Mini-Article: Strong, Not Fat
by Charles Poliquin

Q: Can I get really strong without putting on too much weight? I noticed that most champion powerlifters are fat. Franco Columbu seemed to look good and be strong enough to compete in powerlifting, but he's in the minority.

A: Of course you can. The reason you perceive powerlifters as fat is because TV likes to show the people who lift the most amount of weight and focusses on the super heavyweight class, members of which tend to have a higher percentage of body fat. This just isn't true of competitors in the lighter weight divisions. For instance, when Mauro DiPasquale, MD dominated the World Championships in the 148-pound and 165-pound weight classes, his body fat percentage was close to 3%.

Also, you might've only seen American powerlifters who tend to have higher body fat percentages because of their diets. Look at world-class powerlifters from Finland, Japan, and Sweden — most of them are on the lean side, with body fat percentages under 7% in most weight classes.

When training for relative strength, as stated previously in some of my writing, the following loading parameters apply in training with maximal weights:

1) Intensity should be between 85% and 100% (the weight used should be between 85% and 100% of the maximum amount of weight that you can lift for one rep).

2) Rep range should be between one and five.

3) The number of sets should fall between five and twelve.

4) Rest intervals between sets should be four to five minutes.

5) The time that takes you to raise the weight should be between one and four seconds.

6) The time that it takes you to lower the weight should be between three and five seconds.

7) You should pause between the raising and lowering part of the rep for one to four seconds.

A set shouldn't take longer than 20 seconds to complete.

Because of the high number of sets that you'll be doing for this type of routine, you'll only need to do one to three exercises per workout. You could, however, do as many as four if you pair agonists and antagonists together (opposite muscle groups: back and chest, biceps and triceps, or quads and hamstrings), as opposed to working agonists alone.

Researchers have found that the ability to achieve full motor unit activation (MUA) is enhanced when immediately proceeded by a contraction of the agonists. For example, after doing a three-repetition maximum (3RM) set of close-grip triceps presses, rest two to three minutes and perform a 3RM or 4RM set of dumbbell curls for the biceps. Rest two to three minutes and repeat for the required amount of sets. This method has the added benefit of allowing you to double the workload per training session.