The Bulgarian Way

Big Beyond Belief and the 6 “Bulgarian Principles” for Strength and Muscle Growth

Plus, Real Bulgarian Training

     For a couple of decades now, I have pushed the methods that I believe to be the best for fast gains in muscle mass, strength, and power.  Unless this is your first time visiting this blog or reading any of my articles, then you are already well aware of what these methods are.  I believe, without a doubt, that high-frequency training (HFT) where you train a muscle group or lift at least 3 times per week, along with full-body workouts, and multiple sets of low reps are the superior methods.  There are many different workouts, however, that you can follow that use these methods.  Most of my personal training, and the methodology that I have used to train lifters I’ve worked with over the years, has utilized, primarily, Bill Starr’s heavy-light-medium system, along with various Russian methods, in addition to the powerlifting regimens that have come out of Westside Barbell.  Along with those sources, I have also been heavily motivated by the old-school “powerbuilding” workouts of Marvin Eder, Doug Hepburn, and Anthony Ditillo.  In recent years, as in this century, I have also been influenced by the writings of Pavel Tsatsouline and Dan John, though that is mainly because they simply confirmed the training I was already using, and were writing about the same methods that I was already writing about and using myself.  In fact, a lot of the kind of training they wrote about starting around 20 years ago, I had already written about in Ironman several years before.  If you search through this blog and read all of the various articles and programs that I have written, you will find that almost all of them come from the above influences.

     There is one form or “system” of HFT, however, that is also effective, and that I have occasionally written about but not near as much, and that, as you have probably guessed from the title of this article, is Bulgarian training.  When I first started training in the 1980s, and then began working as a freelance writer for most of the major bodybuilding magazines in the ‘90s, Bulgarian training was almost whispered about as some secretive, little-known system that could produce some of the strongest, most massive men on the planet, but what exactly their methods were, we didn’t really know.  There was also the thought that their results were primarily—as with other East European countries that dominated the world of weightlifting and, then, powerlifting—from using anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancement drugs.  Maybe it wasn’t their training, after all, or so we thought, but the fact that they had access, through secret government-run programs (this was the height of the Cold War, keep in mind), to an inordinate amount of anabolic enhancers, perhaps ones that we weren’t even aware of here in the States.

     In the mid ‘90s, Bulgarian training came to the forefront of a lot of bodybuilders’ minds, however, through the publication of one of the most hyped training manuals ever, Leo Costa’s Big Beyond Belief, which purported to reveal to the bodybuilding world, for the first time, the training secrets of this secretive country.  BBB was advertised every month in all of the bodybuilding magazines.  I forked over something like $50 for it, which was a lot of money at the time, back in either ‘94 or ‘95, for nothing more than a book on training methods.  The problem with BBB is that it wasn’t entirely accurate.  Costa attempted to convert Bulgarian methods (or what he claimed were Bulgarian methods) from a strength-only program, one that was only ever intended to be used by competitive weightlifters, into a system that could be used by bodybuilders for hypertrophy.  Real Bulgarian training, though, was, and is, something quite different.

     To keep it basic, Bulgarian training, simply enough, involves maxing out on a lift every single day.  Yes, you read that correctly.  There is some nuance, which we will look at throughout the article, but if you want to increase your barbell back squat, you work up to a 1-rep max each day, sometimes for a couple weeks straight before taking a day off.  That kind of training works for squats, overhead work, and the quick lifts—the lifts needed for Olympic weightlifting.  For bodybuilding and powerlifting, not so much.

     Okay, let’s get back to Costa and his “Serious Growth” training.  BBB was also known as “Serious Growth 3,” as he had written 2 other lesser-known training manuals before hitting the gold mine with his 3rd one.  In the mid ‘90s, he and Tom Platz—believe it or not, Platz was his “co-author” for BBB, even though Platz trained in the polar opposite of everything that Costa espoused—had a column in Ironman magazine entitled, appropriately enough, “Serious Growth.”  In it, they would often write about the 6 basic Bulgarian beliefs.  According to them (although it was probably just written by Costa), these beliefs were:

1. The Bulgarians didn’t believe in warmups or stretching exercises.

2. They felt that layoffs created a higher burnout rate than consistent work.

3. Bulgarian strength athletes trained 2, 3, or more times per day.

4. Their research found that a dedicated athlete using proper techniques and diet can gain 4 pounds of muscle in just 10 days.

5. The Bulgarians scoffed at visualization techniques as a benefit to performance enhancement.

6. They reintroduced the idea that a diet higher in fat and protein is superior for gaining strength and putting on muscle.

     Now, let’s unpack each one of these a little more and see if they’re accurate.  Some of what follows is just my personal opinions based on what has worked for me and the various athletes (and just regular guys and gals) that I have trained over the years.  Some of it, however, is based on what I suspect (or just know) to be true from my own research into Bulgarian training.

     The Bulgarians didn’t believe in warmups or stretching exercises.  This is where context is vitally important.  When I first read that in the ‘90s, I was training, and training others, from purely an American bodybuilding standpoint.  I thought that this must mean that the Bulgarians thought I should just jump right into my “work” sets.  If I was going to do 3 sets of 6-8 reps on bench presses to begin my chest workout, then should I just load 225 pounds on the bar and start my workout?  No!  That’s not what the Bulgarians did.  Sure, they didn’t do any “warmups” and, yes, they did believe that stretching was detrimental to gaining strength, but their workouts consisted, primarily, of ramps.  If they were going to work up to a 1-rep max on the squat, they might start with doing triples with the empty Olympic bar for their first “work” set.  Then they would load, say, 135 for their next triple, and then they would slowly work up to a heavy triple over multiple progressively heavier sets, before then switching over to doubles or singles once they hit a max triple.  If you want to call that “not warming up,” fine, but lifters need to understand the context.

     They felt that layoffs created a higher burnout rate than consistent work.  This is most certainly true, but, again, let’s look at the context.  With Bulgarian training, even though you are “maxing out” daily, you aren’t getting “psyched up,” or using pre-workouts to try to break a new PR each and every day that you train.  Instead, you accept the fact that your weights will naturally “wax and wane” over the training cycle.  You may not be “systematic” about it, but you do practice a form of “load cycling.”  There is no doubt that the Bulgarians would advise you to forego layoffs, but this doesn’t mean that you should train all-out all the time.  Instead, you should have weeks of higher workloads and weeks of lower ones.  Any form of HFT will work as long as you listen to your body and “back off” or deload when it’s needed.  Instead of taking a week completely off from training, use some “active recovery” training during that week.  Do your usual workouts—whatever “usual” means for you—but drop the poundages to between 50 and 70% of what you typically utilize.

     Bulgarian strength athletes trained 2, 3, or more times per day.  The Bulgarians, just as with other East European lifters, were definitely in favor of multiple workouts per day.  As I wrote in my recent Double the Split, Double the Muscle program, however, this wasn’t, and shouldn’t be, used to do double or triple the amount of work that you’re already doing.  Instead, you take what you would do in 1 session and divide that up so that you do that same amount of work, but no more, in another 1 or 2 sessions throughout the day.  Triple-split training, for most folks with jobs and family obligations, would be quite hard, but I think that 2 workouts per day is ideal, assuming you know that you can make it to the gym for each workout.  If you decide, after reading this article, that you want to give Bulgarian-style training a “go,” however, I would just do 1 workout per day to start with.  When using the Bulgarian system, you will probably find that you feel “fried” with just 1 session, even if it’s only used on 1 movement and nothing else, because of the heavy maximum, or “near max,” attempts.  Once you adapt to it then, at that point, you can decide whether or not you think a 2nd session might be worth a try.

     Their research found that a dedicated athlete using proper techniques and diet can gain 4 pounds of muscle in just 10 days.  To be perfectly honest, this is where I’m unsure about the validity of the claim.  It could be correct.  However, if it is, then it would be something that the Bulgarians stumbled upon rather than set out to try and discover.  Why?  Because Bulgarian strength coaches, or strength researchers, weren’t interested in building muscle.  They were interested in getting their weightlifters as strong as possible on the Olympic lifts.  Since weightlifters also compete in weight classes, they wouldn’t want to gain muscle.  In fact, they would want a program that allowed them to get stronger without gaining any mass.  However, in attempting to do so, coaches often stumble upon a method that has an “unfortunate” side effect—hypertrophy.  American weightlifting coach John Broz—probably the most well-known American coach who uses Bulgarian methods and who we will discuss in more detail shortly—once said that the one problem with his methods is that his weightlifters gain too much weight!  That also means that bodybuilders should pay attention.  Many modern trainees struggle to gain weight, sometimes any weight, despite using weight gain shakes, eating a lot of protein (and food), and training with the most popular “get big” programs that are supposed to pack on a lot of mass—usually programs that involve hard but brief sessions and a lot of rest between working each muscle group, the supposed “best” training for so-called hardgainers.  It’s better to look at various strength athletes, or just athletes in general, however, who find that they gain muscle on one of their programs without trying to gain any muscle.  Now, imagine if you used such a program and ate as much food as possible, plenty of protein, got plenty of rest outside of the gym, and did everything else “right” in regards to maximizing hypertrophy gains.  Perhaps that is the training direction the hardgainer should be looking towards.

     The Bulgarians scoffed at visualization techniques as a benefit to performance enhancement.  I’m unsure about this one, as well.  I think it probably comes from the fact, as mentioned, that the Bulgarians and other East European lifters don’t use anything pre-workout to get themselves “psyched up” for training.  Instead, they just believe in going to the gym and doing the work.  When you’re training with max weights on a daily basis, this is important, otherwise you’re going to get burned out and experience central nervous system fatigue.  The nervous system can’t handle getting amped up for the workout along with all of the heavy training.  In fact, most East European lifters work on staying relaxed as much as possible and know how to “take it easy.”  There’s an art to it and it has to be practiced.  However, in my article from January “The Power of Positive Lifting,” I told of a story that Bill Pearl himself told in his book Getting Stronger about the sports doctor Charles Garfield, who visited Soviet strength researchers in the ‘70s and learned how much they valued intense mental concentration and visualization.  (For details, read the article.)  I seriously doubt that the Bulgarians had views much different from the Soviets.  I think this is another one where context is important—this one is both right and wrong.

     They reintroduced the idea that a diet higher in fat and protein is superior for gaining strength and putting on muscle.  This one is probably correct, though, once again, I could be mistaken.  Bill Starr once wrote that, in the ‘60s, he and other American weightlifters were shocked to discover how much protein lifters from Soviet-bloc countries were consuming.  Americans thought, at the time, that it was dangerous to consume too much protein—most of them weren’t consuming anywhere near 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight on a daily basis.  But Starr wrote that the East European weightlifters were consuming 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight on a daily basis.  Starr and other top Americans started doing the same and their lifts skyrocketed.  I’m pretty sure that the Bulgarians were doing the same as their Soviet friends and counterparts.  When Costa wrote this in the ‘90s, high-fat, high-protein diets were making a comeback in America, and “Big Beyond Belief” promoted Dr. Mauro DiPasquale’s “Anabolic Diet,” which revolved around eating high-fat, high-protein Monday through Friday, and eating high-carbs on the weekends.  Costa reported that this is exactly what the Bulgarians believed in doing.  Whether true or not, it is good advice for anyone who wants to gain a lot of strength and muscle while also staying relatively lean.

Real Bulgarian Training

     I actually think that BBB was a decent, if not good, book.  If you wish to read a little more about my experience with it, then read THIS article, one of my most popular essays on the blog in the many years since I penned it.  However, BBB wasn’t Bulgarian training, not the way that the “Bulgarian method” is typically utilized.  I could also be slightly mistaken with such a statement, or perhaps be misleading you, for it could be that some Bulgarian strength coaches did use similar methods as what Costa touted.  However, those strength coaches would be in the minority.  If anything, BBB was more similar to Russian methods than Bulgarian ones, with the variety of sets and reps that are recommended and the way in which the workloads undulate throughout the training cycles.  Whether or not it is Bulgarian in nature, its “problem” lies in the rep ranges that are recommended.  It simply uses too many repetitions on each training day.  I have a feeling that the program(s) that it is based upon, if it actually is based on something Costa learned in his talks with a Bulgarian strength coach, used reps on each training session significantly lower than what are in the program.  Costa then adapted it by increasing the reps to what he thought would better produce hypertrophy, but that ends up creating way too high of a workload for the entire training program.  This is not the essay for it—perhaps I will do one in the future—but if I was to attempt BBB today, I would just lower the reps for each training session.  “Endurance” reps would be in the 5-7 range.  “Hypertrophy” reps would be in the 3-5 range.  And the “strength” days would utilize reps in the 1-2 range.

     What I want to do for the remainder of this article is look at what a real Bulgarian program might look like.  To do this, we will draw upon the wisdom of John Broz and the workouts he recommends primarily for powerlifters.  His thoughts on powerlifting will be better for the majority of lifters reading this.  If you are interested in his weightlifting programs—which we will touch upon here but not go into great depth—then I would recommend doing some of your own research on his methods.  If you do a Google search for “John Broz workout routines,” you should find his main website.

     If your family was captured and you were told you needed to put 100 pounds onto your max squat within two months or your family would be executed, would you squat once per week? Something tells me that you'd start squatting every day. Other countries have this mindset. America does not. – John Broz

     I start, at least for what is to remain here, with that quote just to give you the mindset of Bulgarian training.  It’s sometimes called the “squat every day program” for a reason.  If you are intrigued by the prospect of such training, then I think the best routine, at least to start with, would be to squat every single day—or at least 6 days per week—and not use the Bulgarian method(s) for any other movements.  Every training session, and every day, start your workout by doing ramps of 5s on the back squat.  When 5s get tough, switch over to either triples or doubles and continue doing ramps with one of those rep ranges until you reach an all-out, or close to all-out, set.  At that point, switch over to singles and continue doing progressively heavier singles until you miss a lift.  Repeat, once again, every day.

     Once you’ve adapted to the squats, you can add either power snatches or power cleans and do the same process with those.  You could also eventually go to a double-split program.  Do the squats in the morning and either the power cleans or snatches in the evening.  Once you have the work capacity to handle it, you could then do all 3 movements at each session.

     When you are finished with the squats (and possibly the cleans and/or snatches), you can add 2 or 3 other movements, though I wouldn’t do more than 3.  On these movements, don’t follow the same max-out technique, but just do something such as 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps.  So you might do a workout that looks like this:

Squats: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Power cleans: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Military presses: 5 progressively heavier sets of 3 reps

Weighted chins: 3 straight sets of 3 to 5 reps

Barbell curls: 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps

     If you train 6 days straight, keep the squats and cleans the same, but add in some different movements for the other lifts.  Other good options might include bench presses (flat or incline, barbell or dumbbell), one-arm dumbbell overhead presses, dumbbell cleans or snatches (one-arm or two-arm), bent-over rows (barbells or dumbbells; varying grips), weighted dips, alternate dumbbell curls, and a deadlift variation.  Don’t use too many exercises.  Outside of your daily max movements, select a handful of exercises that you want to get stronger on.  You might do an overhead movement 3 days per week, a bench press exercise twice weekly, curl exercises 2 to 3 days per week, and any kind of deadlift only once weekly.

     The only lift that you can do other than quick lifts and some form of squatting—you can do front squats daily instead of back squats if you wish—is an overhead press.  When the Bulgarians first started to dominate world competitions, the overhead press was the 3rd lift (along with the snatch and the clean and jerk).  Bulgarians trained overhead presses in the same manner as the other lifts by maxing out daily.  You can do that with overhead movements, cleans, snatches, and squats.  Not so much with bench presses and deadlifts, which is the reason that you can’t just swap the Olympic lifts for the powerlifts and expect to get the same results.

     For powerlifting, Broz suggests daily squatting, 3 days per week of bench pressing, and daily “speed pulls” with no more than 80% of your 1-rep max in the deadlift.  He recommends maxing out on the deadlift only once every 6-8 weeks; his weightlifters only do a deadlift max 2 to 3 times per year!  The 3 days of benching would follow the same ramp-style of training as the squats.  I personally think that 3 days of bench pressing is too much, or, rather, too much using the Bulgarian method.  I think 2 days of bench pressing for powerlifters would be plenty and then add in another day of overhead work for a 3rd pressing day during the week.

     Here is an example Bulgarian approach to powerlifting for a week of training.  If you elect to try this, then keep the powerlifts the same, but you can replace (with a same but different exercise) or even eliminate the auxiliary movements that I have added.  I have also reduced the amount of speed pulls, compared to what Broz suggested, but added one “heavy” deadlift day.

The Bulgarian Method for Powerlifting

Monday:

Squats: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Power cleans: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

"Speed" deadlifts: 6 sets of singles at 75% of your 1-rep maximum

Bench presses: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Steep incline weighted sit-ups: 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps

Tuesday:

Squats: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Power snatches: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Weighted chins: 3 sets of 3-5 reps (these should be relatively easy, with a few reps left in the tank - same for all other movements in the program that uses 3x3-5)

Hyperextensions (or reverse hypers): 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps

Wednesday:

Squats: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

"Speed" deadlifts: 6 sets of singles at 75% of your 1-rep maximum

Military presses: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Barbell curls: 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Steep incline weighted sit-ups: 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps

Thursday:

Squats: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Power cleans: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

One-arm dumbbell rows: 3 sets of 3-5 reps (each arm)

Hyperextensions (or reverse hypers): 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps

Friday:

Squats: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Power snatches: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Bench presses: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Steep incline weighted sit-ups: 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps

Saturday:

Squats: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Deadlifts: ramps of doubles followed by singles - unlike all of the other movements, do NOT work up to an all-out set; work up to, rather, a “near max”

Hyperextensions (or reverse hypers): 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps

Some Bulgarian Nuggets of Wisdom

     Here are some quotes from John Broz—all italicized sentences are his—that are some of his most interesting.  I have a feeling, especially if this is your first time reading about Bulgarian training, that you may even find some of them to be—how should I put it?—slightly crazy.  But keep in mind that what Broz is saying, even if he does so in his own characteristic way, is nothing more than Bulgarian training 101.  

     How you feel is a lie.  This is one of my favorite quotes, and one that I have used for about 20 years, ever since I first read it in an interview with Broz.  (For more on ideas I’ve stolen, check out THIS article.)

     You will go through "dark times" where you're stagnant. Eventually you'll start setting PR's while in a fatigued state. That's when you know you're doing something right.

     Slow movements don't help any athlete in any sport. Going slow with light weights is a big no-no.  Oh, well, I suppose he would hate my recent article Super Slow, Super Massive.  I’m not sure I like it.  If I’m honest, I almost didn’t post it, so much do I disdain “slow” training, but that article is NOT for athletes, who, as I wrote then, should train fast.  It’s for bodybuilders who are in search of hypertrophy only.

     Lunges suck and are very dangerous.  Here is an example of me using a quote that I don’t agree with.  I have been “hated on” by other strength coaches, especially powerlifting ones, for my inclusion of lunges in programs.  Once, a popular website wouldn’t publish a Bill Starr article that I had written because it included lunges.  However, as I pointed out to the publisher, Starr liked lunges, and almost always utilized them in his programs, and I was just reiterating his very words.  Nonetheless, for Bulgarian training, I actually agree.  Because of the deep stretch, especially in your glute/hamstring tie-in muscles, you would not want to do them daily.

     Eventually, maxing out becomes like clockwork. The more you do it, the more natural it feels, and your body accepts it. There should be a minimum number you hit every day you train.

     Failing to train daily leads to more injuries, due to the inconsistent recovery rates amongst different tissues. Daily training is training under fatigued muscles. If you take days off, the muscles recover faster than other soft-tissues, which increases the likelihood of injury.  This is probably the one quote that will be the most mind-boggling to many, but it’s worth considering even if—or, perhaps, especially if—it goes against your cherished beliefs.

     Don't take days off if you have access to train. Even if you're incredibly sore, go in and do something. Squat something, at least the bar, for 30 reps or so. This will help the adaptation process progress faster. Anything you do is better than riding the couch.

     If you wait for a day to train when you feel good, you'll lift about twice a year. Those days are rare. Your mind plays tricks on you. Learn to ignore it and keep training.

     You surely won't PR every workout, sometimes not for months. Keep pushing both intensity and volume to continue progress. If you can't take the tree down with one swing, keep taking smaller swings and it will eventually fall.

Final Thoughts

     I hope this has been an enlightening article.  If you’re interested in trying Bulgarian methods, ease into them, especially if you have been doing low-frequency training beforehand.  If you just jump right into these methods, you are going to be quite sore the day after, and maybe for a few days afterward.  Start by doing only 2 “heavy” days of training each week and do light full-body workouts on the other days.  Over the first few weeks, start adding more heavy days into the rotation—2 days, then 3, then 4 days; at that point, you can start training toward a max, or near-max, each day.

     This kind of training is not for athletes that are engaged in a lot of training in a particular sport.  It’s for lifters who only lift, and don’t do any other activities outside of the gym.  If you want more information on how different lifters, depending upon goals and other factors, should train, read my essay On Goals and Workout Programs.

     High-frequency training is the most effective form of training for the majority of lifters.  Bulgarian training is the highest of HFT.  But buyer beware: you might have to purchase a new wardrobe because of all the weight you gain.  If that sounds enticing, though, try it and discover for yourself its transformative power.

     I will be honest: this is one of my favorite articles that I have written lately—I have always been fascinated with Bulgarian and other East European methods of strength training, so I suppose I just find pleasure in exploring their methodologies.  I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  However, I also wrote it in just a couple of sittings and in a couple hours of writing, which means that there could be some grammatical errors or problems in sentence structure.  If I find any after I post it, I will be sure to edit those.

     As always, if there are any questions about Bulgarian training, or you would like to comment on your own experiences with it, leave them in the “comments” section below or shoot me an email if you want a more private correspondence.

     If you found this article interesting, not to mention informative, then consider purchasing my book Ultimate Mass and Power: A Collection of Training Programs for Getting Massively Big and Incredibly Strong.  You can discover more information about it, and all of my books, at the My Books page of the blog.

Sources

“Max Out on Squats Every Day” by Bret Contreras at T-Nation, June 2011

“Serious Growth: Bulgarian Beliefs, Part 3,” from the July 1996 issue of Ironman magazine