Sugden Barbell has put up some great video of a seminar in Glasgow done by none other than Misha Koklyaev.  This dude ain’t messin’ around.

I like this quote:

"Weightlifting is an art. A weightlifter shoots the bullseye of a target 100′s meters away. A power lifter brings out this huge cannon…"

Now the vids.  Notice this guys smile at the end of every lift.  He’s clearly having a great time.  Gotta love that.

Behind the neck jerk

No hands back squat … yes, that’s right, no hands!

190k Snatch

400 kilo x 3 deadlift (I can barely do a 400 pound deadlift for 3!)

Check out this article on the physics of the shot put.  (The original paper can be found on the Arxiv, if you want to see the actual math – I promise it’s fun!)

For more than 30 years, sports scientists have puzzled over why the optimum angle of release for a shot put is not 45 degrees.

One of the stranger Olympic sports is the shot put, an event in which an athlete throws a grapefruit-sized sphere of metal as far as possible, using a strange throwing motion specified by the rules.

Now here’s a curious puzzle of biomechanics: at what angle should the shot be released to maximize the distance of throw?

I’ll just overlook the “one of the stranger Olympic sports” comment, for now. 

The Basic Physics

The article does bring up some interesting ideas that a shot putter (or “rock putter” for all you Highland lads and lassies out there) may want to pay attention to. 

The first is one everyone who engages in the sport already knows:  the height of the thrower matters.  I’m only 5’6’’ and am at a distinct disadvantage vs my lifter Chris who is over 6 feet.  If we each applied identical force, at an identical angle, his would go farther simply because it started higher.  (Think of the extreme case of a guy throwing from the ground or from the top of a 30 story building.)

But, that isn’t all.  Additional arm length also matters.  There are likely a few reasons for this.  The first is simply that a longer arm increases the time the weight is under force before released.

The second reason is that the point at which you let go of the weight is the real height of release – not the shoulder.  If we have two people with identical shoulder heights, identical technique, and identical ability to put force on the implement, but with the first having an arm that is 2 inches longer; then the first person will be releasing the weight at a different height than the second.  The longer armed thrower will release just a touch higher – and therefore throw it farther.  All it takes is half an inch to win.

However, it turns out that the real height is determined by the angle of release and the velocity squared.  The velocity is basically the force you put onto it during your driving phase right before release.  That is, it’s all the work you did.  Since this parameter is squared, then you’re getting more “bang for your buck”. 

This is probably the reason the shot put technique has evolved the way it has over time – with shorter athletes preferring the spin technique which increases the time under tension, adds centrifugal force, and gives you a longer amount of time to accelerate.  They are compensating for a lack of release height by increasing velocity on the weight.

[By “shorter” athlete I mean under 6’ 5’’.  Seriously, these folks are monsters.]

The down side of increasing the force on the implement is that it tends to lower the angle of release. But, again, since you have velocity being squared, it’s a worthwhile trade off – especially if you don’t have the natural height.

Lack of Experience Showing

Now … this is where things in the article get ugly, and silly. 

Finally, Lenz and Rappl say it has long been known that world records in bench-pressing are significantly higher than for the clean and jerk. This implies that athletes have greater power at their disposal when the angle of release is 0 degrees compared to other angles. This effect also means that a smaller angle of release could send the shot further.

The bold is mine.  That implication is false.  This isn’t to say that a lower angle of release doesn’t provide more power.  But, if true, their “implication” isn’t the reason.

It’s paragraphs like this that cause so many coaches and athletes to outright dismiss research and theory all together.  It shows an obvious lack of understanding of the very basics of shot put technique, bench technique, and what is happening in a clean and jerk.  And that is a shame, as there is a lot coaches and athletes can learn from well-designed research.  Practice and Science should be complementary.  Imagine if doctors just ignored science … it’d be the middle ages all over again (leeches!).

You DON’T drive with your arms and upper body in the shot put as your primary generator of force!  It’s a leg exercise.  Your upper body is in a purely supportive role.  Yes, upper body strength and power is very important, but not nearly as important as leg power.  Not even close.  

This is the reason throwers have long known that if you had to pick between only doing bench, or only doing clean and jerks, you’d pick the clean and jerks.  Why?  Because the bench is an upper body exercise while the clean and jerk is fundamentally a leg exercise that (just like the shot) uses the upper body only in a supportive role.  More over, like the shot, the clean and jerk is an explosive exercise that builds and develops power, where the bench is a slower pure strength move.  (Every coach knows the difference between strength and power.  Sports scientists should too.)

The reason bench press numbers are so far above that of clean and jerks isn’t because of the “angle”.  It’s because of bench shirts and a drastically lowered range of motion via arching. 

Those 1000 pound benches you see are ALL shirted. 

Raw (no shirt) bench presses are about 700 pounds.  Top clean and jerks are about 250 kilo’s or 550 pounds. 

But, again, the bench technique used in contests has a massive arch in it which dramatically reduces the range of motion.  How much?  Well, one of my own lifters holds world records in the bench press and has a range of motion in that exercise of less than 2 inches … yes, 2 inches! 

I’m not against that.  That’s the sport.  That’s the technique.  And that’s fine. 

But, let’s not pretend that the numbers seen in competitive bench presses are related – in any way – to the way one goes about throwing a shot. 

And by the way, by adding in an arch like that to the bench you decrease the angle to as far as –45 degrees from the shoulder (less than zero degrees)! Imagine throwing the shot with a negative angle! 

But, fundamentally, the technique of the two exercises with regard to angle is beside the point.  What is important is that benching is an upper body exercise – and shot put isn’t.

When you shot put, you are driving at maximum speed with your legs, ending in a full triple extension of the hips, knees, and ankles (especially for shot putters who use the “glide” style – see videos below).  Your upper body is held tight so that you don’t absorb any of the force generated by your legs and it is instead transferred into the weight, and your arm is used only at the last moment (just like a jerk) at the very top of the movement to give it a little extra push. 

Think of pushing a car.  You can’t possibly push-start a car by only pressing with your arms.  In fact, most people will keep their arms stationary and drive hard with their legs to get the car going.  Only once the car is up to speed do the arms start to move – giving that little extra “nudge”. 

The jerk is the same.  You drive with your legs like you would in a powerful vertical jump, and only at the top, when the arms are already 1/2 to 3/4 extended do you drive with the arms.

If the authors had ever done these three exercises – bench, shot put, and clean and jerk – they would never have said something so ridiculous.  And their article might get read by people who DO do these exercises.

They’re lucky I have a math degree and like research.  The truth is, the original paper is good, very interesting, and applicable.  But, by showing their glaring lack of real-world knowledge and experience they are turning off a large potential audience – the very people who would benefit most from the information.

Spinners

Take a look at this video of shot put “spinners” and tell me why the bench makes sooo much sense for them:

Gliders

And here are the “gliders”:

[Hat tip: Beth]

Here’s a link (pdf file) of a great interview Glenn Pendlay did on Strength training for sports.

For me, as a strength coach, this was the key quote:

If you really want to know how to get people stronger, train yourself like a madman, learn all you can from that, seek out people who know more than you do and learn from them. Learn all you can about track and field training and Olympic lifting and powerlifting. Learn from the people in those sports that are actually producing athletes, and not the ones who are simply famous. Compete in those sports yourself even if you suck. Bookmark Medline and read all the research you can. Develop an affinity for the local university library where you can photocopy the full articles you saw on Medline. Call foreign coaches and talk to them. Read all the books available on training. Never assume that any one person has all the answers or get so carried away on one thing that you never learn or adapt your ideas again. Train or assist in the training of any athlete you can lay hands on, and then repeat each of the above steps consistently for somewhere between 10 and 20 years and you’ll probably be there. I’m currently involved in this very program that I am recommending, I figure I have about 5 more years to go and ill actually know something useful.

I, myself, have been on that program for about 5 years.  I did personal training before that, and was training myself hard, but only got serious about training athletes 5 years ago.  In that time I can’t tell you the radical shifts my own philosophy has taken. 

I figure if you aren’t changing something major every year, you aren’t continuing to learn.  In each year, I have to evaluate what worked in the previous year (and keep that), and what didn’t.  But, even more important, figure out what I need to replace what didn’t work and how to fit that into the stuff I’m keeping around that did. 

With every new athlete I train, I learn something new.  Each person responds to different things and learns in different ways.  And, on the flip side, there are constants that seem to be similar in nearly every athlete, and finding what those things are is just as important as highlighting the differences. 

Here are just 5 things I’ve learned in the last 5 years that I wasn’t as solid about previously:

1.  Keep it Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.).  It’s easy to get caught up with all the fancy-pantsy methods of training because those are fun, exciting, and new-age.  But, the fact is, most of what works turns out to be the same old stuff that has worked for years: heavy, hard lifting on basic movements like cleans, snatches, squats, and deadlifts.

2. Teaching Beginners the Olympic Lifts isn’t THAT Hard.  Becoming a world-class Olympic weightlifter IS hard. But, having decent technique that will make you more explosive, stronger, and powerful and to do so in a way that is safe is not at all as hard as its made out to be.  I can take ANY athlete and have them doing solid power snatches, power cleans, jerks, front squats, etc in less than 2 months – easy.  If they have talent and drive, even faster.

3.  More Upper Body Work.  I’m an Olympic weightlifter.  I became one after first being a powerlifter.  So, I don’t come from a Brotastic arm-day loving background.  When I first started coaching I spent so much time on squats and cleans, that I ran into some joint problems with some of my lifters in their upper bodies.  Mike Boyle is right, lower body injuries are often because of something you DID.  Upper body injuries are usually from something you DIDN’T do.  Adding in chins, push ups, and rows will make a huge difference in keeping people off the injured list.

4. LESS Core Work.  This might sound outright insane, but most athletes spend too much time on their “core” and not enough time getting truly strong.  By core work I mean crunches, side bends, leg lifts, etc.  Stabilization is a good thing, but much of that will come naturally through heavy work on overhead squats, push ups, weighted chin ups, etc.  All of my lifters can do planks for days … and they never do planks except in the very early stages of development.

5. The Olympic Lifts are Strength Lifts.  Most strength coaches (outside of Oly lifting) approach the olympic lifts primarily as something to increase speed and power.  The lifts do this, of course, but they are more than that.  If I could do only one lift, I’d do heavy clean and jerks.  Learning how to do these lifts efficiently allows you to use massive weights you could never get up without proper form.  In turn, you develop even greater strength.  I’ve found that one of the fastest ways to increase someones squat and deadlift is to teach them to clean and snatch heavy weights.  A bigger clean = stronger body.

If you’d like to find out more about what my athletes are doing, make sure to check out our website:  www.PDXWeightlifting.com

In Bob Takano’s recent newsletter mailing he has a piece about the fact that he’s been seeing a lot of WOD (workout of the day) designed for weightlifters.  He’s worried that the structure of these are often not going to get weightlifters where they want to go, that is, it ain’t specific enough to the weightlifter.

I’ve been seeing a lot of WOD’s (Workout of the Day) showing up on the internet and they are intended for weightlifters. They usually have one standard weightlifting movement (snatch, clean & jerk, pull, squat), and then some other bodybuilding exercises or other movements that are not especially beneficial to serious weightlifters.

After many years of designing training, one of my rules of thumb is to include one pulling exercise, one squatting exercise and one overhead movement in every workout. I know this can be bothersome to those who like to break up training into body parts or movement categories and concentrate on only one per session.

I believe there is enough empirical evidence to support the idea of training all three major aspects of weightlifting competition everyday, although not all to exactly the same degree. The load, volume and intensity can be varied in each case to provide sufficient variation.

I think that is good advice.  When I started out, I fell prey to the same problems.  If you hunt for them, you can find old WOD of my own that suffered similarly.  Until I’d been in the trenches for a few years, and coached enough weightlifters, I didn’t realize some fundamental differences that exist in training the weightlifter vs training everyone else (I expound on these below).

Over the years, I’ve been moving closer toward the Bulgarian side of the fence than I did when I started.  Nowadays, for most of the year, my athletes do some form of the snatch AND some form of the clean+jerk (usually the full classic lifts themselves) in every workout then get to the pulls and squats (nearly always front squats). They squat no less then 3 times a week, sometimes more – and heavy. 

That said, I do like to include some upper body “bodybuilding” work in.  There is ample evidence that many shoulder, elbow, and wrist injuries can be avoided if proper attention is paid to exercises like chin ups.  But if your training routine consists of more than 10% to maybe 20% upper body work, you’re not a weightlifter.

The Big Picture

Weightlifters have a problem.  They don’t need to be comprehensively athletic, and so most aren’t.  Sure, there’s a sizable minority of lifters who are good all around athletes.  But, only in a strength sport do you have a super-heavyweight class.  Even NFL lineman are more generally athletic than most supers.  And just because someone is lean, does not mean they have good endurance. 

By “generally athletic” I mean covering all the basics of good fitness:  flexibility and mobility; strength; power; speed; core stability; lateral stability; single-leg stability; cardiovascular endurance; muscular endurance; etc.  These are the qualities a strength coach is trying to build into the majority of athletes.

Most sports require some element of every type of fitness. This is true in baseball, football, tennis, swimming, volleyball, soccer, rugby, roller derby, even dodge ball.  But, not weightlifting.

Weightlifters are great at strength, excellent at power, right up there in flexibility and mobility.  But, they are grossly behind in both types of endurance – especially muscular endurance.  (You should see me trying to go on a hike!)  They are also often deficient in lateral and single-leg stability (not horrible, but not as good as they could be -  the new squat style jerk takes that last remaining split leg movement out of the sport, and makes it totally bilateral).

The reason for this imbalance is that weightlifters are more like marathon runners than they’d like to admit.  Weightlifters are in an extreme sport.  No, not extreme as in dangerous, extreme as in overly specialized.  We move very heavy weights, very fast, from down to up, in a fraction of a second.  We require as much endurance as marathon runners require strength.  Oh, sure, of course there is SOME need for it.  We don’t want to literally drop dead.  But, compared to other athletes, we suck at it. 

We also have relatively wimpy arms.  Relative to other strength athletes of course.  Powerlifters, strongmen, track and field throwers, highland games athletes – they all have bigger and stronger arms than most of us. They’re chests and shoulders and lats are usually bigger too.  Why?  Specialization.

Oly lifters are 80% legs, 20% traps.  OK, that’s an over exaggeration – but not much of one. 

I’m not saying this to disparage we weightlifters, but to make a point.  You WANT a weightlifter to be this way. You need them focused on the task at hand.  They are in an extreme sport that requires extreme training (again, I mean extreme as in highly focused, not dangerous).  They need constant work on the classic lifts themselves, stupid amounts of squatting, some pulling, and if you can fit it in, some upper body work to keep their joints healthy.  

A Slight Regression

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I do want to mention that during the summer – which for us starts after tomorrows State championships – I intentionally dump all of the above advice.  I spend a few months training my athletes like athletes rather than like weightlifters.  This has a nice psychological effect, as well as a physiological one.  It is hard on your body and your psyche to hammer away for months at a time on low rep Oly lifts and front squats – over and over and over and over  … ad nauseum. 

During the summer we get to do all the fun stuff we normally don’t, like single-leg work and higher reps; we add in more rows, pressing, etc.  It’s good ole’ fashioned training that any athlete would thrive on.  But, after a bit of that, we get back on the horse. 

Weightlifting is a means to an end for other athletes.  It IS the end for us.  The training should reflect that.

[by the way, if you haven’t already, make sure you sign up for Bob’s email newsletter.  It’s the best Oly-lifting focused newsletter around, hands down.  Just click here.]

It is an understatement to say that Olympic weightlifters are obsessed with Bulgarians.  No, not the people, or the great food (my Step Dad is Bulgarian, I can testify), or the copious consumption of vodka (well … maybe a bit of that). No, Olympic weightlifters are obsessed with Bulgarian weightlifters, and even more so with their previous head coach Ivan Abadjiev.

Much of this obsession culminates in an attempt to use the ‘Bulgarian method’ of training in some manner on their own.  The problem with this is two-fold.  First, it is hard to pin down just what the method was in the first place that catapulted a tiny nation of only 8 million people into weightlifting superstardom and kept them there for decades.  Second, whatever the exact methods used by the Bulgarians, we do know that they were far out of the zone of practicality for most Americans.

That said, it is still instructive to first evaluate just what the Bulgarian system was actually like.  And then to find a way to incorporate some of the best of it into your training. 

While you can’t train exactly like a Bulgarian, you CAN get much stronger applying some of the same principles upon which their system was founded.

Also, this is my own interpretation of the stuff that is out there about the Bulgarian system. As I mention below, there is little to go on, so we’re forced into the position of interpreters of scarce data (like paleontologists).  Not enviable, but inevitable.

[side note:  It is a fact that the Bulgarians – along with nearly ever other dominant country in sports – used a shite-ton of steroids and other drugs.  Abadjiev hasn’t shied away from this fact, though he calls them (cryptically) ‘recovery agents’.  The two main reasons you CANNOT train like a Bulgarian are: 1) you don’t have the time, this was their job; 2) you aren’t on a bunch of drugs that enable you to recover so fast.  I’m not going to make this a steroids post.  I still believe you can gain a lot from a modified Bulgarian approach.  But, it would be naive to pretend that steroids didn’t play a big part.  That said, most of the countries have their lifters on steroids, so the Bulgarians were hardly unique in this respect.  In other words, drugs were a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for their success.]

What Is the Bulgarian ‘System’?

Sadly, Ivan Abadjiev has never written a book outlining precisely how he trained his lifters (in the late 90’s there was talk, but it never came to fruition).  And none of his lifters have come out with a ‘tell all’ book, either.  We’re left with interviews of Abadjiev and his lifters, a few articles, some writings by those that have spent time with them (e.g. guys like Randall J. Strossen).  It isn’t perfect, but we do have a few things to go on.  See my reference list at the bottom for a few good reads.

Adaptation

The first key principle that we can glean about the Bulgarian system is the principle of Adaptation.  The point is simply that you adapt in direct response to a stimulus.  Different stimuli produce different adaptations.  The adaptations that come from sub-80% lifts are different that the ones that result from >90% lifts. 

The point then, under this idea, is to focus your energy at the top-end weights in training so that you encourage the proper adaptations that are the most sport-specific. 

In a general sense we know this to be true.  How specific we can take it is debatable.  But, on the balance, Abadjiev is on to something. If you want to prepare to lift heavy weights, it makes sense to lift heavy weights.

Specialization

The next principle is Specialization.  Exercises that are not directly related to the sport shouldn’t be relied upon. The thinking is that they don’t result in the right adaptations, for one. But, the other reason is that Olympic weightlifting is one of the most unique sports on the planet.  No other sport requires maximum intensity, high level technique, at such a rapid pace.  It doesn’t matter how good your technique is at 80% or even 95% of max.  All that matters is how good your technique is at 100% of max weights. 

The only way to train yourself to handle yourself with utmost technique at high intensity at max weights is to do just that with the competition lifts themselves.  No exercise can mimic them.  They are your prime strength builders and technique builders.  Add in some front squats and you’re good. 

Abadjiev even dumped the back squat:

"Our athletes do not do any "supportive exercises" they stay with full clean and jerk, snatch, and front squat. We have found that taking back squat out is more effective for the healthy lifter. Sticking with the three lifts named above as the only training for the advanced and healthy lifter…. If the athlete is injured they will do back squat or parts of the lift the full lifts (ie. high pulls, push press, etc…). You must be extremely careful with the stresses you put on your athletes. You must have direct benefits from each exercise because the athlete has limited recovery capacity." IA

Competition Mode

Abadjiev believed that the best training experiences were contests themselves.  He had his lifters in so many contests that they were happening nearly every 3 weeks!  And in the weeks leading into the contests, they were still attacking max weights.  Training sessions mimicked contests – except that they were worse, because you had to take more attempts at weights you missed, not to mention you still had a ton of squatting to do.

Make your training sessions as much like contests as you can in terms of intensity, exercise selection, and reps. And then compete as often as humanly possible. 

Intuitiveness

A point that is often overlooked is the importance in their system of intuition.  Since there is virtually no variety in training at all, it becomes paramount that the lifter learns to interpret what their body is telling them – it’s the only ‘periodization’ available to them.  On days they feel good, they should push it and go for broke.  On days they feel crappy, lay off.   You’ll be back in a few hours anyway.

The other mental point is a total willingness to embrace failure.  Under this system, athletes will miss and miss and miss.  All the time, missing.  They go in, go heavy as hell, and fail.  As time goes on, they fail at higher and higher weights, thereby increasing the weights with which they succeed. 

It is through missing that you learn the character of a lifter.

With intuition, lifters create their own version of periodization:

Lifters might take as little as 1, or as many as 10 attempts at maximum. They might hit a maximum and immediately drop back to 80% before progressing back up (sometimes with minor adjustments in the weights attempted). Alternatively, after one or more maximum attempts they may perform drop down, ‘flushing’ sets at various intensities. Additionally lifters change the order of exercises or repeat exercises within the same session to add extra stimulus where required. Finally, the coach might change the training frequency in a given week to permit greater time for recuperation. These and other variables can be continually adjusted to keep training both mentally and physically stimulating (See Appendix). It should be stressed that Bulgarian lifters utilize daily ‘training’ maximums rather than absolute (best ever) maximums. On a given day, depending on fatigue and arousal levels, these two loads could vary significantly.

[I’m going to refrain from the myriad jokes that could result from the “arousal level” comment!]

Examples of Routines

Most of the time when someone says ‘Bulgarian training’ they mean the following:  Lift as heavy as you can on singles on the classical lifts, 3 times a day, 6 days a week. 

That is a gross oversimplification that leads to some wildly problematic training – and overtraining.  Abadjiev was highly worried about recovery capacity – or more accurately, the lack thereof.  While his lifters had the benefit of ‘recovery agents’ (roids!), constant massage therapy, ice-baths, etc, they still weren’t machines.  No one, even on steroids, can lift like that.  No one.

Instead, there were heavy days/workouts, and lighter workouts.  On the heavy days, one might do ton of lifts at the maximum.  But, on a light day or workout, they may only do power snatches and power cleans and front squats to 70-80%.  Or full lifts, but lighter.

One of the more frequently seen examples is the most basic:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday

9am – 12pm: snatch to heavy single; half-hour break; clean and jerk to heavy single; half hour break; front squat to heavy single.

They may also include back-off sets (singles of course) in the 90% range of whatever the heavy single was. (When I say up to a heavy single, I mean full-on as if it were a contest.  Keep going up till you miss, then try it again.)

3pm to 6pm: same as morning.

9pm: Front squat to heavy single.

Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday

Same as Monday, but only do power versions (or light full versions).  Also, dump the evening front squats.

Sunday

9am: Front squats to heavy single.

Yep, every day – even the Sabbath.  

Another option that I’ve seen is to do only Snatch and Front squats on Mon/Wed/Fri, only Clean and jerk and Front squats on Tue/Thur/Sat, then Front squats on Sunday.  Go heavy when you feel like you can, lighten it up when you have to.  Keep recovery in mind.  (I particularly like this model, it’s intuitive, and basic, and easy to implement.)

How to Use the Bulgarian Ideas to Your Advantage

There are only a few components to juggle when writing a training routine:  exercise selection; sets; reps; volume; load; frequency; and intensity are the main ones.

The Bulgarian training system kept the exercise selection down to a minimum: snatch; clean and jerk; front squat; and sometimes the power versions.  They kept the reps exclusively to singles.  The sets varied depending on how they felt.  The volume (sets x reps) was low. The load (sets x reps x weight lifted) was moderate.  But, the frequency and intensity were both very high. 

The key to the system is high intensity, high frequency, specificity, and an intuitive approach to volume (more sets when feeling good, less when not). 

You can take from that menu what you think will benefit you most. 

Here’s an example of one of my all-time favorite Bulgarian variations for people who can hit the gym often, but not for long each time.

A-day

am/pm: Snatches, Front squats

B-day

am/pm: Clean and Jerks, Front squats.

Alternate these workouts 4 to 6 days a week.  (Workout should take between 20 to 40 minutes.)

Do only singles.  Work up to as heavy a lift as you can on the classical lift for the day, then if you feel good, do some back off singles at 90%.  Front squat to a max-ish weight (remember not to miss!).  Do 1 or 2 back off singles on a good day.

On days you feel strong, you’ll be able to do a lot.  On days you are dragging, let it be.  Just work up to a heavy lift, then front squat whatever you can for a single and go home.  If the crappy days are really crappy, that’s normal.  Don’t feel bad.  That’s part of the program.

You can do the workout only once a day or twice a day, depending on what you have time for, and what your goals are.  It’s a simple and intuitive training routine that most anyone can thrive on. 

Is it realistic for you?  Maybe not.  If you can only come in 3 times a week, you’ll need to make up for the lack of frequency with higher volume in each workout.  And you can’t just do 1 classical lift in each workout  or you’d only be doing it 1 to 2 times a week which isn’t enough. 

If that is you.  Do both lifts all three days, go heavy and hard and finish with back squats.  Same workout every day you come in.  You can progress remarkably far with this.  Go up to something heavy on the classical lift, do some back off sets (2 to 6), move on.   The workouts should be less than an hour and 15 min’s.

The Downsides of the Bulgarian System

There are at least four major downsides to the Bulgarian system.

The first is injury rates.  It is a fact that lifting at the maximum of your ability every day, all year, is not good for you.  It’s hard on your joints, it’s hard on your muscles, and your connective tissues.  There is a reason that Ivan Abadjiev’s nick-name is ‘The Butcher’. 

I am a big believer that if you are never missing on the Oly lifts, you are going too light.  I advocate (in intermediate and above lifters only!) missing regularly.  It teaches you more about your flaws than anything else, and it confers great mental fortitude skills. 

But, I don’t think you should miss on any other exercises – ever!  That’s a lofty goal, that won’t be met.  But, missing on other exercises is far more dangerous.  When you miss on an Olympic lift, you were only under tension for a few nano-seconds.  Your technique broke down, and you dumped the bar.  It’s not something that puts your body under great strain.  It was not a miss at the muscular level, it was at the technique level. 

The same cannot be said of other exercises like front squats, where the action is slow, and your muscles are under tension for far longer.  In these cases you miss because you couldn’t put in enough force.  You strain to put in max force, fail at the muscular level, and something pops …

No fun.  The Bulgarians missed front squats all the time. 

The second is more pedestrian, but arguable nearly as important: boredom.  When all you are doing are the 5 lifts – snatch, clean and jerk, power snatch, power clean, and front squats.  That’s it.  Forever.  You get bored.  There is just no way out of that.  If you’re a top lifter, getting paid to lift, then fight the boredom.  But, if you ain’t … what’s the point again?

Variety is not only the spice of life, it is the spice of lifting.  Most of us really enjoy doing other exercises too.  We don’t want to skip doing deadlifts or Chin ups just because it isn’t directly related to performance of the Oly lifts.  Come on! Them’s fun to do!

Third, the Bulgarian program is not at all good at producing sarcoplasmic hypertrophy – an increase in the fluid in your muscles.  This is the kind of muscle size that bodybuilders have.  It looks good, but it doesn’t make you all that strong in comparison to your appearance. 

But, I say, “who cares?” 

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you are NOT a high-level Olympic weightlifter (National level at least), and that you NEVER will be (neither am I, by the way).  Most of us will always be intermediates.  Forever.  And that is totally fine.  Most of us are doing this because it is fun. We ain’t going to the Olympics. 

So, if we pop out of our weightclass, are bigger than we should be to be supremely competitive, etc … who cares?  While sarcoplasmic hypertrophy doesn’t result in massive strength gains it is good for you in other ways. For one, it increases you metabolism, so it becomes easier to stay lean.  It also looks good.

Let’s face it, this is America.  We don’t like to put the value of function over the value of form.  If a guy has large arms and shoulders, he’ll be more inspired to keep at it.  Similarly, if women notice that their butts and legs are more shapely because of lifting they’ll be more likely to stay. 

Consistency is key.  Paying attention to aesthetics increases consistency.  It’s a fact, and it can’t be ignored in the American market.

Finally, number four.  Most lifters need a lot more work on assistance exercises to perfect their technique.  Remember that when we are talking about the ‘Bulgarian system’, we’re really talking about the top lifters in their system.  You and I are not that, and never will be (at least them’s the odds). 

I like to divide the lifting world into two camps: Divers and Pullers.  Divers are aggressive on the 3rd pull and get themselves under the bar very fast.  But, they tend to cut their 2nd pull short, and so leave the bar out front too much and will miss out front (there are lots of other reasons people miss out front of course, but this is a big one).  Pullers love the 2nd pull.  They got lots of power when it comes to getting height on the bar.  But, they don’t even bother with a 3rd pull. They instead try to race the bar down – and lose.  If they can’t power it up, they can’t make it. 

Over time, each type will get better and better.  But, certain assistance exercises make a major difference (pulls for divers, full-muscle snatch/clean for pullers, etc).  To not use these would be a mistake. 

It comes down to your goals and your level.  The Bulgarian system in its entirety is for very advanced lifters – only.  The rest of us should take from it what we can, but not get carried away. 

Conclusion

I’m still a fan of Bulgarian-ish lifting, even though much of it is not applicable to us.  I like heavy singles; I like sticking to the basics; I prefer frequency + intensity over high volume; and I agree that if you don’t train at the high end of performance regularly, you won’t be ready when it counts.

But, there are downsides that can’t be ignored.  “Take what is useful, discard what isn’t,” said Bruce Lee.  Applies perfectly well here.

References

• Abadjiev, Ivan. “Competition as an Integral Part of the Training Cycle.” http://www.mikesgym.org/programs/uploads/abadjiev1.pdf
• Abadjiev, Ivan. Lecture.  http://www.theironsamurai.com/2010/05/21/ivan-abadjiev-lecture-bulgarian-olympic-weightlifting/
• Drechsler, Arthur. 1998. The Weightlifting Encyclopedia: A Guide to World Class Performance. A is A Communications.
• Everett, Greg. 2009. Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide to Coaches and Athletes. Catalyst Athletics, LLC.
• Klose, Thomas. 2000. “Evgueniy Popov: The Bulgarian Buffalo.” MILO: A Journal for Serious Strength Athletes. Vol 8, Number 1. pp. 98 – 103.
• Strossen, Randall J.. 1999. “Bulgaria 1998.” MILO: A Journal for Serious Strength Athletes. Vol 6, Number 4. pp. 83 – 86.
• Strossen, Randall J. 2000. “Petar Tanev: A New Passport and a Golden Year.” MILO: A Journal for Serious Strength Athletes.  Vol 8, Number 1. pp. 118 – 122.
• Woodhouse, David.  “Ivan Abadjiev + the Bulgarian System”.  http://weightliftingexchange.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=438&Itemid=60   You can also download it here.

You can find some opinions about the Bulgarian methods as interpreted by Mike Burgener, Glenn Pendlay, and Steve Gough on these audio podcasts here.

Check out this video Roy sent me.  Seriously, this dude is INTENSE.  That’s the way to miss!

We’re off to the Russ Knipp Weightlifting Championships tomorrow
morning bright and early (2 hour drive, lift, 2 hour drive back!).  It’ll be Me, Roy, Chris, Celia, and Noel
competing this time. 

Leslie is both driving us down and taking video, so she’s doing the hard part! 

Wish us luck!

OH, and check out this great shot of Jessica Gee, one of Oregon’s top lifters, in a full clean at the American Open (that’s 92 kilos, MORE than 200 pounds!)

This is great stuff

Check out this great interview with Shane Hamman that Mark Rippetoe did (click here).  They cover a bunch of info in about 1 hour including Shane’s early powerlifting career where he dunked 1008 pounds in the squat.  His Olympic career. The state of American Weightlifting.  And what we can do about it.

What I enjoyed the most was their discussion on the importance of strength training for Olympic weightlifters (as opposed to a fanatic focus on technique).  Shane mentioned that the guys who beat him at the 2004 Olympics were much stronger than him (that’s saying something!) and as a consequence could pull things out that he couldn’t. He also mentions that the same was true for the lighter weight classes.  That is, our guys weren’t as strong as their competition.

Why this is relevant is that much of the American “style” is directed at technique work at all cost and speed development.  Both of which are clearly important. But, heavy deadlifts and heavy squats done throughout the year is rare.

One of the things I did differently this year with my athletes that I will certainly do again was a modified version of the Smolov Squat cycle.  They all nearly killed me for making them do it!  But, holy heavens, it did wonders for their overall strength levels which is paying dividends now 5 months later.

I think this type of training (a clear focus on strength development along with power and technique) is particularly useful for older and masters lifters who are always going to be behind the curve in their technique.  The more strength you have, the more you can pull out a not-so-perfect clean or snatch.

Of course, technique is majorly important.  Don’t take this the wrong way.  But, if you let strength levels hover in the background, and don’t pull heavy shit off the ground, then you’re selling yourself short.

Alwyn Cosgrove has a post on Abundance vs. Scarcity in the personal training market. He sets up the idea that some people have a mindset of abundance, and others of scarcity. Meaning, those with the abundance mindset think the world is full of plenty of opportunity for everyone whereas those with the scarcity mindset believe there is a limited amount, and to do well means (by necessity) that someone else must fail.

I call it going “Deep Sea Fishing for Water”. This can be a little deep (no pun intended) so bear with me….

It’s as if we chartered a boat and went out to sea, with the goal of collecting as much water as we could. When we get there – I start using a bucket to collect my water. You start using a tea cup.

Now ask yourself this — are you angry that I used a bucket? Do you feel as if I’m taking more than my “fair share” ?

In the personal training and fitness coaching market, there really is an abundance of potential clients. I’m never worried about helping out a fellow trainer for fear of them “stealing” my clients. That’s ridiculous. The United States has a population that is about 30% obese and growing (pun fully intended). Every year we graduate a larger number of high school students who have never had a serious PE class, who couldn’t run a mile to save their lives (literally, if a bear was chasing them, they’d be food).

Here’s the reality. If you’re a man, without any serious physical ailments, and under 70, you should be able to do at least 10 pull ups. You should be able to run a mile in less than 9 minutes (I’m being lax here). You should be able to do 100 crunches in a row, no problem; 50 push ups straight; and squat about bodyweight. I’m not joking. Any male of the species, if truly in shape, should be able to do these things. The amount of testosterone flowing in the male body is ridiculous compared to what women have. Men are quite literally on steroids. There is no excuse. These numbers are low. There are old old old men at Loprinzi’s that can do better than this.

All it takes is some work. And the pay off is huge.

For women there are similar standards. At least: 8 full push ups or 20 knee push ups; run a mile in less than 10 minutes; do 8 pull ups with 75% bodyweight (with 100% bodyweight if you have a small hip structure); Squat 75% bodyweight; 100 crunches, no problem. These could all be higher depending on bone structure.

For certain athletes these numbers would be different. Female Olympic lifters sometimes have a hard time doing pull ups because of the shear muscular weight they carry in their hips and legs. But, then they make up for that by clean and jerking their bodyweight (see below).

If you can’t do those things, I can help you. For that matter, a whole host of trainers could help you get better than you are now, even the crappy ones. All they have to do is encourage you to workout regularly. Most Americans don’t, therefor, it’s an open market. How many people do you know who can boast the aforementioned numbers? Can you?

This is Melanie Roach clean and jerking a ton of weight: