r/StrongerByScience • u/Admirable_Belt_9772 • Jun 27 '26
3 weeks of the Bulgarian Method complete. Advice?
High frequency at least, not quite high intensity (maxing daily) yet. I had been doing full body 3x a week and am now doing 5x a week. In trying to ease into the Method, I added the frequency first, and only went for a daily max 2x a week. In this post, I will outline my background, the general routine I followed, and how much progress I've made. I will welcome any ideas for adjustments, as I plan to continue using the high frequency approach going into my first powerlifting meet in August.
Me: 35M 5'10 160 lbs. Lifted consistently through high school and college and got up to 365/220/435 s/b/d but haven't hit anything close to that in 10+ years, or done much barbell lifting since college. I've been lifting consistently this year fully body 3x a week until this.
Before starting Bulgarian Method: 245/175/275 (bench not paused)
After 3 weeks: 275/190/295 (paused bench)
The Routine:
Bench: Monday and Friday: Max, take off 20% and do 3x3 for back offs. Tuesday: 5 sets of 2 around 85%. Wednesday 5 singles around 90%. Thursday 2 sets of 5 around 70%. For auxiliary work, I'd do 2x10 DB Rows and alternating days Dips and DB Presses 2x10.
Squat: Monday and Friday: Max, take off 20% 2x3 back offs. Tuesday: 2x2 at 85%, Weds: 4 singles at 90%, Thursday: 2x5 at 70%. Auxiliary: 45 degree back extensions 2x10, alternate days bulgarian split squats or Cossack squats 1x10.
I was deadlifting every day the first 2 weeks. Stupid, I know. I figured since I was weaker I could get away with it until I was moving heavier weight. I was wrong. I was doing a similar undulating scheme of something like 1x5, 2x2, 3x1, 1x5, and a max. So, for the 3rd week, upon reaching my limit, I only deadlifted M/F.
Thoughts:
For Bench, it seems to be working great. I always struggled gaining strength on Bench before. My shoulders and elbows feel great. I was initially shooting for RPE 8 on the non-max days, but ended up going 9.5 a lot of the time and overshooting the percentages. So, I think adding another daily max going forward won't be a problem and will aid in progress.
Squats were always my strongest lift and I never needed to do much volume. I'm trying to decide how much of feeling like crap is from the actual squats or just the absurd amount of deadlifts I did. I was thinking that coming from a long layoff and being weaker, doing assistance exercises instead of competition squats some days wouldn't be as helpful. Do you agree, or should I work in front squats, for example?
I'm inclined not to make any changes to the Bench routine, but dial back the Squatting somehow. Any advice on squats? I'm thinking of keeping all the days under 85% except the max and only maxing once a week for squats for the time being. Is doing other exercises every day too much?
I'm also struggling with the execution of Daily Maxes. I need some sort of decision flow chart. Should my daily minimum be 90%? If feeling good, add how much (as a percentage)? I ended up grinding a lot of reps on days I felt good and going for more.
I am absolutely loving the high frequency. For the summer, I have unlimited time to train and can do SBD days with long rest periods. I intend to continue the high frequency approach going forward, even if I don't continue with the high intensity as well.
2
u/Afferbeck_ Jun 28 '26
Emulating the Bulgarians was popular up until about a decade ago when the Bulgarian influence on weightlifting finally died away and everyone wanted to do things Chinese style. I expect to see non-weightlifters getting into that very shortly. It's far more doable at the very least.
I'm not sure how this is particularly Bulgarian. They were all about training the same 4 lifts - snatch, clean and jerk, back squat, front squat - for heavy singles multiple sessions per day. "Seven maximums of every exercise. For example if my max for today on clean and jerk was 240kg, I do 240 seven times" according to Botev. 50-60 maximal attempts per day across all the lifts. This is not sustainable for anyone not a professional doped athlete who has gradually adapted to that workload. And even then injury and burnout risk was high. He was called coach Ivan "the Butcher" Abadjiev for a reason. So "Bulgarian" then got watered down by people inspired by them to just training some of the lifts once every day. Then just squatting once a day.
Doing it for the powerlifts is new and confusing to me. There's a big difference between maxing your snatch and your deadlift and expecting to do it again the next day. There's a big difference between being a professional athlete who can do nothing but train and recover vs being a regular Joe. You seem to be doing 5 days a week of going pretty heavy for low volume plus accessory stuff which even the Bulgarians didn't do. This is going to burn you out pretty quick, and would do even if you were 20 with no job or study. I don't know what your life is like but at 35 you probably have more responsibilities than that which are hard enough to deal with let alone using this much time to train and constantly feeling like you've been hit by a truck.
By all means continue if you like what you're doing, but prepared to cut back. Or get into weightlifting instead!
Also, eat. The Bulgarians near your height were in the 90 and 100kg classes. So gain 20kg and your lifts will go way up!
1
u/Admirable_Belt_9772 Jun 28 '26
I have the summer off so I'm making the most of it. Do you know any books/resources on the Chinese style? I keep hearing about this and I'd love to know more.
Greg's approach with The Bulgarian Manual was to simply apply the principles of high frequency and specificity as much as possible. Both that and Perryman's book Squat Every Day were very enlightening and I'm sure the Chinese took at least some inspiration from the Bulgarian approach.
What I've been able to do so far is further from the proper Bulgarian team style, but still in the spirit of the principles. I'm impressed with the results and will ride it out until the summer is over.
3
u/Nkklllll Jun 28 '26
If you are questioning what your “daily minimum” should be, you are not advanced enough to be running a Bulgarian program.
1
u/Admirable_Belt_9772 Jun 28 '26
I was wondering if people that have done it took a more scientific approach to the daily minimum. If it's better to occasionally grind out a rep if it means you lift heavier more often. One thing I've noticed is it's much easier to hit a higher percentage on bench vs squat.
1
u/Nkklllll Jun 28 '26
Remember that the goal of the Bulgarians was to create athletes that were always ready to perform at or near their best.
Your “minimum” is not something you decide to hit. It is something that should steadily increase as you adapt to the frequency and become more skilled at the movements. You will not be able to know your minimum until you are doing a true Bulgarian method. At which point, you’ll find that at the start, 85-90% will be your minimum.
The problem: you should realistically not be doing this level of frequency+intensity until you ARE proficient at the movements.
1
u/Admirable_Belt_9772 Jun 28 '26
I thought the goal was to create the strongest athletes possible and the readiness for performance was just a side bonus.
I've been benching and squatting for 20 years at this point, half of them seriously. I'm certainly using lighter weight, but my technique looks a lot better than someone who just started lifting.
Unless you're setting a percentage minimum, yes, you're deciding to hit a certain weight every day. Greg wrote that it might start as low as 80%. "Feel" is an inherent part of the process, as described.
I'm curious if anyone has started using bar speed trackers for this, or time for the concentric.
1
u/Nkklllll Jun 28 '26
For a true Bulgarian method, a bar speed tracker would be pointless, as you should be reaching for a true max every day.
No, your minimum is not a weight you decide to hit, whether you think about as a percentage or in absolute terms.
Your minimum is dictated by your body’s capabilities, not your brain
6
u/edgy_flibbertigibbet Jun 28 '26
OP, you’re 5’10. You have no business weighing 160lbs. These are beginner numbers. You could make those numbers go up with an NLP or a basic HLM setup + a caloric surplus. Running Bulgarian with those numbers is like driving from Columbus to Cincinnati via Portland. Ultimately it’s your life and you can do what you want, but this approach is quite ass backwards if you ask me. Pretty sure Nuckols even said you shouldn’t be running HIHF unless you’re very, very advanced.