Ah yes! There are clearly two sides to this issue. I trained like a bodybuilder for the first five years of my lifting career. One day I was working, lifting a 150# roll of wire mesh netting. So I was having trouble lifting it two feet over my head, to get it over a bar. The skinny guy I'm working with comes over, and with some effort hoists the roll over the bar. Then he turns and looks at me and says, "Well, it's a good thing you LOOK like you're strong, even though I'm stronger." Well, you can imagine the thoughts going through my mind at the time. I'd also noticed that even though I pumped up nicely, if I didn't lift for a week, I would deflate to the dimensions of a normal person. This whole course of events spurred me into further research on physique development. Eventually I learned of the wonderous effects of powerlifting on both physcial strength, and permanent size. Ever since I started cycling powerlifting with bodybuilding throughout the year, I've been able to retain my size permanently (and low and behold, I actually got bigger), and I'm a shit load stronger than that skinny guy that talked down to me at work those many years ago. Man, I should find that guy and crush his head in a headlock.