wait to see!
"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!"
REFERENCES
(1) Schoenfeld BJ et. al. “Effects of different volume-equated resistance training loading strategies on muscular adaptations in well-trained men.” J Strength Cond Res. 2014 Apr 7.
Author
Dayne Hudson