HI Brendan! Hope you're doing well! I have been Strength Training for 12-14 years. I've done squat/Bench everyday program after doing some volume for couple of months where I added 35kg in my pause bench from 150-185kg and in squats from a hard single with 190-200 to 260kg in 2.5 months. IDK man but that's my experience. Thank You!
This is really interesting. Thanks to your video I now understand better why this may be a rewarding program to run. Always been a bit wary of it in the past and not really seen the benefit. Now, however, I realize I wouldn’t mind feeling comfortable with the heavy weights. It’s always a challenge when the adaptation to lifting heavy (like doubles or singles) isn’t there all the time and squat PRs feels like a “deadly” gamble. 😁
From 180kg/396lbs to 200kg/440lbs in 1 month, squating and maxing 5-6 days, i also did 5 sets of back offs with 85% from the deaily max for 3 reps or 90% for 2 reps. Suplements: creatine and whey protein. Great video bro ! PS: I'm bulgarian xD
Hi Brendan, thanks for providing such informative and educational content! It makes a lot of sense to go into a high intensity & high frequency program like the bulgarian method after building up a foundation through high volume and hypertrophy-oriented training. I was wondering, however, if you recommend going straight from the one to the other or rather do a short transition block where you gradually adapt to higher intensity in order to avoid a sudden steep jump in intensity? Obviously it depends on the specifics of the high volume program, but if the max intensity in that program is let's say 77%1RM, would it make sense to have a short transitional block of training in the 80-87%1RM range before going into a 90%1RM+ program such as the bulgarian method?
First of all, your videos are SO informative Brendan! Seriously one of my main go to fitness channels. Whenever you upload I'm always like "what awesome knowledge does Brendan have to share with me today?" Lol. Anyways, I just started squatting a couple of months ago, I know the Bulgarian method of squatting is not for me (as I'm not a powerlifting), but I was just wondering how many times a week you recommend someone squat for aesthetic goals? I want to get stronger, but also have muscle growth. Thanks! And keep up these quality videos!! (Also you didn't say "what's up RU-vid" at the beginning lol)
Lexes O'Hara hahaha thank you, just to brag, I hit 315x6 on Larsen at rpe 8 the other day. That video was like 4 months ago but pretty crazy to see that much progress on it so quickly given my bench sucks. One of these days we’ll get a lift in at convoy when I visit. My gf and I are planning to go down in march
dude cant get those preworkouts u recommened in Ireland.. any other decent suggestions ?? Also u've said lower back rounding is due to weak glutes in the past. what are ur favourite glute exercises for most bang-for-buck ??
Been looking for some comments on criticising his opinion on the method but can't find any. I hardly think the adaptation is due to "novelty" and that it's not sustainable long term. What most likely happened is that your body reached the adaptations for the volume you were doing and the neural efficiency you gained. Just simply starting with 1-2 back off sets 1-2 times per week would most likely have another stress adaptation. Seems to me your thinking behind this program wasn't "how can I manipulate my volume to make sure I keep doing more every week" but it was more "let's try and max out every day and see what happens"
I have gotten plenty of gain in the squat running Bulgarian and I also did it for the deadlift. It worked well too. But no significant gain in the bench, I wonder why.
so in my first powerlifting meet this past Sunday got 358LBS squat, 259 bench and 518 deadlift, always know my squat is quite behind the others and I wanna bring it up asap, I am a novice powerlifter a just a few months in the specific style of training and 2 years into general bodybuilding/powerbuilding training so probably an intermediate in that regard . My main concern with running this is fatigue, recovery and soreness, wouldn't you be constantly sore running this program ?
I have a question, I was planning on doing a Bulgarian routine where I squat to a daily max 6 days a week, however, if there's one thing I know about myself, it's that if I don't do at least a few sets of 8+ reps, I tend to lose muscle and therefore, strength, so my question is : could I do a set or 2 of 8-10 reps during my warm up, on the way to the daily max? for example, my max is around 500 lbs, so my DM should be around 470 or so, let's say at 235 (50% of my DM) I did a set of 10 and then one of 8 at say 280 (60% of my DM) and then did singles until I hit the DM, would that make sense?
were you able to maintain the strength gains even after the program? or is it the same as the smolov program where you just peaking up for the test? thanks bro and really really great video!!
Khalifa Lifts I maintained the first time! I mention in the end how to maintain. Second time I was injured (which is why I ran this into my meet, this actually helped me make it to the meet, didn’t worsen the injury) so I couldn’t maintain it after. I took a bunch of time off squatting. 3rd time I ran it to get my squat back up but no PRs cuz I started detrained
Raymond Trinh LOL second person to ask. Definitely not, honestly the best deadlift gains come from a ton of volume on assistance lifts and higher intensity, lower volume pulling. As a general rule that is. Sumo pullers handle volume better though if their hips stay healthy. Deadlifts are far too neurologically taxing to run something like this.
this person's dad I’ve heard similar experiences. Although the knee pain could have been caused by MANY different things, if you’re certain it was the overall intensity/frequency of the program that was the knee pain stimulus I would definitely stick to a more traditional routine. Injury free at 80% gains is better than short bursts of 100% gains but injuries flaring up. Wish I understood that earlier. For whatever reason this program always makes me feel healthier LOL so I’m unique. Volume wrecks me
Brendan Tietz I'm not trying to say it's bad I gained 50 pounds to my max in a few months and I gained alot from it. my knees just started to ache after month and a half and right before I ended the program they started to get aggravated whenever I did anything for too long, beit walking or sitting or cardio. I also did my squats raw beltless naked knee'd paused atg all those insta hashtags. It did great things for my overall strength and my knees are currently getting better in strides but it'll be a while before I give this program a run again
Emir EC make sure you do it as I said! A ton of volume before! Run a whole 2-3 blocks of volume based stuff linearly upping intensity to maybe about 80-85% and then try this out
Do you believe it's safe to run Bulgarian with your deadlift? And which lifts do you think would respond really well to the Bulgarian method and which wouldn't?
Emir EC nooooo! Lol idk anyone who’s tried but I know even high frequency attempts on deads by my friends went horribly wrong. I truly think only the squat would respond well. Conventional deadlifts and deadlifts in general have an extremely high neurological fatigue. The sumo is really rough on the hips at anything above 2x a week pulling and the bench thrives on volume way more. The squat is the only lift I’d do this for!
Brendan Tietz thanks for the reply. Idk if you're familiar with eric bugenhagen but he has become like an internet meme in the lifting community lol because he runs the Bulgarian method on many different lifts. Deadlift too and he's super strong at them but even he agrees that this method works better on some lifts over others
Emir EC hahaha internet meme for Bulgarian, i dig that 😂 honestly even if he does it successfully I doubt a single other person besides 1/10000 would get results from it on deadlifts. Your hips will either go sumo or your back/spine/CNS will go on conventional.
Brendan Tietz yeh I think you're right. He's definitely the exception not the rule. That's for this video man. I'll admit when I first found your channel I was a little underwhelmed (probably cos you talk so much sometimes haha) but over time I really got to enjoy it. I have been going through a video binge on your channel these last few days as a result
@@emZee1994 he does not pull conventional in this manner. He’s said many times you just can’t recover from it. Hell do it with odd lifts like behind the back or Jefferson’s or trap or whatever but not conventional
r91325 LOL I’ve never had a single red light on a single lift in comp or at mock meets. I’ve had a warning once over a sock touching a knee sleeve but still all whites. Pleaseeeee. Lemme guess though, you squat like 700 ass to grass for reps huh?
No, I can barely squat 500. I was simply making an observation to your squat depth, but should clarify your lifts seemed to get better with subsequent Bulgarian cycles and training duration. Otherwise, several of your one rep maxes videotaped here were quite shallow, especially during the beginning. Regardless, legitimate squat depth will vary from one federation to another; so it all depends which federation you compete in and their particular standards. I would rather run multiple rep sets because that level of volume allows me the practice to sink each rep, and to re-inforce the CNS accordingly. Just my take on the situation.
