Topic: Bulgarian Style Training

[Andy Dick]

Chris,

Do you have me doing this, or perhaps a variation since you do have me doing some pulls?

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Andy,

No, you are on a more traditional developmental program. I don't believe in using this approach with less than elite lifters with at least 2 years of hard core lifting experience.

[Mike Wittmer]

At the 2004 junior worlds, in Minsk, Belarus, I saw the two Bulgarian supers work up to 175x3 snatch pull
and 215x3 clean pulls, TWO days out from the competition.

[ryankyle]

I think I can add a bit to the question of tapering in the Bulgarian system, at least how they did it back in the day.  First, you have to remember that they were not constantly at 3 times a day max, only during their heaviest months of training.  This is how they would vary the loading of the athletes while keeping the intensity high.  So their tapering before a contest (shown in the Naim book about a month out) would consist of only 1 training session per day but still to max.  Now, even though this may seem like a nutty idea leading up to meet this was like vacation for them when considering they were doing 2 or 3 times daily max.  This way they could keep a very high intensity leading up to the contest, i.e. continuing to handle competition level weights and for them be unloading their bodies as well.  I believe this method both mentally and physically is superior to the Russian style of almost no training before the contest.  In fact Enver Turkileri the author of the book stated that during these last "unloading" months right up until the contest was when Naim would lift some of his heaviest weights.
Ryan

[Brooke Burkhalter]

I've been trying to get that book Turkileri to no avail. Anyone know of somewhere else to get it besides sportivny? No luck there so far.

[Dave Almeida]

EliteFTS.com

[michael cooley]

This is truly one of the most impressive threads I have ever read, with undoubtedly the most impressive list of contributors ever assembled in a single internet discussion.  Let me start by saying thanks to you all for continuing this discussion for so long!

To my question.  I'm a 37 year old lifter. 90kg BWT with current maxes of 95kg and 124kg (recent lifetime PR).  I started competing about 9 years ago under Artie Dreschler's tutelage, but the occasional hiatus in the past has certainly kept me from progressing to where I might have with 9 years of consistent, solid training.  My technique is generally considered solid.  My two biggest weaknesses are (i) maintaining leg strength and (ii) speed under the bar. 

I've read over the last few years about the Bulgarian method, or "Americanized" Bulgarian training (much of it written by all of you), and have wondered whether I could adapt it to my own circumstances.  Specifically, I've wondered whether it would retain any usefulness for someone limited (by work, family, recovery) to training only three times per week.  It's clear from the discussion above (and elsewhere) that some of the keys to this style of training are the frequent training sessions and the 20-30 minute break between lifts in a given session.  With my more limited time, neither is particularly feasible. 

Could training this way only 3 times a week yield any meaningful portion of the benefits of the "full" version of this approach, or would I lose too much of the accumulated benefit of daily training sessions to make it worthwhile? 

Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide, and thanks again for generating such a terrific discussion!

mpc


"Think of Tiger Woods out there hitting a bucket of balls. He's not swinging the 5-iron to get stronger -- he's swinging it to hone the groove. Hone the groove."

[Jim Hooper]

Michael,

If you only have three training sessions per week, it would be almost foolish to train any other way.   All three days would be relatively heavy days.   

If you are drug free and/or older, it will actually work BETTER working "only" 3 x wk  -- highly specific, intense, and yet with time to recover. 

Its the complicated, highly varied, periodized, multi-exercise, multi-variant approaches to training  (old Soviet, Poles, USAW OTC) that really demands 5-6 days per week.

Jim