I believe that nutrition is an important and often under-emphasised aspect of strength training. Fortunately I know an athlete who has been not only extremely successful as a powerlifter, but also as a bodybuilder. He has managed to consistently perform well in strength sports, while staying in good shape. Nutrition not only keeps you lean, it also helps you get stronger.
Below is an interview I did with Australia’s top 93 class powerlifter, Scott Hill.
SP: Tell me about your achievements in both bodybuilding and powerlifting.
SH: I did my first natural bodybuilding comp in 1999 as a junior and won the ANB Mr Sydney under 70kg class mens. From there I competed regularly until 2007 but was the perennial bridesmaid with too many seconds and thirds than I can remember including at national level but never cracked another win. I then competed again in 2010 and yep, got two seconds and a third again at Nationals. Through this time I became a prominent “contest prep” person where I would train athletes through the whole process to comp day e.g. diet, training, tanning, posing etc. etc. and trained many champions through this time. After finishing nationals in bodybuilding in 2007 in October I knew I was going to have a break, and many people had said I should try powerlifting due to what I lifted as a bodybuilder. So in feb 2008 I rocked up to north Sydney PCYC with nothing but a belt (only equipped comps back then). Luckily they let me compete, at 89kg I did a 210/150/220 raw and qualified to do nationals few months later. So I started training as a powerlifter from there and haven’t looked back. I have numerous local comps but my best achievements to date are:
- 10th at 2012 Raw worlds
- 2nd at 2012 Oceania titles (lost by 2 kg!)
- Currently hold Aussie squat and total record in the 93kg class
- I currently hold Oceania and Commonwealth bench record
- Comp raw PB’s of 260/180.5/275
SP: You have done well in both, which do you favour and why?
SH: My masochistic nature says bodybuilding as it takes insane discipline and sacrifice to step up in good shape but it is a very selfish sport and impacts on overall lifestyle and balance massively, so if I had to choose one, I would say powerlifting. Improvements are more objective, the harder you work the better you get usually and the culture of the sport is much better I find.
SP: What lessons have you learnt from bodybuilding that carryover to strength training and what lessons from strength training carryover over to bodybuilding?
SH: Simple from bodybuilding that nutrition impacts highly on performance and body composition and you can be relatively lean and strong. Hence big nutrition lessons learnt from bodybuilding from powerlifting, you can train with more volume and full body programs and gain in most cases better than traditional BBing train body parts once per week to failure dogma. So huge training lessons to be learnt from powerlifting. I always say "bodybuilding training is in the dark ages compared to strength science training, but powerlifting nutrition is in the dark ages compared to bodybuilding nutrition.” So I say, get the best from both worlds
SP: How important is nutrition?
SH: Very! It’s not like it's 70% training/30% nutrition or any arbitrary number you want to say, its 100% training and 100% nutrition but together 1+1 = 3.
SP: In powerlifting you get a lot of people who just think the more food you eat the better, what would your response be?
SH: (roll the eyes). Advise on the importance of nutrition for performance.
SP: What advice would you give to people wanting to make positive changes to their nutrition?
SH: Seek out someone who has a good reputation for sports nutrition in strength training and get advice. But generally, don't do fads. Eat unprocessed foods, with a balance of carb protein and fats. Be sure to hydrate very well. You wouldn’t put ethanol fuel in a Ferrari, why put crap fuel in your fuel tank.
SP: I guess your average strength training athlete will often have one of two goals with regard to body composition. Normally they either want to lose weight or pack on size, sometimes a combination of the two. They'll read some magazines, stuff themselves with steamed chicken and broccoli and spend a fortune on pre-workout formulas, protein powders etc. Now it’s all a step in the right direction, insofar as they start thinking about the relationship between nutrition and their goals, but can you offer any advice about dialling it all in? Do they need to speak to an expert? Can they find good information out there? Can you offer any straightforward suggestions about getting their nutrition right for what they are trying to do?
SH: Best bet always get advice from an experienced expert, meaning you will go to some generic dietician and get redundant info, seek out someone with experience with sports performance specifically in strength training. Yes there is good info out there, the problem is filtering through all the garbage to get there, can be very confusing and steer you down a bad path. Just a note, I don’t like the terms "weight loss" or "gain", it does not denote what kind of weight you’re after, no point gaining ‘mass’ if it’s mostly fat, no point losing weight if it's mostly muscle. So I like to refine goals to saying either gaining lean mass, or losing body fat, or both at same time (yes possible just slower process). Straight forward info, ok:
Monitor your weight and food intake (not calorie count just serving size and meal frequency. Then if you wish to gain it’s simply add 10% to portion sizes, to lose minis 10-20% portion size.)
Eat 4-7 meals per days with a hand size protein portion in each meal with some good fats and green veg/salad. Then use carbs as fuel i.e. breaky, pre/post workout from real food i.e. not processed e.g. oats/brown rice/potato etc.
Be sure to hydrate well, all the time.
There is not magic bullet, consistent clean eating, monitor your gain or loss and adjust accordingly.
Crap Food = very sub optimal results.
Usually powerlifting workouts are long, so a low level carb drink (e.g. half water half Gatorade) with some BCAA mixed in work great for workout performance.
If you want a challenge, try to go one week eating non-processed food - if you can't grow it, pick it or kill it yourself don't eat it - for a week. But as I say, to refine it is very individual and needs expert guidance. But following the above is a huge step forward if you’re a “eat anything and train hard” lifter. What’s a basic plan look like? How many meals? If you were giving advice to a powerlifter where do you start? Eg. for a 90kg lifter (lighter and heavier need to adjust portion size) for maintenance of weight and hard training.
Breaky;
1 cup rolled oats with 2 whole eggs and 1 cup egg whites
MT:
50g protein shake in water plus piece of fruit plus 30 raw nuts
Lunch:
250 gram lean meat plus 1 cup brown rice plus green veg ( meat cooked in 5 g organic butter or any good oil)
AT:
50g protein shake in water plus piece of fruit plus 30 raw nuts
Dinner:
250 gram lean meat plus medium sweet potato plus green veg
Supper:
50g protein shake plus 20ml fish oil. (If they wanted to gain a bit of weight you can increase carb portions by 25-100% depending on the personal tolerance, to lose weight u might omit the carb portions after lunch.)
During workout:
50g carbs from electrolyte drink mixed 50/50 with water + 20-30g BCAA
By Steven Pritchard