Old Forum Jim Moser article on Bulgarian Weightlifting

[LoneRider]

I recently found this article by former US nationally ranked weightlifter and powerlifter Jim Moser on Ivan Abadjiev and the training of Bulgarian weightlifters and thought I would share it with the forum.

Bulgarian Weightlifting Article by Jim Moser

I immediately was reminded of elements of Power to the People by the extremely minimalist nature of the program (built only around the competition lifts and a single assistance exercise) if not the exercise themselves.

It also brought to mind a couple things I have read or heard, one being that Bulgarians, compared to their Russian counterparts, tended to lift at the 90% intensity zone a lot more frequently and supposedly had shorter careers due to the heavy loads and daily lifting. The other was an expression I read in a magazine that said, "When it rains in Moscow Bulgarians take out their umbrellas."

How much did Russian training methods influence their Bulgarian counterparts I wonder.

 

 

[Journeyman]

The 'Bulgarian system' is definitely an interesting one to look at. If you want to learn more; there are a few examples of programs floating around the web (there's the routines Naim Suleymanoglu followed someplace) and of course John Broz has written a great deal about the method as well.

The Bulgarians originally started out following the Russian methods, but discovered that the success of those Russian methods at the time relied too much on the type of drugs they were using (according to Abadjiev). After some experimentation, Abadjiev increased the total tonnage 5-10 times, and included max work at every single session, which was much more specific to a sport involving solely 1RM attempts. This was from a presentation he did a few years back, if you give me your email I can send you the notes I took on it.

Currently, the Chinese use a system combining the Russian and Bulgarian methods with great success--the competition lifts often go up to a daily max but do not involve the brutal near-max volume of Abadjiev's program; and their assistance work is varied but highly specific, much like that of the Russians.