Naturally, people gravitate towards specific workout routines and methods. Most of this depends on your fitness goals, whether you want to build muscle, lean down, or simply stay healthy and keep your heart pumping.
Another reason people choose different types of workout styles is for their specific body type. Sadly, not all of us are built to be as shredded and lean as Chris Hemsworth, and not all of us can build up like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but some of us are.
We naturally gravitate towards workout styles that fit our body type, sex, and other factors. There are loads of people who love to do calisthenics, and there are many who do a hybrid of both bodybuilding and practical bodyweight workouts.
What about Powerbuilding? What is it? How does it benefit you?
In this article, we are going over what Powerbuilding is and everything you need to know.
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What is Powerbuilding?
Powerbuilding is a workout style that combines powerlifting and bodybuilding techniques. This hybrid workout style allows for PowerBuilder’s to both increase their strength while retaining muscle tone and definition.
Although most people may already be “Powerbuilding”, understanding the different elements that make this style so unique and beneficial will help you decide on whether you want to pursue this style or not.
Powerbuilding exercises include both powerlifting compound exercises, such as:
- Deadlift
- Bench Press
- Squat
- Shoulder Press
- Pull-up
In addition to this, you also practice focusing on key muscle groups. Doing exercises such as:
- Bicep Curl
- Crunches
- Leg Press
- Chest Fly’s
The options here are not limited and you have pretty much full range over what you want to do when powerlifting. You get to include strength training, while also having a decent amount of focus on building definition.
What is BodyBuilding?
The Bodybuilding workout style focuses on working out key muscles one at a time while including some of the important compound exercises.
In order to know Powerbuilding, you need to understand the “building” portion of the word.
Bodybuilders are ones who isolate the muscle in order to get a maximum contraction. Don’t be fooled though, you can most definitely build strength when bodybuilding, but remember that looks and definition are always the priority.
Have you ever seen the nearly naked men that are spray-tanned flexing on the stage? Those are bodybuilders. You can see nearly every human muscle possible just popping out. Well, bodybuilders, although 99 percent of them not to that extreme, focus on targeting the muscle and creating tone.
When Powerlifting, you create a healthy balance of bodybuilding implemented into your workout sessions. This usually means doing a lot more reps, usually 8-12.
What is Powerlifting?
Powerlifting is a workout style that focuses on the essential compound muscle exercises. You want to do these compound exercises in order to build maximum strength.
Powerlifters usually aren’t the ones that go around showing off their tone. Instead, they focus on building strength, which usually comes with a bulkier build, not necessarily, fat, but big.
Most of these workouts consist of compound powerlifting exercises like deadlifting and others. These compound exercises target multiple muscle groups at once and often require an incredible amount of abdominal strength.
Building your core and increasing your strength is the name of the game here. This also means that you want to go with a shorter amount of reps, usually 3-6.
What is Powerbuilding Training?
Powerbuilding workouts and training include a healthy amount of bodybuilding exercises, with the implementation of one or more powerlifting exercises.
Usually, most of your workout should consist of bodybuilding muscle focus. This means to include workouts that target your muscle groups and those sets should be around 8-12 reps.
Additionally, add in some powerlifting exercises, whether that be one or more. This means that you need to add in some strength training compound exercises, like deadlifting or bench. These are usually going to be higher amounts of weight and the reps should be around 3-6.
Ultimately, talk to your personalized trainer about what you can handle and never do too much to the point where you are harming yourself. Train with intensity and train hard but know your limits. Blend in the strength training but don’t forget to do your focus work and retain that tone.
Is Powerbuilding Effective?
Powerbuilding is extremely effective and arguably the best workout style for a majority of people. It combines both bodybuilding focus workouts while including powerlifting strength training. If you want to tone up and build strength, Powerbuilding is the best of both worlds.
Now, if you want to just focus on building strength and gaining all-around size, then maybe this approach is not for you. I would say that this style takes a little more from bodybuilding than it does from powerlifting. It implements those compound exercises in order to help build strength. Powerlifting is the support portion of this workout style.
If you only want to focus on tone and don’t care about building strength, although you can build strength with bodybuilding, power building may not be your goal. It seems that overall, powerlifting would benefit you more than just going a bodybuilding route.
I believe that Powerbuilding is an extremely effective option for building muscle, keeping yourself tone and continuing to be tone, and building strength for practical use.
Cardio for Powerbuilding
Cardio is very welcome when following a Powerbuilding workout style. Although it combines bodybuilding and powerlifting, cardio is always welcome and helps with your vascular health.
Cardio is never a bad option when working out, no matter your workout style. Now, you may want to focus on certain types of cardio rather than others. Some cardio styles benefit you more than others when practicing power building.
Some great cardio workouts for powerbuilding include:
- Stair Stepping
- Walking
- Incline walking
- Swimming
- Stationary Cycling
- Row Machine
- Intermediate running
Some of these are great options for practicing cardio when powerbuilding. You usually want to keep these short and it isn’t often recommended to run for long distances, usually, you want to stay under 5 miles.
If you are able to and your body allows for it, running longer is definitely not a bad thing, but you want to keep your body in a great cardio state, rather than focusing on keeping a lean running physique.
Conclusion
Powerbuilding is an excellent workout style. It will work for the majority of people and you may not even know it but you are probably already practicing a powerbuilding type of workout style. It keeps things balanced and keeps you focused on not only looking good but practically getting stronger.
