My high school strength coach/history teacher was on the US Olympic Team in the 80s. He talked about working out with the Bulgarians and how they trained. I made the stupid comment once of 'well they were on steroids.' He looked at me and said 'We were all on steroids. Those guys just knew how to train better.'

So let me get this straight, this means that Rich Piana's 7 hour arm workout is the Bulgarian method of bodybuilding.

I train bugenhagen, BRO

Instructions unclear: I cycled to Bulgaria

#1 reason for Bulgarian success: Selecting the best lifters in a nation w/a large population of lifters: Bulgaria values lifting far more than the US. A strong kid who'd play football here'd be a lifter in Bulgaria.

If you have a day job, you don't train Bulgarian bro

Please put 'You don't train Bulgarian, Bro' on a shirt. I'll buy 2

Since i am Bulgarian and i train I must be training Bulgarian :p

But Eric....

In a scientific basis of strength training course I took in college, we always heard about the Bulgarians, and how they’d either get injured or survive and kick total ass. It’s like you said, it’s their entire life.

I had a Bulgarian coach for a little bit. He had me squat everyday to max. It worked well. I went from Oly lifting to powerlifting and applied the same working up to max everyday with my deadlift. It went well. 2 years of no injuries and no stiffness.

I gotta say that as a Bulgarian I'm proud that this method of training has gained popularity worldwide, even though it was most successful for Bulgarian lifters several decades ago. Well done with the description and examples!

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

let me put on my +5 hat of weapon smithing and let's talk about this

My coach was Sevdalin Marinov, he never trained me under the Bulgarian system because he knew it would break me.

love your content, Zack. I appreciate what you're doing.

I always look forward to your videos. Zach. Keep up the good work!

Not sure what I love more, the variety of the intro music or the quality of the content!

Thank you! Finally! Way too many other fitness youtubers talk about this while not knowing what they talk about at all.

You can’t say i am not training bulgarian because i am bulgarian myself.Of course i am training bulgarian.

3:28 DEM TRAPZ BRAH!

Lit how u spoke over whole day n nite beat. U killed it 😭🔥🔥

This is my favorite video of yours.

I am from Bulgaria and I didn't know about this system. Thank you for the information!

That was in fact very educational! Thank you

Extra supplements= Irn-Bru

Bulgarian Light is maxing out everyday e.g. Eric Bugenhagen

people just want an excuse to max out every day without getting called out for ego lifting. “I’m not testing my strength, I’m building strength. It’s called Bulgarian look it up hurrr duurrhh”

"Extra supplements", like creatine? Or whey protein?

I do Serbian method; Rakija + Cevapi every day and 2 hours at the gym maxing out all my compound lifts with epic hardbass music in the background.

Hi Zack, what are these extra "supplements" you speak of? Asking for a friend ;)

Great video. The first time I read the term was in an article that talked about training splits and just mentioned it in passing like this: "upper/lower, push/pull/legs, bulgarian system (squat every day)" and that stuck with me. It seems some don't even point to bulgarian as anything to do with clean and jerk or olympic weightlifting

So basically it's like powerlifters who say they train "Westside" method. But if you're not in the westside gym/camp you can't train Westside.

Then there's me who two years ago thought the entire sport of Olympic weightlifting was literally called "Bulgarian Weightlifting". God I'm dumb sometimes.

Like the vid and channel, bro You have a new Belgian subscriber💪🏻

I think I managed to do something some what similar to Bulgarian lifting without knowing about it. Every lift I did was 1 rep towards hitting my 1 rep daily max fast as possible. Therefore I will do only 4 one rep lifts to reach my 1 rep max. Then when I got comfortable with that I will have two sessions a day doing the same thing. So in the end I will be only doing 5 lifts per session to a total of 10 lifts per day everyday. I improved very fast doing this method. People say it makes you tired but I don't think so. Because the volume is low and the lifts aint many and the sessions spread out through day day. I think I had the ability to do 3 sessions in a day as long as they are spaced out it gives you time for recovery even in a daily setting. There was periods where I stop training like that everyday where I will rest for 3 days as a precaution but it seemed to work well.

I'm a big fanboy of Max and Chad. Digging your intro/outro beats!!

Anytime the intro starts with Kid Cudi, you know it is going to be good.

Тука ли сте нацепеняци?

good job! Thanks a bunch. 🙂

3:55 We all saw it said Bulgarian Women first. Zack's search history revealed.

Also noticed that you wore the “why be normal” shirt worn by at least one lifter from the Unbelievable Bulgarians video. Not sure if this is on purpose but well played 👍🏻

I feel lots of people just got a nasty burn after this

Zach- I agree for the most part with the video. HOWEVER the person who wrote the article is a highly respected strength/bodybuilding coach and has been for an extended period of time.In other words he has a great understanding of the human body and training in general. He wrote the article with "modifications" ON PURPOSE! These recommendations are not "random musings. his program WAS NEVER INTENDED TO BE A STRICT COPY OF THE BULGARIAN WEIGHTLIFTING METHODOLOGY UNDER ABADJIEV!

Great video!

Am Bulgarian, can confirm.

High INTENSITY based on previous high VOLUME will give highest competitive results. To get to the so-called Bulgarian method one had to have had at least 8 to 10 years of high-volume weightlifting training.

Ivan Ivanov coached my kid’s current Wrestling coach, some of his wrestling drills/techniques have trickled down to these kids. 🙌

Solid video Zack

Great video 👌

Bulgarian = Not more Steroids as in KZfaq Natural Bodybuilding

Супер видео 🇧🇬🔥

train 8 hours a day yikes. respect to the Bulgarian weightlifters.

The frequency of training (multiple sessions in one day) kind of reminds me of something that Glen Pendlay did a handful of years ago with his athletes at MDUSA (or at least 3 of them). I believe it was Travis Cooper, James Tatum and Mike Szela. But he broke up their training into like 4-6 sessions throughout the day, with each smaller session just being one lift or a variation of a lift, working up to whatever percentage. I remember on podcasts and in their videos that he'd program "Bulgarian-ish" and I believe that Glen was also a coach at Cal Strength at least part of the time Ivan Abajiev was there, so I'd give some credence to him when he calls it "Bulgarian-ish". Damn, I miss watching those training videos.

Love it.

Offended, bro.

With very few exceptions, Americans that trained with Abijaev when he came to California don’t use the system to coach other lifters. John Broz, Steve Gough, and Jim Moser are coaches that come to mind that have produced some pretty decent athletes using a version somewhere between the modified version you described and the actual Bulgarian method.

Man that intro music tho. Anyone else remember NBA Live 09 ?

What a video!

Could you talk about the reasons of squatting before or after performing the olympic lifts in a normal training session? All my close lifters disagree about this topic lol

Zack, you being a coach that successfully merges theory and practice, could you make a video on your favorite books and authors? I am puzzled in which bompa book to buy...thx

Have you seen John broz Bulgarian for powerlifting article? Working up to a daily max then a back of set double or triple, squatting and benching 5-6 times per week and deadlifting once

Never heard of training Bulgarian. Now I only have respect for those weightlifters.

Anybody can look up interviews with ABADJIEV HIMSELF in which he talks about the important things according to him. He mentions multiple training sessions per day, 4-5 exercises per session, recovery and specificity as the most important things. He never mentions "maximum" in those interviews. I think Americans are too caught up with the set-rep ranges rather than the essence of what this person actually invented.

Zack whats the deal broski, ok how do we get the programming from you? And I'm in Houston could i come to you a couple times a month to analyze my lifts and technique...

They changed the description of bulgarian method on the site probably after your video. LOL

There’s a difference between bolgarian and bolgarian light but telling people they are training wrong is very motivating

bro i miss mac, i just singed along to the beat at the end.

I remember a lot of guys talking about this in the early 90's then it just kind of went "Poof" . I never really learned about it...hence I'm watching. And giving you a Like

This is the best title ever

I'm glad someone fucking said it. I read some mad long manual on it once and decided it wasn't for me....cos I need to work

It is also relevant that Abijaev coached for like 4 decades and the system changed (very slightly) over time from very specific to even more specific. When guys like Alex Krychev came to America from Bulgaria initially it seemed like they used slightly more variation than solely Front squat and S/C&J. He seemed to use power variation, back squat, and more percentage work. But otherwise same basic ideas.

I like your shirt. There is a KZfaq clip with a lifter that has the same shirt on.

How long have you been involved in Olympic weightlifting and how did you get involved? You seem pretty young, but very knowledgeable, just curious.

Interesting summary! I thought it was about squatting every day but less sets per session :/ :0

Jason Blaha does bulgarian though... Non negotiable. If you don't agree your mouth is writing a check that your ass cannot cash. Think about it, just think about it for a moment. 😉

Nice . subbed

Just gonna say I don't lift or anything but you did an excellent job in this video. Also way to systematically dispel all the nonsense thrown around the gym (broscience) vs real empirically tested data.

Just one day of this training sounds like it would kill me.

what's the clip at the end from? the monster 225 C&J and the roaring crowd

Beginner lifter in the former Soviet and Bulgarian training is 10-14 years of age, Intermediate 13-17, elite 16+ ..had a former defector tell me “Americans start way to late, by age 14 I was cleaning double body weight”. Bulgarian elite level of heavy athletics (weightlifting), usually ends by the age of 22 due to long lasting injuries, burnout, doping scandals etc.where as the former Soviet elite training was much more methodical and mathematical towards training as the athlete peaked near competition.. Yes they lifted heavy single and double reps.. The former Soviets coaches also understood that training a super heavy is not the same as training a light weight Whereas the Bulgarians collectively trained everyone similar..it’s why everyone looked trashed walking up to the bar in competition!

So basically this program for national level and above or people that perhaps have 6 to 8 hours a day to spend lifting to max ,come back in a few hours do it again and come back a few hours later and do it again correct?

As a Bulgarian I had no idea about this..

That there is a very nice firm back hand. "Sit down junya, you ain't trainin Bulgarian"

You can find the video somewhere on youtube if you search up "squatting everyday" This person. was a powerlifting and in the video KEPT saying "i have been doing the Bulgarian weightlifting program". The person claimed they have been doing this program for about 3 months, so they are very qualified to tell you how it went. All this person mentioned was squatting everyday. that was it. not maxing, not 3 sessions, not even special supplements. Plus, he is a powerlifter. He turned off the comments and the like to dislike was very positive, i just wish people could be informed like Zack Talenders audience.

T-Nation wrote a bad article? I am SHOCKED...

As soon as i heard kid cudi day and night i liked and sub

I think something very important to note is that while the intensity for the front squat, snatch, and clean and jerk are 100%, those lifts are not as taxing on the body as a 1rm on the lowbar back squat, or deadlift. This effectively makes recovery for maximal effort several times everyday slightly easier because in a sense it's not the body's absolute limit. I believe this makes trying a true bulgarian system with something as intense as deadlifts and lowbar back squats in the same day nigh impossible. It wouldn't in nature be bulgarian either because that method specifically uses front squats, snatches, and clean and jerks.

I did Bulgarian training for 1 week and I was so fuckin sore I had to take 3 day’s off

Bulgaria trains you

Your t-shirt "why be normal?" Is intentional and awesome. For other people reading this. Check out IronMind on KZfaq. There is a Bulgarian lifter snatching a crazy weight with the same shirt ;)

Bulgarian sounds like a training program for guys on roids

What track did you use for this video?

Don't mix "Bulgaria training" with "Bulgarian -Ivan Abadjiev" training. i am telling you this first hand. Abadjiev was banned out of the Bulgarian federation later in his career and criticized a lot during his prime, because of hi methods, but the truth is that we never had that many champions since he left coaching. His system was criticized as being unhealthy because if the high volume.At that time -70s,80s,9s - the whole Eastern Block and Russia was using higher several reps taring , with a volume of 5-6 metric tons a day. Abadjiev incorporated max 90+ percent training for one rep at only clean and jerk, snatch, front and rear squats only at 50-60 metric tons volume a day. His words were "recovery=adaptation, feeling tired and not recovered means the body is improving and getting stronger. "

How does one do Bulgarian without breaking? Is it even possible for a Natty with regard to recovery rates?

Yo Zack while you’re in the UK make sure you go to a spoons and get 30 wings

Maximal efforts for 10hrs plus watching their buddies do maximal effort. Eat, sleep, live weightlifting

Imagine my surprise when I, a Bulgarian first read the title of that video :D

Here’s the old school training program, 3-4 weeks phases 1. Compound movements 3-5 sets of 15-20 reps 2. 3-5 sets 8-10 reps 3. 2-4 sets 3-5 reps. Hyper, strength, elite phases. When your doing you first two phases you can add two additional movements like leg extension or tricep pull downs or hammer curls just a different section of the muscle group like your outer and inner biceps. Hopefully that helped. Peace

I'm training Bulgarian today bro