The Bulgarian System

[tiramisu]

.... I thought this was really interesting when thinking about pointless exercises.

http://weightliftingexchange.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=438&Itemid=60

The bulgarians did no accessory work and were the winningest weightlifting team in history.

[BigDaddyFreak]

True, but olympic weightlifting is a skill sport, and required no (well, almost none) negative phases, so they could train multiple times per day/week. Bodybuilding, on the other hand, and powerlifting both contain negative phases of the movements, which cause more damage to the muscle. Can't train multiple times per day, unless there is no eccentric movement. Read this someplace, about the bulgarian coach ivan abadjiev.

[tiramisu]

Bulgarian's squatted multiple times a day, there is no eccentric in the deadlift and unlike the russians they were consistently training at their daily training max's.

Drugs and elite genetics are required of course but the eccentric argument seems a little weak and the power that they are pulling the snatch and clean & jerk with generally requires a higher wattage output than most elite powerlifters.

Total tonnage lifted is also obscenely higher than your average elite north american powerlifter.

There are definitely elements of the bulgarian methods that have merit. I will be integrating elements into my own programming as my work capacity increases.