I competed in the 70's for GB against Bulgaria and trained at their Naval Academy in Varna. Our national coach, John Lear attended an international coaching course in Sofia run by Abadjeyev. When Lear questioned him saying "but you must have a very high rate of injuries?" Abadjeyev replied, "you expect to lose soldiers in a war ".
John Burns just doing 3 sets of 5 of 315 box sq's after 6 days off with the shits losing 5lbs. 2 sets down and I'm struggling, Read that quote - murdered the last set lol. Put it all on the line man!
Thats the way football is here in the US. If you have a couple dozen players competing for a single position on a team then 4 get hurt you still have 20 to pick from as an owner/coach. Oh well!
its kinda sad tbh, and they give them toradol injections so they can keep playing, which is basically a super anti inflammatory. then they get more injured and risk their entire careers on important games.
His method came from his childhood- he used to work on the countryside fields everyday with his old grandma, and even said the hardest time for him was the harvest season - harder than any workout he had done in his life. So he observed that working during the harvest season everyday for hours, the sun was deadly hot and bright, he and his grandma ate like the minimum amount of food and some water, but he realized that his grandma was able to do that everyday and never got too tired or injured herself or passed her limits. So if an old lady could achieve this, what about a young athlete. Best things come from our everyday life and experience, they are simple. As simple as Ivan Abadzhiev’s method.
Bulgarian grandmas used to be build very differently. My grandma was communist partisan and harvested her own field with various vegetables and fruits by the age of 85. And everyone around her did the same. The old people now are just complaining assholes. P.S. Fuck communism.
I can corroborate to that as I have done similar type of work in the fields during the harvest season. Think of packing 40 kg bags of husk and hauling them all day. From farm work I noticed that if I did low or moderate amount of work then I will be sore the next day. But if it was a full day bender then there would be no soreness the next day and I could do it all over again
@ryan rogers and you do your own research about the topic of this video... This book has nothing to do with that..you are less than nothing to tell the People what to read....
Bulgarian guy here, great video, spot on analysis, there was a foreign delegation in the 90s that were doing documentary on this training method with Abadjiev in Bulgaria and they asked if this was healthy for the athletes, Abadjiev told them: ' do you want to be healthy or do you want medals?' lol
Juan Lamar I doubt Abajayev gives a shit. He's a retired coach and it's satisfying to give the younger generations information so that they may improve it and produce better humans. It's the typical cycle of life.
@@mr.andrew_andrew this is my first time logging into this account in about 3 years lol, surprised a notification came through to my phone. But yep, BS Kinesiology, been working as a full time strength coach since Nov 2017 plus I run our internship and onboarding procedures. Feels good to reflect on comments like this from a previous version of me... oh how time flies.
@@user-qu1xe5jn7f no way you actually replied! So so many ancient comments on RUclips and this one is revived 7 YEARS LATER! Well congrats on your graduation 🎓 and wishing you a long successful career 😁
Let me summarize it for all of you, basically you can't expect to achieve high results in a competition if your preparation differs from it. So the goal of the Bulgarian system is to bring the training as close as to the actual competition. This simple principle can be applied to almost everything we do.
Country of 7 million and this man made 12 olympic champions. 57 World Champions and 64 European champions! I think he has pretty strong argument for one of the best coaches ever in any sport.
RIP for POPE of lifting weights IVAN ABADJIEV, I am a Bulgarian athlete dealing with weightlifting in other sport, and I have had the opportunity to observe the training of Ivan Abadjiev, in the whole hall there were metal buckets on the ground, I thought the roof of the hall was flowing. I realized that the buckets were the athletes they trained so hard that at some point they were starting to vomit in the middle of the hall. I thought this guy (Ivan Abadjiev) was crazy!!! But then I saw a lot of these guys becoming gold medalists at the Olympics and world championships. So many gold medals he had brought to his country that if melt them would make him a monument from gold on scale 3:1. RESPECT. Thank you for what you did in the video , this man deserves a lot of people to know who he is, what he's been doing, and what he's accomplished.Thank you
Max! Just wanted to say thanks for this video! But also, I see so many theories transferring over from this into my kettlebell sport training. I have been to three world championships as an amateur and this year I go as a pro. My coach is Russian and I totally see the similar thoughts...they don’t care how you feel or how your workout felt or if the reps were executed perfectly...did you make the time...yes...did you make your rep goal...yes...that’s all they care about. My coach does give some technique advice when I am really screwing something up, but otherwise it’s just time and reps and making the goal. I came to my coach the same way you say lifters came to the Bulgarian coach, they had already been lifting for years so he didn’t try to change their style or technique, same with me and my coach, he said develop your own style and find a way to make your body and your style work for you and hit the goals. Just wanted to share that mentality carries over from olifting into other sports with the Russians. Rock on Max!
There is no Russian weightlifter who is even close to the Abadjiev’s method.Everything what Russian federation do in 90’s was to treat the Bulgarian team in 1988 in Seoul that everything above 2 gold medal and 2 silver it will be suspended.Because there was no other way to stop our team and we prove it when we took 6 gold medal in 8 different categories.That’s why when Abadjiev say no I can joke with the hard work which my guys did.After that they just say that they find something which is not allow to use.It was just the game who the bigger empire playing during the cold war.My point is that Russian style and Bulgarian style in Weightlifting sport are completely different.
Valentin Christov 110kg Olympic Weightlifter known for his attempt to break Alexeev's c&j record in 1975 World Championships but in the lower weight 110kg class wrote a book on what he was subjected to under the Bulgarian system that would open your eyes to the conditions of training.
Before 4 days we had another Bulgarian who won 2021 European Weightlifting Championship, 16 year old Karlos Nasar, 206kg clean and jerk at 81kg in bodyweight.
I was given Blagoev's actual plan and the Bulgarians also used Pulls as one of the primary movement. Snatch, C & J, F Squat and Pull. The Pull was at 10 kg above lift in C & J and 5 kg above Snatch.
Fantastic explanation of the Bulgarian System. Now knowing that the max weights to be lifted were based on numbers rather than how the lifter felt on the day has cleared up a lot for me. I tried lifting, working up to a "heavy max" for the day for months and months and simply put my lack of progress down to poor technique, lack of energy, will power etc (these still might be the reasons) but now knowing the history and exactly how the program should be implemented has now cleared things up for me. Thanks Max! Ivan, RIP
I remember reading about the eastern european methods of training in the book power to the people by pavel. That is hands down the best book i have read about what goes into strength training.
@@HoobleyWoobley we live in an age where you can have literally almost any information you need within minutes from googling it and you choose to wait around for months for someone on a RUclips comment section to spoon feed you I guess for there to be winners there has to be losers
I really appreciate your clarity in how Papa trained his National Champions. This was just right on. But what is not discussed and something you might know is how they developed the beginning talent before they became, if ever, one of the National Champions. That's the info needed since many if not most of the people listening to you are not Bulgarian National Champions. In the Bulgarian Method video from Bulgaria they emphasized that the beginner spent much time developing technique with a lightened bar before they began moving up. What do you now about that, Alex? What were the physical parameters that the Bulgarian program looked for when selecting it's weightlifting sport candidates?
Abadjiev, IMO, probably made a simple, yet very important observation, that can be used as a basis for explaining his whole method, namely, that he was dealing with high-end professional athletes for whom the established norm of training was not applicable (not intense nor specific enough), that is why he could allow himself to push near the edge and eventually break through in continuous successful "production" of champions. He basically trained his lifters always as if it was a pre-competition period, i.e. only competition lifts and near the max intensity. (No (or less) de-loading, no periodization). Another characteristic of his lifters is the low-stress approach in lifting, i.e. excessive excitement before lifting was not advised. Finally, there was strict planning in every single training using only absolute numbers, i.e. kg (not percentages of max, etc), which was probably used to eliminate the subjective factors like moment physical condition, etc.
Chris B Kirov My brother had a wrestling coach who's philosophy was to train every session at max intensity to make it "la norma" or the rule, the norm. They had a good record.
In that era average weightlifter from USA,Soviet Union was lifting 5 tons per day The Bulgarian lifted around 55-60 tons per day We never gonna see someone like the great Ivan Abadzhiev
@@LifeLongStrong1961 Have a look at Stefan Botev's interview on the weightlifting House podcast he said they would lift between 60 and 70 tonnes a day and occasionally. abajiev would make them skip dinner and lift until 1am. It's an insane workload but I doubt Botev is lying.
Max, lifters nowadays seem so afraid of overtraining and frying their CNS, especially powerlifters. Has this experience with the bulgarian method changed your thoughts and beliefs on the subject? Thanks, and awesome video.
+André Lambert Well I started out training like this from basically the first day of my weightlifting career so I didn't have many ideas about how to train before I had experience with the system. My current beliefs about training revolve solely around developing successful competitors. I think it is very easy for someone to train in a way that doesn't produce good results. That is really all that matters. If you are training to little, or too much, or for whatever reason your results are bad then your training is bad.
I actually tried it. Well a variation of "squat everyday". It actually made me stronger and I'd recover much faster. My legs and shoulders grew thicker and my overall fitness increased (for the sport I play).
A brilliant educational analysis of the Bulgarian lifting training program. Thank you for sharing those secrets. The Bulgarians were superb in the 70s 80s . How would you like to work in India ? :)
I think I know the secret that lays in this method. The problem traditionally recovery rate, growth hormone release and testosterone levels ain't seen as a muscle that is also growing. I can imagine when you are constantly stressing your body to the max, your growth hormone will be constantly asked to be released into the body until that isn't much left to release and your levels of testosterone would drop from the constantly lifting and your recovery rate will begin to fatigue. However your body may begin to adapt in the long term to sustain chemical balance. Therefore your recovery rate will increase, your growth hormone levels will increase and your testosterone levels will increase. Eventually it is like your got a new engine in your body that can now withstand greater stress and recovery faster and grow faster.
Well thats completely irrelevant as they would obviously be taking Test and HGH exogenously anyway. And thats ignoring the fact that their isn't any evidence to support that conjecture you've made
@@Anonymous95202 Stating there is no evidence is not an useful statement and counter productive in this circumstance. Because if you can't state there was a study done on it. It is more of a gaping oversight that it wasn't even done in the first place.
Knowing, watching and being trained by some of Abajiev's champions. I'd like to say, that its not exactly true that there wasn't focus on the technic. And a "max" in his system means the maximum weight without the need of competition type concentration.
I trained with John thrush for quite a few years and his style was similar. He would however back off if I was flat or injured. He often pushed us to lift over 90%. I did my best lifting under him, but I wonder if I would’ve benefited more from more measured training. However, for an elite talented athlete, I believe this style can be ideal. The Bulgarians obviously had a huge talent pool, and I believe the sport is second to only soccer as far as popularity there. Good video.
This was a great method for preparing a large team but it has a massive attrition rate. If you are lifting for a hobby or to set PR's then this is a good ticket to snap city.
Wrestling, weight lifting or fight sports, we are no joke, for 7 million country. We train 2 times a day, 2 hours, we have olympic gold medalist almost in every sport and world records almost everywhere, we just dont quit, pain is nothing, glory is everything!
This legendary trainer, reminds me of a Bulgarian David Goggins. But, obviously he came 1st. Regardless, just discovered the documentary on him & can't wait to finish watching it!
Hi! Thanks for the video! I a bulgarian and I m currently applying this in armwrestling. Every day is different than the other, It's very rough style. I'd like to ask whether you have any information on what did weightlifters eat? Did they consume some specific food at that time? Thank you!
Aside the concept of absolutely necessarily taking "supplements" to become the best (or "hyooge"), the concept of being under professional supervision of elite grade coaches from the age of eight (8) isn't very popular at some (most) parts of the world. Abadjiev already did revealed (not just once) some spicy information from the kitchen about how his lifters were "busted", including during the 80s.
Coach Abadjiev never used the Soviet weightlifting system. In fact, he was against it and the whole government apparatchiks were against him because of his system training twice to three times per day.
I trained for my lifetime as a drug free powerlifter. Ernie frantz wrote 10 commandments of powerlifting that almost mirrors bulgarian system of singles. Ernie called it the all or non concept. One day per week would do all 3 lifts to max or near max singles and other days sub max singles focus on main lifts. It was brutal training that helped me win multiple WI state titles, 1987 and 1988 Collegiate National Championships and Take a Bronze medal 1987 IPF JR worlds in Lima Peru. The concept of Meet training. Singles teach u how to psych up every day, your body and mind become stronger. Come meet day choose conservative attempts and you are more cock sure it will happen. I call it smashing or crushing the weight!!! This workout is not for the faint of heart!!!!
Max, could you specify, in another video, how much voluminous that bulgarian method is? Explaining how many sets and trainnings per week. And if is possible too, suggest an aplication of the bulgarian for powerlifters. Thanks for all the informations, and thanks the Juggernaut for the channel.
Hey Max, curious if there's a situation where you'd consider using this plan for your athletes. Maybe someone with years of experience but who hasn't competed and maybe has a mental barrier to heavy weight in competition? Or is it just a bad option regardless of the situation? Also, the vid makes Abadjiev sound like that little league teeball coach who takes winning too seriously. At all costs. Go go go. Fascinating stuff. :)
Do you think that some people could be more receptive to this type of coaching on amateur level? I would have love to hear your personal opinion at the end the video. Great video by the way!
The main thing is that your maximum on every day is different. Today's your maximum is 200, tommorow is 160. After this message try to see on this system from different point of view.
So working up to your max each set, how long did you rest in between each set? And about how many sets did it take to reach your max! Hope your still here! Thanks new subscriber here
Did lifters get Sundays off? Can you give more detail on how Tues/Thurs/Sat was different? How where bad training days treated? There must have been repeated instances where after 10-20 misses a lifter just has to call it a day, otherwise everyone would be Snatching bars filled with 50kg Bumpers
How does this system stack up with what the Chinese do? The little I know about the Chinese programs, it seems as though they are closer to a Russian system (focus on form, many exercises).
Max / Juggernaut TS -what about the Greeks of the 90s era.They did successfully a derivative of the original Bulgarian system.Do you have any info/data about that???
I think the difference and distinctive opposition of Bulgarian and Soviet systems can be illustrated on many other sports. Take boxing for example. Here again, the Soviet approach is extremely metodical and I dare say pseudo-scientific, based on endless drilling of technique that is non-negotiable, often using codified "rules" that were thought to be essential 60 years ago, and creating categories and subcategories of boxers and then literally handing out strict handbooks how one style should approach another. Its very OCD-friendly. But then again, many other boxing schools abandon all that and put heavy accent on sparring, sparring, sparring - it doesnt matter very much how you lift your elbow or which way you place your thumbs when throwing hooks and how wide your knees are, as long as it suits YOU and brings needed results. In the end, theoretically superior Soviet-style technicians often lost to lesser boxers who were had far more fight time and were used to spar and fight much harder and more often.
Really interesting video, i've read a lot of contrasting information about the bulgarian method so nice to hear from someone who's experienced it first hand. Predictable question but do you think the bulgarian system has any place for non professional lifters? I'm not suggesting trying to fit it around work/studies but for example i will have about 6 weeks this summer where i will have 24 hour access to a gym and little other commitments - could this sort of training be successfully implemented over a short period of time or is it simply unrealistic for 'normal' lifters to attempt it?
I have firsthand experience of this style of training. At least a version of it that I kind of "invented", but still had the same spirit. My opinion? You are going to make the best strength gains of your life in your six-week stint doing the program. Heck, if you push it for a whole six *months*, even better... But anything beyond that, you will either get hurt or get tempered into a champion. Most likely the former. When I did my own (which was squat-focused and didn't really have the snatch and the clean in it), I was suffering from severe tendonitis in the knees by the fourth month. And by the fourth month, I added 80 pounds to my squat (335 pounds to 415). I'd recommend it if you want/need a quick boost to your squat in the shortest amount of time. But as far as thinking long term? Bad fucking idea.
I know you said there wasn't a deload in the system, so would athletes continue maxing out everyday even the day before a meet? It just seem counter productive making an athlete compete in a fatigued state if the goal was to have them perform at their best.
what you think about the neuromuscular adaptation/changes occur in both Hungarian systems vs. Bulgarian system? whats your comments on Chinese weightlifters? Drop a video if possible.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
I competed in the 70's for GB against Bulgaria and trained at their Naval Academy in Varna. Our national coach, John Lear attended an international coaching course in Sofia run by Abadjeyev. When Lear questioned him saying "but you must have a very high rate of injuries?" Abadjeyev replied, "you expect to lose soldiers in a war ".
Damm thats hardcore af lmao
John Burns just doing 3 sets of 5 of 315 box sq's after 6 days off with the shits losing 5lbs.
2 sets down and I'm struggling,
Read that quote - murdered the last set lol.
Put it all on the line man!
Thats the way football is here in the US. If you have a couple dozen players competing for a single position on a team then 4 get hurt you still have 20 to pick from as an owner/coach. Oh well!
its kinda sad tbh, and they give them toradol injections so they can keep playing, which is basically a super anti inflammatory. then they get more injured and risk their entire careers on important games.
🔥🔥🔥🔥
His method came from his childhood- he used to work on the countryside fields everyday with his old grandma, and even said the hardest time for him was the harvest season - harder than any workout he had done in his life. So he observed that working during the harvest season everyday for hours, the sun was deadly hot and bright, he and his grandma ate like the minimum amount of food and some water, but he realized that his grandma was able to do that everyday and never got too tired or injured herself or passed her limits. So if an old lady could achieve this, what about a young athlete. Best things come from our everyday life and experience, they are simple. As simple as Ivan Abadzhiev’s method.
Bulgarian grandmas used to be build very differently. My grandma was communist partisan and harvested her own field with various vegetables and fruits by the age of 85. And everyone around her did the same. The old people now are just complaining assholes.
P.S. Fuck communism.
Thank you. 4444
I can corroborate to that as I have done similar type of work in the fields during the harvest season. Think of packing 40 kg bags of husk and hauling them all day.
From farm work I noticed that if I did low or moderate amount of work then I will be sore the next day. But if it was a full day bender then there would be no soreness the next day and I could do it all over again
The Great Ivan Abadjiev has died today (25.03.2017) at the age of 85. Rest in peace, master!
Rusty Williams may he rest in peace...
He's coaching his fallen Comrades in the sky now .
@ryan rogers you do not understand anything...
@ryan rogers and you do your own research about the topic of this video... This book has nothing to do with that..you are less than nothing to tell the People what to read....
@ryan rogers Amen brother.
Bulgarian guy here, great video, spot on analysis, there was a foreign delegation in the 90s that were doing documentary on this training method with Abadjiev in Bulgaria and they asked if this was healthy for the athletes, Abadjiev told them: ' do you want to be healthy or do you want medals?' lol
great "supplements" also
He's like a spy releasing all his information
+Juan Lamar
blahino?
+Munta Alam blaha is not affiliated with this channel
Abadijev is Robert DeNiro secretly coaching weightlifting.
Damn western spy. From now on Slavic squat test for all.
Juan Lamar I doubt Abajayev gives a shit. He's a retired coach and it's satisfying to give the younger generations information so that they may improve it and produce better humans. It's the typical cycle of life.
Bulgarian method - Lift or Die trying
Oh shit, this was 14 minutes long. I completely zoned out and now I'm 10 minutes late for class. Great video
Did you graduate
Did you graduate? We need to know!
@@mr.andrew_andrew this is my first time logging into this account in about 3 years lol, surprised a notification came through to my phone. But yep, BS Kinesiology, been working as a full time strength coach since Nov 2017 plus I run our internship and onboarding procedures.
Feels good to reflect on comments like this from a previous version of me... oh how time flies.
@@user-qu1xe5jn7f no way you actually replied! So so many ancient comments on RUclips and this one is revived 7 YEARS LATER! Well congrats on your graduation 🎓 and wishing you a long successful career 😁
@@user-qu1xe5jn7f truly it's like a portal into our past selves
Let me summarize it for all of you, basically you can't expect to achieve high results in a competition if your preparation differs from it. So the goal of the Bulgarian system is to bring the training as close as to the actual competition. This simple principle can be applied to almost everything we do.
Country of 7 million and this man made 12 olympic champions. 57 World Champions and 64 European champions! I think he has pretty strong argument for one of the best coaches ever in any sport.
Now it is 7 million, in the 70s, 80s and even 90s it was 9 million (Abadjiev's time).
RIP for POPE of lifting weights IVAN ABADJIEV, I am a Bulgarian athlete dealing with weightlifting in other sport, and I have had the opportunity to observe the training of Ivan Abadjiev, in the whole hall there were metal buckets on the ground, I thought the roof of the hall was flowing. I realized that the buckets were the athletes they trained so hard that at some point they were starting to vomit in the middle of the hall. I thought this guy (Ivan Abadjiev) was crazy!!! But then I saw a lot of these guys becoming gold medalists at the Olympics and world championships. So many gold medals he had brought to his country that if melt them would make him a monument from gold on scale 3:1. RESPECT. Thank you for what you did in the video , this man deserves a lot of people to know who he is, what he's been doing, and what he's accomplished.Thank you
Excellent information Max!! Nice to hear the view from someone who ACTUALLY trained under Abadjiev.
1:45 that olympian almost took the guy's arm off shaking his hand like that lol
Assert dominance
He pretty much lifted him off the ground lol.
Thank you for sharing this Max.
I am from Bulgaria. Thank you for sharing this!
R. I. P Mr Abadjiev... He was the Best...
Max! Just wanted to say thanks for this video! But also, I see so many theories transferring over from this into my kettlebell sport training. I have been to three world championships as an amateur and this year I go as a pro. My coach is Russian and I totally see the similar thoughts...they don’t care how you feel or how your workout felt or if the reps were executed perfectly...did you make the time...yes...did you make your rep goal...yes...that’s all they care about. My coach does give some technique advice when I am really screwing something up, but otherwise it’s just time and reps and making the goal. I came to my coach the same way you say lifters came to the Bulgarian coach, they had already been lifting for years so he didn’t try to change their style or technique, same with me and my coach, he said develop your own style and find a way to make your body and your style work for you and hit the goals. Just wanted to share that mentality carries over from olifting into other sports with the Russians. Rock on Max!
There is no Russian weightlifter who is even close to the Abadjiev’s method.Everything what Russian federation do in 90’s was to treat the Bulgarian team in 1988 in Seoul that everything above 2 gold medal and 2 silver it will be suspended.Because there was no other way to stop our team and we prove it when we took 6 gold medal in 8 different categories.That’s why when Abadjiev say no I can joke with the hard work which my guys did.After that they just say that they find something which is not allow to use.It was just the game who the bigger empire playing during the cold war.My point is that Russian style and Bulgarian style in Weightlifting sport are completely different.
I'm a huge fan of Max's videos. I love hearing about this, essentially, do or die style of training.
very good video..outstanding explanation...Mr Abadjiev is an icon...well doneJuggernaut...
The bar should be on the man's shoulders on your T shirt to look like a T
S montana I was thinking exactly the same thing lol
@@marxflyful me too
Really messed that one up lol
thats what i call informative.
Bulgarian pride.I am bulgarian and i live 11 yrs outside the country and in my gym i train i am the best physique .And i am 40 yrs of age.
rostislav rusev respect my friend! Pozdrav ot Makedonec:) ... nie sme Brajka:)
@@BudgetGainsByJJ Сме!
Valentin Christov 110kg Olympic Weightlifter known for his attempt to break Alexeev's c&j record in 1975 World Championships but in the lower weight 110kg class wrote a book on what he was subjected to under the Bulgarian system that would open your eyes to the conditions of training.
Before 4 days we had another Bulgarian who won 2021 European Weightlifting Championship, 16 year old Karlos Nasar, 206kg clean and jerk at 81kg in bodyweight.
Watching videos of vintage weight lifting has pumped me up so much.
Great vid, very interesting. I've often heard tales of the Bulgarian method and knew bits and pieces but this vid set it straight. Much appreciated.
I was given Blagoev's actual plan and the Bulgarians also used Pulls as one of the primary movement. Snatch, C & J, F Squat and Pull. The Pull was at 10 kg above lift in C & J and 5 kg above Snatch.
I'm proud to be Bulgarian!
you should be
Fine AK variants too.
FuspHD и аз и аз
Методи В. I like your omnedren, nandrolone and clenbuterol.
Pozdrav za braću Bugari!
Love this style on historical content!
Fantastic explanation of the Bulgarian System. Now knowing that the max weights to be lifted were based on numbers rather than how the lifter felt on the day has cleared up a lot for me. I tried lifting, working up to a "heavy max" for the day for months and months and simply put my lack of progress down to poor technique, lack of energy, will power etc (these still might be the reasons) but now knowing the history and exactly how the program should be implemented has now cleared things up for me. Thanks Max! Ivan, RIP
juggernaut logo would look WAY better with a capital T with exact same scale figure but with a press.
Loving the old footage!
I remember reading about the eastern european methods of training in the book power to the people by pavel. That is hands down the best book i have read about what goes into strength training.
I went from 160kg to 220kg squat in 3months squatting to a daily max.
Michael how did you do that?
dilfo snaggins from squatting to a daily max.....
That’s incredible
@@immaletyoufinish yeah bro but what's a daily max
@@HoobleyWoobley we live in an age where you can have literally almost any information you need within minutes from googling it and you choose to wait around for months for someone on a RUclips comment section to spoon feed you
I guess for there to be winners there has to be losers
I really appreciate your clarity in how Papa trained his National Champions. This was just right on.
But what is not discussed and something you might know is how they developed the beginning talent before they became, if ever, one of the National Champions.
That's the info needed since many if not most of the people listening to you are not Bulgarian National Champions. In the Bulgarian Method video from Bulgaria they emphasized that the beginner spent much time developing technique with a lightened bar before they began moving up. What do you now about that, Alex? What were the physical parameters that the Bulgarian program looked for when selecting it's weightlifting sport candidates?
Really great video, thanks so much for producing it!
Wow. This is a lot different from the "modified" version which people apply to powerlifting. Eye opening
+Destamoon yeah, especially the part about there not being a so called "training max" really surprised me.
So interesting explain !!
He was working here in Saudi Arabia for a year
It’s really a great summary for Bulgarian style and Mr Abajif
Where did all the footage that was spliced in this come from? I could watch that stuff for days.
School of Champions or Champions School. Can't remember which
agreed
4 years later but... 'School of Champions Bulgarian Weightlifting Documentary
'
Lazy guy training
Average guy training
Fitness guy training
Dorian Yates training
Ronnie Coleman training
Spartan training
Bulgarian training
wait, why'd you put boy love between ronnie and bulgarian? that's weird dude
@@abrowntx lol
Thank you for the great video! And you described very well Ivan Abadjiev! Enjoyed from the beginning to the end!
Abadjiev, IMO, probably made a simple, yet very important observation, that can be used as a basis for explaining his whole method, namely, that he was dealing with high-end professional athletes for whom the established norm of training was not applicable (not intense nor specific enough), that is why he could allow himself to push near the edge and eventually break through in continuous successful "production" of champions.
He basically trained his lifters always as if it was a pre-competition period, i.e. only competition lifts and near the max intensity. (No (or less) de-loading, no periodization).
Another characteristic of his lifters is the low-stress approach in lifting, i.e. excessive excitement before lifting was not advised. Finally, there was strict planning in every single training using only absolute numbers, i.e. kg (not percentages of max, etc), which was probably used to eliminate the subjective factors like moment physical condition, etc.
Chris B Kirov My brother had a wrestling coach who's philosophy was to train every session at max intensity to make it "la norma" or the rule, the norm.
They had a good record.
In that era average weightlifter from USA,Soviet Union was lifting 5 tons per day
The Bulgarian lifted around 55-60 tons per day
We never gonna see someone like the great Ivan Abadzhiev
5 tons? That's what I used to lift when my total was like 200 kg
I assume national level lifters would lift much more
@@LifeLongStrong1961 Have a look at Stefan Botev's interview on the weightlifting House podcast he said they would lift between 60 and 70 tonnes a day and occasionally. abajiev would make them skip dinner and lift until 1am. It's an insane workload but I doubt Botev is lying.
For smaller guys like Angel Genchev and Angel Varbanov - it was 50-60 tons, for Stefan Botev it was like 70 tons every day.
@@LifeLongStrong1961 3 times a day. morning, afternoon and midnight trainnigs
@@stallthedigger2599 holy fuck. That shit is almost superhuman
"If he dies he dies." Abadjeyev
Max, lifters nowadays seem so afraid of overtraining and frying their CNS, especially powerlifters. Has this experience with the bulgarian method changed your thoughts and beliefs on the subject? Thanks, and awesome video.
+André Lambert Well I started out training like this from basically the first day of my weightlifting career so I didn't have many ideas about how to train before I had experience with the system.
My current beliefs about training revolve solely around developing successful competitors. I think it is very easy for someone to train in a way that doesn't produce good results. That is really all that matters. If you are training to little, or too much, or for whatever reason your results are bad then your training is bad.
André Lambert u7
I actually tried it. Well a variation of "squat everyday". It actually made me stronger and I'd recover much faster. My legs and shoulders grew thicker and my overall fitness increased (for the sport I play).
Its volume and high level conditioning work that will fry your cns faster than low volume high intensity heavy training will
@@MURF8393 PREACH!!! This is facts!!!
A brilliant educational analysis of the Bulgarian lifting training program. Thank you for sharing those secrets. The Bulgarians were superb in the 70s 80s . How would you like to work in India ? :)
Каде са Българите бе!!!
в България?
Тука сме братле 💪🏻🏆🎖🏅🥇🇧🇬
I think I know the secret that lays in this method. The problem traditionally recovery rate, growth hormone release and testosterone levels ain't seen as a muscle that is also growing.
I can imagine when you are constantly stressing your body to the max, your growth hormone will be constantly asked to be released into the body until that isn't much left to release and your levels of testosterone would drop from the constantly lifting and your recovery rate will begin to fatigue. However your body may begin to adapt in the long term to sustain chemical balance. Therefore your recovery rate will increase, your growth hormone levels will increase and your testosterone levels will increase.
Eventually it is like your got a new engine in your body that can now withstand greater stress and recovery faster and grow faster.
Well thats completely irrelevant as they would obviously be taking Test and HGH exogenously anyway. And thats ignoring the fact that their isn't any evidence to support that conjecture you've made
@@Anonymous95202 Stating there is no evidence is not an useful statement and counter productive in this circumstance. Because if you can't state there was a study done on it. It is more of a gaping oversight that it wasn't even done in the first place.
But Rest. Recovery. Great nutrition and amino acids. Greatly help
All that leads to Overtrainig . Injuries. Burn out. And depleting carbs
Knowing, watching and being trained by some of Abajiev's champions. I'd like to say, that its not exactly true that there wasn't focus on the technic. And a "max" in his system means the maximum weight without the need of competition type concentration.
I trained with John thrush for quite a few years and his style was similar. He would however back off if I was flat or injured. He often pushed us to lift over 90%. I did my best lifting under him, but I wonder if I would’ve benefited more from more measured training. However, for an elite talented athlete, I believe this style can be ideal. The Bulgarians obviously had a huge talent pool, and I believe the sport is second to only soccer as far as popularity there. Good video.
Silent Mike looks a lot like Ivan Abadjiev
In some shots I thought he looked like Sylvester Stallone
RIP Ivan.
This was a great method for preparing a large team but it has a massive attrition rate. If you are lifting for a hobby or to set PR's then this is a good ticket to snap city.
Did this for arms about a year ago and my arms were the biggest/most muscular they'd ever been.
Wrestling, weight lifting or fight sports, we are no joke, for 7 million country. We train 2 times a day, 2 hours, we have olympic gold medalist almost in every sport and world records almost everywhere, we just dont quit, pain is nothing, glory is everything!
DO bulgarian wrestlers train the olympic lifts with Abadjev\Bulgarian method?
This legendary trainer, reminds me of a Bulgarian David Goggins. But, obviously he came 1st. Regardless, just discovered the documentary on him & can't wait to finish watching it!
The rest of the weighlifting world uses Abadjiev's method !
FOck yeah , Bulgarian hardcore lifting , baby !
Hi! Thanks for the video! I a bulgarian and I m currently applying this in armwrestling. Every day is different than the other, It's very rough style. I'd like to ask whether you have any information on what did weightlifters eat? Did they consume some specific food at that time?
Thank you!
they ate sugar bags and pure supplements.
Great video! Very fascinating!
Surely they must have been taking waaaaay more "supplements" to handle that sort of constant intensity....
+Matt Deeks yeah but the frequency is as high as possible
+Mike Hawkes I dunno about Max, but the Bulgarian team got busted in the 80s for their 'supplements'.
Aside the concept of absolutely necessarily taking "supplements" to become the best (or "hyooge"), the concept of being under professional supervision of elite grade coaches from the age of eight (8) isn't very popular at some (most) parts of the world.
Abadjiev already did revealed (not just once) some spicy information from the kitchen about how his lifters were "busted", including during the 80s.
right about the same amount the todays athletes take :)
You obviously have never tried the program.
Coach Abadjiev never used the Soviet weightlifting system. In fact, he was against it and the whole government apparatchiks were against him because of his system training twice to three times per day.
I trained for my lifetime as a drug free powerlifter. Ernie frantz wrote 10 commandments of powerlifting that
almost mirrors bulgarian system of singles. Ernie called it the all or non concept. One day per week would
do all 3 lifts to max or near max singles and other days sub max singles focus on main lifts. It was brutal
training that helped me win multiple WI state titles, 1987 and 1988 Collegiate National Championships and
Take a Bronze medal 1987 IPF JR worlds in Lima Peru. The concept of Meet training. Singles teach u how to
psych up every day, your body and mind become stronger. Come meet day choose conservative attempts and
you are more cock sure it will happen. I call it smashing or crushing the weight!!! This workout is not for the
faint of heart!!!!
He said alex krychev and my jaw dropped. Alex was my soccer coach growing up in the bay area. Thats crazy.
There is a little interview on youtube with Dimas called "right system at the right time" about his experience and opinion about the Bulgarian system.
Max, could you specify, in another video, how much voluminous that bulgarian method is? Explaining how many sets and trainnings per week. And if is possible too, suggest an aplication of the bulgarian for powerlifters. Thanks for all the informations, and thanks the Juggernaut for the channel.
+Paulo Netto We will be doing more on it in the future i believe.
man man man, lifting everyday multiple times a day is unbelievable. They had to have been on gear for their bodies to heal
Awesome video. Repeating stuff alot of times, but i geuss that’s how we learn.
To be strong need to be Bulgarian !!!!
Hahahaha why did you put Greek music in the intro?? This is hilarious
Yeah, this is Bulgarian music for the Amis hahaha so ignorant.. always
How did Aita end up in this training farm? great stuff
great system and for naturals also or even more .!!!
Its just a llittle too time consuming for the random Bob due to 2-3 training sessions a day .
Yes more videos please!!
Generalizing a bit, but finesse and attention to detail are something rarely seen throughout late Bulgarian history.
Thanks for the great video. How did bulgarian lifters taper before competition or was it just same training style always?
Is there any place for the Bulgarian system for Master Olympic lifters over 70 years of age?
Hey Max, curious if there's a situation where you'd consider using this plan for your athletes. Maybe someone with years of experience but who hasn't competed and maybe has a mental barrier to heavy weight in competition? Or is it just a bad option regardless of the situation?
Also, the vid makes Abadjiev sound like that little league teeball coach who takes winning too seriously. At all costs. Go go go. Fascinating stuff. :)
Single rep warmups with big jumps between weights is crazy. How does that warm you up. Sounds like a great way to pull something
Yeah, pull big numbers
@@jonathanhoffmansanchez2723 LOL
At 2:10 it looks like Marinov is lifting 135, but the sign says 145. What am I missing? I see 20 (bar) + 4*25 + 2*5 + 2*2.5 (collars)
25kg bar and 5kg collars possibly, or they could be 10kg plates.
Do you think that some people could be more receptive to this type of coaching on amateur level? I would have love to hear your personal opinion at the end the video. Great video by the way!
Hello I'm from Bulgaria !
Can I contribute with Bulgarian subtitles for this video ?
My friend Joe Gazio was Antonio Krastev's roommate. Krastev said the Bulgarian method doesn't work.
The main thing is that your maximum on every day is different. Today's your maximum is 200, tommorow is 160. After this message try to see on this system from different point of view.
Very nicely explained
I love the intro
Amazing vid never knew this was so intense. Going to apply this to my workouts.
So working up to your max each set, how long did you rest in between each set? And about how many sets did it take to reach your max! Hope your still here! Thanks new subscriber here
What were Max's best training or competition lifts during his oly lifting career?
Did lifters get Sundays off? Can you give more detail on how Tues/Thurs/Sat was different? How where bad training days treated? There must have been repeated instances where after 10-20 misses a lifter just has to call it a day, otherwise everyone would be Snatching bars filled with 50kg Bumpers
Weightlifters will always have the most effective training methods
How does this system stack up with what the Chinese do? The little I know about the Chinese programs, it seems as though they are closer to a Russian system (focus on form, many exercises).
Yes as far as I know (which may not be much) the Chinese have a system based off of Russian coaches who were brought there to help build the program.
Max / Juggernaut TS -what about the Greeks of the 90s era.They did successfully a derivative of the original Bulgarian system.Do you have any info/data about that???
Max "Bulgarian Method got me this strong but I don't endorse it cause I can't sell it" Aita
I think the difference and distinctive opposition of Bulgarian and Soviet systems can be illustrated on many other sports. Take boxing for example. Here again, the Soviet approach is extremely metodical and I dare say pseudo-scientific, based on endless drilling of technique that is non-negotiable, often using codified "rules" that were thought to be essential 60 years ago, and creating categories and subcategories of boxers and then literally handing out strict handbooks how one style should approach another. Its very OCD-friendly. But then again, many other boxing schools abandon all that and put heavy accent on sparring, sparring, sparring - it doesnt matter very much how you lift your elbow or which way you place your thumbs when throwing hooks and how wide your knees are, as long as it suits YOU and brings needed results. In the end, theoretically superior Soviet-style technicians often lost to lesser boxers who were had far more fight time and were used to spar and fight much harder and more often.
Great video, extremely informative 💪🏻👍🏻
Good video.
Really interesting video, i've read a lot of contrasting information about the bulgarian method so nice to hear from someone who's experienced it first hand. Predictable question but do you think the bulgarian system has any place for non professional lifters? I'm not suggesting trying to fit it around work/studies but for example i will have about 6 weeks this summer where i will have 24 hour access to a gym and little other commitments - could this sort of training be successfully implemented over a short period of time or is it simply unrealistic for 'normal' lifters to attempt it?
I have firsthand experience of this style of training. At least a version of it that I kind of "invented", but still had the same spirit.
My opinion? You are going to make the best strength gains of your life in your six-week stint doing the program. Heck, if you push it for a whole six *months*, even better... But anything beyond that, you will either get hurt or get tempered into a champion. Most likely the former.
When I did my own (which was squat-focused and didn't really have the snatch and the clean in it), I was suffering from severe tendonitis in the knees by the fourth month. And by the fourth month, I added 80 pounds to my squat (335 pounds to 415). I'd recommend it if you want/need a quick boost to your squat in the shortest amount of time. But as far as thinking long term? Bad fucking idea.
I know you said there wasn't a deload in the system, so would athletes continue maxing out everyday even the day before a meet? It just seem counter productive making an athlete compete in a fatigued state if the goal was to have them perform at their best.
this is a great video
great history lesson thankyou
what you think about the neuromuscular adaptation/changes occur in both Hungarian systems vs. Bulgarian system? whats your comments on Chinese weightlifters? Drop a video if possible.
Was the squats and the Snatch & Clean done on the same day?