Hello people, new member here. I have a question, is hypertrophy training absolutely needed for powerlifting/getting stronger or you could train for strength all your life without doing and hypertrophy (big 3 or accessories)?
Strength and hypertrophy aren’t two different things. You can’t get stronger without getting bigger, or vice versa. You will get hypertrophy from focusing on strength in the big three.
Yes, but hypertrophy focused training is useful for getting stronger as well.
Are you actually asking if the templates called Hypertrophy and Strength MUST be alternated? No.
But is it reasonable to expect that one form of programming (the Strength template), without alterations to the training variables, will be effective indefinitely? No.
I’m asking that if it absolutely necessary to run hypertrophy blocks for long term strength gains or if I can just do strength blocks all my life and still get stronger.
No, but the question you should ask yourself is why not? Doing hypertrophy focused training might get you stronger in the long run, as bigger muscles are required to produce more strength. There are indivdual differences in how we react to intensity, volume, ect. Some people might get stronger doing mostly hypertrophy focused training. There are no way to know for sure unless you try it. Therefore I can’t tell you that you’ll get stronger only doing strength blocks.
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I find I can do more sets in the same amount of time when doing 6-12 reps instead of 1-5 all while maintaining RPE 8. More sets mean more volume and the lower %1RM means less aches and pains. So I have been mostly training that way this past year and have been happy with the improvements to my strength. I still cycle in low rep blocks and find it’s important to keep changing to avoid getting bored or stuck.
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Thank you everyone for your replies, greatly appreciated!
I think if you are looking to get stronger over time, you should absolutely have periods where you mix in more “hypertrophy” style training with higher volume/reps. Trying to get bigger is a foolproof way of getting stronger. You could i guess in theory train “strength” for all your life but that is more dependent on your program if anything. There is quite a bit of overlap between strength and hypertrophy