Unpacking Abadjiev: An Application of the "Bulgarian Method" to More Traditional "Endurance" Sports

Someone tell Abadjiev that the Bulgarians only trained singles!  In all seriousness, this video is so awesome.

Volume One

The word "adapt" comes from the Latin word "adaptare," meaning "to join,” although this somewhat archaic definition was later revised in 1956 to mean "to undergo modification so as to fit new circumstances.”  The latter definition is better fit for this discussion.

Now, I had never heard the word adapt or adaptation used in the context of athletic training or performance until I began reading up on Ivan Abadjiev and his so-called "Bulgarian Method" a few years ago.  Abadjiev's basic concept is that an individual, in this case an athlete, will adapt to whatever stresses are imposed on their body, provided this stress is imposed gradually over time (I have always thought that John Broz's "garbage man" analogy is an easy way to explain the principal of adaptation to a normal person).  Using this fundamental of evolutionary biology as the starting point, I believe coaches should consider changing their training programs to concentrate more heavily on driving the specific adaptations necessary for their athletes to experience the highest level  of success in competition.

Looking at competitions in the sport of weightlifting, an athlete will typically open a meet with a snatch attempt anywhere between 85-92 percentage of their competition best (the same is true later for the clean and jerk provided the athlete does not miss all three of their snatch attempts).  Therefore, weightlifters need to be comfortable handling loads of 90 percent or more in both lifts on the same day.  The best way to build this type of confidence is to make these types of lifts consistently in training.  Abadjiev understood this concept, and, more importantly, he came to learn that a high-frequency training program grounded in singles over 90% would promote favorable adaptations within his athletes.  Simply put, you develop proficiency with a task by performing it more often.

This begs the question, what lessons, if any, can coaches in more traditional “endurance” sports take away from Abadjiev and his Bulgarian Method?  I believe the answer is many.

First and foremost, I do not believe swimming, as competed at the national and/or international level, is an endurance sport.  Some might disagree, but the fact is that twelve of the thirteen individual events contested at the NCAA championship meet take less than four-and-half minutes to complete, and ten take less than ninety-nine seconds (the lone exception is the 1,650-yard freestyle, more commonly known simply as “the mile,” which takes between fourteen and fifteen minutes to complete  at that level).  In addition to the individual events, all the relay splits also take less than ninety-ninety seconds to complete.  This bias towards top-end speed means the sport of swimming is strength and power based, not endurance based!  Therefore, athletes need to be prepared to race at a high intensity level (in this context, “intensity” is defined as the percentage of the athlete’s best 100-yard time.  Even in one of the longer events, the 500-yard freestyle, an athlete will usually hold a pace between 85-90% of their best 100-yard freestyle for consecutive 100-yard splits).  Analyzing races from this mathematical perspective helps illustrate why most conventional swim practices fail to produce the ideal adaptations, primarily because athletes are accumulating far too much volume at far too low an intensity level.

I plan to make this post a multi-volume article so please stay tuned for future updates.

Don't Get High on Your Own Supply

Everyone likes to set a new personal record (PR), but doing so at the expense of a movement’s integrity runs counter to the end goal.  Take the squat, for example.  I often see athletes stopping well short of bottom, or in far too many cases, parallel, just to set a “new” PR.  I suspect they do this for any number of reasons, all of them negative: they were never taught proper squat mechanics, they lack the necessary hip mobility to reach bottom, they do not respect movement standards, and/or they seek to satisfy their inner desire to “be stronger than ever before.”

In the sport of weightlifting, shallow squatting will most likely limit your total, as I rarely see these athletes cleaning max weights.  They either restrict themselves to power cleaning, or they try to catch all their cleans right at, or just above parallel (not surprisingly, the point where they cut their squats short).  In addition to this drawback, a shallow squatter will never develop the hip, torso, and posterior chain strength  and flexibility of their “bottom” squatting peers.  Personally, I don’t know how anyone can cut a squat short and stand up, for if I fail to “catch the bounce” I will get pinned.

In short, if you choose to occupy a squat rack, occupy it with pride and execute proper squats.  Furthermore, resist the urge to judge your training progress solely on the weight on the bar. 

"Gems" from Dan John

Dan John getting after it.

I'll read anything Dan John (or Bill Starr, for that matter) writes. John's exposure to a wide variety of different sports -- football, throwing, wrestling, Highland games, weightlifting, etc. -- plus his countless hours spent in the weight room (not to mention his coaching pedigree) make him, in my opinion, a leading expert on all things athletic.  For this reason, I was super excited to watch the eight-part interview he did with Mark Rippetoe on the Starting Strength series. Sufficed to say, I was not disappointed. The man drops more "gems" than Stevie Wonder in Tiffany's.

Some of my favorites include: (1) the "80-20 Rule," meaning one out of every five workouts, meets, etc. will be lackluster; (2) prioritizing “competition events” within an athlete’s training  (this should fall into the "duh" category, but some “coaches” never cease to amaze); and (3) the value of incorporating kettlebell work.  An in-depth discussion of all three points would exceed the scope of this post, so I will instead focus on the kettlebell piece.

In my past training, the kettlebell played a small role, usually relegated to a few sets of heavy swings once or twice a week, but rarely much more.  The John-Rippetoe interview led me to rethink that approach, and over the past several weeks I have been mixing in more KB training. Ten straight minutes of swings, cleans, presses, snatches and squat varieties makes for an efficient full-body warm-up (add ten more minutes of soft tissue work and mobility, and you're all the more prepared for your next workout). Among the squat varieties are goblet, front, and overhead.  Furthermore, don’t make the same mistake I did and write off the goblet squat as an exercise only for skinny-jean hipsters; it reinforces proper torso position on both the back and front squat like whoa. 

Good call on the kettlebells,  Dan John.

PS – My favorite moment of the interview is when Dan John talks about attempting a 185# press "tabata."  You must be strong as hell to even consider that idea (however, based on his exchange with Rip, I don’t think it worked out too well for him).