Dr. Squat - Dr. Fred Hatfield

I just figured out something very interesting today. Take a look at all the newest literature on powerlifting and you will notice that most of it focuses on speed. Its all about CAT or DE workouts or what ever you want to call it. Powerlifters are a bit shy of hypertrophy type workouts because they are afraid that their type IIb muscle fibers will turn into type IIa muscle fibers.

CAT in powerlifting or any sports training actually is a very important thing. While Dr. Squat has always preached proper periodization which includes "sometimes you have to train like a bodybuilder", a lot (not all) the new literature in powerlifting stays as far away from such facts as possible. No hypertrophy work is done. And all I have to say about that is, who are the ones who spend the most time with such type of training? Its the folks training with gear. I can't deny the fact that with geared lifting and when it comes to practice, raw strength actually ends up taking a back seat when compared to the work and practice that needs to be done in order to get strong at the top of the lifts and to be good with the gear.

Nothing wrong with that. Thats just how the sport is. But the problem I see is that the uses of such training truly are limited mostly to geared lifting, and a lot of people might not understand that.

I was thinking of doing a raw contest in May. So for that reason I started looking up some literature on raw powerlifting because I was clueless how to train for it because I only competed in gear. I looked up the routines of some of the best benchers in the 100% raw federation which is also a drug tested federation. To my surprise they actually do a lot of hypertrophy work! They do train heavy, but none of the guys do less than 3 reps. And the world record holder for the 198 class actually spends time doing negatives. Say what ever you want about such type of training; I don't care what the literature says, because the best raw drug free (I hope they aren't cheating) lifters in the world are training that way and clearly its working for them.

This really surprises me because after getting a clear understanding of the structure of a muscle cell one would begin to realize that a bigger muscle is not necessarily a stronger muscle. However, I'm quite convinced by now that the ideas people extrapolate from such literature really isn't enough to make a significant difference. I think it is an accurate statement when some people say that a bigger muscle will be a stronger muscle; but you still have to train your brain and body to lift that heavy weight, otherwise you will never learn to get your muscles to do the work that they are maximally capable of.

All this talk probably isn't anything new to Dr. Squat. But I think its definitely something to realize and consider for anyone these days who is trying to get stronger. It actually was quite the shocking surprise for me!

And just to add on, in all the powerlifting contests I have been to you'd be surprised to know who it was that I thought had the most impressive raw strength. Keep in mind that in the UPA when you enter a contest you have the choice of entering as raw or with gear. Most of the powerlifters like the gear. Bodybuilders sometimes like to enter a powerlifting contest for fun and a lot of them do it raw. Well, its the bodybuilders. They always have some pretty respective raw strength especially when considering their strength to weight ratios. How ever, I have occasionally seen some powerlifters who specialize in raw do a real lot better!