Strength Training with Bodybuilding

[Squat1]

Hypothetical Question
Suppose I were to do a three month period of weight training with the specific addition of more bodybuilding exercises than previous.
In this three month period the main lifts (5-6 primary lifts) stay the same.
Is it possible that the bodybuilding training can drive an increase my LBM in a measurable way?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Hypothetical answer: It depends.

[Soule]

My girlfriend just got her IFBB pro card training this way for bikini division. She won her division on her third national show at the age of 24.

She’s been asked several times if shes “natural” Which she is. She just happens to do heavy low bar back squats (great for the hammy tie-in/glute development) and pulls unlike most of these girls.

[neilc1]

uh,
video ?

[Robert Santana]

Hypothetical Question
Suppose I were to do a three month period of weight training with the specific addition of more bodybuilding exercises than previous.
In this three month period the main lifts (5-6 primary lifts) stay the same.
Is it possible that the bodybuilding training can drive an increase my LBM in a measurable way?

Which bodybuilding exercises? How are you progressing those and are you adding reps/sets/etc. do the big lifts and keeping the load constant?

[Squat1]

First and foremost, the primary exercises would ideally increase in weight.
I currently just started doing curls and have routinely used COC hand grippers. I may cycle around other bodybuilding exercises like LTE's.
Ideally with these exercises I would add weight and perhaps sets where possible.

The purpose of the original post was to determine the contribution of bodybuilding exercises (isolation movements, machines) on hypertrophy and strength whilst keeping other variables constant. I know Andy Baker has stated previously that certain isolation exercises are cosmetic exercises and are useless for strength development.

[Robert Santana]

Andy is correct. I’d say that some improve kinesthetic awareness of certain muscles but it doesn’t take much to accomplish that.

If you’re going to curl do them bent over or with the barbell against the shirt (i.e. drag curls). Getting the barbell over mid foot places less emphasis on the forearms and more on the biceps. I have found these variants to be the most useful especially if you have long forearms like myself. Single joint movements also require more volume to see growth. So while we’d never recommend 10 x 10 squats, something like that, done a few times per week would work on a movement like curls or calf raises. In general, the smaller the muscle the more volume it will need to grow. This is especially true in frequently used muscles like biceps, calves, and forearms.

[David McClelland]

Andy is correct. I’d say that some improve kinesthetic awareness of certain muscles but it doesn’t take much to accomplish that.

If you’re going to curl do them bent over or with the barbell against the shirt (i.e. drag curls). Getting the barbell over mid foot places less emphasis on the forearms and more on the biceps. I have found these variants to be the most useful especially if you have long forearms like myself. Single joint movements also require more volume to see growth. So while we’d never recommend 10 x 10 squats, something like that, done a few times per week would work on a movement like curls or calf raises. In general, the smaller the muscle the more volume it will need to grow. This is especially true in frequently used muscles like biceps, calves, and forearms.

So much sense made in this comment. My forearms aren't really long per se, but long enough to notice with my low bar squat grip, where the barbell rests on the press, and they make conventional bro curls impossible for me to progress on without getting what I can only describe as very painful bone splints. Your advice (dragging it up the shirt) is the first time I've heard anything helpful on this, and I've talked to a lot of so called experts who gave me BS advice like "concentrate on flexing the bicep only" and other nonsense.

I don't plan on doing curls until long into my intermediate phase but I'll remember this for when I do. thanks!

[Robert Santana]

Glad that helped, it helped me tremendously. I'm not sure if you caught the first part of that sentence but doing them bent over at ~45 degrees of hip flexion also takes the forearms out of it and hits the biceps more. That's my personal favorite variant and is essentially the barbell version of a concentration curl. Those along with drag curls will get you the most bang for your buck in terms of building biceps to the extent at which they can be built without giving you a ton of tendonitis.

[CommanderFun]

Has anyone tried doing bodybuilding type training on their light/recovery days? I'm curious what potential that has.