PowerBuilding. Is it effective?

Most of us want to get stronger and grow more muscle... Enter Powerbuilding, the child born from combining powerlifting and bodybuilding. Have your cake and eat it etc etc?

Some hate the idea, some are hardcore “you can only pick one”. While others are very successful with both. Regardless, I have scoured PubMed, Google Scholar and too many Journals to list, to find as much evidence as I can to break down and present to you.

Is it an effective training strategy? Or would you be best served focusing on one? I have discussed already that if you truly want to maximise your results in one area then that needs to be your priority. However, can you get pretty close to maximal results with combining these styles of training?

We want to take a look at how the evidence tells us to establish this, not just what your favourite fitness influencer says works.

IN THIS ARTICLE:

• 🤓 They Both Have Different Needs

• 🧬 The Science Behind Combining Both

• ✍️ TLDR: Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

AN ANNOUNCEMENT
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Getting Started.

Flooring and a bench… We will be building this out slowly, in stages over the coming months as moving house and furniture just isn’t a cheap process 💀. What we have ordered so far 👇️ 

• Flooring - 20mm Laminated Rubber Performance Tile. It comes with connectors to ensure they don’t slip or move.

• Adjustable Bench - Zero Gap Adjustable Bench 2.0. Unlike other adjustable bench’s, when you make them incline and you are left with a gap between the seat and backrest, this bench allows you to move the seat to create no gap.

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WHAT MATTERS?
They Both Have Different Needs.

Before we delve into the data behind whether training for both strength and hypertrophy (powerbuilding) in tandem is effective, it’s important to understand what is needed for both to improve.

💪 For Hypertrophy

The science is pretty clean that volume is a main variable for hypertrophy, the more volume… the more gains (Baz-Valle et al., 2022) & (Schoenfeld et al., 2016). However, there is a point of diminishing returns and even negative returns when it comes to muscle growth and volume. Everyone has different volume ceiling limits and this is something we have covered in depth already which you can read here 👉️ Volume for Strength & Hypertrophy.

Where as load (intensity) can vary as hypertrophy can be effective when trained to or close to failure within the 5-30 repetition range, however has been shown that intensities under 30% of your 1RM to be inferior.

🏋️ For Strength

Load is pretty important. Strength is specific, getting practice lifting heavy loads makes you stronger, it’s a neural adaptation involving motor recruitment and rate coding to name a few. (Swinton et al., 2024)

Volume does play a part, just not as big a variable as it is for hypertrophy. Proximity to failure also isn’t as important, as strength has been shown across the data to improve as far away as 5RIR (repetitions in reserve)- basically you could have achieved 5 more repetitions.

To summarise, the primary drivers for results regarding hypertrophy seem to be volume and proximity to failure, whereas for strength, our primary variable seems to be load (intensity) or the percentage based of your 1RM used.

Optimal rest times for each differ also, with hypertrophy being 1-2 or 2-3 minutes depending on the muscle group / movement and strength being 3-5 minutes. Although good strength gains can be made using 2 minutes rest.

With different drivers for results, what does the science show us when they are combined to achieve goals in both?

EVIDENCE
The Science Behind Combining Both

Generally, powerbuilding means you train for both Concurrently. Perhaps you begin your sessions with the heavier work (with the 1 of 3 main power lifts), then progress to higher rep range bodybuilding work.

Alternative Routes:

1. Daily Undulating Periodization: Dedicated days in the week to either powerlift or do bodybuilding. A common way to lay this out is following the PHUL (Power, Hypertrophy, Upper, Lower) method of programming it. So you would dedicate one lower day to power / strength, the other lower day in the week would be dedicated to lower hypertrophy, same for upper.

2. Block Periodization: Essentially out of an 8 week training cycle, you may allocated the first 4 weeks to strength training and the subsequent 4 weeks to hypertrophy focused training, a study using this method is discussed below.

A study which was presented at the International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings by (Ball, 2024) had 27 healthy, untrained males take part in a 6 week training program to determine if a strength only, or strength and hypertrophy combined program led to greater maximal strength and muscle size.

Split into two groups they either followed a strength only program for 6 weeks or a combined strength and hypertrophy program.

Their findings showed that strength outcomes were similar between groups, however muscle size was greater in the group that combined both strength & hypertrophy.

Periodizing Strength & Hypertrophy

A study by (Carvalho et al., 2020) which instead of the first two options above, looked at periodising strength and hypertrophy into different blocks over an 8 week training intervention.

They took 26 resistance trained men through the training program to access muscle thickness and maximum strength of the lower body. They were split into two groups, one done an 8 week hypertrophy only training program using 4 sets of 8-12RM (repetition maximum) per exercise. The other group performed a 3 week strength focused phase consisting of 4 sets of 1-3RM before moving onto a hypertrophy block for 5 weeks with the same set and repetition scheme as group one.

They found that the group who performed the strength block prior to the hypertrophy block had greater muscle growth and strength in the back squat + leg press.

This makes sense, think about it logically. If you become stronger, then you should be able to lift more weight when you go back to training in higher repetition ranges for hypertrophy than you previously could.

If you can go from bench pressing 80kg for 10 repetitions to 90 kg for 10 repetitions… and continue this cycle, your muscles will have to grow to meet the demands of the intensity and volumes.

TLDR
Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

• Powerbuilding is the combination of powerlifting and bodybuilding with the aim to get stronger and grow more muscle.

• Strength & Hypertrophy both have different main variables when it comes to optimising your results. For hypertrophy, volume and proximity to failure seems to matter the most, and for strength, intensity (load) seems to matter the most.

• Combined, studies have shown that they can work well together, infact those performing both rather than just one, saw more muscle growth as a result. With some of the data showing more strength increase and some showing similar increases.

• Depending on what your priority is will determine what percentage weight you give to each. I.E. If you are more focused on strength, however your program has 80% of its training time dedicated to hypertrophy you won’t achieve your desired results.

Although the studies show it can be done effectively and in fact may complement each other in the long run leading to greater outcomes, strength and hypertrophy training are not the same. This is where being smart about your programming comes into play, you must manage your training program schedule for fatigue and to allow for sufficient recovery to optimally train for both.

Till next time,
Keep Training & Keep Pushing.

Mark ✌️