: How is the Bulgarian Method so effective? Given that we need to give our bodies ample rest between workouts, how is the Bulgarian Method so successful (or successful at least for the lifters who trained under Ivan Abadjiev)?

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

I want to preface all of this by saying that this is from memory so a lot of this is sort of foggy.

First, yes, a lot of the Bulgarian lifters were apparently on performance enhancing drugs and I believe many of them were banned from any sort of Olympic Weightlifting.

Secondly, the Bulgarian method is effective because it takes advantage of the body's ability to adapt. If I'm training 4 times a week, maybe doing squats in two of those workouts, and find that my squat is starting to stall, my options are as follows: do more volume (per workout), use a higher intensity (use a heavier weight), or use a higher frequency (more times a week). There is some science behind it which I can't entirely recall but it goes something like this: with more frequency, but less volume, your body is able to recover in time for the next day. If you're going all out 2 times a week, your fatigue is high and your recovery will take longer. A main principle of the Bulgarian method is also that is it auto-regulated and is more of a schema than a set program. If you are feeling horrible one day, you can cut it back a little and maybe do a few less sets. If you are feeling great, go for it. Another principle is the idea that every rep has to be controlled, with consistent and good form, and not be a "grinder" (as that will cause greater amounts of fatigue). See chart (taken from "The Bulgarian Manual", StrengthTheory.com) for visualization.

From what I have read, the Bulgarian method is an advanced lifting paradigm. Those that worked under Ivan Abadjiev were professional lifters, who did this as a living. They literally only ate, slept, and lifted--equivalent to working a full-time job, which is why this is not really advised for beginner or intermediate lifters since there are other programs that could be used that would also yield result. Lastly, if you begin to stall while on the Bulgarian method, there is nowhere else to go when it comes to frequency. Your body can only recover so quickly (naturally) and the average person will want to commit to other things than just lifting.

Omar Isuf & Greg Nuckols wrote a pretty comprehensive 40-pg manual on the subject which you can probably find online named "The Bulgarian Manual". Another one that I can think of off the top of my head is "Squat Everyday", I don't recall the author and I haven't read it but it's highly recommended. Lastly, you can check out this site for a quick overview: www.powerliftingtowin.com/the-bulgarian-method-for-powerlifting/
tl;dr Less volume (along with other things) but higher frequency leads to less fatigue that can be recovered from sooner, letting you adapt more quickly.

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

Firstly your body can adapt to a lot of crazy things within limits.

Now lifting every day applies differently to different lifts. Doing the olympic lifts everyday is a different beast to doing squats/bench/deads every day.

In addition squatting everyday (getting popular nowadays) is again a different animal to deadlifting every day (which you may have noticed you never tend to hear about), or even bench pressing every day (suspiciously absent from current trends too).

Talking about ultra high frequency programs in general, remember that there are three major variables that have to be manipulated together: volume, intensity and frequency. If you up the frequency like on Bulgarian training methods, you have to lower the intensity and the volume. Now Bulgarian methods maintain a pretty high intensity, but it's not a true max - applying Bulgarian frequencies to regular weight training necessitates using an "easy max" to prevent you dying. This is also called a daily minimum. So frequency is very high, intensity is pretty high, and as a result volume is super low: you train mostly singles.

This is all about mastery of fatigue management, but there's different kinds of fatigue. Without getting too hairy, lifting super frequently is mainly excellent for improving motor learning: technique and how good you are at using your existing musculature to apply strength.

Thus you'll find that Bulgarian style training can work well for people who have good levels of muscle mass but are not very efficient in terms of strength. It just makes them very good at lifting singles, very quickly. It does not build mass well though.

Also to be clear, a lot of people crash out or get injured when trying Bulgarian training, it's not for everyone.