Topic: Discussion of Abajiev Interview & Video Lecture

[David Woodhouse]

Steve

Could you explain the apparent contradiction between Powerlifting and Weightlifting training methodologies in relation to the squat. I appreciate that frequent maximums in the techniqual lifts are possible and necessary due to the high skill and speed components of those movements.

From my observations however I notice that most top powerlifters squat only twice per week and only once to maximum. I accept that the use of supportive suits, wraps and a more advantageous bar position allow a heavier relative maximum (and therefore induce greater CNS fatigue) but how can weightlifters who follow the Bulgarian model progress with daily squatting to maximum?

I remember hearing that IA actually considered removing squats from his programs assuming that the stimulus from the clean recovery was sufficient?

Thx

DW

[Steve Gough]

David,

Sorry for not answering you right away. I just now read your post. I, too, have read that Abajiev foresaw the day that squatting might be dropped. Yet, when he said it he was unprepared to make that move. I think I understand where he was coming from, but I, too, am unprepared to make that move. I think because it is purely theorhetical and not ready to stand the test... especially for us who are so far behind the curve.

By the way, we don't squat max every session, nor everyday, nor every other day. But that doesn't preclude us from squatting a max in a session and even coming back and setting another one at the end of said session. Let us be very clear... there are NO restoratives, no performance enhancers here in use. It's one's own desire to push the limit that comes to the fore. That and maybe a little timely shove by coach or competition by one's training partners, and/or the goals you set that you desperately want to reach that constantly keeps pushing you to attain. For the squat (and basically for both lifts) it is not too hard to determine what one has in his "tank" at any particular session. So one goes accordingly. Hopefully, that will be at a pretty good level.... let's call it near max. Then, when the ducks appear lined in a row, when the desire becomes paramount... you go for it. I think under the Bulgarian system this holds true for not only squatting but for the lifts too. There are just too many examples from Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, etc to back this up.

As for powerlifting I do not feel qualified to answer. Nor do I want to. Powerlifting does not interest me.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

The Abajiev training video lecture with transcript is available in the Features section:

Ivan Abajiev Training Lecture

Thank to Mike Burgener, Steve Gough, and Mike Wittmer for helping to make this video available.

[Shaun Le Conte]

I dare someone to create a transcript of that interview :) I have yet to be able to sit there and listen to it, brilliant as I assume it is. Maybe I will do it this evening, if I drink some crazy sauce.

In the first couple of sentences he mentions Ekaterina Thanou as a great example of his current ideas, who as we know tested positive for steroids a year later just prior to the 2004 Olympics and embarrassed her country. So the video gets off to a great start.


Bah, I decided to give it a shot. Here's beginning of the video.  

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First of all I would like to thank the Weightlifting Federation for inviting me here. This material that I have prepared for you today is the same material that I lectured on in front of the Greece Committee last spring.

They specifically asked me to present my material because one of their athletes, Ekaterina Thanou, was using this method of training and has achieved incredible results. By using these methods she has ranked 3rd in the world in the 100m sprint and last year she was one of the world’s best athletes.

If you pay attention and logically think about what I am saying you will see that this methods is applicable to almost any sport. But we will be concentrating on weightlifting.

I have been asking myself a question, why do such countries as Brazil have incredible achievements in football, considering that these countries do not have stable sports methods or academics in sport development. And yet they have better results in comparison to other countries such as Germany or Russia which have been studying sports as an academic subject for a very long time. The other question that I have been asking myself is why universal athletes good in different disciplines do not exist anymore. Athletes do only one discipline and do it well, but it is almost impossible to be good in a lot of disciplines at the same time. Athletes that train in many different disciplines have mediocre results.

The last question that I have been asking myself is about animals. They don’t have various degrees of intensity, 70% or 80%, they only have performance of 100% all of the time. Whatever animals do, they do it their best and at 100% and this is the way they survive. Tonight I will try to answer all these questions in my lecture.

Please excuse me with the simpleness of those examples (referring to a chart) but everytime I talk with opponents who do not share my point of view, I have found that this is a simple method of explaining the way I think and they way muscles work, and this is a simple way to present it graphically even though it is not an academical way. As you can see this is a train with coaches which is performing a certain function. We can compare this to a group of muscles, or to a muscle fiber which also performs some kind of duty. It also has dynamic function. Naturally there is a difference between a living organism and this machinery, and I will try to talk about that. The smoke indicates that this is a functioning machinery. Those here are the same engines, but they are not functioning. When this machinery is at work, it is using up its resources – energetic as well as plastic. When the resources are emptied out, then there is a signal sent to the central control unit. On its behalf it contacts those energy depots which have the energy which the machine needs in order to continue working, and those depots put the necessary energy back into the machinery. The little ones are not active right now because they did not send a message saying that their resources need to be refilled, and that is why they are not functioning at the moment. This is the reverse situation. As you can see, those two smaller engines are working at the moment, it is because they have communicated the need for their depots to be refilled, so naturally the central control unit sends whatever they need back into them to function. This is the precise way that a human body, human muscles, would function. When there is a lack of energy, there is a signal sent to the brain, which on its behalf would provide them with what they need to function through the circulation system. Up to here, the mechanism by which they work is absolutely identical. But the difference between the living organism and the machinery shown here is as follows. Now we have switched on the little trains. This is a law in organics that the function builds the organ, or the muscle (the body becomes its function). And when they function, they form new structures. On the example shown, they are growing. First of all, this is the coal storage. If we’re talking about trains, it will extend its size. If they enlarge their size… (trails off, and draws a picture of a cell) This is a human cell, and in the cytoplasm the organelles are swimming which have this shape and form….they store energy… Going back to the train, this extra coal means that the number of mitochondria in the cell have grown larger, so that the size of the whole cell will change and become bigger. Which practically means, the more energy it receives, the more it grows and the stronger the engine will become.

As well as the change of the cells and everything grows, the contents in the cells changes and they become faster and stronger. The quantity of blood cells is also growing, so there will be more blood provided, and they supply more oxygen. So those structures are making the muscle system stronger and also bigger. (21 minute mark)

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At this point, the two really start talking to each other a great deal in sorting out what he is trying to present to the audience. I can see that it's a lot simpler to watch the video and take what you can from it.

[Jim Hooper]

Right Chris.  In particular, the notion of conservation of recovery resources -- investing more of what you have available in the training stressors that produce the greatest gains -- seems valuable to me, regardless of whatever hormonal status and specific rate of recovery the athlete is operating under.  Your own training strikes me as profiting from that concept.

[Shaun Le Conte]

Thanks you guys, that transcript is awesome. Now that is something I can look at without falling asleep!

Shaun

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

The transcript of the video has been moved to underneath the video itself in the link above.