Powerlifting is an effective tool for improving your overall health, building muscle mass and burning excess fat. While many people may think powerlifting is the same as weightlifting, these two forms of exercise are unique and offer different benefits.
Jump Ahead:
- What Is Powerlifting?
- Burning Fat and Calories
- Improved Strength and Athleticism
- Bone and Joint Health
- Better Posture
- Contact Mobile IV Medics Today
In simple terms, weightlifting involves lifting weight for various repetitions and several sets. On the other hand, powerlifting is about lifting the maximum amount of weight you can for a single repetition with ideal form. Learn what powerlifting does to your body and the health benefits of powerlifting.
What Is Powerlifting?
Powerlifting is a competitive sport that differs from traditional strength training and bodybuilding. Powerlifting involves lifting the maximum weight you can in one repetition, known as one rep max or 1RM. Three common powerlifting movements include bench press, deadlift and back squat.
Overall, powerlifting benefits include generating the highest level of muscular force for these given movements. During a powerlifting competition, three judges assign scores on a pass-fail level for the technique of each lift. Powerlifters need a passing score from at least two of the three judges.
If you perform a lift with proper technique, judges will gauge your performance on the 1RM on each of the three lifts. The judging panel will calculate scores based on the total weight a competitor lifts relative to their body weight.
Powerlifting rules are split into raw and equipped. Equipped powerlifting allows knee wraps, special suits and other equipment. Raw powerlifting only allows lifters to use knee sleeves and a lifting belt.
While powerlifting, at its core, can be simply explained by these three moves, there are many federations with various standards, regulations and rules. If you are just getting into powerlifting, it is best to start with the basics and focus on learning the proper technique and form of the three basic lifts.
Burning Fat and Calories
One of the most noticeable powerlifting impacts on the body is that powerlifting is an excellent exercise to burn calories and fat. While many initially think about muscle definition and toning, powerlifting is also excellent at burning excess fat and calories, making it useful for weight loss.
Powerlifting is one of the most calorie-intensive forms of exercise because it requires a large amount of energy and strength to perform. Even if you are new to powerlifting and use lighter weights to build muscle, your body burns a high number of calories.
Powerlifting is an incredibly helpful tool to target excess fat and lose weight when paired with a proper diet. While you are losing fat, your body is also building muscle. Cardiovascular exercise is a great way to burn calories, but many people experience faster weight loss results by incorporating strength training and powerlifting.
Powerlifting can increase your metabolic rate and stimulate your body to burn unneeded fat reserves. An important aspect to consider when incorporating powerlifting into your routine is to ensure you are consuming a proper amount of protein to promote muscle growth. Protein is a fundamental building block for muscles, making it essential you get the right amount each day.
Improved Strength and Athleticism
Powerlifting can strengthen muscles and increase athleticism, improving overall strength throughout the body. The bench, squat and deadlift are important compound movements that stimulate several muscles. The deadlift and squat engage and strengthen your core, legs and back.
The bench press helps strengthen most of the upper body muscles. Targeting these muscles can improve overall strength, increasing muscle mass and toning existing muscles. Powerlifting can also improve your overall athleticism. For example, there is a direct correlation between squatting strength and sprint speed, meaning powerlifting can improve other areas of athleticism.
Bone and Joint Health
In addition to the strength-building and athleticism benefits, powerlifting can also improve bone density and joint health. Powerlifting for joint health can reduce joint pain and can stimulate bone growth. Like your muscles, your bones can grow in strength and size.
When you start powerlifting, it promotes your body’s natural production of new bone material, increasing overall bone mass. The more frequently you perform powerlifting, the stronger, thicker and healthier your bones will become. Regular powerlifting can also strengthen achy, stiff joints.
People with arthritis, joint inflammation or other conditions can experience relief from regular strength training. Powerlifting is an excellent tool to minimize discomfort and prevent pain. Strengthening the joints and muscles allows them to be more flexible and improves a wider range of motion, reducing the likelihood of joint pain.
Powerlifting can slow bone loss and replace bone material with new bone growth. While bone growth is ideal for anyone, it can be especially helpful for those with low bone density, which often occurs with age. Powerlifting creates new bone mass because it places a healthy amount of stress on the bone to initiate bone-forming cells.
Better Posture
Finally, powerlifting can also improve posture by stimulating all the major muscles. Imbalanced muscle mass can lead to poor posture because a muscle or muscle group is overused. A deadlift specifically is quite helpful for improving posture because the lift works most of the core, lower back and legs muscles.
Unhealthy posture can also negatively impact muscle mass and minimizes strength. Improving posture through powerlifting can provide numerous benefits and ensure these exercises help build strength. Ideal posture includes keeping your chin parallel to the ground, shoulders even, neutral spine and your weight evenly distributed on both feet.
Poor posture is often caused by extended periods of inactivity or little to no movement. While we may think about our posture as we sit, our posture as we stand and even lay down plays a large role in our spinal and joint health. Poor posture can increase the risk of joint pain, stiffness and discomfort.
Improving our posture provides numerous benefits, including optimizing digestion, improving circulation, minimizing pain and more. Fortunately, powerlifting can strengthen muscles, stabilize the joints and promote ideal posture. Healthy posture is an essential aspect of improving overall health.
Contact Mobile IV Medics Today
At Mobile IV Medics, we create innovative IV packages designed to supply the body with essential fluids, nutrients, electrolytes and minerals. Our recovery IV package is a popular choice following a powerlifting competition when you need muscle and energy recovery.
A post-workout IV package can promote faster muscle recovery, minimize inflammation, encourage proper hydration and reduce oxidative stress. A recovery IV package also minimizes post-workout aches and soreness, allowing you to get back to exercising safely and comfortably.
In addition to our pre-made IV packages, we also allow our customers to create their own IV packages. Customized IV packages provide all the minerals and nutrients your body needs and can treat various symptoms. Other popular IV packages include beauty, hangover, sunburn and more.
Contact us online today to learn more about our IV packages and post-workout treatment options.
