The Bulgarian Weighlifting System Part 2

     Previously I gave an introduction to the Bulgarian training system. You can find that article here. Today we’re going to go over how to actually design a program based on the Bulgarian methods.

Georgi Gardev

     The first thing you need to know is that this program is very specific. If you want your training to be well rounded and include some hypertrophy training, some endurance training and some strength training, then this is not the program for you. This program is for one thing: maximal strength on a few core lifts. You might be able to throw in some supplementary exercises, but not many.

     Next, you should know that this routine can be very time consuming. This isn’t some HIT program where you just walk in to the gym, warm up, do one balls-to-the-wall set and leave. Depending on your goal, you may be able to organize your workouts in a way that you can be in and out of the gym in an hour. But when I used this program, most of my workouts were 2.5-3.5 hours.
 
     Now, on to the meat of the program. When I first read about this program, sites on the internet were saying that the Bulgarians “work up to a heavy single every workout”.  I (wrongly) interpreted that to mean 1 heavy single. Thus I would try to set a PR (personal record) every time I was in the gym. I tried to work up to my top weight by doing the fewest number of sets possible. So if my PR was 100kg, I knew that today I would attempt 102.5kg. I would work up like this:

        50x3, 70x2-3, 80x1, 87.5x1, 92.5x1, 97.5x1, 102.5x1.

   

     I made good progress with this program. But then the gains ceased. I was stubborn and for years refused to try anything different. I barely made any progress during those years. Eventually I went on a 5x5 type program. I learned a lot on 5x5 and those lessons helped me improve my “Bulgarian” training.

     The most important lesson I learned was that intensity (whether you define that as a percentage of your 1RM max or perceived exertion.) is not the end all be all of training. Volume is a powerful aspect of training. Volume is at least as important as intensity. Most of the time, your training should be a balance between volume and intensity. 10 sets x 1 rep @ 90% is better than 1 set @ 100%. I mean honestly, just look at it. Assuming a max of 100kg, 10x1@90% means that you lifted 90kg ten times. That’s a total tonnage of 900kg. The other method gives you a tonnage of 100kg. So, who do you think is going to make more progress, the guy who lifts 900kg or the guy who lifts 100kg?
   
     There is nothing wrong with using 1 max set. If you are new to this type of training, then feel free to give it a try. You’ll make good progress…for a while. When progress stalls, consider increasing your volume.
 

Milen Dobrev

     One way to increase the volume is do more sets during your warm up. I would get to 90% in as few sets as possible. Weight increases for sets above 90% would be small, 1-2.5kg. Assuming a 100kg max, I might try something like:

        50x3, 70x2-3, 80x1, 85x1, 90x1, 92.5x1, 95x1, 97.5x1, 100x1, 102.5x1.
 
     If I you set a new PR, then adjust your weights in your next session.

 

     Another way of adding volume is to wave load. Basically you work up to a max multiple times in a single session. You can do it in such a way that the top set in each wave is heavier that the top set in the previous wave. So after a warm up wave 1 might be:

        90x1, 95x1, 100x1

        Wave 2:
        92.5x1, 97.5x1, 102.5

     Or you could try to set a new PR on your first wave, with each subsequent wave being lighter.

        Wave 1:
        92.5x1, 97.5x1, 102.5

        Wave 2:
        90x1, 95x1, 100x1

     You could also just work up to a new PR, and then drop to 90% of your new PR and do 3-5 singles. Or after hitting your top weight for the day, you could decrease the weight and try to set a new 3RM. Or you could completely forgo trying to hit a max and instead try to do a lot of sets at 90%. Completing a predetermined number of sets within a predetermined time frame would be a signal to increase your weight in the next session, similar to Charles Staley's Escalating Density Training (by using this affiliate link, you help support this site.) The main theme here is to increase your volume with weights above 90% of your 1 rep maximum,

     If you're looking to increase just max strength, a heavy single program such as this is definitely worth trying. You'll probably set several new PR's. Give it a try and let me know how it works.

     Till next time, gents.

The Bulgarian Weighlifting System Part 1

     So I used to be an Olympic lifter. For those who are unaware, that doesn't mean that I was in the Olympics. I wasn't. I rarely competed. It just means that my training revolved around the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk.

     In training for the Olympic lifts, there are basically two systems. There is the Russian System, and there is the Bulgarian System.

     Well, now there is the Chinese system. And judging from what I read on the internet (which is always true) the Chinese system is an amalgamation of the Russian and Bulgarian System.

     It probably isn't that polarized, but from way over here in the United States it seems accurate.

     I've used both systems in my training. They both have advantages and disadvantages.

     Today we'll be talking about the Bulgarian System.

     The system was developed by Ivan Abadjiev. According to Wikipedia, he won Bulgaria's first medal in weightlifting at the 1957 World Championship. In 1968 he became the head coach for the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation. He brought with him his new system of training. It was this new system that transformed Bulgaria into arguably the most successful weightlifting team ever.

Ivan Abadjiev

     The system can basically be boiled down to this; train heavy all the time. For the professional lifters in Bulgaria, training is a full time job. They lift 8-9 hours a day. And that training revolves around the snatch, c&j, back squat and front squat. If they have a light workout (and in this system 80% of your max is considered light.) they may do power snatches and power c&j's instead of the full squat versions. So you have 8-9 hours of training dedicated to only 6 lifts.

     Oh, and did I mention that they train 6-7 days a week? Because they do. Abadjiev believed that taking a day off increased your chance of injury.

     The day's training would be broken in to little mini sessions. So you may start the day with 45 minutes of snatching and work up to the heaviest weight that you can manage. Then after a 15 minute break you would C&J for 45 minutes. Again, you would probably work up to the heaviest weight that you could lift. Then you would take another 15 minute break before moving on to squats. And again you would probably work up to the heaviest weight you can lift.  See the trend yet?

     And that's just what you would do before lunch. After lunch you would come back and repeat the whole process again. A lifter may have as many as 3 snatch sessions, 3 C&J session and 3 squat sessions in the same day.

     This system has produced World and Olympic Champions for Bulgaria, Turkey and Qatar.

     John Broz helped helped bring this system to the awareness of many non-olympic lifting types (people I refer to as sub humans). It was then further popularized by Matt Perryman's website mysosynthesis.com and then his book Squat Every Day (<---You should click that Amazon Affiliate link and buy the book. Doing so helps support the site.)

     Some people say that you can't do this type of training without the use of steroids. I have read on the internet that Abadjiev has admitted this fact. I have also read (but did not confirm) that at least one of the John Broz's lifters failed a drug test. Even though drug free lifters can't follow the exact program of professional athletes, doesn't mean that we can't learn anything from their programming.

Well, that's enough background info. Check out the video below. Next post I'll go over some of the mistakes that I made with this program and show you ways that you can modify Bulgarian training to make it work for you.

5 Reasons You Should Bodybuild

I used to be a strength athlete. I was moderately strong. I could snatch 100kg and C&J 120kg at a body weight of less than 85kg. I didn't max on squats but 150kg was my workout weight, and 170kg was the heaviest I ever lifted and it wasn't very hard. And that was done with no special prep. 

For most of my time as a strength athlete, I had an elitist attitude to towards bodybuilding. I turned up my nose at anything that wasn't strength oriented. I rationalized my view by saying to myself that strength training is inherently functional and thus carried over to real life, or something like that. Bodybuilding as I saw it, was just exercising for vanity.

As I have grown older, I have also grown somewhat wiser. And I have learned that there are plenty of reasons to train for hypertrophy. 

1. Big muscle keeps trouble makers away.

In case you are unaware, criminals and other assorted bad guys profile before they engage in their nefarious activities. Now every one knows that size does not automatically mean that you can fight. The bad guy knows this better than most people. He's probably been in tons of street brawls and knows first hand that while size can play a role in the outcome of a fight, it is not the sole determinant of success. So when he sees a swole sucker walking down the street, the criminal's ego won't let him believe that he would lose. But he does a quick, mostly subconscious, risk/reward calculation & then decides that others people would make better victims.

Your enlarged musculature will be even better at dissuading average Joes from starting trouble. We've all seen it: two guys are at a party. Maybe one guy A accidentally bumps into guy B. So guy B turns on his heels ready to kick the crap out of guy A only to find that Guy A is jacked to the max. Guy B loses his courage and nearly pisses himself. The worst part is he also loses face.

Again it doesn't always turn out like this, but it does help stack the odds in your favor.

2. Other men will look up to you.

This idea goes back to Jack Donovan's book The Way of Men (<--- by using this link to buy the book, you help support the blog.) In the book Mr. Donovan makes a compelling case that men's job in society, historically speaking, has been to "defend the perimeter". As such, anything that you do to help raise the status of the group, also raises your status within the group. So by becoming larger and more intimidating you help raise the image of your group and thus your peers will hold you in higher regard.

3. Women like guys with big muscles.

We've all heard women say how they don't like huge muscles. The trouble is, every time one of these women finally sees a large muscular male in the flesh, one hemisphere of her brain shuts down, leaving her standing there, knock kneed, with her mouth agape and her tongue hanging out.

Having big muscles significantly increases your attractiveness to women. There is something about being big that elicits a primal, visceral reaction from women. And based on what I've seen, they are helpless to stop it. If I had to guess, I would say a guy who is a 6 could raise his attractiveness to women maybe as high as an 8 if he put on enough muscle.

Women also like to be with men who are esteemed by other men. So having big muscles increases your value to women, but you get another increase in her eyes because other men look up to you. So you get double bonus points for doing one thing.

Could you imagine how that would change your life? If you're single, imagine knowing that wherever you go you'll be able to meet women who will want to talk to you. Or if you're in a relationship, imagine how much better sex will be because you partner doesn't have just a mental attraction to you but she has a primitive, subconscious "OMG! I want to that hunk to pump his superior genetics into me" kinda of attraction to you?

4. Increased strength

There is this belief that floats around the internet, especially among third rate strength athletes, that training in the higher rep ranges doesn't make you stronger. Nothing could be further from the truth. Training in the 8-12 rep range just doesn't transfer well to a 1 rep max. This is because heavy lifting in the 1-3 rep range is neurologically different from training in the 8-12 rep range. (For more on this, read an article called Grease the Groove by Pavel Tsatsouline.) 

This means that if you had been training in the 8-12 rep range and wanted to enter a powerlifting competition you would be well advised run a special training cycle geared more towards strength. I think in the Russian training system this is called transmutation. There are a couple of different ways to do this, but that isn't the point of this post.  

The point is, training in the higher rep ranges does make you stronger, which like point #1 will cause you to be admired by other males.

5. Self Esteem

Finally, and maybe most importantly, being jacked will help your confidence.Being intimidating to other men, envied by other men and alluring to women is bound to give you a healthy dose of self esteem. It is hard to imagine an aspect of your life that would not benefit from this added self esteem. 

You wouldn't sit around despondent because you're single. You'd just go out and get a date. A healthy self esteem mixed with the fact that you're looked up to by other guys means that you probably won't have problems making friends. This self confidence would probably help your career too. You wouldn't hesitate to ask for a raise or a promotion, so you would probably have more money. 

Don't misconstrue this article to mean that I have attained swoleness, because I haven't yet. I have simply realized the error of my ways and intent on fixing them. For all you younger guys out there, I suggest that you learn from my mistakes.

That's it for this post. See you guy next time.