Bulgarians
February 16th 2007 11:47
In the 1980s sports authorities started to test for performance enhancing drugs in a serious way.This,of course,impacted all kinds of sports,but Olympic weightlifting felt it especially. Banning drugs hit the Bulgarian team as hard as anything could. To Bulgaria Olympic weightlifting is as important as American football is to Texans. It was their international success story. Now, however, the crutch of drugs was being removed and the future of Bulgarian dominance was up in the air.
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Their response to the new situation is what makes the Bulgarian weightlifting story worth telling. Faced with the loss of drugs the Bulgarians took an unexpected turn. They undertook a complete review of all of their training practices and began to question the most basic assumptions as to that training was to be conducted. Without enhancement weight training appeared on the surface to be impossible at the level to which they were accustomed. The use of steroids, of course, made recovery so easy that huge work loads could easily be endured, but without them how much could be done was a big question.
The conventional wisdom was that without chemical help the amount of work would have to be pared back to the point where new records and high levels of performance seemed unlikely. In other words the days of glory would end. But the Bulgarians did not accept the conventional wisdom. They instead began to experiment with adaptation and recovery. Soon they had developed some shocking training regimens. Rather than back off training to compensate for no drugs, they began to train more often. Soon through rigorously analyzed trial and error lifters were lifting several times a day. Since much of Olmpic lifting revolves around the two competitive lifts these frequent sessions also revolved around them.
The Bulgarians thus developed a training system that seemed counterintuitive. Unassisted by drugs they should have been training less, simply because they were unable to recover as fully. They were training more often,however. Conventional wisdom was that they could only have done this by limiting their volume(cumulative poundage). But they were competitive lifters and limiting poundage,at least, would have been counterproductive to say the least. So here they were lifting several times a day with huge poundages on a relatively narrow range of movements and the result was that they were successful in competition! How?
Trough serious attention to the actual physical process of training and recovery the Bulgarians discovered that the body will adapt to whatever demands are placed on it, if those demands are introduced in a systematic fashion. Their system placed heavy emphasis on regularity of progressive training and active recovery. That meant that workouts were shorter than before but more frequent and that recovery was engineered not haphazard. Lifters went through short intense sessions followed by whirlpools and massage as well as just plain old rest. Thus recovery was as regimented as workouts. Nutrition was newly systematized as well, since it had to yeild an optimum synthesis of nutrients without a boost from drugs.
The Bulgarian system soon came to be encapsulated in the phrase "the body becomes its function." Thus their frequent,short, but highly intense lifting sessions produced bodies that were more and more capable of dramatic bursts of power. This was possible only because the system paid so much respect to the body's need for recovery. You might say that they learned to walk the tightrope between under and over training. Regardless they continued to win in competition.
We learn much from the Bulgarians:Train as hard as you can in short workouts. Work up to as many of these short workouts as your lifestyle will allow. Take rest seriously and eat to optimize. In short, Manage your regimen always seeking to increase your capacity for more and more work in a shorter time. Your body will become a body equiped for such stress,i.e. bigger and stronger.Your servant,as always.
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The conventional wisdom was that without chemical help the amount of work would have to be pared back to the point where new records and high levels of performance seemed unlikely. In other words the days of glory would end. But the Bulgarians did not accept the conventional wisdom. They instead began to experiment with adaptation and recovery. Soon they had developed some shocking training regimens. Rather than back off training to compensate for no drugs, they began to train more often. Soon through rigorously analyzed trial and error lifters were lifting several times a day. Since much of Olmpic lifting revolves around the two competitive lifts these frequent sessions also revolved around them.
The Bulgarians thus developed a training system that seemed counterintuitive. Unassisted by drugs they should have been training less, simply because they were unable to recover as fully. They were training more often,however. Conventional wisdom was that they could only have done this by limiting their volume(cumulative poundage). But they were competitive lifters and limiting poundage,at least, would have been counterproductive to say the least. So here they were lifting several times a day with huge poundages on a relatively narrow range of movements and the result was that they were successful in competition! How?
Trough serious attention to the actual physical process of training and recovery the Bulgarians discovered that the body will adapt to whatever demands are placed on it, if those demands are introduced in a systematic fashion. Their system placed heavy emphasis on regularity of progressive training and active recovery. That meant that workouts were shorter than before but more frequent and that recovery was engineered not haphazard. Lifters went through short intense sessions followed by whirlpools and massage as well as just plain old rest. Thus recovery was as regimented as workouts. Nutrition was newly systematized as well, since it had to yeild an optimum synthesis of nutrients without a boost from drugs.
The Bulgarian system soon came to be encapsulated in the phrase "the body becomes its function." Thus their frequent,short, but highly intense lifting sessions produced bodies that were more and more capable of dramatic bursts of power. This was possible only because the system paid so much respect to the body's need for recovery. You might say that they learned to walk the tightrope between under and over training. Regardless they continued to win in competition.
We learn much from the Bulgarians:Train as hard as you can in short workouts. Work up to as many of these short workouts as your lifestyle will allow. Take rest seriously and eat to optimize. In short, Manage your regimen always seeking to increase your capacity for more and more work in a shorter time. Your body will become a body equiped for such stress,i.e. bigger and stronger.Your servant,as always.
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