What is The Aesthetic Powerlifting Principle?
Simply, if you want to have an ‘aesthetic looking’ fitness model cover body type, yet want to maximise your efficiency in the gym whilst also actually being able to back that good looking muscle up with real strength, then read on, as this is the essence of the Aesthetic Powerlifting Principle.
This type of training is right for you if you want to get:
– Fitness Cover Model Body
– Maximise Your Limited Gym Time
– Be STRONG
I have never trained strictly like any ‘type’ of athlete (bodybuilder, powerlifter, fighter, sprinter etc) – I have always been on progressively changing training programs due to different goals, experimenting, learning, and simply for fun. My extensive background working with athletes, regular gym goers trying to look better, and clients who have particular mobility or injury issues mean that I understand the importance of personalisation and tweaking each training program, or even exercise, to get specific benefits and results.
I have always trained this way – or in a variation of this way. If training is not enjoyable, you won’t do it – so yes, there are days where the training sucks… But not too many of them. Training is about tenacity, consistency, enjoyment and progress.
We target progressive overload for the ‘main’ lifts as you would make sure you did in any other strength training program. Without progressive overload, (e.g. progressively increasing and overloading the muscles) you will not get stronger. So whatever you do in your training, make sure that you are progressively overloading any movements that you want to become stronger on!
For the ‘aesthetic’ side, we utilise various bodybuilding techniques and research backed ideas to maximise the amount of progress you can make – here the focus is on moving the weight well, utilising control and perfect form, and time under tension. This means we can work particular areas that need attention, most often in guys this is chest, shoulders, and upper back to help create the much sought after ‘V Shape’ and for females, a lot of booty and glute work, activation work, and back and stomach. We do a lot of well known exercises, but with a twist to give better and faster results.
There are a few reasons why considering aesthetics are important, not least due to vanity.
Health:
It’s been proven that waist circumference is a direct indicator of long term health, and can be an important precursor for illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. For many people, these illnesses have afflicted their parents or grandparents, making them aware of their fragility and wanting to take steps to avoid the same issues.
Therefore, common sense would tell us that by staying relatively aesthetic looking, (read: Lean and in-shape), we are maintaining an optimum level of health that wouldn’t be acheivable with the powerlifting mantra’s of old.
Mobility:
Mobility and movement is an important factor in training. Why? Because training brings you many benefits aside from (just) being strong. Lifting weights with a good range of motion keeps your body moving well, keeps your brain and motor coordination working, and helps to keep you supple as you age. Without weight training, you simply wouldn’t be able to get into many of the positions that you do, because our new age sedentary lifestyles don’t offer much in the way of flexibility and mobility.
Vanity:
Whatever anyone in the world will tell you, unless they are a world class athlete or elite competitor in any sport, one of the main focuses of training, whatever kind it may be, is to look good. Yes, we love to compete with the weights (a true essence of powerlifting), against each other, and against our old records, though the brutal truth remains that if you didn’t see any changes in your muscles or strength, and indeed your body overall, you probably wouldn’t train.
Bottom line – if you didn’t look better naked from training, you wouldn’t. Protest all you want, you know it’s the truth.
The Aesthetic Powerlifter wants you to be strong, wants you to be lifting heavy but safely, building your strength and enjoying training with weights, without ignoring the underlying reason we all train – to improve how we look, feel better, and enjoy the self-confidence brought about by looking like we train hard!
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