Do You Have to Be Fat to Be Strong?
By
Mike Westerdal
Many of you know that I compete as an amateur powerlifter. One thing I’ve
noticed over the past few years is that there are many guys who believe the
bigger you get and the more body weight you carry, the stronger you’ll get. This
was pretty much undisputed in the past. All you had to do was look up all the
world records in the squat, bench, and deadlift, and you’d find that the super
heavyweights weighing 300 lbs and more dominated all the record boards,
regardless of age.
I’m not sure exactly when it started happening, but the tides are turning.
When you look up the powerlifting rankings, you’ll see that today the top
numbers at many of the biggest powerlifting events each year aren’t always held
by the heaviest guys. In fact, on forums across the Internet, people are arguing
that the strongest guys in the world today are representing the 198-, 220-,
242-, and 275-lb classes. And I’m not talking about short, fat guys who weigh
less than their taller counterparts. These are lean powerlifters who look like
they compete in bodybuilding.
Matt Kroczaleski competes in the 220-lb class, giving the
heavyweights a run for their money, and I don’t see any stinkin’ body fat!
What does this have to do with lean, hybrid muscle? Well, there’s a new breed
of powerlifters who are taking over, and they do cardio! Can you believe that?
Powerlifters doing cardio? Well, they’re doing hybrid cardio or resistance
cardio. Not only are they improving their fitness levels, but they’re increasing
their overall or “absolute strength,” which carries over to their max strength
powerlifting results.
It’s true. Times are a changing in the powerlifting world. Pretty soon the
word ‘powerlifter’ may just bring to mind a lean, hybrid muscle machine instead
of the stereotypical big, fat, bald guy with a goatee. In my opinion, hybrid
cardio or type III muscle training has a lot to do with it.
Sometimes I train with Mike Schwanke, an elite powerlifter over at Tampa
Barbell. Here’s another example of a lighter guy giving the heavyweights a run
for their money. He squats over 1000 lbs and has deadlifted 800 lbs. Even though
he’s a powerlifter, he implements cardio and hybrid conditioning so that he can
reduce his body fat while building strength. Check out this video of his
training footage prior to a meet earlier this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZVtTAzMWpI.
Hybrid cardio isn’t a “style” of training but rather a component of
training, and it doesn’t require any special training or fancy equipment.
If you’re interested in developing balance along with fitness,
strength, and size, you should be taking a good look at hybrid cardio. A guy can
lift and lift and lift until he’s as big as an ox with bulging muscles of steel,
but he’ll be short of breath from a climb up a flight of stairs. If you’re into
competitive sports, adding the hybrid muscle training component into your
training mix can really give you a competitive edge. Guys also use hybrid
conditioning to improve weak spots, be more adaptable, improve their overall
fitness levels, and boost their body’s capacity to recover.
The sled pull, tire flip, farmer’s walk, wheelbarrow push, and plate lifting
are some of the more common hybrid exercises around. In doing any of these
exercises, start out with a goal of doing them for maybe ten minutes or so and a
long-term goal of working up to about 30 minutes. Once you reach 30 minutes,
don’t keep striving to be able to do longer stretches of time. Rather, enhance
your capacity by increasing the weight, not the amount of time you’re doing the
exercises. This is where you’ll really see improvements in your performance.
One of the great things about hybrid cardio as it relates to muscle building
is that it involves compound exercises that require you to use multiple muscle
groups and multiple skills (balance, coordination, etc.) at the same time. By
doing compound exercises, you’re not only improving your all-around fitness
level, but you’re also significantly lowering your risk of injuring yourself.
Many bodybuilders get caught up in building size, focusing on doing the same
exercises over and over again. By focusing just on the muscles they see in the
mirror (the “beach muscles”) and not training the core, they’re setting
themselves up for injury. Powerlifters are equally guilty by concentrating on
their maximum strength without paying much attention to their hearts or work
capacity. If you can squat 700 lbs, you should be able to squat 225 for 15 reps
without getting completely winded.
Many powerlifters, myself included, could use the fat burning benefits of
incorporating some hybrid cardio training, which as a bonus will develop the
type III muscle fibers. Maybe there would be a little more gas in the tank by
the time the deadlift rolls around on meet day!
I’ve heard the excuses—doing this will make you weaker. Well, I’m calling
bullshit on that one! How many of you have seen the DVD “242 Raw” featuring
Jeremy Hoornstra? For those of you who don’t know him, he’s one of the top raw
bench pressers in the world, having hit a 675-lb bench in competition right
before my eyes! It was amazing. In Jeremy’s DVD, him and his buddies push his
SUV up a hill for their early morning workout. So don’t tell me this kind of
conditioning will make you lose max strength because if anything, it will make
you stronger.
That’s another great thing about hybrid cardio muscle building exercises. You
can do them with whatever you have handy. If you don’t happen to have a sled
hanging around the house, no worries. Just push a vehicle around. And if you
aren’t able to do that, maybe you can flip a tire or attach some rope to a piece
of plywood, put a bunch of bricks on it, and start dragging it around. With lean
hybrid muscle building workouts, you’re not tied to a specific routine or
exercise.
It’s not a requirement that you do specific exercises or follow a particular
routine. It’s more important that you do “Strongman” type exercises in addition
to your current routine. That’s what is really going to challenge you. Even if
you live in the heart of the city, you can incorporate hybrid muscle exercises
into your training routine. The farmer’s walk can be done anywhere. Just grab a
couple of heavy dumbbells and start walking. As you improve, use heavier
dumbbells.
If the weather is lousy, you can do it at the gym. You can also carry around
plates instead of dumbbells. Kettlebells are great for doing these exercises,
too. You can use them to do snatches, the farmer’s walk, or any number of other
compound exercises. You can even do these hybrid training exercises if you don’t
have anything more than your own body weight. Jump squats are just one example
of a body weight exercise that you can do. The point is this kind of training
allows for a great deal of creativity, flexibility, and adaptability. Watch the
Strongman competitions on television if you want some great ideas for coming up
with your own routines.
By including hybrid muscle training exercises into your training routine,
dangerous imbalances—and the injuries that often accompany them—can be avoided.
Adding some of these exercises into the mix can also help keep boredom at bay
and keep you from getting burned out on training. You’ll also be giving yourself
a serious competitive edge. As an added bonus, because the body is in all-around
better physical condition, you’ll also find that you recover more rapidly and
will probably have more energy.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. I’m learning so much just from
reading everyone’s comments. If you’re interested in building muscle and burning
fat at the same time while keeping your strength levels high, visit
http://www.leanhybridmuscle.com
to claim your free Warrior Physique report and Super Hero Hybrid Muscle online
DVD.
Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. and a free online
weightlifting magazine. Critical Bench hosts the Internet’s largest free
exercise database and is the home of many workout routines, including the
Critical Bench Program to help you increase your bench press.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength
training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products
and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the
industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit
us at www.EliteFTS.com.
