Heavy Lifting, No Rest, Candy: the Bulgarian Method

U.S. weightlifters haven't won an Olympic gold medal for 40 years. Now they're hoping the Bulgarians can bring them success. Ivan Abadjiev, who lead their national team to multiple championships, is bring his "Bulgarian Method' to a new academy in Danville, Calif.

By HANNAH KARP
WSJ

Danville, Calif.

Ivan Abadjiev knows a thing or two about heavy lifting.

U.S. weightlifters haven't won an Olympic gold medal for 40 years. Now they're hoping the Bulgarians can bring them success. Ivan Abadjiev, who lead their national team to multiple championships, is bring his "Bulgarian Method' to a new academy in Danville, Calif.

Bulgaria's most renowned weightlifting coach led his tiny country to a stunning Olympic victory over the Soviet Union in 1972. By the 1980s his country's strongmen completely dominated world competitions, hoisting more than three times their body weight—a feat that has rarely been matched. He's produced champions in Turkey and Qatar—and he even turned around his country's junior national badminton team.

Now, at age 79, the soft-spoken, silver-haired legend who speaks little English is taking on his most difficult challenge to date: Convincing American athletes they can do better. If only, that is, they would only adopt "the Bulgarian method."

Under the Bulgarian method, which Mr. Abadjiev invented, there is no danger of overtraining. The body, if pushed gradually and consistently, will adapt to any level of stress. Practice should ideally consume nearly half of one's waking hours and, most important, there are no days off. The theory is that injury and fatigue are less likely while adrenaline is coursing through the body, stimulating protein synthesis. Junk food is fair game.

(More here.)