utm_source=tnation&utm_medium=marquee_top&utm_campaign=serious_athletes_prowler_10_
)
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
mag.
Testosterone: How did you first get interested in strength training?
Tudor Bompa: My athletic background is in track and field, and later on
I got into rowing and cross country skiing. I was amongst the first
athletes to incorporate a great deal of strength training into training
for skiing. That was back in the early 1960's! My improvements were so
visible that many other competitors were aghast. Because of my gains
in upper and lower-body strength, I was able to use the skating
technique for many parts of the race. Equally important was the use of
my superior force in the arms.
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
T: How did you first begin coaching the things you learned as an
athlete?
TB: The most critical innovations in the approach to strength training
came in 1963 when I was asked to train a nationally ranked javelin
thrower. Her coach had moved to another city and I was the only
person who could train her. I have to mention that at that time, as is
the case today in many sports, athletes were training year-round only
for power, using some free weights but also a great deal of medicine
ball training. Before I started to train this athlete in early 1963, I'd
logically concluded that power is a function of maximum strength [he
highest force one can display in one attempt or 1RM], as well as speed
and quickness of action. While speed has more genetic limitations
than strength, I had decided to look for improved power by increasing
maximum strength to the highest possible levels.
As I continued to train this thrower, I also continuously monitored and
tested both speed and quickness and maximum strength. After a year
and a half of training her, I found out that gains in power come 95%
from gains in maximum strength, and only 5% from speed. That year
represented the year when I created periodization of strength. Using
this strength training strategy, my javelin thrower improved by 15
meters within a year and a half. She became the Olympic champion in
1964 and set a new world record as well.
T: You've written a great deal about periodization and its application in
strength training. In your terms, what exactly is periodization?
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
T: Good point. Any other mistakes you see that drive you nuts?
TB: Many athletes and coaches use the same type of strength training,
irrespective of the physiological requirements their respective sports
require. Each sport has its specific physiological profile. The sports
where the alactic energy system is dominant are basically sports
where speed and power are necessary to achieve high results
[jumping and throwing events in track and field, linebackers, baseball,
sprinting, etc.]
For sports where the alactic-acid system has a high percentage of
ergogenesis, or breakdown in percentage of the three energy systems,
it's required that power-endurance and muscle-endurance [30-50 reps
per set] be trained. Finally, for endurance-dominant sports, one needs
to develop muscle-endurance [tens and even hundreds of reps]. If this
isn't achieved, a good adaptation to such training won't occur.
What we see here is a very important training principle strength
training has to play a physiological role; it has to tap the same energy
system to add to the specific adaptation to the physiological
requirements of a given sport. If one doesn't follow the above
principle, he or she is entirely missing the point in strength training. I
can strongly state that in athletics there is no strength for strength's
sake, but rather just strength training with a specific purpose:
maximum adaptation for performance improvement.
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
TB: Certainly, especially as they target the ankle, knee, and hip
muscles. Most sports performed on the ground [all team sports, track,
martial arts, etc.] use knee extensors and flexors, and gastrocnemius
and soleus for the ankle actions. Therefore squats, leg curls, and toe
raises are very popular with most sports.
Although many coaches do use squats and leg curls, toe raises aren't
utilized as much as the other two exercises. Somehow they miss the
fact that ankles play a very important role in any type of sprinting,
quick changes of direction, and any agility actions. In many cases, the
gastrocnemius and soleus are stronger than the quadriceps! This is
why improvements in quickness and agility will come faster after these
two muscles get stronger.
T: How about abs?
TB: Yes, this is equally true with regard to abdominal muscles.
Abdominal curls with all variations and rotations are very necessary for
all sports. A strong back is also crucial in many sports. Therefore, back
extensions should be considered.
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
T: What about altering tempo? For example, taking more time in the
concentric and eccentric ranges?
TB: Altering tempo is mostly a bodybuilding concept, though some
people promote it as a sort of strength-training novelty, good for
everything and everybody. The scope of altering the tempo of a lift is
to create the highest tension in a muscle for the longest period of
time, using both concentric and eccentric contraction.
Here's the main difference between bodybuilding and strength training
for sports. For bodybuilding, the scope of increased tension is
designed to induce hypertrophy. In strength training for sports, using
heavy loads [> 85-90% of 1 RM] the scope is not to increase the
duration of tension, but rather to apply the force against resistance as
quickly and dynamically as possible so that the highest number of
fast-twitch muscle fibers are recruited in the action.
Therefore, a major reason we use heavy loads in training athletes in
different sports is to stimulate the recruitment of fast-twitch muscle
fibers, and as a result, to use them during the performance of athletic
action. The more fast twitch muscle fibers are used during the
performance of a technical skill, the higher the application of force
and the benefit for an increased performance.
The use of eccentric contraction in strength training for sports isn't as
popular as concentric contraction. However, in some sports like
throwing events in track and field and linebackers in football, it's used
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
T: Fair enough. I've read that in Bulgaria, Olympic athletes train five
times a day, seven times a week and that Russian powerlifters bench
press up to 21 times a week. What do you think of this training
frequency and would these types of programs be beneficial to a
natural trainer?
TB: I just wish that people wouldn't compare apples to oranges. In
order to discuss this we have to better qualify what Bulgarians and
Russian Olympic weightlifters were doing in the time of the communist
system. Yes, the Bulgarian Olympic lifters were training from 9:00 AM
to 5:00 or 6:00 PM, 45 minutes on and 30 minutes off, except for the
lunch break of some two hours. The Russians weren't powerlifters.
They were Olympic lifters and what they were doing is something
they've adapted to progressively over several years. Most of these
athletes had a background of eight to ten years before they were
doing that kind of training.
Also, remember that their training regimen was done in national
training camps, where training, sleeping, and food ingestion were the
only things they were doing. In addition, they weren't working on
anything else, just lifting the bloody barbells! I'm not as impressed
exaggerations and myths aside as many seem to be, simply because
I have a similar background, where my athletes were training two to
four times per day with a total of five to eight hours of training!
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
Now let's examine what pro-athletes are doing in the US. They train
technically, tactically, speed, agility and strength/power several times
per week, some up to three times per day. Is anybody suggesting that
these athletes have to bench press 21 times per week? Team sports,
however, aren't the best examples regarding training. Many amateur
athletes train much more than pro-players. Also, the quality of
coaching in many team sports, especially with regard to strength and
conditioning, is quite pathetic. Similarly, some of the professional
coaches in fact, the majority have a very poor understanding of
training theory.
What do I think about the programs you mentioned? Who cares?
Would I like to duplicate in this continent what my athletes have done
in training camps in Romania? Not at all! Different societies, different
times and mentality! Yet several of the athletes trained or consulted by
myself in this continent have won against the East Europeans several
times with just half of the amount of training time!
One of the key elements in training is to have high training knowledge
and excellent methodology in applying it. Being equipped with such
knowledge can do miracles. Forget about the "locker room gossip"
regarding Russians and Bulgarians.
T: What books do you recommend on strength training besides
yours, of course? Who are the best strength training coaches out
there?
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
TB: This is a very difficult question to answer, the reason being that I
don't feel comfortable discussing the books written by other authors.
However, I'll try to be as frank as I can. To be honest, I'm really
dissatisfied with the level of strength training books available on the
market. It seems to me that there's a great mess regarding this
important area.
One of the greatest frustrations I have is that to some authors, there's
no clear distinction between the objectives of strength training for
sports, bodybuilding, and Olympic weightlifting. Authors with a football
background expect everyone to do what a linebacker is doing. The
same thing is valid for those who have a bodybuilding background.
They discuss split routines, supersets, etc. This is totally inadequate
for strength training for sports.
To me, a strength training book must serve the needs of a given
audience. Use the best sports science information possible and most
importantly, be practical. Just going through the process of reviewing
the literature (as many do) isn't serving anybody's purpose.
T: Do you feel that some or most strength coaches have a tendency to
make their programs too general at times and too complicated at
other times?
TB: Yes, you're perfectly right. Let me try to explain what happens.
There are several situations that are necessary to examine. Hopefully,
from this analysis, some strength and conditioning coaches may start
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
And yet many coaches are doing everything under the sun: lifting
weights, power training, using medicine balls, working to improve
maximum speed, etc. The uninitiated "greenhorn" coach, the one with
a shallow level of knowledge in sports science, will easily bite into the
gimmicks of the day, such as overspeed, balance training, rotation
training, and functional training.
In addition to the fact that some of these training ideas don't work at
all, attempting to use them in training creates a crisis! A time crisis! If
one has two to three hours to work with the athletes, when do they
have the time to use all these novelties? Simplify your training! To be
effective, training must be simplified.
To create an efficient program, one has to be very selective in what he
does in training. Never forget that your training must result in a very
specific adaptation. When superior adaptation occurs, performance
will be superior. If one is using too many training elements, it's almost
impossible to have a good adaptation. Just think about that! If you do,
you'll see that you don't have time and room for totally unproven
gimmicks.
This is my case for position-specific training programs. In team sports,
almost each position requires different qualities and taps specific
proportions of the three energy systems. Take for instance a midfielder in soccer vs. a sweeper, or a linebacker versus a wide receiver
in football. These positions are so different from each other that a
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
03/22/02
Name
Email
Subscribe
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
(/store)
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
(//www.t-nation.com/workouts/american-sniper-
workout)
(https://biotest.t-nation.com/packages/velocity-diet)
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
(https://forums.t-nation.com/c/figure-athletes)
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa
https://www.t-nation.com/training/talk-with-tudor-bompa