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Russian Training Secrets - Fact Vs. Fiction
by Rick Brunner -- 1993
It is a sad but true fact that bodybuilders are being confused and robbed of their money by companies claiming to have "Russian Secret" training information and sport supplements. These companies have never worked with Russian coaches or researchers, and with the possible exception of some sport tour, have never even been to Russia!
What they do have is an active imagination, and their training plans and sport nutrition are made out of thin air. The old Russian Bear would rise up from her graves if she knew how her training methods and ideas about sport pharmacology were being abused and twisted in the West.
The Soviet Union has been well recognized for its success in international sport competition. For many years, this sport superpower placed at the top of the medal winners in the Olympic Games. Russian itself, as the largest republic in the USSR, reigned supreme in strength events such as weightlifting, hammer throw and wrestling. Other East Bloc countries such as East Germany, Rumania, hungary and Poland also followed suit, thanks mainly to the Russian based scientific methods of training athletes to become champions.
The success of Soviet sport has been shrouded in mystery because many of their training methods and sport pharmacology were not available to western coaches and athletes. However, to call them secrets as some in the West have labeled them is, to my thinking, a gross exaggeration. there is no single secret in Russian sport; only good sport management based on years of dedicated scientific research and practical use, which includes evaluation, planning and restoration. Most of the secrets western athletes have ben exposed to are, at best, a minute fraction of the Russian philosophy of building the advanced athlete. There is much more to Russian training methods than "some secrets".
Members of the Research advisory Board of Atleitka, the first and only Russian / USA joint sport program, of which I am a member, recently completed our bi-yearly trek to St. Petersburg, Russian. We continue to develop useful training and restoration methods for advanced and want-to-be- advanced athletes. However, just as in the West, there are BS 'ers in Russia coaching and sport science, and I have spent a lot of effort and time weeding them out. Today, I believe Atleitka had assembled the very best coaches and researchers from which to develop new and very effective training programs. These methods are designed for athletes who want to be the best at their sport.
So much of what has been developed in the West, be it sport supplement or a training program, is in my opinion outdated and not very useful for the advanced lifter. Much of what I have observed recently in the way of sport nutrition is simply a rehash of the past. Supplement companies strive to produce gobs of weight-gainer powers and optimizers in huge tubs each trying to out max the completion by packing the serving size with ever-bulking calories. First came Weight Gainers with 1,000 calories, then 2,000, and so on. the "all-in-one' supplement becomes nothing more than expensive food, with neither a real plan of proper use in the training program, nor a solid mechanism of bio-chemical action for real results. All-in-one supplements may be a good idea for the novice lifter because thy generally taste good and supply some basic nutrition, but they make little sense for those who train at heavy loads and whose goal is to become advanced or elite.
The proliferation of training programs in the West has followed a similar course. Canned training plans designed by self-proclaimed experts are, in many cases, simply the methods of old, re-named and re-packaged for today's new crop of lifters. The biggest puff-job has been the sale of so-called Bulgarian, Russian, or East Bloc training methods and sport supplements. I almost fall out of my office chair laughing when I read of such advertising hype. I'm not saying that these programs won't work, because in some cases, for some period of time, they may. They just aren't long lasting. Advanced athletes need something which will really contribute to their long term development.
To be sure, many of today's training programs are tough, and might be useful for some athletes, some of the time. but, anyone can design a tough workout program. I could say to you right now, "go design me a hard workout" and you would come back with a program which would drive me to my knees. Is this the answer? Of course it isn't. The idea of a superior long-term training program is to get great results again and again, not some short-lived success from one program, then move on to another because the old one just doesn't cut it any more.
The design of a training plan, which includes both a workout and recovery schedule, is a combination of science and art which must be customized to each individual;. What Atleitka could design for you would be different than what it would design for someone else. Canned training plans are just a start, a guide from which to learn. Athletes who are advanced, or want to be advanced, need much more. This is where I believe a marriage between what Russian coaches have learned and what good trainers in the West know, will lead to the ultimate training system for today's advanced athletes. The real reasons for the success of Russian athletes are often different from the reasons for a success of athletes in the West. If we join the best of both sport-training worlds together, then I believe we will have the superior program. This is the real secret. This is the goal of Atleitka.
To set the record straight, Atleitka has been working with many top-level Russian sport researchers (physiologists, pharmacologists, and biochemists), coaches, and sport officials for the past five years. We are actively involved in the Russian Bodybuilding Federation, Powerlifting Federation, Track and Field Federation and others.
Atleitka conducts ongoing sport research experiments in St. Petersburg, Russia to ensure that the advanced athletes we work with receive the very best sport pharmacology and the plans to go along with them. We are not mass market, and we don't believe in hype or puffery in the presentation of our ideas or custom programs. our clients include many world-class and professional athletes, including several members of the US and Russian Olympic Teams who participated in Barcelona, as those bodybuilders, powerlifters, and weightlifters who want to rise quickly and solidly to the advanced level of their sport. We prepare custom plans by the cycle (usually tow months long) all the way up to the four-year plan, depending on the needs of the individual athlete.
There is no single magic answer or "Russian secret" which will solve the training problems of today's advanced and want-to-be advanced bodybuilders. The training tips covered in the many magazines and books on bodybuilding are the starting point from which an athlete begins his climb, Atleitka serves a role by providing custom training plans and special sport nutrition, developed from a joint Russians / USA project using the best Western and East Bloc philosophies.
by Rick Brunner -- 1993
It is a sad but true fact that bodybuilders are being confused and robbed of their money by companies claiming to have "Russian Secret" training information and sport supplements. These companies have never worked with Russian coaches or researchers, and with the possible exception of some sport tour, have never even been to Russia!
What they do have is an active imagination, and their training plans and sport nutrition are made out of thin air. The old Russian Bear would rise up from her graves if she knew how her training methods and ideas about sport pharmacology were being abused and twisted in the West.
The Soviet Union has been well recognized for its success in international sport competition. For many years, this sport superpower placed at the top of the medal winners in the Olympic Games. Russian itself, as the largest republic in the USSR, reigned supreme in strength events such as weightlifting, hammer throw and wrestling. Other East Bloc countries such as East Germany, Rumania, hungary and Poland also followed suit, thanks mainly to the Russian based scientific methods of training athletes to become champions.
The success of Soviet sport has been shrouded in mystery because many of their training methods and sport pharmacology were not available to western coaches and athletes. However, to call them secrets as some in the West have labeled them is, to my thinking, a gross exaggeration. there is no single secret in Russian sport; only good sport management based on years of dedicated scientific research and practical use, which includes evaluation, planning and restoration. Most of the secrets western athletes have ben exposed to are, at best, a minute fraction of the Russian philosophy of building the advanced athlete. There is much more to Russian training methods than "some secrets".
Members of the Research advisory Board of Atleitka, the first and only Russian / USA joint sport program, of which I am a member, recently completed our bi-yearly trek to St. Petersburg, Russian. We continue to develop useful training and restoration methods for advanced and want-to-be- advanced athletes. However, just as in the West, there are BS 'ers in Russia coaching and sport science, and I have spent a lot of effort and time weeding them out. Today, I believe Atleitka had assembled the very best coaches and researchers from which to develop new and very effective training programs. These methods are designed for athletes who want to be the best at their sport.
So much of what has been developed in the West, be it sport supplement or a training program, is in my opinion outdated and not very useful for the advanced lifter. Much of what I have observed recently in the way of sport nutrition is simply a rehash of the past. Supplement companies strive to produce gobs of weight-gainer powers and optimizers in huge tubs each trying to out max the completion by packing the serving size with ever-bulking calories. First came Weight Gainers with 1,000 calories, then 2,000, and so on. the "all-in-one' supplement becomes nothing more than expensive food, with neither a real plan of proper use in the training program, nor a solid mechanism of bio-chemical action for real results. All-in-one supplements may be a good idea for the novice lifter because thy generally taste good and supply some basic nutrition, but they make little sense for those who train at heavy loads and whose goal is to become advanced or elite.
The proliferation of training programs in the West has followed a similar course. Canned training plans designed by self-proclaimed experts are, in many cases, simply the methods of old, re-named and re-packaged for today's new crop of lifters. The biggest puff-job has been the sale of so-called Bulgarian, Russian, or East Bloc training methods and sport supplements. I almost fall out of my office chair laughing when I read of such advertising hype. I'm not saying that these programs won't work, because in some cases, for some period of time, they may. They just aren't long lasting. Advanced athletes need something which will really contribute to their long term development.
To be sure, many of today's training programs are tough, and might be useful for some athletes, some of the time. but, anyone can design a tough workout program. I could say to you right now, "go design me a hard workout" and you would come back with a program which would drive me to my knees. Is this the answer? Of course it isn't. The idea of a superior long-term training program is to get great results again and again, not some short-lived success from one program, then move on to another because the old one just doesn't cut it any more.
The design of a training plan, which includes both a workout and recovery schedule, is a combination of science and art which must be customized to each individual;. What Atleitka could design for you would be different than what it would design for someone else. Canned training plans are just a start, a guide from which to learn. Athletes who are advanced, or want to be advanced, need much more. This is where I believe a marriage between what Russian coaches have learned and what good trainers in the West know, will lead to the ultimate training system for today's advanced athletes. The real reasons for the success of Russian athletes are often different from the reasons for a success of athletes in the West. If we join the best of both sport-training worlds together, then I believe we will have the superior program. This is the real secret. This is the goal of Atleitka.
To set the record straight, Atleitka has been working with many top-level Russian sport researchers (physiologists, pharmacologists, and biochemists), coaches, and sport officials for the past five years. We are actively involved in the Russian Bodybuilding Federation, Powerlifting Federation, Track and Field Federation and others.
Atleitka conducts ongoing sport research experiments in St. Petersburg, Russia to ensure that the advanced athletes we work with receive the very best sport pharmacology and the plans to go along with them. We are not mass market, and we don't believe in hype or puffery in the presentation of our ideas or custom programs. our clients include many world-class and professional athletes, including several members of the US and Russian Olympic Teams who participated in Barcelona, as those bodybuilders, powerlifters, and weightlifters who want to rise quickly and solidly to the advanced level of their sport. We prepare custom plans by the cycle (usually tow months long) all the way up to the four-year plan, depending on the needs of the individual athlete.
There is no single magic answer or "Russian secret" which will solve the training problems of today's advanced and want-to-be advanced bodybuilders. The training tips covered in the many magazines and books on bodybuilding are the starting point from which an athlete begins his climb, Atleitka serves a role by providing custom training plans and special sport nutrition, developed from a joint Russians / USA project using the best Western and East Bloc philosophies.
