Alexander Krychev is a former weightlifter for Bulgaria. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he competed in the 110kg weight class under fabled weightlifting coach Ivan Abadjiev. Alex's own story is quite amazing, as he was Mr. Abadjiev's Project Zero, being his first student in weightlifting, and was there to witness firsthand the creation of the legendary Bulgarian Training System. For the first time, the story of the Bulgarian system will be told from its earliest incarnation to the latest version of the system, which continues to produce world championship performances.

Alexander Krychev was born in Bulgaria in 1951, in an industrial town with many factories. At that time, Bulgaria was a communist country and was seen as the "little brother" of the Soviet Union. There were many exchanges of ideas between the two countries in a unilateral direction, as the Soviet Union was showing Bulgaria how to be a communist country, which included sport.

In 1964, when Alex was 13, Ivan Abadjiev relocated to the city in which Alex lived, and joined the local sports club, which at the time did not have weightlifting. In towns that had sports clubs, all of the equipment would belong to each club. Alex says he was an athletic boy at the time, playing soccer, track and field and volleyball. He says that it was by accident that someone took him to the gym where there was a platform and a bar. Ivan Abadjiev was there and he was looking to find some kids to train, and so Alex became Abadjiev’s first student.

When asked what he was instructed to do the first day of training, Alex tells a story which would be anathema in most gyms. "He asked me to lift 50 kilos any way I can, so I lifted it. He said, ‘Okay, can you lift this, 60 kilos?,’ so I lifted it all the way up." He explains that he lifted it in a pseudo-clean and press manner. After this first workout, Mr. Abadjiev asked him if he would like to become a weightlifter and also if his parents would approve. Alex promised to come back for the next workout. PRs came on a regular basis, which kept him interested in the sport, so he kept coming back. And thus began a coach/pupil relationship that would last for nearly 50 years.

Alex explains that during these early years, Abadjiev's training methodology was unknown. "During his time when he lifted, ’54, 5, 6, 7, he had his own version of training, whereas the national team at the time did not follow that version. So he was training at his place, at the time, where he lived in the province, and was doing his own version. So when he came to our town, we were following his version." He explained that as a kid, when the coach tells you to do something, you think that is all that exists, so you just follow the regimen.

Alex told a story which helps illustrate how different Abadjiev's system was at the time. He says that after he had been training for about six months, he went to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, to visit his aunt. He found a gym close to his aunt's house and went to there to train. While he was there, he started doing exercises that Abadjiev had shown him to do. He assumed every lifter did these exercises. One exercise was a jerk-drive type movement with very heavy weight. Alex would do these lifts with around 160kg-170kg when his best clean and jerk was 100kg. The coaches at the gym told him to stop doing these exercises immediately; that he may be allowed to do them with Abadjiev, but he was not permitted to do them at their gym. This story stuck with him because it was the first time he realized that the students under Abadjiev really were training under a different system.

Alex says at the time it was hard to convince young boys to enter weightlifting because Bulgaria had no Olympic champions and the sport was virtually unknown. In 1968, Bulgaria turned in a terrible performance at the Mexico City Olympics, with a best placing of seventh. In an attempt to remedy the situation, the government opened a school called Olympic Hopes, which housed athletes in the sports of weightlifting, track and field, wrestling, boxing, swimming, gymnastics and bicycling. All of the weightlifters chosen to be a part of the inaugural class were between 14 and 16 years of age, and Ivan Abadjiev was selected to be the coach of the school.


The school, which was housed in the capital and would later become the national training center, was set up as a boarding school where the athletes would live, train, and attend school all inside the complex. A typical day in the sports school was as follows: At 7 or 7:15 a.m., they would wake up and eat breakfast. At 8 a.m., they would have school for three hours until 11 a.m., studying the basic courses of Math, Chemistry, Russian, Literature, History, and Western Language. By 11:10 a.m, at the latest, they would be in the gym training until 1:30 p.m., and then they’d head straight to the cafeteria for lunch until 2 p.m. At 2:15 p.m., the lifters would once again become students and would work on homework with tutors until 4 p.m. From 4 to 5 p.m., they would rest before training resumed at 5 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Dinner followed, and then a third workout commenced until 11 p.m., after which the lifters would return to their rooms for a quick shower and then lights out. This schedule was done six days a week! Sunday was the rest day and, as Alex put it, "we sleep all day!"

It was a Spartan life at Olympic Hopes, in which the lifters would only see their parents on birthdays and for the New Year holiday. Some people may find it difficult to comprehend that a group of teenage boys were able to handle such a demanding training regimen. However, their motivation was even stronger than their muscles. "The motivation was that, the life under communism was different in the sense that a young person had almost nothing to look forward. Everybody wants to go abroad, and to go abroad, you either had to be an athlete or a member of the Communist Party. The only way to go to Western countries was through sport. For the world championship in 1970, we killed each other trying to make the team, because you know for three years in advance that the World Championship is in the United States, in’68 you know so you say, ‘I want to make sure I am on that plane.' You would not believe what kind of incentive that was. You can't even image; you can't even imagine."

The school's first class contained 10 students, and was a who's who of future World and Olympic Champions: Yordan Bikov, 1972 Olympic Champion; Andon Nikolov, 1972 Olympic Champion; Atanas Shopov, Olympic silver and bronze medalist, world record holder; Nadelcho Kolev, 2-time World champion and World record holder, and, of course, Alexander Krychev, 1972 Olympic silver medalist and World record holder. According to Alex, the remaining lifters were still quite accomplished. Although they were considered the B-team, they made it to the European Championships and achieved big results.

After three months in the school, Abadjiev had the lifters begin his system. For Alex, this was normal, as Abadjiev had brought him up in the sport. However, some of the other lifters did not respond as planned. The earlier program contained a lot of volume; sets of five in the press and clean and jerk, sets of 10 on the pulls and squats, sets of five also in the snatch and front squat; very different from what the system would eventually evolve into. During these months, the other lifters began to resist the training, because they all had their own coaches and their own ways of training, and they rejected Abadjiev's difficult training methods. They would call home and tell their coaches what was going on. The coaches would communicate with the federation, and the federation warned Abadjiev that something was going wrong because the kids were complaining.

A week later, an inspection came from the Minster of Sport via a Russian coach who stayed for a week and wrote a very negative report regarding the training of the Olympic Hopes athletes. After the report, a vote was to take place to remove Ivan Abadjiev from coaching any sport, not just weightlifting. Luckily for Mr. Abadjiev and all of Bulgarian weightlifting, one person at the meeting stood up and asked the group how many medals had the team won in the previous three Olympics. The response was zero. It was decided then to give Abadjiev six months to prove himself before the topic would be reopened for examination. That was December 1968. In late March 1969, a junior competition took place between Bulgaria and Italy. Most of the Bulgarian team at this competition was comprised of members of the Olympic Hopes School. In the competition, Alex broke all of the junior world records and all of the senior Bulgarian records, breaking the total record by 50kg! One week after this competition, Ivan Abadjiev was appointed the national weightlifting coach of Bulgaria.

Perhaps a turning point in the evolution of Ivan Abadjiev's training system came in 1972, a few months before the Olympics. Four or five months before the Olympics, Alex injured his wrist in training. Abadjiev at that time thought that something may be wrong with Alex, but that he probably just wanted a few days to rest, or in other words, that he was faking. Abadjiev had reason to be suspicious, as at that time, the lifters would fake injury in order to get a few days rest from the workouts. However, Alex never faked an injury and this time was no different; his wrist was injured. The president of the federation even ridiculed Alex for faking an injury, which naturally upset him. So Alex packed his bags and left the training camp.

One night, Alex was driving to the beach when he was pulled over by the police, who proceeded to arrest him. The police put him on a plane and sent him back to the training camp the next morning. When he landed in Sofia, a car was waiting to take him to the Minister of Sport, where he then was taken up the mountain and into the camp. It turns out the president of the weightlifting federation had sent an order to the police to arrest Alex and send him back to the camp. Can you imagine this type of high priority given to a weightlifter? However, it was imperative that the lifters win medals to prove the superiority of the Communist system, and since Alex was a potential medalist, he had to return to the camp.

When Alex returned to camp, he sat down with Ivan Abadjiev and Abadjiev told him point blank that he had missed the boat. In order for Alex to now make the team, he would have to do something drastic. Abadjiev put it like this; if the new method worked Alex could make the team. However, if they did not try the new method, there was no way he would be able to make the team. Essentially, Alex was about to become a guinea pig for the next evolution of the Bulgarian system. The hallmark of this evolution was extended time in the gym. For example, while the rest of the team was done training at 1:30 p.m. and headed to lunch, Alex would stay an extra 45 minutes and continue training. The volume of training increased, and the number of attempts with maximum weights increased as well. Ivan Abadjiev did not leave Alex’s side during these extended trainings.

To put into perspective how difficult this new training was, Alex recalled the following story. At the training camp, the lifters had to walk up a series of steps to reach the cafeteria for lunch. There were six steps to a landing, and then another six or eight steps to the top. After beginning this new training, Alex was so tired he was only able to make it up the first six steps before having to sit and rest for ten minutes. Of course, Abadjiev was right next to him. The first two weeks, Alex would vomit every practice and the team doctor would routinely check on him, to which Abadjiev would tell the doctor, "Do not treat him like a baby!" After two weeks, Alex began to feel better and after one month, he was back in top form and began to lift PR weights again. Alex had adapted to this extreme training and, of course, made the 1972 Olympic team.

Recalling the competition at the Olympics, Alex feels he could have won the gold medal if not for a gift from a judge. Jan Talts (USSR) was the favorite to win the Olympics in the 110kg class, and he opened the press with 200kg, which he missed. On the next attempt, it appeared as though he had missed. However, he received a two-to-one good lift decision. Alex recalls that the judges included one Soviet, one Bulgarian, and a Yugoslavian. He assumed the Yugoslavian had given him the white light, but later found out the Bulgarian judge had passed the lift and the Yugoslavian had turned it down. Talts went on to press 210kg for an Olympic record. After the competition, he told Alex that had he not been given the 200kg second attempt, he was not sure if he would have been able to make 200kg and stay in the contest because of the pressure. In spite of this, Alex was satisfied with the silver medal, because he had beaten several rivals to earn it.

Following the 1972 Olympics, Abadjiev implemented the training used on Alex for the entire Bulgarian national team. Time, volume and maximum attempts all increased. The lifters went from training five hours each day to training seven or eight hours a day. In 1978, the system again evolved, as the Bulgarian team did not perform up to their standards at the Gettysburg, USA World Championships. This time the guinea pig would be Yanko Rusev, who would go on to become a five time World Champion, Olympic Champion and World record holder. After Yanko, Alexander Varbanov became the next guinea pig to test the evolution of the system. As the Bulgarian system evolved, Abadjiev began to move away from volume and increase the intensity and the effort that produced explosive speed and strength.

Alex spoke very highly of Alexander Varbanov and his teammate Stefan Botev, stating "these two are the strongest people in weightlifting ever." For those of you unfamiliar with these two great lifters, Alexander Varbanov won three world championships at 75kg in 1983, 1985 and 1986. In 1984, he dropped down to the 67.5kg class and clean and jerked a world record of 200kg. In 1987, he snatched 167.5kg and clean and jerked 215.5kg for a world record jerk and total that has never been approached. Alex said that in training, Varbanov clean and jerked 222.5kg and cleaned 230kg, weighing around 77 or 77.5kg. He also front squatted a massive 265kg!

Stefan Botev became World Champion in 1989 and 1990. He had personal records of 200kg in the snatch and 250kg in the clean and jerk as a 110kg lifter. Stefan's PR snatch in training was 212.5kg and his PR clean and jerk was a very easy 260kg. In fact, Alex recalled a story in which during training Stefan had just clean and jerked 260kg (the world record was 250kg at the time) and Stefan went to load the bar to 270kg! Abadjiev was pulling him back, saying, "NO 270kg!" Alex said, "Botev wouldn't have had a problem winning the gold.” If it were not for some unfortunate positive tests for the Bulgarian lifters, fans of the sport would have been able to witness this epic showdown.

Leading up to the 1988 Olympics, the Bulgarian lifters expected to win every class they entered. Obviously Botev was in phenomenal shape, but so were the other Bulgarian lifters. Everyone knows what Sevdalin Marinov (52kg), Mitko Grablev (56kg), Stefan Topurov (60kg), Angel Guenchev (67.5kg), and Borislav Gidikov (75kg) lifted, as they were able to compete in the contest. But what about the other Bulgarian entries who did not get to compete due to the positive tests in the lighter classes? "Antonio Krastev snatched 225kg and jerked 265kg. Chakarov, 90 kilos (bodyweight), in Japan, in the camp, 197kg snatch, 240kg clean and jerk. There were two 90kg lifters at the camp. Rumen Teodosiev (90kg) snatched 190kg and clean and jerked 240kg. In 82.5kg was Zlatev, 230kg clean and jerk over there in Japan."

So what makes a world champion lifter? Is it Abadjiev's system? Is it his system mixed with super talented athletes? The answer may surprise you. Alex says that it does not necessarily take a super talented athlete. According to Alex, Abadjiev said that Naim Suleymanoglu was not that talented. “He was very tight in the shoulders; he had problems with the jerk at the shoulders, and they worked very diligently with him on the jerk,” he recalled. “A 10 on the talent scale, as far as flexibility and talent, was Mincho Pashov. He had impeccable technique, [was] extremely flexible, very economical; however, talent is a combination of many things. It's not only how flexible you are, it's not only the body proportions/mechanics, but also how smart you are, and are you able to take the loads, the brutality of the training day in and day out. It's like the NBA here, they say, ‘he's a very good player but can he take the brutality day in and day out to score 30 to 40 points?’ That's also [true] with weightlifting. You have other things. How does he perform in competition? Is he afraid in competition? We had a lifter (in Bulgaria) who in the practice at 82kg was doing 215kg (in clean and jerk) and trying 220kg. At competition, he was so scared that he barely did 205kg. And lastly, will he make the very last attempt to win the gold medal?"

Part of what makes the Bulgarian system so special is its ability to produce strength that is so specific to weightlifting, that it created some of the sport's most mythical performances. Alex said, "That's what the Bulgarian system does. The Bulgarian system gives the strength. Here [in the U.S.] everybody says, 'oh, the strength is the easiest thing to do.’ That is the most difficult thing to do, acquire the strength, the most difficult thing. We're not talking strength like bodybuilder. If it's so easy, why the super heavyweight here, first place is 208kg? Because there is no strength."

I asked Alex about this notion of strength, having said myself for years that if you polled the American lifters and their foreign counterparts to get PR numbers on so-called strength lifts (squats, deadlifts, and partial lifts,) that most American lifters would perform as well as the lifters who place higher in competitions year in and year old. When I asked Alex why this so-called strength does not translate into the classic lifts, he said the following: "Wrong training. When you do the clean and jerk, there are so many muscles participating in a specific position, and the jerk, those are muscles that are taking place and you need those muscles to be developed to extreme. Now back squat, it's different muscles, different positions. If you do jerk from the neck, we give jerk from the neck only to the beginners so they can have the position and feeling for how they cannot dip forward. But this is only for the beginners. When I came here [the U.S.,] they had this back jerk for advanced lifters and overhead squat with a big weight. I said, 'We never did that--never.' If you cannot get up with the weight here in the snatch,” he said, demonstrating an overhead squat, “then you find another sport."

I clarified these points with Alex, and what it comes down to for American lifters is not a lack of brute strength, but a lack of the specific strength needed to perform maximum snatches and clean and jerks. "Do you know how you develop the specific strength?" asked Alex. "By a lot of maximum weights, maximum attempts, very frequently. Do you know how many clean and jerks Hysen does in a week?” Hysen Pulaku is an Alabanian 77kg currently training with Alex and Abadjiev. “12 to 14 clean and jerks [sessions], but they are all maximum,” he says. “We don't do 80% or 70% all maximum for the day."

Alex explained that you must push yourself to your maximum every day, because lifting with maximum effort is the only way to develop specific proteins that will react when maximum effort is given. Maximum effort is the key, not so much the numerical value of the weight. "Different efforts emit a different frequency on the neuron, and it goes to a different gene and that gene produces a protein. For instance, 200kg for Hysen, it is transmitted here and the shape of the protein is here.” He draws on the table with his finger. “Now tomorrow or after tomorrow, he cannot do 200kg. He does 185kg or 190kg, and it is so heavy that he has to have the maximum effort. That maximum effort is the same frequency and produces the same protein as he did when he lifted 200kg. Now, on a competition, you need that protein. That's why I always say go to the maximum for the day. If you put a gun to your head, you cannot do 1kg more.” That's your maximum for the day.

Alex says that once the body has adapted to lifting maximum weights on a routine basis, warm-ups become insignificant. "When you are adapted to this much heavy, heavy maximum weights and so many frequent maximum weights, the body is adapted and can go very fast to maximum. In the wild, the jackrabbit is very fast. When the predator comes, does the jackrabbit say, 'Wait, let me warm-up, let me stretch so I can run faster.'? [No.] That's because that jackrabbit sprints all day long. That's all he does, and he's adapted, so he can go immediately to the 100% sprint, maximum effort. Hysen, he starts with 70kg few times, 120kg, 170, 190kg, 200kg." Once he reaches his maximum, Hysen will make several attempts at that max. If he makes it, he puts more on—because, as Alex said, more is always better.

Reflecting on American lifters, Alex said he sees many young talented lifters in the sport already. However, there is one problem. "In the United States, under the current system, if a lifter has not reached his potential, his peak, until nineteen years of age, almost when he gets out of high school, the chances that weightlifter will becomes a world class lifter are greatly diminished. He goes to college, and college work is not easy, so he cannot train as a professional. Or he doesn't go to college, he gets married and he has to provide for a family. I say under the current system, because it's an amateur sport. However, in high school, that kid can take so much load that he can become a world champion in the teenage years. During high school, he doesn't think how he is going to pay rent, how is he going to pay insurance, how he is going to provide for the family. All this is provided for him; all he has to do is train, train, train."

I think that this is the part that eludes many American coaches. The conventional wisdom tends to be that we do not want to overtrain these young lifters. However, it has been my experience that it is nearly impossible for a healthy young lifter to become overtrained. We tend to err on the side of not enough time in training rather than too much time, because we are afraid they will become burnt out and leave the sport. It is interesting how major sports such as football, basketball and wrestling do not share this same attitude. They push their participants to the maximum day-in and day-out during their season, and in many places, in the off-season as well. Every practice is to maximum. Let's face it. If a lifter quits because the work is too demanding, then that person was not meant to become a champion.