Max Aita is the head coach and owner of Max’s Gym as well as the head weightlifting coach at Juggernaut Training. He spent years training under Ivan Abadjiev and Steve Gough, and as a result, has key insights on the Bulgarian weightlifting method. 

In this video, Aita explains how Abadjiev became head coach of the Bulgarian national team and where their training system came from:


Aita also provides a historical overview of the training system by detailing the physical and psychological environment Abadjiev created for his athletes; explaining how the Bulgarian method differed from the Soviet system; and comparing the cultural differences between weightlifters then and weightlifters now.

The Bulgarian Method, as Explained by Max Aita:

• "[Abadjiev] was fed a lot of high-level lifters. He wasn’t really taking a guy from nothing and building him into some humongous guy. He was taking guys that were decent, national-level guys and building them into Olympic and world champions."

• "The system itself revolved around competition. A tremendous amount of energy went into being competitive. There was at least one mock competition once a week, and this is essentially year long."

• "With Abadjiev’s system, the structure of the week was the same. Max attempts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The same on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Many, many workouts were done, and all were done at 90 percent or above."

• "Everything was based on absolutes. If you came into gym and he asked for a maximum snatch, you worked up to your best competition lift and tried to exceed that. The Bulgarian system is not a 'train by how you feel' method; it’s a brute force-style system. How you feel is irrelevant."

• "Almost every workout was taken to absolute failure. Technique was not emphasized a lot. Your technique was whatever you developed as you went through the system."

• "When you train at that intensity, at that level, with less emphasis on technical skills, injuries are certainly much more prone to occur. This doesn’t mean it’s a far worse system because there’s more injuries—it’s just a more aggressive style."