Welcome to my look back a year of “powerbuilding,” the portmanteau is a fairly popular trend right now in weight training, combining powerlifting with bodybuilding into one package. While powerbuilding might be new the idea of using some powerlifting movements to help with bodybuilding (and the opposite) is less so. I wanted to see some aesthetic benefits for the program lifting I’d been doing for three and half years, and so employing some body building in to my primary goal of strength training seemed like a good choice.
I’m at four and a half years now, which means I’m starting to get to the point of being a habitual lifter. Not an expert, just a regular guy that finds time in his schedule to hit the gym regularly. And that’s the point of view I’m coming at in this review: how does powerbuilding go for an average guy.
So let’s start with numbers, how did my one rep max (1RM) do over the course of this year?
Overhead Press (OHP): 170 lbs → 175 lbs
Back Squat: 430 lbs → 435 lbs
Bench: 275 lbs → 280 lbs
Deadlift: 465 lbs → 445 lbs
