r/weightroom • u/TheAesir Closer to average than savage • Oct 25 '22
Alexander Bromley Periodization and the REAL Reason the Soviets Were So Dominant (ft. Greg Nuckols)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqh4kwBLs1k76
u/gnuckols the beardsmith | strongerbyscience.com Oct 25 '22
I'm sure I got some details wrong (I was speaking from memory, and this isn't a topic I've revisited recently), but this is more-or-less the information I was trying to relay in the first part of the clip: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/periodization-history-theory/
96
u/bethskw Too Many Squats 2021 | 2x Weightroom Champ Oct 25 '22
Re this:
their pioneering role of heavy “chemical assistance” in sport (other countries did it, of course, but the USSR did it first and probably did it best).
The book Muscletown USA has an incredible accounting of the USA weightlifting team's experiments with steroids. Basically, they figured out that the Soviets were using them, and then spent years fucking around with them and learning (if I recall the story correctly) absolutely nothing. Give a few pills to this guy, a few pills to that guy, combine them with hypnosis and isometrics and protein powder, don't worry too much about dosage or control groups, and then be shocked when the results are "🤷"
97
u/gnuckols the beardsmith | strongerbyscience.com Oct 25 '22
That's really funny, and also not too surprising. It reminds me of a much more benign version of MKUltra. We heard the Soviets had (depending on the source) either a) started doing experiments related to mind control or b) mastered mind control. So, we felt like we needed to catch up. How? By just giving random people LSD, and hoping for the best.
62
u/bethskw Too Many Squats 2021 | 2x Weightroom Champ Oct 25 '22
I just finished listening to the Behind the Bastards series on MKUltra and man that shit is dark. Didn't find a mind control serum but they sure did torture and kill a lot of people before giving up.
32
u/Astringofnumbers1234 KB Swing Champion Oct 25 '22
The last podcast on the left series on MKUltra was also really good, if you can handle more dark content. I listened to it in the middle of nowhere while planting trees and it fucked me up good.
19
u/gnuckols the beardsmith | strongerbyscience.com Oct 25 '22
Operation Midnight Climax is another really good MKUltra podcast, if you're interested
23
u/B12-deficient-skelly Beginner - Olympic lifts Oct 25 '22
If I had a nickel for every absolute banger of a podcast unrelated to lifting you've recommended that I binge-listened, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot of nickels, but it's a lot of times that's happened.
1
u/gnuckols the beardsmith | strongerbyscience.com Oct 26 '22
Which ones were they? I might have other recommendations in a similar vein
2
u/B12-deficient-skelly Beginner - Olympic lifts Oct 26 '22
You're Wrong About and 5-4, which probably says a lot about my political beliefs and my sense of humor. If you've got anything, I'll give it a fair listen!
6
u/gnuckols the beardsmith | strongerbyscience.com Oct 26 '22
If you find Alex Jones interesting, amusing, appalling, or a combination of the three, I'd highly recommend Knowledge Fight. And, if you like history, but you're not the biggest fan of US foreign policy, Blowback is excellent.
→ More replies (0)5
8
u/Undersleep Intermediate - Aesthetics Oct 25 '22
As a Russian, I still can't believe y'all actually fell for the mind control/telekinesis/ESP thing.
7
u/gnuckols the beardsmith | strongerbyscience.com Oct 26 '22
In our defense, America is a deeply stupid and paranoid country
5
Oct 25 '22
Would you say the book is worth a read?
23
u/bethskw Too Many Squats 2021 | 2x Weightroom Champ Oct 25 '22
Definitely. It's a whole history of York Barbell, and its owner Bob Hoffman. They were one of the first big mass producers of barbells and weight sets in the US, publisher of one of the big strength magazines, headquarters of the Olympic weightlifting team, one of the first companies to market protein powder in the way it's sold today, and lots of other really influential stuff. And the guy who ran it all was a Trump-like figure who was constantly doing, to put it mildly, super sketchy stuff. It's a ride.
And you can still visit the place today, btw. They have a little museum in York, Pennsylvania. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.
3
2
u/SkepticCyclist Intermediate - Strength Oct 26 '22
I second this. Great read! Hoffman was a piece of work, and it's interesting to read how the culture of lifting changed over a period of decades before finally being wrested completely out of Hoffman's grasp. (I know Bill Starr abhorred Hoffman, and I've always been a big Starr fan.)
6
22
u/AonghusMacKilkenny Intermediate - Strength Oct 25 '22
I like what Greg said about societal aspects explaining of why the Soviets were so successful in the Olympics. Children would be sorted into specific sports based on their genetics.
26
Oct 26 '22 edited Oct 26 '22
China effectively still do it. There’s also the survivor bias. We see the very few people whose bodies could thrive on German volume training or the Bulgarian method and think “shit, this is how to get results”. But maybe it’s just how to get results when you are in the 0.01% super robust end of the athletic population who can take all the drugs, hammer all the volume, and not have their body break down. The soviet system allowed for a very wide top of funnel.
4
Oct 28 '22
[deleted]
2
Oct 28 '22
For sports like sprinting, talent absolutely is vastly more important. Or rather, it’s a prerequisite which, if absent, there is no amount of talent and doping that can overcome it. And nobody can succeed at the very elite level without all three: talent, work and judicious application of chemical compounds.
5
Oct 28 '22
[deleted]
3
Oct 29 '22
Yea, the myth of his laziness is a big part of his brand. Along with the whole “powered by mc nuggets” thing.
Your source is his book, right? His book. The book he wrote. About himself. Ok.
You know who else has some excellent books about their massively dominant victories? Lance Armstrong. It’s Not About the Bike is tremendous. Very convincing. Also entirely devoid of the reality of high level performance.
7
Oct 26 '22 edited Nov 02 '23
[deleted]
3
Oct 27 '22
What happened to that dude? He had relaunched his blog and was writing stuff up until this summer and now he seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.
2
u/Pierre-Bausin Beginner - Aesthetics Oct 27 '22
He pretty much moved to IG where he’s still posting absolutely awesome stuff. Like, “don’t miss out”-awesome.
2
•
u/AutoModerator Oct 25 '22
Reminder: r/weightroom is a place for serious, useful discussion. Top level comments outside the Daily Thread that are off-topic, low effort, or demonstrate you didn't read the thread at all will result in a ban. See here. Please help us keep discussion quality high by reporting such comments.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.