powerlifting

[Sean Adams]

Hey,

I've been CFing for about 7 months now, had to take a few breaks here and there but overall consistent. I haven't quite seen great gains in my strength which makes the WODs difficult and I have to scale them. My goal is to be able to do the WODs RXd and to look bigger, be stronger. I tried Powerlifting for a month about 5 months ago and was drinking a lot of milk. I did the 5 3 1 program. I would say I did get stronger but was very put off by how quickly I put on fat especially in the gut area. I undersatdn that this is the quickest was to get strong but I'd like to stay relatively not fat (not lean just not fat) while also getting strength. I'm planning on moving back to powerlifting probably start off with a starting strength and then switch to 5 3 1. Just wondering on what your thoughts are? Is this the best way for me to get stronger? What kind of diet should I be on? I was thinking of adding some Paleo elements? Thanks for any help/advice you can give.

[Seth Leaman]

just don't eat so much. If you were gaining tons of fat you were eating more than necessary to gain strength and size. get at least 1g protein/ lb of BW and fill the rest with fats and carbs. No special foods required.

[Brendan McNamar]

Need to give us a little more information. We need numbers. Age, height, starting and ending weight and the time it took.

If you started at 8% BF went to 14% and think you are getting too fat then the problem is your head not your waist line.

If you started at 14% and went to 24% then your are eating too much of the wrong foods.

I went from 178 to 194 on Starting Strength then 70's Big in about 3 months. I ate like a horse (what I would call clean, some rice and potatoes but still no sugar, bread, pasta or processed foods) and drank about 1/2 gallon of whole milk a day. I still have ab definition but it is way softer then it was.

My lifting gains have been excellent. Squat form 215x5 to 305x5. Big gains in benching and dead lift as well. Power cleans not quite so much but I was doing a lot of Oly lifting so it was fairly well developed. Press is coming along slowly but I had a shoulder injury last year.

Eat Paleo (large portions) plus some (small portion) of the less bad carbs like rice and potatoes. Carbs still in moderation. No junk food. Keep whole milk but limit how many cups a day. Experiment, maybe one with each meal would be a good starting point.

[Eric Montgomery]

If you want to get bigger and stronger you have to eat and train accordingly, and not be too affected by what your BF% is. It's not surprising you didn't see results from a month of 5/3/1, that's not long enough to really start adapting to any program or to see real gains.

To get stronger do a strength-focused program like SS/GSLP/70s Big/conjugate/531/CFFB and eat plenty of good food, preferably in a caloric surplus and especially if you're underweight or lack lean body mass. It's not real complicated.

[Eddie Baumgartner]

I did 5/3/1 for a year, and for the first half I was worried about staying "lean." After reading multiple and multiple post on this forum from many people, and reading stuff from Rip, Wendler, Tate and other powerlifters i decided to eat and eat and eat. In the last 6 months i have put on 30 pounds on my frame, and 50# on my 3RM squat, 60# on my Deadlift 3RM and roughly 30# on my bench. I DID lose my super razor sharp abs, but i still get 100 on my PFA in the air force, and in my opinion, look a whole lot better. Just eat.

[Sean Adams]

Thanks for the tips. I think I'm going to try and eat as much paleo as possible. I think I'll avoid the whole GOMAD thing but take some protein supplement.