Powerlifters and bodybuilders are two types of lifting lovers who are stronger than the common person. However, we may be wondering who is really stronger between the two.
So who is stronger, powerlifters or bodybuilders? On average, someone who trains for strength with a weightlifting style will be stronger than someone who trains exclusively as a bodybuilder with the goal of building his muscle.
Bodybuilders don't have to be strong.
There is no formal prerequisite of having to be strong to compete as a bodybuilder. However, many bodybuilders will gain strength along the way.
A bodybuilder is judged entirely on how they look and what they present to the judges in comparison to their competition that day. The judges are looking for conditioning and symmetry and are not asking you to lift any object or state how many repetitions you can do per exercise or what your best is squat.
Therefore, most bodybuilders tend to focus their training on doing exercises with more variety and higher rep ranges than the average weightlifter. Therefore, a bodybuilder's strength can increase in the range of 8 to 10 repetitions for an exercise; however, that doesn't always translate to a higher rep max.
In the process of preparing for a bodybuilding show, someone needs to go on a strict diet and reduce size, which at one point or another will come at the cost of their strength. Therefore, bodybuilders can often lose strength as that is the price they choose to pay for better overall aesthetics and it does not affect performance in their chosen sport.
Powerlifters need strength
Powerlifting is a sport that allows people of all strengths to participate. However, if we are looking to win, we will need to be the strongest person in the room relative to body weight.
Powerlifting is a sport that is based on being the strongest person. Therefore, there is no baseline or ceiling for how strong one needs or needs to be. However, there are some strength standards that can help compare how far along we are in progress.
Also, if the goal is to win the weight class or qualify for something like competition at the national or international level, it should be more than average. How good you are depends on your weightlifting total, or the sum of the highest squats, bench presses, and deadlifts in competition.
Advanced to elite level female powerlifters will have a total ranging from 3 to 4 times their body weight, while advanced to elite level male lifters will have a total ranging from 5 to 7 times their body weight. This far exceeds what someone who has never focused on strength and only focuses on bodybuilding will be able to do on the squat, bench, and deadlift.