Thunderhead Unchained

2/13/2017
Monday

Arrived in Vegas 5 hours ago. The whole trip took me 7 and a half hours of driving, so I was pretty worn out prior to arriving at Broz's gym.

Front Squat

Trips from bar to 130
Dubs with 150
Singles with 170, 190 - 190 was a grinder

BOS with 170 x 2 - last rep paused

Power snatch

Maxed out at 100 kg

Power clean and push jerk

Maxed out at 120 for the full movement
Maxed out at 130 for power clean only

No BOS

I had a chance to discuss about the Bulgarian Method with Broz after training. He said my order/progression of the lifts was wrong i.e. squats go last, front squats go with the full lifts, back squats go with the power variations.

Funny, because I read an article about the Bulgarian weightlifters and how they always started their sessions with the front squat, but whatever. From this point on starting next week after I return from Vegas, I'm going to train twice a day (once early in the morning 8 AMish, and once at night 7 PMish) while focusing more on the full lifts and take out the power variations from my programming. Because, ultimately, it's the full variation of the lifts that count in the end.


I am ready to take my training to a whole new level.
 
Feb 15, 2017
Wednesday

Just got back from Vegas. Learned a lot from John yesterday. Technique, Bulgarian Method, psychology, etc. etc. Here's my program, it's pretty simple:

AM:

Light squats for warmup

Snatch to max, then take off 15-20 kg and do back off sets for doubles or singles

C+J to max, then back off sets

Front squat to max, then back off sets

Accessories

PM:

Same as AM



On days I feel like absolute shit, I will do the following

Power snatch
Power C+J
Back Squats
Accessories

Today's training session:

Drove for like 8 hours today so I was tired as shit when I arrived at the gym. Did a light workout.

Paused back squats

Worked up to 190 kg. Mixed in some front squats in between squats with singles up to 150 kg. From now on, I will no longer do paused front squats, but put more emphasis on the bounce at the bottom, because it's what John recommended me to do.

No back off sets.

Pendlay rows

6 reps with

70, 90, 110, 130 kg


That was all for today.
 
What do you do for work? Just curious how you have time to get 2 sessions in.
 
Thursday
Feb 16, 2017

AM

Back squats with bar and 40 kg for warmup.

Snatch

DM - 105. Missed 110 x 3
BOS - 90 x 2

30 minute smoke break

C+J

DM - 135. Missed 140 x 3
BOS - 115 x 2

Front Squats

DM - 180
No BOS
No accessories - Ran out of time

Sick as shit right now. Got a throat infection.
 
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What do you do for work? Just curious how you have time to get 2 sessions in.

I'm a tattoo artist. I make my own schedule. My training sessions are spaced about 12 hours apart. I sleep roughly 4.5 hours at night and take naps in the afternoon.
 
2.16.2017
Thursday

PM

Back squats with 20, 40 for warmup

Snatch
Started out somewhat strong then fell flat towards the end. Got the shivers from the cold right now.

Maxed out at 90.
BOS with:

Power snatches with 75, 70, 65

Power C+J

Maxed out at 80.
No BOS

Stopped session early today.
 
2.17.2017
Friday

Sick and dying.

Snatch

Maxed out at 105, then did BOS with power snatches with 95 x 2, 90 x 2, 85 x 2, 80 x 2, 75 x 2

C+J

DM: 140
No BOS

Front squats

DM: 170
No BOS

I feel broken mentally and physically right now.
 
2.17.2017
Friday

PM

Inclement weather down here in TJ. I was able to battle through the pouring rain to get to the gym, but I was left with a such a short amount of time that I had to make this session short.

Muscle snatch up to 60

Squatted 40, 60, 80, 100, 120 for 8 reps
 
2.18.2017
Saturday

Light day today

Power Snatch DM: 100
Bos: High snatch pulls with 95, 90, 85, 80 for singles

Power C+J: 120
No BOS

B. Squat: 170
No BOS

Since I was going light, I wanted to train with more emphasis on speed, namely the "snap" of the hips against the barbell at the full extension. Said snaps and the foot stomps against the platform felt crisper today. Last night I saw a video of Pyrros Dimas power snatch 150 with ease and blistering speed, which made me alter my style of training the power variations of the lifts. Today's training session was incredibly satisfying.
 
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Watched a documentary on Pyrros Dimas today.

In it, he discussed his style of Bulgarian Method training that he did in Greece after he emigrated from Albania.



Monday, Wednesday, Friday he did the following exercises with doubles under 60% and singles above that to a daily max:

Back Squat
Snatch
C+J
Front Squat

in that order for the first two sessions. And on the third session, he would alternate:

Snatches followed by Back Squats
or
C+J followed by Front Squats

And on rest of the days he would lift with 85% of the daily maxes established on the previous days.



The thing that kills me about the Bulgarian Method is that nothing is set in stone in terms of the progression and programming of the exercises. Everybody who's studied it either directly or indirectly from Ivan Abadjiev has his own interpretation - his own choices/progression/intensity/overall volume of the lifts - that it's so mind boggling and I don't know whose program to follow. And there's plenty of misinformation on the internet regarding this subject.

And here's another template I found that was written by Alex Krychev, the silver medalist of the 1972 Munich Olympics:



This one's got rack and block jerks thrown into the mix.

In a nutshell, all of the Bulgarian Method programs carry the same theme: go heavy as fuck everyday - balls to the wall, trash your CNS and brute force it to accept the heavy loads, then adapt and recover. Rinse and repeat.

Anyway, I'm going to tweak my program as I go along and see what best fits me through trial and error.
 
2.20.2017
Monday

Still sick.

Back squats

Warm up with 20, 40, 60

Snatch

DM:100
BOS: High pulls with 98, 95, 90 for singles

C+J
DM: 148
BOS: Clean pulls with 150, 155 for doubles

Front squat
DM: 180
No BOS
 
PM

Snatch
DM: 85, missed 90 x 3
BOS: Power snatch with 85, 80, 75 for singles

C+J
DM: 125
No BOS

Back Squat

DM: 190 paused
No BOS

Fucking flu's killing me.
 
In a nutshell, all of the Bulgarian Method programs carry the same theme: go heavy as fuck everyday - balls to the wall, trash your CNS and brute force it to accept the heavy loads, then adapt and recover. Rinse and repeat.

Anyway, I'm going to tweak my program as I go along and see what best fits me through trial and error.

I'm fairly ignorant about the bulgarian method's intricacies as the frequency doesn't work for my schedule, so I've never studied/considered it in depth.

However, I am curious how progression is made to going heavy as fuck everyday, do they start going heavy as fuck, 3-4 days/week and progress frequency, or do they just throw their lifters to the wolves and see who survives?

My point is even if high level oly lifting programs hitting lifters with high frequency immediately might make sense to weed out those who can't recover well physically or mental, but since you are training yourself, wouldn't it make more sense to do a slow frequency progression towards daily high intensity sessions, and maybe eventually two a days.
 
I'm fairly ignorant about the bulgarian method's intricacies as the frequency doesn't work for my schedule, so I've never studied/considered it in depth.

However, I am curious how progression is made to going heavy as fuck everyday, do they start going heavy as fuck, 3-4 days/week and progress frequency, or do they just throw their lifters to the wolves and see who survives?

My point is even if high level oly lifting programs hitting lifters with high frequency immediately might make sense to weed out those who can't recover well physically or mental, but since you are training yourself, wouldn't it make more sense to do a slow frequency progression towards daily high intensity sessions, and maybe eventually two a days.

Yeah, it probably would have made more sense for me to gradually move up to a 2x a day program. But here's the thing, I lack common sense, and I'm a very impatient motherfucker. The reason I'm doing this program is because I had very decent gains last time from running a light version of this program - maxed out every day on the lifts, alternated snatch and C+J every other day.

It was great. My body and mind needed that. I think I respond better with more intensity and volume in general. Do my numbers indicate that I am ready for the Bulgarian Method? I don't know. Maybe for powerlifting, but most likely not for weightlifting. But I want to try it out regardless because I have the time and I'm still in my 20's, and I want to see how far I could go down this rabbit hole. Will I make incredible gains? Who knows, but at least I'll have a new perspective regarding weight training, and a stronger mindset and a sense of discipline.

The benefits I'm getting from this program is two folds: not am I getting stronger physically, but mentally as well. Everytime I approach the bar stacked with heavy weights, there's no fear; only a sense of calmness. Before, I would stress the fuck out during rest periods before hitting the heaviest sets. Now, it's more of "well, I've got this weight before, and I can do it again." Plus, missing weights have become so common in my training that it doesn't affect me profoundly anymore.

The main difference between now and then is that in the past, I stopped a PR attempt on a particular lift after my first miss while feeling somewhat dejected and disappointed. Nowadays, I can take up to 5 or 10 misses before setting a new PR. Psychology is a huge factor in training. Either you can puss out and stop your sets prematurely, or stick it through and brute force that bitch, come hell or highwater. Once your body and CNS are accustomed to training with heavy weights everyday, all that fear of approaching max weights or missing just melts away.
 
2.21.2017
Tuesday

Missed AM training due to the flu.

Had to modify my PM session in order to not kill myself.

Snatch:

DM: 90
BOS: Power snatch 80, 75, 70 for singles

Squats

Blazed right through the warmup with every set starting after a 15-30 sec rest. Got up to 220 easy with no hesitation before failing on 230.
BOS: 190 for triple

Fin.
 
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2.22.2017

Wednesday

Again, missed AM training session due to illness, but by afternoon, everything was going all right.

Snatch

DM: 105. Missed 110 eight times
BOS: P. Snatch with 90, 85, for multiple singles

Changed my starting position - my stance is wider now.

C+J

DM: Maxed out on C+J with 125. Then proceeded with cleans only because I was getting the "swirlies" again.

Got a new PR on clean only - 155 kg. +5



Front squat

Dove right into
170
180

No BOS
 
2.23.2017
Thursday

Still sick. Weather's killing me down here. I have blood in my phlegm and I feel listless during the day. And yet despite all that, I had a decent training session today.

Snatch - maxed out at 110 kg. Snatch pulled 115, 120, 125, 130 for singles

C+J - maxed out at 130 for C+J, 150 for C. Clean pulled 155, 160, 165 for singles.

No front squats today.
 
Great stuff. I just watched a Juggernaut video with Max Aita talking about (amongst other things) the Bulgarian methods of weightlifting. Fascinating. It's so cool that you can arrange your schedule to accommodate that kind of regimen. Best I can do is a desk job (so I can recover a bit during the day). Will be watching your progress.
 
Great stuff. I just watched a Juggernaut video with Max Aita talking about (amongst other things) the Bulgarian methods of weightlifting. Fascinating. It's so cool that you can arrange your schedule to accommodate that kind of regimen. Best I can do is a desk job (so I can recover a bit during the day). Will be watching your progress.

Yeah, thanks for the kind words. It's a great video, and Max is one of the few individuals who worked directly with Abadjiev, so he knows what he's talking about.

I've been under the weather for more than a week now so I can't train twice a day at the moment. Perhaps, it's my body natural way of telling me to pace myself and work my way up to it little by little.
 
2.24.2017
Friday

Snatch Max - 100
Did a lot of snatch pulls and hang snatches from hips to improve my technique. I'm banging the bar too hard at the full extension.

C+J Max - 90 for full movement, 145 for clean only. I just can't complete the jerk at submaximal weights because I feel like passing out when the bar is front racked. Clean pulled up to 170 for doubles.

No front squats.
 
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