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I would say that I began by being active in sports…But once sports were over I began by simply weight training. I was doing ONLY upper body for like 2 years. It was just sad.
 
How about everyone else?

 
I joined a gym in 8th grade lol.. My dad would drive me and pick me up
 
I did elliptical, girly machines like “ad and ad abductor, pull ups push ups, lat pull downs, lets curl and extensions, bicep curls, tricep kick backs, tons of crunches…
 
Basically all the basic stuff with no plan or understanding why i was doing it…
 
i was playing track and soccer in highshool so that kept me active .. i use to roller blade a TON too!

I hear a lot of times of absolute beginners being trained just the worst way possible from the start. Their trainers will push them so hard and make them so uncomfortable that they believe that is all exercise is- is pain. They don’t get the true de-stressing qualities of it and actually see exercise as a main stressor. Thus, they never adhere to a real program. It is just sad.

This is horrible… i see it happen all the time… the trainer tries to impress their clients with intense exercises only to find out that it completely intimidated them and turned them off,
 
Also most trainers don’t understand the concept of a beginner… they are a cookie cutter trainer and train all their clients the same disregarding their fitness level, stamina and strength
 
 

I did pretty much the same thing as Mike. i was a soccer and volleyball player from a really young age through freshman year in college. once i had a cheap membership to a gym at college and was playing far less sports, i started focusing on weight training, and went from there. as the years went on i learned more and more, but it’s been a long, slow, evolving process.

They have men’s volley ball teams? I didn’t know that!
Yes it is a long process of learning, researching, and trial and error…
 
I don’t think that process will ever end though… there is always a new study, theory, or different strategies to break plateaus or set new goals…
 

FYI Penn St.’s mens volleyball team won the national championship in 2007-08…

REALLY?? no way!!!! was it in doors or out doors??

WE ARE….(my psu radar went off)… :)

yeah, pete…the volleyball programs are top notch there…the women’s team was last year’s national champs as well (4th consecutive title).

http://www.ncaa.com/sports/volleyball-women/d1

i knew you were going to chime in lol.. i guess penn state will never get old for  you guys.. it must have bene an amazing school..
 
Every person i know that went to penn state is still a loyal fan and student at heart,,, hahah to funny but i love it..
 
Pete.. i didnt know you went to penn state? what did you study

lol yeah, it’s a sickness—you can take the kid out of penn state, but you can never take penn state out of the kid…true story. 

i believe it.. all you alumni people .. i see  you ever were .. the paw print is everywere

i went to Cal, not Penn St., but since i played vball in hs and follow it a little i knew that the men’s team won the national championship a few years ago. and yes, i am well aware just how successful the women’s team is. who doesn’t like watching athletic girls run around in spandex and play with balls? (sorry, i couldn’t resist! lol)

I started sports when i was young. I tried about every sport you can thing of. I didnt start weighlifting though until the end of my freshman year in hihg school with my football team. We did all kinds of lifts. But we only did half squats which at the time i thought was a full squat. I had a membership to 24hr fitness for a couple years. I trained myself. Did a lot of upper body work. Some lower body too. I would do things like play basketball or something for my cardio workouts. All I know is im glad i found olympic wiehgtlifting. I have learned a lot.

 
That really seems to be a lot of peoples stories right there. Learned lifting from sports in high school. Seems pretty common, but now you’ve stuck with it- which is good!

Ya im glad i did. You only learn so much about lifting in high school. I m glad i stuck with it and actually learn how to properly lift.

When I first started out I was in montana but then I moved out here to california to train with abijaev, alongside donnie shankle and caleb ward and one of abijaev lifters named marticn. Here I learned what real training was, we maxed out three times a day in both the lifts and the squats. I did this training cycle for a while and found that it is very effective if you are able to handle the volume. I am a big fan of the bulgarian system when you are an elite level athlete but as a begginer I think this type of system would not work and would probably cause bad technique and eventually injury.
 
For my less experienced athlets I try to take a more russian or chinese approach in training and do lots of volume to get them the most familiar with the lifts. We do alot of high block work with the snatches and I try to stay away from power scnatches so they dont get used to catching the lifts in the wrong postition. However, I do like to do the power variations so that they maximis there pull. but you have to be careful to not let them get dependent on this aspect of lifting, so I really have to decipher what is and what isnt the right time to do power variations.

 
Max,
 
I have heard that the bulgarian system (as you were describing under Abadjiev in your first paragraph) only works with drugs. Is this true? You don’t have to answer it either if you don’t want, I was just curious as to your thoughts on that. So do you think that the chinese or russian systems are “less advanced” than the bulgarian system? LEss advanced athletes use them? Or, just less training essions per week do ya mean?

 
 
Max// can you give a better description of the russian and chinese approach??
 
Just curious.. I got the point that it is more volume but so is the bulgarian system.. what is the difference??

Upper body only when I first started. I didn’t need to train legs I ran!!!??? Then I started squatting. A buddy of mine was telling me I have to do squats. So I tried it. After I started I grew out of ever pair of pants I had. I couldn’t believe it. I loved it . It was the first body part for me to really make huge gains. I walked, biked and ran most of my life. I didn’t have a car or license until I was 21 so I think my legs had a great capacity for work. I didn’t start really training until I was 18. Before that I did the two weeks and stop two weeks and stop. Curl and puh ups as many as I could. I think I had one summer before 9th grade that I really trained every day in the summer but once school started I dropped off.

Ok the three different approaches are chinese, bulgarian and russian. The chinese are somewhat similat in that they do not max out as much in the lifts and do alot of accesory work, however the chinese do alot more lifts from the hand and below the knee whereas the russian just all together do a different lift. Now the bulgarian system is doing only the lifts and squats and not much accesory outside of that, they max out three times a day in the olympic lifts and in the squats.
 
Now for the question of if this system only works on drugs, I believe that it works off drugs, but you have to be a special someone who can handle all of that volume and be able to recover fast enough to train hard again the next day. Most people cannot do that and that is why the success rate of it is low. However, the people who can recover from it are world champions. The difference between someone who takes drugs while doing this program and the person who does not take drugs is that the person who is takeing drugs is going to make much more gains in thier numbers then the person who is not taking drugs.

WOW! Max! thanks so much for sharing that.. i had no idea! This just proves there is no one shoe fits all with training.. These are completely different methods and each one made world champs.
 
You brought up a good point about taking drugs and doing these programs.. Most people don’t consider this factor and over train without seeing progress due to lack of recovery.
Not every one can be a “clean” world champ and that’s what distinguishes a true blood winner..
 
A lot of the workouts we read about are not realistic for the average Joe who is not taking drugs. This is were education/knowledge about training plays an important role and also understanding what your own body is capable of..
If you are a genetic freak who recovers fast, then by all means go for the gold and train like a bad ASS! But if you are like the majority of the population test the water, see what you are capable of and set up a plan/goal to crush those number and teach your body to adapt to high volume..

no problem laura, I was very happy to share that info, but keep it top secret lol.