evilcyber.com
  • Home
  • Workouts
    • Home Workout Plans
    • How To Build Muscle
    • How To Get Toned
    • Home Workout Equipment
    • Advanced Workout Topics
    • Other Workout Programs
    • Important Workout Lingo
    • Recommendable Books
  • Cardio
    • What Is Cardio?
    • How To Start Cardio
    • Home Cardio Exercises
    • Cardio Or Weights First?
    • Best Time For Cardio
    • Does Cardio Burn Muscle?
    • Cardio On Empty Stomach?
    • HIIT – Doing It Right
    • Cross-Training
  • Weight Loss
    • The Secret To Weight Loss
    • Gain Muscle And Lose Fat?
    • Exercise And Weight Loss
    • Diet Reviews
    • Weight Loss Myths
    • Weight Loss Supplements
  • Nutrition
    • Healthy Nutrition Explained
    • Bodybuilding Nutrition
    • What Are Carbohydrates?
    • What Is Fat?
    • What Is Protein?
    • Nutrition For Cardio
    • Marathon Nutrition
    • Exercise On Low Carb
  • Supplements
    • 3 Supplements That Work
    • BCAA Supplements
    • Beta-Alanine
    • Creatine
    • Dextrose Supplements
    • Energy Shots
    • Make Your Own Weight Gainer
    • Multivitamins
    • NAC
    • Testosterone-Boosters
  • The Rest

Fitness, Videos, Workout

Are Bodybuilders Weak?

Ask a powerlifter what he thinks about bodybuilders and he’ll tell you they are weak and their size shows no strength. Really?

The Weak Bodybuilder

It’s a familiar argument, usually coming from powerlifters: bodybuilders have size, but no strength. Their muscles just look big! It’s all for show!

Yeah, most of what professional bodybuilders do is for show, but saying they are weak would be stretching it. A lot:

The More Sciency Explanation

What it all comes down to is the type of hypertrophy powerlifters and bodybuilders go for with their respective rep ranges:

  • Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, the one that causes the muscles to store more fluid, happens more at the 6 to 12 range
  • Myofibrillar hypertrophy, where the body enlarges the actual fibers muscles are made of, happens more at the powerlifters’ 1 to 5 tep range

However, as hinted in the video, the sarcoplasmic fluid takes up lodgings in the myofibrils  – the muscle fibers. To store more fluid, they have to become bigger and when they become bigger, you also become stronger.

You Either Train Endurance Or You Don’t

To truly gain no increases in strength from lifting weight, you’d have to aim for a 15+ rep range, because that’s where you go into training endurance. But that also wouldn’t cause sarcoplasmic hypertrophy!

Below that, you have varying degrees of sarcoplasmic and myofribrillar hypertrophy, but you never get one without the other.

Picture courtesy of “istolethetv“.

Help me spread knowledge and share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Search

Subscribe to EC

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Latest Comments

  • No comments

2 Comments

  1. Dr. J says:
    June 22, 2014 at 7:13 pm

    So I guess for most of us the thing to do is some of each?

    Reply
    • evilcyber says:
      June 24, 2014 at 8:38 pm

      Absolutely!

      Reply

    What do you think?

    Click here to cancel reply.


    • About
    • Contact
    • Copyright
    • Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
    © Copyright 2025 — evilcyber.com. All Rights Reserved.

    Evilcyber.com uses cookies

    More info about these little buggers in the Privacy Policy.

    Close
    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.