Today I’m going to delve into the differences, using examples of pros within each category. We’ll look at visual differences, body measurement differences and drug usage differences (speculative in some cases).

What Is Men’s Physique?

Men’s physique is a relatively new category that was introduced in 2012 at the Olympia. The main goal with this was to diverge from the modern day ‘mass monsters’ and give the world something a little more aesthetic and attainable for your average Joe.

There’s a strong focus on the shoulder to waist ratio, using numbers 52.5 to 27 (a little more extreme than what I mentioned in the ‘v-taper‘ article.) So it’s almost a case of – the narrower the waistline the better – which is a nice contrast to the open bodybuilding category.

There’s also less of an ‘upper leg emphasis’, as the men’s physique competition requires men to wear knee-length swimming trunks. The focus is on the ‘ideal beach body’, rather than pure mass.

Example Physiques

Jeremy Buendia, 4x Men’s physique champion is pictured below (with a 27 inch waist):

So although the average person may look at him in his off-season and call him ‘a bodybuilder’, you can see the difference between him and Phil Heath on stage is simply night and day.

His waistline is narrow and chiselled rather than bloated and out of proportion, and his face is square and angular, rather than, just BIG. I’d guess he’s probably 6-7% body fat here.

Another example, Ryan Terry:

Again, narrow waistline, chiselled face. Probably ~5% body fat.

Another one, a very sauced-up-looking Sergi Constance:

Sergi’s waistline doesn’t appear to be as narrow as the other guys, but he’s pretty huge around the chest & shoulder area, with pretty much perfect muscle insertions.

It’s reported that his arms are a whopping 19 inches in size, so even though these guys aren’t competing in bodybuilding, there’s some real size there by anyone’s standards.

Having said that, I suspect these were measured while bulking and being a slightly higher body fat %, not that he ever really goes beyond 8%.

What Is Men’s Classic Physique?

This was the most recent addition to the IFBB, and was introduced in 2016. The goal with this category was to almost relive the ‘classic’ (and more aesthetic) Golden Era of bodybuilding.

The guys who compete here are almost like the modern day Arnold’s and Frank Zane’s. These guys are huge, and have taken their size beyond Men’s Physique, but not as far as the open bodybuilding category.

The main difference between the open category and Men’s Classic Physique, is that the former have lost control of their stomachs, due to expanded intestinal size in their pursuit of maximum growth. Whereas the classic guys can still hold the ‘vacuum pose’ – holding their stomach’s in.

Example Physiques

Here’s the Mr. Olympia of classic, Chris Bumstead, looking like the next Arnie:

This dude was only 22 in the above pictures, which is absolutely insane. Likely around 5% body fat.

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Here’s the former champion Breon Ansley, who you can see pictured next to Chris Bumstead:

So clearly these guys have more mass on them than the guys in Men’s Physique, but aren’t exactly Ronnie Coleman either.

Drug Usage Differences

While I can’t possibly say what each person takes and at what time, I can give you a pretty rough estimation of what guys take at each level.

There’s screenshots of fitness models openly talking about their gear usage, and also Chris Bumstead & his coach are open about his off-season cycle – you can see the YouTube video right here.

Men’s Classic Physique Steroid Usage

Also worthy of mention is his coach’s comments on that very video, saying:

“We said offseason and currently. Which is 100% the truth. During prep are some more things needed than just test? Of course. But we’re EXTREMELY conservative. If he’s doing say 500mg test, 300mg masteron, 150mg tren ace (per week) + Ai’s during prep that’s basically as hard as he goes now”

“He’s never really done much at all tbh. I wouldn’t care to admit it if he had. Everyone does dumb shit when they’re young. But you have to remember 1. He’s a genetic freak and has always got away with very very little. And 2 he’s my family that I care about a lot, I would never want him doing anything excessive or unnecessary when it’s clearly not needed and he was progressing well every year”

So right now Chris isn’t on any more than 1 gram of gear per week, but that’s right now, at the upper limit of his weight class, as Derek mentions in the video. He almost definitely was on more than this on his way up to being Mr. Olympia.

Men’s Physique Steroid Usage

Now, I don’t know if this guy has actually competed in the IFBB Men’s Physique (which is why I said a lot of this stuff is speculation), but it looks like he’s competed in similar divisions, and is regularly compared to Sergi Constance.

Both guys are famous fitness models. He’s called Jaco De Bruyn:

He’s got a ridiculous physique, just like Constance. But he’s completely open about his gear use, rather than having a ‘let’s just not talk about it’ approach.

Here’s some screenshots of him talking to what I can only assume is a future competitor wannabe:

So it looks like a decent amount of stuff. Is it as much as Chris Bumstead was taking in his off season a few years back? Is it more than what he was taking?

Nobody really knows.

There’s two major factors here that may well be playing in Chris’ favour – genetics and food. Chris has ridiculous genetics, and bulks properly in his off-season, which is something a lot of fitness models don’t seem to do. When you bulk properly, your drug requirements go way down.

Men’s Physique Vs Bodybuilding

Alright, here’s where the real mass monsters are. The open category is full of guys who get up to 300+ pounds in their off-season.

This category doesn’t care about having a narrow waistline, with pure mass (and symmetry) being the goal. Insulin use is pretty much guaranteed, which excessive amounts of growth hormone.

Here’s the two most famous examples.

Jay Cutler vs Ronnie Coleman:

These dudes are enormous. Far bigger than Arnie ever was, far bigger than Chris Bumstead is, and probably aren’t the epitome of health either.

So hopefully by now you can really tell the difference between the three categories in the IFBB.

If you liked this content, feel free to read some of my other articles on improving your looks, powerbuilding, and ‘bro splits‘.

If you have any questions in relation to any of this, make sure you’re on the email list. That’s where I respond to all questions within a couple of days.

The post Men’s Physique Vs Classic Physique Vs Bodybuilding appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.

Powerbuilding programs have become very popular over the past 10 years or so, largely due to the fact that they allow trainers to pursue multiple goals at once.

We all want to look better, feel better, and still perform like athletes, and powerbuilding programs allow you to do just that.

What Is Powerbuilding?

Powerbuilding takes the benefits of bodybuilding and powerlifting, and merges them into one. It’s a powerful blend of strength AND size.

While powerlifting tends to focus extensively on ‘The Big Three’ (and your physique tends to lag as a result), bodybuilding allows you to bring up weak parts like your arms, upper chest, rear delts etc., that may not be getting enough attention from an aesthetic standpoint.

By designing a program that allows you to get the best of both worlds via:

• Exercise selection (isolation work in addition to the big three)
• Accumulation & intensification phases
• Nutritional periodisation

You give trainers what they want – more muscle, more strength, and less body fat.

The Benefits Of Powerbuilding Programs

I can only talk about my experience with powerbuilding, so I’ll share my findings with you, as someone who wants ‘the best of both worlds’ when it comes to my training.

Your Arms Will Grow

Arms were my weak point for years (and they still are to some extent), but they’ve grown an inch over the past year due to the powerbuilding-style program I follow.

If you have naturally skinnier arms, then you simply won’t look like you lift until you isolate them and hit them with a decent amount of volume, on a regular basis.

Powerbuilding allows you to do this.

You Will Get Jacked

The problem with most powerlifting programs, is that there’s just not enough real volume in there to get huge. They’re written under the pre-assumption that the lifter has already accumulated an enormous amount of muscle mass, and/or is on a lot of gear.

If you’re a natural and you’re not yet heavily muscled, this isn’t going to work – you need to build the foundation. You need higher reps, more sets, and more isolation work. This will enable you to build the foundation – things like broader shoulders, an Apollos Belt, and LooksMaxing over the long run.

Powerbuilding allows you to do this.

You Will Get Strong

Having said this about the volume, you will also get strong with powerbuilding over the long-term.

You won’t be as strong relatively speaking at all times as you would be on a powerlifting program – you might be at 80% of your max strength, as opposed to 90% (I’m just using numbers as an example to illustrate my point).

But who cares?

If you’re not yet big enough to bench 350, and your bench is 250, then 90% of 250 is still only 225. But if you build your base via powerbuilding, up to the point where you can bench 350, then 80% of 350 is WAY more than 225. It’s 280, to be exact.

My point is that for most people, powerbuilding offers a better long-term strength solution than powerlifting.

And it will be far superior for your strength than any variation of a ‘bro’ bodybuilding program.

You Will Never Get Bored

The nature of powerbuilding is that the workouts will always have variety.

Some days you’ll be doing sets of 3-4 on the bench, some days you’ll be doing sets of 10-15 on the close grip bench. Variety is the spice of a training block.

Whereas if you’re ALWAYS focusing on either hypertrophy or power, you tend to get bored much sooner.

Periodisation Of Training In Powerbuilding

Even though you will have ‘hypertrophy days’ and ‘power days’ within each week, it’s not enough to look at training as four workouts per week, with exercises, A, B and C, and then you’re good to go.

Periodisation is necessary in order to build the foundation for a period of time, and then transition into more of a strength focus later on.

This way you optimise both over a multi-month period, and will make far more drastic progress than the guy who doesn’t do this.

Here’s what I would suggest:

1. Take a training block of 16 weeks.
2. Split it up into two phases, 8 weeks each.
3. Maintain enough movement specificity across all 16 weeks, with increased specificity in the latter 8 weeks.
4. Focus on hypertrophy most of the time in the first 8 weeks, with a gradual transition towards triples, doubles and singles, most of the time in the latter 8 weeks.
5. Have a strong focus on aesthetic weak points throughout the entire training cycle.

Here’s what this would look like visually:

(Although there is a focus during each of the 8 week blocks, there will be undulating periodisation within each week – some days will be ‘hypertrophy days’, others will be ‘power/strength days’.

Periodisation Of Nutrition In Powerbuilding

The reality is that the more food you eat, the more muscle you’ll gain. But there’s some major problems with just eating as much as possible, or the ‘See Food Diet’.

• If you gain too much body fat, you’re just shortening the amount of time you can spend in a calorie surplus (not smart) – 2 months in a surplus is completely inferior to 8 months, so a smaller surplus will be better over the long-run
• You will of course look aesthetically worse if you do this – bloated, water-retaining, and puffy
• It’s not just about eating more food, it needs to be the right food. Macros matter. There’s a huge difference between a KFC meal, and a sirloin steak & eggs

So you DO need a calorie surplus, but you DON’T want to pigging out.

But here’s where you need to periodise things.

The Accumulation Phase

The training volume will be higher during the accumulation phase (weeks 1-8), with more total sets, and higher reps most of the time, so this is where you’re going to want your largest intake of calories. You’ll also need a strong emphasis on carbs during this time.

So my suggestion would be to use an online calorie calculator to get your maintenance calories, and then shoot for a 500 calorie surplus.

You could shoot for a 300 calorie surplus, especially if you’re currently over 15% body fat, but if you’re leaner, I’d really go for that muscle mass with slightly more. You WILL notice the anabolic increase, without body fat being too much of a problem (you can do a mini cut later on).

In regards to carbs, you’ll probably be getting ~50% of your calories from them, so it’s more important at this point that you stay healthy by keeping them ‘clean’ and low sugar. I’ve found white rice to be a great ‘lean bulking’ carb source as it’s not ‘dirty’, yet you can still get a lot of it down you every day without feeling like you’re going to explode.

The timing of your carb intake will be important too – make sure you’re getting plenty both pre and post-workout. This stuff MATTERS when you’re training high volume and relatively high frequency.

The Intensification Phase

Your training volume will start to gradually decline during this phase, so your caloric needs also will decline.

Now you’ve probably gained a little extra muscle from the accumulation phase, and increased your bodyweight, so your caloric baseline will have shifted up from your starting point. You’ll want to find that new baseline, and then put yourself in a very small surplus, or even stay at maintenance, depending on your goals.

Anything from maintenance calories up to a 250 surplus would work very well during this phase of training. You’ll still want enough food to grow any lagging body parts.

Carbs will need to come down a little, and you’ll want to keep the protein nice and high.

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Powerbuilding Program Example

I personally like doing an upper/lower split for a lean bulking routine, but you can change it up to suit your schedule if you like.

Here’s what I personally do during an accumulation phase (remember, specificity isn’t at 100% like it is during the intensification phase). Also remember that arms are my weak point, so feel free to swap exercises to suit your needs:

Get To A Jacked 10% Body Fat!

If your main goal is to become more aesthetic, then I’m here to help. 10% body fat is the level whereby all your hard work is revealed – your muscles look sharper, your vascularity increases, and your facial aesthetics improve too.

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