Bit of a grave dig but I just wanted to build on what Fadi mentioned earlier; that being, the training and periodisation differences between Power lifters and body builders, and how steroid use is often the quick answer for smarter training programs.
Several years after I entered the world of bodybuilding, and after countless programs that never offered the kind of returns from the effort put in, I came to realise that all the good body builders, natural or not, had one thing in common - they built their base with low rep, heavy, compound movements, with many of them from powerlifting backgrounds.
Take a look around any powelifting gym and I guarantee you anyone there that has been lifting for a reasonable amount of time will have a thickness and width to them rarely obtained through general bodybuilding routines IE: higher reps, isolation work and sets to failure...typically running your muscles into the ground every time you weight train. And this is easily proved by just looking around your gym at those who train regularly; I'd bet London to a brick, for 99% of them, their body composition / size has hardly changed the whole time they've been there.
Consider this; If a house is only as good as the foundations it's built on, it makes perfect sense that, as bodybuilders, you build a solid base before putting the finishing touches on your body.
We are all guilty of it when we first start working out. We rush in with complete enthusiasm, pump our bodies with weights til bursting point and then repeat the same again over and over. And because you've taken your body from one extreme to the other, it's natural reaction is to rebuild itself bigger and stronger for the next onslaught and the gains come thick and fast so you're obviously doing it right, eh?
Then, as sure as the sun rises in the East, 6-8 weeks later, those gains have slowed or even stopped and no matter how much or how hard you train, there is little reward for such a huge effort. In fact, you might even notice a loss in strength and or size. You take a few days off due to feeling sick and then do it all over again for another couple of months until your back to losing strength, size and uncharacteristically sick... again. Welcome to over training.
The answer???
Anyone who is serious about gaining size and strength would do well to spend a bit of time in a power lifting gym. Take note of their training principles, the way they periodise their lifting loads, the way they rarely, if ever, train to muscular failure, they practice exceptionally strict form and, most importantly, they leave the gym tired from a solid training session but not so wrecked they can't back it up the next day. Yet they rock a body that is jamb packed with solid, powerful muscle, packed on like slabs of beef.
For the serious bodybuilder looking to make an impact on stage or, as Larry Scott is quoted as saying during an interview at Vince's Gym, Ryde circa 1975, "To be so huge I want to make people puke", incorporating the basic principles of powerlifting into your bodybuilding program will create the perfect base on which to mold and shape the body of your dreams.
Without a doubt my best gains in strength and size came from modified versions of programs in the book; Beyond Bodybuilding, by Pavel. And I had energy to burn after every workout.
Something to consider, comrades.
