Christian Thibaudeau

Bulgarian loading secrets for strength

Over the past 20 years, Bulgaria has developed some of strongest Olympic lifters on the face of the earth. Year after year they
are in contention to win the best team award at the world championships. Even more impressive is the fact that their first team
constantly finishes in the top 3 world ranking while their "backup lifters" also win medals for Qatar (Bulgaria loaned lifters to
Qatar for an hefty sum of money). Bad mouths will be soon to associate this domination with steroids. Let me be clear on this:
at the elite level in Olympic lifting almost everybody uses steroids and the steroids available in Bulgaria are not different from
those available anywhere else! Furthermore, Bulgaria is a small country (approximately 7-8 million peoples) so it doesn?t have
the talent pool that countries like China or the former Soviet Union has/had. Evidently, the fact that they are superior stems
from somewhere else.

Bulgarian lifters use a very atypical loading scheme. A form of loading that I call Bulgarian wave loading. Those who heard a few
things about Bulgarian lifters are led to believe that they always lift maximal weights, 7 days a week. That is not entirely true.
Bulgaria lifters go for their daily max at every 2 sessions. However that daily max is not necessarily a personal best attempt,
rather it's a load that is very challenging for that day. In most cases, it equates to 85-95% of their competitive max.

In their "heavy" sessions Bulgarian lifters will build up to their daily max. This max is not an end in itself, rather it is the starting
point of their training: the daily max is used to calculate the training load for the rest of the day. Once a lifter reaches his max,
he backs down 25-40lbs and do 3-5 sets of 2-3 reps. That are the money sets! With this form of training your daily session is
always adapted to your present capacities.

Bulgarian wave loading parameters

Sets 1-3:Warm-ups with a load lower than 60% of the competition max/personal record
Sets 4-7:Work up to the daily 1 rep maximum
Sets 8-9:Daily max - 40lbs for 3 reps
Sets 10-12:Daily max - 25lbs for 2 reps

They will use this form of loading for 3 daily exercises. On "lighter" days they will do technique work with a relatively light load
(60-70%). They will not have a precise number of sets to do. They do 3 different exercises, allocating 15-20 minutes per exercise
and they do however sets they feel comfortable doing that day. This is not unlike Charles Staley?s EDT , and it is also a technique
used by Canadian weightlifting coach Pierre Roy.

Adapting the Bulgarian system to your capacities

Obviously you do not have the benefits of using anabolic aids nor can you spend most of your day training like Bulgarian lifters
do. However the basic method can still be applied. You just need to reduce the training frequency a bit.
It is not a method limited to the Olympic lifts. If anything it works better for basic strength lifts like the squat, bench press and
deadlift.
Bulgarian loading is for strength gains, not for size gains. Athletes seeking a boost in their strength without too much
bodyweight gain will be well served by the method.

A typical modified Bulgarian strength program

Day 1. Hard session

A. Power clean from hang
wave loading
2 minutes of rest between sets.
10 minutes break between exercise A. and exercise B.
B. Back squat
wave loading
2 minutes of rest between sets.
10 minutes break between exercise B. and exercise C.
C. 1/2 rack deadlift
wave loading
2 minutes of rest between sets.

Day 2. Easy session

A. Bench press
3-4 reps
60-70% of maximum
15 minutes, do as many sets as you feel comfortable doing
B. Push press
3-4 reps
60-70% of maximum
15 minutes, do as many sets as you feel comfortable doing
C. Incline press
3-4 reps
60-70% of maximum
15 minutes, do as many sets as you feel comfortable doing

Day 3. Easy session

A. Power clean from hang
3-4 reps
60-70% of maximum
15 minutes, do as many sets as you feel comfortable doing
B. Romanian deadlift
3-4 reps
60-70% of maximum
15 minutes, do as many sets as you feel comfortable doing
C. Barbell rowing
3-4 reps
60-70% of maximum
15 minutes, do as many sets as you feel comfortable doing

Day 4. Hard session

A. Bench press
wave loading
2 minutes of rest between sets.
10 minutes break between exercise A. and exercise B.
B. Push press
wave loading
2 minutes of rest between sets.
10 minutes break between exercise A. and exercise B.
C. Close grip bench press
wave loading
2 minutes of rest between sets.
10 minutes break between exercise A. and exercise B.

Training Split

Ideally you would follow this split:

Monday: Day 1
Tuesday: Day 2
Wednesday: off
Thursday: Day 3
Friday: Day 4
Saturday: off
Sunday: off

This will allow for maximum recovery between hard sessions and as a result, constant progress!

The choice of exercise is up to you, depending on your goals you may want to vary exercise selection. But the important thing is
to understand the concept. And do no forget to use both hard and easy sessions!