So what does this new training entail, well it is evolving and will be adjusted over time but I can sum things up by saying, I wanted to try something completely different. I have been training for allot of years and have enjoyed studying various methods of training and over the past few years have become quite interested in weight lifting and how the ideas might transfer to running, in particular "the Bulgarian Method".
For those not familiar with the Bulgarian method, it was developed by the famous Bulgarian weightlifting coach Ivan Abadjiev. It was based on the premise that if you subject the body to a constant load of heavy stress composed of steady repetitive explosive movements, it would adjust to this load and adapt to handle the increased stress.
Abadjiev's training methods, the creator of the Bulgarian Method, at the time were unheard of. His athletes trained twice a day, six days a week. There were no assigned recovery days, they trained hard every day. Also, the athletes competed frequently, and competitions were incorporated as an integral part of the training cycle, meaning there was essentially no off-season. The methodology was so radical and so distinct, that it became known as "the Bulgarian method." Abadjiev was constantly adjusting the application of training in order to improve performance; most notably he would later emphasize specificity, meaning that the training revolved around an increasingly small amount of movements. Only movements with high correlation and carry-over to the competition movements were implemented in training.
Traditional understanding of muscle development calls for 48-72 hours of rest between training muscle groups. The theory behind this is that the muscle fibres that are damaged in training take time to repair and grow back stronger than before.
The accepted training model is based on the idea of periodization. The general model used is to begin with a high-volume, low-intensity phase, then progressively decrease volume and increase intensity and following competition there is usually some period of rest in order to allow the athlete to recover.
Periodized training does produce improvements in performance, and is still a common and arguably effective training method and yet Abadjiev's system contradicted the accepted principles of periodization in almost every way. What made it successful was a different interpretation of the idea of adaptation, the recognition of the human body's ability to adapt. This meant frequently lifting a certain limit percentage of the athlete's maximum ability and forcing the athlete's body to adapt to the training, not to train the body to simply respond to stimuli, but to force the body into a stress-response state, an adapted state. This was achieved through intense and frequent training as well as the integration of competitions into the training cycle, in order to induce a psychological as well as a physical stressor upon the athlete.
Abadjiev's application of the adaptation theory called for the human body to be placed under an environment of near-constant stress, both physically and psychologically. His training system was, in his words:
"(Not) like any other system in the world. It contradicted every basic principles. In Bulgaria, many other sports disciplines are build on the methods developed by the Soviet experts. The main concept is distinct periodization, preparation stage, interim stage, competition stage. I threw it away at once. When a rabbit is being chased by the wolf, does he have an interim stage for running? Yes, he can hide in the bushes but he is ready to start running 100 percent at any time. Is it logical to achieve outstanding results by hard work and then to stop and to go back to a lower level?"
To allow the body to rest and "recover," to Abadjiev, meant to return the body into the "recovered" state - that is, the state in which all physiological functions were normal, the state in which muscle development and neuromuscular function were not in a stress-response state. To remove the stimulus of intense training was to return the athlete to a lower level of performance.
There are, of course, criticisms of Abadjiev's methodology, the injury rate was known to be excessively high, and while it consistently produced top-level competitors and champions, its athletes also had the shortest competition lifespans. Many were eventually overcome by injury or an accumulation of injuries and unable to continue training.
Despite the criticisms against it, the principles of Abadjiev's method are undeniably an important training resource. It is perhaps best perceived not as the most effective training method, but as one effective training method. When the Bulgarian method was first introduced, it was radical, and yet it was accurately based on the understanding of the human body at the time. There will never be a truly perfect training method, as the functioning of the human body will never be completely and perfectly understood. The idea is not to follow Abadjiev's principles, but rather to use his principles and apply them to meet the demands of running and more importantly continue to search for training methodologies that focus on strength and increasing my ability to run without back pain.
So that is the premise of the idea and over time I will look to apply these ideas to running...
