BULGARIAN

TRACKER
INSTRUCTIONS

BY GREG NUCKOLS
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Purpose
The purpose of this sheet is to help alleviate some of the stress that can come
with Bulgarian-style training. Since daily maxes and the amount of volume you
can handle fluctuate day to day, some people can find that variation to be stressful.
The key function of this sheet is helping you track a weekly rolling average so that
you get a clearer look at how your strength is improving over time. A seven-day
average isn’t very sensitive to one great or one crummy session, so it helps you get
a better idea of how you’re doing. It also helps you track recovery status. Based
on the trend your maxes, volume, and recovery are exhibiting, you can make smart
training decisions, know what aspect of your training needs more attention (do
you need more volume, or do you just need to focus more on recovery?) and have
more consistent long-term improvement.

Data Entry/Outputs
Using the sheet is simple. Just fill in your daily max squat, daily max bench or
overhead press (the column is labeled bench press, but you can change that to

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OHP if you prefer. Columns C and J), the volume you handle on each lift (Col-
umns D and K), your daily minimums (Columns E and L) how well you’re sleep-
ing and eating (Columns P and Q), and how stressed, fatigued, and sore you feel
(Columns R, S, and T).
The sheet then calculates your seven-day average for your daily maxes (Columns
F and M), your seven-day average for your training volume (Columns G and N),
and your recovery status (Column U).
If you can’t train one day, don’t leave the line blank or put a zero in that cell. Fill
it in with #N/A in most circumstances. That will tell the sheet to just skip the
cell when computing weekly averages, instead of averaging it in as a zero (which
will decrease your average max and average volume by about 14%). You may ac-
tually want to enter zero in a daily volume cell, as you obviously did no volume if
you didn’t train – that can be useful if the number of days you can train per week
varies. However, if you train basically the same number of days every week, still
entering a #N/A for daily volume will give you a clearer picture of your weekly av-
erage, instead of there being a sizable dip every time you enter a zero. The #N/As
basically help smooth out volatility in the data so you get a clearer picture of the
trends over time, and entering zeros (except for volume, if you happen to bounce
back and forth between say, training six times one week and three times the next
– if it’s the same number of sessions each week or it only varies by one, like five
some week and six the next, still use #N/A) makes the graphs fluctuate more so
trends aren’t as clear.
The second and third sheets help visualize how your daily maxes and daily vol-
ume are doing over time. The first two graphs on each page are the daily maxes
and daily volume themselves. The third and fourth are the seven-day averages, and
the fifth is recovery status.

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Putting the Sheet to Use

Remember from the Bulgarian Manual: If your daily max is increasing, you don’t
need to worry about your volume too terribly much. Progress is progress. If your
daily max plateaus for a couple of weeks or more, check your training volume. If
it’s been flat-lined, then increasing volume will probably get your daily max mov-
ing again within a week or two. Since this sheet tracks seven-day rolling averages,
it helps you see those trends more clearly, so a couple of poor sessions won’t make
you think your strength is plummeting while your average daily max is still doing
fine, or so you won’t fool yourself into thinking your average volume is through the
roof just because you had one hard session.
Additionally, since the sheet tracks recovery status, it can let you know if your
training may not be the culprit for a plateau. If you were making progress on a
given level of volume, then suddenly level off or start regressing, it could be be-
cause of inadequate sleep/nutrition, or an increase in outside stressors. A negative
number for recovery status lets you know that you should probably address factors
outside the gym before you overhaul your training. A number between 0 and 5
is poor, but not terrible. Between 5 and 15 should be pretty typical – good sleep
and nutrition, but carrying a little fatigue through the training cycle. Consistently
getting a number above 15 is absolutely fantastic; you should be able to train very
hard and recover from just about anything within reason.
If, for some reason, you’re consistently getting negative numbers and there’s
nothing you can conceivably do about it (life does get in the way sometimes, af-
ter all), then if your daily maxes start dipping it may be wise to actually decrease
training volume so you’re not adding more stress to the system. If this continues
for a few weeks and there’s really no way you can get yourself into a better recov-
ery state, it could just be that Bulgarian-style training isn’t the best thing for you
right now. It would probably behoove you to take on a less stressful style of train-

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ing until your life circumstances are more conducive to hard training.

Final Note
This is easiest to use if you use the same variation of the lifts each day. For ex-
ample, the Olympic style squat and a particular grip width for bench press.
If you use variations, divide your daily max and your daily volume by the percent
difference between your best daily max of the variation of the lift you used for
the day, and your best daily max of the strongest variation of the lift you use. For
example, if your best low bar squat daily max is 500lbs, and your front squat to-
day – assuming it was the first time you did it – had a daily max of 400 and daily
volume of 20,000, then you would divide your daily max front squat by your best
daily max low bar squat (400/500 = 0.8). You’d take that decimal, and divide both
your daily max front squat and your front squat volume by it. So 400/.8 = 500,
and 20000/.8 = 25000. So just to normalize the data, you’d enter 500 as your daily
max squat, and 25,000lbs of daily volume.
Then, if you hit a 385 front squat as a daily max, you’d apply the same ratio as
before, since 400 was your best daily max front squat. So you’d enter it as 385/.8 =
481.25.
Then, let’s say you low bar squat 520 as a daily max. For any subsequent sessions
where you front squat, the ratio would then be 400/520 = .769 until you hit a new
PR daily max front squat or low bar squat.
If you like using variations instead of the same lifts every day, you can apply this
same process to each variation you use. Divide your best daily max of the varia-
tion you’re using for the day by your best daily max of the strongest variation you
use. Then divide the daily max you hit for the day, and the volume you accumulat-
ed for the day by the resultant decimal. That normalizes the data so that the sheet
tracks changes in strength and training volume accurately.

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