Christos Tsekos trained konstantinos Kenteris and Katerina Thanou. I would love to know what strength training he recomended becuase he was supposed to have a uniquue or unorthodox training method.
He has, unfortunately, been rather secretive about their training regime, but that only adds to the curiosity for me.
ho ho! Tzekos lives very close to me 
His house is 5 mins away from me.
Still, i can’t enlighten you Goose 
I’m sure there is lots of information in the archieves. I remember reading it not long ago.
The roots and basics of Tzekos’ training approach are in the thinking of great Bulgarian weightlifting Coach Ivan Abadjiev.
Here follows quite a long (and not always clear) script of one of Mr.Abadjiev’s most recent lectures,which begins with an open reference to Greek Sprinter Ekaterina Thanou,notoriously training under Christos Tzekos’ guidance.
[i]"This material that I have prepared here for you for today is the same material that I lectured on in front of the Greece Committee last spring.
They specifically asked me to present my material because one of their athletes, Ekatarina Tanou, was using this method of training and has incredible results using this method. She was third in the world for 100 meter sprint, and last year she was one of the best white athletes, and she has been using my methods of training.
If you pay attention to what I am saying and if you think logically about what I am saying then you will see that this method is applicable to almost any sports training. We will be concentrating on weightlifting nonetheless.
I have been asking myself a question, why such countries such as Uruquay, Paraquay, Peru, not to mention Brazil, have incredible achievements in, say, football, considering that those countries do not have stable sports methods or academic sports development. And yet, they have better results in comparison to other countries like Germany or Russia, which have been studying sports as an academic for a very long time.
The other question that I have been asking myself is why such universal athletes do not exist anymore, why it is so difficult to be good in different disciplines, such as only 100 meters or jumps. These athletes who do only one discipline they do it well but it is
almost impossible to be good in a lot of disciplines at the same time.
The same question is with athletes who train 10 different disciplines. They have a mediocre scale of good results. For each sport they are not at their best at one of those sports because they try to perform good in all the 10 of them which prevents them from
being good at only one sport.
The fourth question that I have been asking myself is why, when observing animals, for instance, they don’t have micro and macro cycles.
They don’t have leisure periods.
They are all the time active.
They don’t have performance of 80% or 70%.
They only have performance achievements of 100% all of the time.
The way that animals prey, whatever they do, they do it their best and they do it
at 100%. This is the way they survive.
Please forgive me for the simpleness of these examples, but every time I talk with opponents who do not share my point of view, I have found that this is a simple method of explaining the way I think and the way muscles work and this is a simple way to present it graphically although it is not an academic way.
As you can see this is a train with coaches which is performing a certain function. We can compare this to a group of muscles or to a muscle fiber which also performs some kind of duty. It also has dynamic function……
Literally there is a difference between a living organism and this machinery, and I will try to talk about that…….
This is the precise way that a human body would function or human muscles or any living organism’s muscle function. That when there is a lack of energy, there is a signal sent to the brain which, on its behalf would provide them with nitrogen and whatever else is needed for them to function (energies) through the blood circulation system. Up to here the mechanism of the way they work is absolutely identical.
But the difference between the living organism and the machinery shown here is as follows.
(…)
Now we have switched on the little trains. This is a law in organics that the function builds the organ, or, the muscle. And when they function, they form new structures. On the examples shown, they are growing.
First of all – this is the coal storage, if we are talking about the train – so it will extend its size.
(…)
This is a human cell and in the cytoplasm there are swimming these organelles which have this shape and form. This is basically how the energy received into a cell is formed so the cell can use the energy provided. That is why they are called energy stations of
the human cell. This is where energy is formed, and in the appropriate measure, then it goes into becoming energy that the human organism needs to perform.
This means that the number of those mitochondria is bigger so that the size of the whole cell will change and become bigger also. Which practically means that the more energy it receives, the more it grows, and the stronger the power of the engine will be……
And those are the different shapes of muscles. We have one muscle that could be one after another one, when they’re parallel, . . . this is the different types of muscles. They all have a particular function, they all react to different things. For instance, when we
have slower, but heavier exercise, then those muscles are the ones that are doing the work. The ones that need speed and heaviness at the same time, then those parallel muscles are activated, because power or strength of the muscles depend on different things, different parameters.
The part of the muscle which is contracting is called sarcomere. The longer it is, the faster it reacts, the faster it contracts. The shorter it is, it could provide enormous strength, but in a longer period of time.
And there are muscle groups that can work without oxygen provided, anaerobically.
And there are those muscles who work aerobically, with oxygen.
For instance, when we have a sprinter or cross runner, this is the muscle which is activated .This is used for running and sprinting and longer running periods. Those two muscles which are located on both sides of the knee, they take part when sprinting is necessary, also called out of phase muscles. They turn food into energy without using
oxygen. When we are talking about longer distances, then the energy is formed using oxygen. So that the ones that are used for longer running distance, they have a bigger number of mitochondria. This is where the cycle of Krebs takes place and over 1,500 kilojoules of energy are formed.
And when we are talking about anaerobic working of the muscles, then we are talking about 60% less production of those mitochondria from the same amount of energy. So in the longer period, when we look at different training muscles, there are different muscles that are used for different groups and they are the ones who change their size
accordingly to the training system.
That is why when we change, when we are not lifting weights, when we are doing something else . . . if we say that on the upper picture the engine is the one that is used to lift weights, if we do something else not lifting weights we are using other muscle groups, in another exercise not weightlifting, those are the muscles that are being contracted.
So we have used this system when weightlifters have done other exercises, not only weightlifting. For instance, I saw here that some of your trainers do jumps with weights. Which means that immediately the energy supplies for those muscles will be activated,
the ones that are necessary for a jump to be performed, which means that there will be energy taken from the basic muscles needed in weightlifting.
And it is not only the matter of the muscle itself growing, but it is the connections and the blood vessels which supply it with needed energy, they change their form and shape too. So then, if we go back to doing the same exercise, which is shown on the upper picture, then it wouldn’t be as easy for it to get energy anymore. And those are physiologically proven right, that the mechanism works precisely this way. Respectable biologists and physiologists have proven that this is right.
As it is proved also that when we have, with the use of non-weightlifting exercises there is new proteins and the muscles are growing and protein is developed and what have you then it is at the same moment that the muscles used for weightlifting begin shrinking.
So if we concentrate our energy onto other exercises, then it means that the creative process of the muscle needed in weightlifting will be stopped, which means that in a longer period of time it will not be as easy to develop into its original shape anymore, or size.
So this is our aim when we are training athletes, that we would build up all those organs and muscles needed for a certain performance, not only the muscles, but the whole cardiovascular and other systems that support the working of the muscles in order for a better performance.
The adaptive process however, does not only include all the lungs and the heart and the other organs that I mentioned.
The first adaptive period of the organism is an emergency one, which activates the hormone use in the blood and the organism. The first ones to be activated are adrenalin and noradrenalin.
It is said in this work for instance that the adrenaline can be lifted as much as
to 1,000 ng/ml from 0.5. It is almost 1,000 times higher than its normal amount. This whole adaptive mechanism plays a huge role in the functioning of the organism.
It is not only in sports, but that it is how our organism adapts to any number of changes, for instance, the cold when we go outside.
And it is cold and there is a rush of adrenaline and naturally your cardiovascular system starts to work faster in order for your heart to produce enough blood to get you warm.
Adrenalin also activates this anabolic machinery. This is the membrane of the cell. It is formed by four molecules, and we will be interested in only two of them. This is how the adrenaline divides this part of the cell. One of them mobilizes the calcium inside
the cell. So calcium is needed in order for those two to be united, and as the disappearance of those little bridges that we see here occurs, there is the contraction of the muscle; as they are pulled apart, the muscle contracts.
So naturally everything is controlled by the brain, the adaptation and the growth of the muscles. And they are also determined huge changes in the kidneys, they grow bigger in size, and their production is also changed.
Another very important thing is how the body learns to economize with less hormones and it lessens its demands, it becomes more sensitive.
Those new muscle cells that are produced, they become more economical in their demands. And it has been proven that those new muscles, they need less blood supply.
So it means that they can better perform because of their new economical way of functioning.
All those processes begin with a stress reaction, exercise being a stress.
If there would be another coach after the engine of the train, then it would mean a new adaptation, and it is the same as with weightlifting when we add some more weight to the bar.
All those functioning systems are in a stressed condition, they have the so-called stress reaction, and it activates all those mechanisms of all those systems. Their functioning grows, and so the structural changes begin, and new structural shapes and sizes can be formed.
So in the first stage that I mentioned before, the emergency stage, sometimes the production of adrenaline is way too high for the use of those systems.
When there is a bigger strain on the muscle there is a catabolic effect. As we can see here this is the size of a normally functioning cell, this is the cell after it has been adapted already to the new conditions, it becomes bigger, and this is the size of the cell after adding to its functions.
So here we have already added those extra coaches to the train. It is bigger than in
the beginning but it is smaller here when its in its extreme situation, the emergency state that we were talking about. Some athletes cannot overcome this stage of the extra strain on the muscular system and they cannot have the process, cannot obtain the maximum of the process, they cannot have this adaptation in their muscles.
In order to avoid injuries and complications, we have to avoid the state of hyper functioning of muscles and cells. The organism itself can form a stress limiting system. This system allows the organ at certain stress levels, it measures the amount of stress it thinks that a human muscle or cell can take and it limits it to a certain
level.
The organism has this level of the stress that it can take to avoid injuries or discomfort.
This amino acid, which has one of those functions, to limit performance. Other such limiters are beta endorphins and enkepholytes, they have tranquilizing effects. The
brain cells also have their way of avoiding injuries by limiting stress. There are also other ones but I will not be talking about them.
…This is why in our training program we have only four exercises that
we perform. Which means that we are not using new material, we are not using energy or plastics in order to build new functioning systems. We do not force them to go into catabolic reaction. And this is the way that we make sure that the muscles adapt faster and better. And when I say adaptation I do not mean adaptation of only
adaptation of one single muscle but the whole system that functions together, all those that I have been talking about, the heart, the lungs, the central control unit, and all the others.
(…)
This example that I will be talking about will come to show again why
it is very important to use only one set of exercise modes. But now
we will not only be talking about what kind of exercise to do but we
are going to be talking about the amount of strength that is used
during an exercise.
Hayden, a very well-known physiologist claims that this is the density which goes through the neurons into the muscles, stimulating the muscle. When we are lifting 100 kilos, through the neurons there is a set of impulses sent, and this is the density of the impulses.
And if he is doing the weight as shown , presuming this is his record weight, which he would be doing in a competition, and then the impulse density is much bigger. This density associated with the heavier lift activates this one particular part of the DNA chain. Those genes have particular storage of information. And accordingly with this specific part of the DNA where the information is stored there is certain proteins produced which have this shape.
And when we have the density associated with any other weight, then there is
another information which is used from the DNA chain, and then there
is produced this kind of protein which has another set of characteristics. And Hayden claims that only this set of proteins would be activated only at this density, which means that only by lifting 100 kilos will you be activating what you have been building,
those proteins.
During a competition, the density the one required, and those will be the proteins activated in a state of competition or higher performance and all the others will be passive, they will not be activated, because of the different density. So, when we are lifting weights which are not the maximum amount we could lift, and this lift is being
performed in aerobic conditions, when there is a supply of oxygen, we will not be activating the density and the real performance of the muscle, it will not be taken to its extent. While lifting those higher weights, there will be a chance of producing more anaerobic energy .
That is why it is important that we lift our maximum, in order to produce those kinds of proteins and those kinds of structures that we will be using in a competition, for instance. We don’t want to spend our energy building structures that will not be used under extreme situations.
This comes to show why our training method is that we are lifting our almost maximum during training. Before we were talking about lifting many tons a day of weight. About the middle of the 70’s, we were lifting up to 60 tons a day. But we were not producing any effect.
The speed at which we were training was different, it was higher.
But those were little weights, not the maximum of an athlete. This is why our athletes now lift up to 4 tons a day, but they are performing in this zone in the maximum zone, of maximum achievement.
So we are building this particular protein structure that we will be using under extreme circumstances as competitions are, for instance.
So naturally we were looking for a way to expand those muscles which are used in weightlifting, leaning on those functions of the organism. We are lifting bigger weights, but slower, and we make less attempts. But in order to develop those particular proteins, we were forced to do more work in order to make those particular muscle groups work and perform.
You cannot be lifting big weights densely in the duration of one training. That’s why we have divided the training session into different parts. And so we have first snatches, then cleans, then snatches again, so we have twice snatches, and then squats afterward. But in the afternoons we change the order so those muscles are overall equally pressured.
So what we are doing we have the maximum weights with lower tempo and lesser attempts.
This is how we achieve this effect of building up precisely those muscles that are needed in weightlifting.
Now I want to show you a system which triggers a natural metabolic reaction. And this will be on the example of lifting weights.
This system is called the ties between the functional and the genetic apparatus. And what is the structure of those ties.
Lifting weights we are achieving the contraction of a certain muscle which grows and which is needed for the weights to be lifted and we are changing its structure. So during training if we are using maximum amount of weight and only a few attempts to lift that weight, that means that we are activating this whole system, which will
achieve the growth of that muscle and its maximum performance.
So by stimulating with adrenalin those molecules, they bring more calcium into the cell. By doing that, they are making the genetic repressor dysfunctional, which means it cannot enter the DNA chain, and so it means that it can perform up to its maximum. But this is because of the adrenaline which is made during training sessions. Adrenaline is
released only when we are doing the maximum amount of weight. In order to achieve this higher level of adrenaline release, we used to do Monday, Wednesday and Friday, training sessions in front of an audience, which resembled the situation of a real competition, when you have the lights, the audience, the crowd, the judges, and the
emotional factor also plays a very important role, it stimulates the release of adrenalin. So you performed up to your maximum three times a week, almost in competition circumstances, which releases the adrenaline needed, which makes this whole mechanism function, which enables a certain muscle group to grow and perform better.
This is the way a different medicine, which releases, which makes more adrenalin to be released, they work exactly on this principle.
Now we will be talking about the amount of training.
For instance, in bodybuilding, bodybuilders do not lift their maximum, but they lift a certain amount of weight many times.
Meerson says that a cell has a particular amount of what it needs in order to function and it can self-energize itself.
This is the main fiber. It has those contractive proteins. Those other fibers are acting as kind of supporting the main fiber. Those fibroblasts do not have the contracting proteins which the main fiber has. Basically what they are doing is acting as donors and
supporters of the main fiber. In order to be able to support the main fiber during dense exercises, they enlarge their size. This is the process when they are changing
their structure.
But if there are too many attempts, there is a process called hyperplasia. Those supporting fibers start to divide, and their quantity grows bigger. And they also start working on
supporting the main fiber, but they do not have those contracting proteins. So the main fiber can function and perform longer, because of the supporting fibers, but on its own, its strength does not grow. But the muscle itself grows bigger. This, we are talking about bodybuilding.
So basically before, when you used to do this training with many repetitions, our weightlifters looked completely different, they had much bigger muscles. But Yakovlev says that this actually prevents the main fiber from functioning correctly. It does not give
it strength, even though it looks bigger.
If we go back in time and look at the technique that our weightlifters used to use, it is very incorrect and difficult to perform with it. On the scale, bodyweight is growing and they go into another category because their bodyweight is growing, but strength itself does not grow bigger.
There have been many tests made with lifts and the repetition, and it shows that the classical exercises are much more productive, even in the psychological aspect. Not only that there are different muscle groups achieving the same movement, and even the movement itself is different, and the speed of the performance is altered and changed.
Not only the strength of the muscle is important but also the coordination in between the muscle groups is very important in order to perform. And even this is an obstacle when you are doing not only the classical exercises, because you ruin this coordination, and you cannot perform the classical exercises anymore when in a competition for instance.
So when we are doing only pulls, then the symbiotic structure of the muscles is different, and even the muscles have memory, so then they cannot as well perform when we are doing the and jerk.
The better the coordination is, the better the economical working of the organism, and the better the function of the muscles.
This is why we are not doing those half pulls anymore, and nobody, none of our athletes have lowered their achievements. Quite the opposite, they have achieved even better."
[/i]
Note the reference to scientists and physiologists Felix Meerson and Hayden,whose findings support the whole training approach.
Specifically regarding Strength Training,as from the information to me available at the present,athletes training with Tzekos did not perform any additional lower body lifting (coherently with the Training approach suggested above),and only some informal and minimal upper body strength training,often limited to one single exercise per athlete,chosen to suit individual need.
At some point Thanou was performing some light overhead presses,while at the same time Kenteris performed some bodyweight pull up sets.
Some plyos were part of the program,though in limited numbers,as well as some general conditioning and warming up routines.
I cannot confirm this information,but I think they did experiment some Nemes vibration platforms at some time,mainly with recovery purposes.
Rumors are Tzekos’ training system is still used in Greece for Track and Field athletes,producing consistent improvement over time in athletes using it (particularly in the qualities defining Speed Endurance) ,though my information concern mostly young developing Sprinters and 400m er’s.
Thanou was bigger than me…one of the bulkiest around, and kostas was not so skinny…not ot mention other greeks…
When you say the athletes “did not perform any additional lower body lifting”, does that mean they didn’t do any lower body lifting at all? That amazes me similar to the Alan Wells deal where he stopped using weights and improved his 100m time by leaps and bounds (no pun intended).
Yes,no lower body lifting at all.If you manage to read through Abadjiev’s Lecture,you’ll find the choice perfectly consistent with the outlined approach.
Good point.Besides any other very plausible (and “non grata”)discussion,it may suggest some further interesting considerations about training and adaptation.
Ok after reading it 3 times I think I understand. So Tzekos would do something like speed work every session? And minimal supporting exercises (no tempo, no lifting, etc)? Then where are the droves of great Greek sprinters? As far as I can tell, the only thing they’re good at is wrecking motorcycles.
I would think this system would work for less experienced athletes as you mentioned but if you’re running 19.8 I think you’d blow yourself up.
I have a question about Abadjiev’s level of specificity. He used both back and front squats presumably with weights above what they where cleaning, correct? Although this would still most likely fall under the SPP category, couldn’t it be argued that this was different from just performing cleans and snatches in that they are different movements(at least with the back squat) with different weights than the ones they would use for cleans and snatches in competition?
I guess what I am trying to say is, at least in using this method for track,where presumably all the work done would be sprints(at competition distance?), is there any way that they would slightly change the intensity of the stimulous, whether it be light towing, running into the wind, etc? Hopefully I made my question clear enough.
The way I interpreted it was that he was mainly talking about strength training as opposed to the actual track work. He mentions the use of the olympic lifts alot and once mentions that he only uses 4 exercises. At one point he outlines the exercise order of a training session 1, snatch 2, clean&jerk 3, snatch 4, squat. he also talks about twice a day training and it all sounds more of an olympic lifting program than sprinters program but I guess he manipulated it for sprinters.
hope this helps!
J
From what I understand you are correct. What i think was interesting is that they would run the actual event itself flat out every session. So distances were either 100 or 200m! From what i remember rest between reps was long - something like 40minutes. They also didn’t train every day. They would take whole days of rest at a time. I think Pakewi had information on this as well. It is in the archieves somewhere.
There is a member of this board, from Greece, who has said that he’s seen Thanou squatting and pretty heavy at that (~200kg) for low reps. Not sure if it was with the same coach, but she apparently was doing some lifting at some point.
I remember reading that during the gpp phase they did 2 sprint sessions in a day;
2 sessions x 3 x 200m per session @ 90%
speed. 30mins rest between reps.
Friday mornings would be 3 x 100m even for kenteris. Thanou allways did 100m reps.
I thought it was closer to 85% but somebody else said 90%.
I also remember reading that it averaged 5 days a weak of training as follows;
3 days on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off.
They would decrease to 3 sprints per day when intensity moved to around 95%.
At some point there was one sprint per day at 100% during peaking phase.
However; Christos teskoz said he had a “unique combination of stretch and strengthening exercise”
I think he considered the sprint reps as the strength exercise.
I saw Konstantinos doing a hurdlers stretch which I thought was unusual for a flat sprinter but it fits in with original phillosophy of Ivan?.. in that the sarcomere must be long to reflex and contract quickly?
Ivans phillosophy seems to be in stark contrast to Louise simmons (spelling?) and both are obviously great trainers.
Simmons is big on the idea that by doing a very wide variety of lifts you increase your chances of of perfecting technique and performance in the main lifts.
Ivan suggests that close to absolute spacifics is the best method in terms of both exercise choice and intensities utilized.
If Thanou was seen squatting big weight it would start to contradict Ivans point.
Was that during her time under Teskoz? I would love to know.
Can somebody explain to me why they rest 30 minutes between sets? I’m not a sprinter, but as a triple jumper I do a 6x200m or 6x150m sessions in the off season @ 90% with walk back recovery.
Sometimes we’ll have 10 minutes rest btwn reps, but I find that even going flat out for all 6 reps any rest greater than 10-15 minutes does nothing for me. I just cool down and increase my risk of injury. Not to mention the fact my mind starts playing up on me and I begin to think about the forthcoming pain…
The system obviously works for high level athletes as well, as proven.
You would think what you mentioned as a natural reaction, but here is what “linarski” had to say about your concerns:
“…this training system is indeed very hard for the system. … There are training days that the CNS is completely down. But still after a while it seems that it adapts to the stimulus. The question is why it doesn’t become overtrained.”
And elsewhere: “But I am still wondering why there is no speed plateau (Thanou has improved dramatically the last 5 years) in this type of training”.
In fact, his opinion was “that this system can only be applied to higher level athletes. If you think about it it’s like a continuously pre-competition type of training…”
At this point perhaps it’s worth reminding the forum of pakewi’s thread/post on preparation (or lack of it) of Naim Suleymanoglou -or Suleymanov, catch my drift?
Just to note that apart from the well-known guys, the same system has produced 6.50 (World Indoor Champion) / 10.15 and 10.19 performances. Admittedly, there have been some “casualties” on the way with no coming back; those who perhaps could not tolerate it, who knows!
Lastly, from people I’ve discussed with other parts of training mentioned herein (e.g., “tempo”, weights, etc) are questionable as to their existence or nature (e.g., their “tempo” session).
There was another debate on similar issues some time ago (from a thread I had started, I think). Have a look.
I am so confused. Why does it seem that every possible training system can produce great results?
Look up Tzekos/Tsekos on wikipedia for part of the answer on that one.