![]() ![]() ![]() This allowed them to see what programs worked for what level of athlete. The Soviets also had a ranking system of their athletes. Pavel quoted a Soviet scientist who said that physiological data of what works can be found in world records and not in textbooks. How did the Soviet system evolve to create such great athletes? They measured everything. The heaviest lifts (above current records) are all from Soviet athletes. The older records are equal to or above the current records, especially for the heavier weight classes. In the figure below, I charted current records against records from 1972 to 1984. Taranenko’s record is no longer in the record book, though, because the International Weightlifting Federation restructured the weight classes (the 90kg class was changed to 91kg and then to 95kg). This is the heaviest ever lifted in a competition. Vasily Alexeev also set his last world record at age 36.) Taranenko’s combined total in 1988 for the snatch and clean and jerk was 475kg (1047 lbs.). (He is not the only older Soviet lifter, either. Leonid Taranenko won his first Olympic medal in 1980 and his last in 1992 at the age of 36. RELATED: The Barbell War: How the Soviets Ousted American Weightlifting Soviet Weightlifting Longevity I was fortunate to learn straight from Pavel himself about the Soviet secrets of dominance and longevity during this time period. Pavel Tsatsouline translated the Soviet literature and training methods, and in doing so, found that wavy patterns of volume and intensity were some of the keys to the Soviets’ dominance and durability. The Soviet weightlifting systems from the 1960s up to 1990 were known for breaking many world records, as well as for creating athletes with longevity. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |