The main thing in a record holder's life is work. In my
opinion, it is particularly a profoundly thought-out creative individual training regimen which allowed Alexeyev to
build his fantastically strong and voluminous muscles and
to strengthen his will. But, most important, is his character!
When I asked Vasili the reasons for his constant
victories, he thought a bit and answered: "If I want
something. I will definitely achieve it. No matter what I
have to sacrifice ... The more complex the situaation, the
more threatening my rivals, the more I spread my wings in
defiance of everything. You want to know the principles of
my training? That, forgive me, is a secret . . . I'm joking, of
course. I don't like to speak about this subject because
some people won't understand what I'm talking about
while others will say I'm bragging, as if to say', 'He's
become a champion and he's making it up'...
"But then I see that many on the team are already
working in my way. Theirs, however, is a copy - not the
original. Even though the copy may be a good one it will
always be a step away from the original. You see, the
question is not one of strength, not one of talent. It's a
matter of what's in the head. In the physical sense you
should, you need to work very hard, but with the nerves--
less . . ."
At different stages Alexeyev was helped by trainers
and he listened to their opinions . . . but only up to a point,
to a limit. There was his first teacher Simon Mileiko, and
then Alexander Chuzhin. Rudolf Plyukfelder, it's felt, also
played a definite part. And Vasili also took something from
the trainers of the Soviet team. Especially from Arkady
Vorobyev. However, he was not a blind follower of orders
given from the sidelines.
All these last years, Alexeyev has been training on his
own using his own method which can't be found in any
textbook. All the books say that to achieve great results you
have to train vigorously, often lifting maximum weights.
But Alexeyev considers this a harmful mistake. More than
one book could be written about Alexeyev's method of
winning and I imagine he will write them. Here I will
quote some snatches from his words on this subject taken
from our many chats over the years:
"There is much talk about the art of training. But
there is nothing concrete. I myself keep searching for a
rational method. Constantly. But generally I train differently from anyone else ...
"Here they've put up a lot of mirrors in the gyms.
They're good for furniture but not for training. When an
athlete looks into the mirror he gets away from himself;
instead he should be totally focused. In the mirror you'll
see nothing but your image. This means that you won't
understand and won't pick up the technique of exercise,
you won't make sense out of the method. My advice during
training is to think, think, think! ...
"What upsets me is that the method of training used
by an overwhelming number of weightlifters, in spite of
the amazing growth in records, is still at the same point it
was in the fifties. For example, you want to improve your
technique on the snatch-you practice the snatch; the
jerk--you practice the jerk. I tell them to correct their
mistakes differently--to strengthen separate groups of
muscles. A simple example: an athlete is having trouble
with the snatch. They advise him to start differently, to
change his grip on the barbell--wider or narrower. But it
turns out that it's enough to build up a group of muscles
which 'do the trick' with the maximum effort and he gets
better results ...
"We often see the effect but not the cause of what's
lacking. If an athlete doesn't know how to jerk, he�s not
going to learn this only by jerking. But if he were to do
some necessary exercises in order to strengthen a group of
muscles (those necessary for the jerk) then he will get
results. No one seems to understand that even though an
exercise does not 'lie' right next to the jerk, it influences, it
gives you the jerk . . .
"Everyone supposes that my method is good for
heavyweights. It's good for anyone who wants to build up
the strength of their muscles . . .
"My method is aimed at increasing the double sum
total. We have many outstanding weightlifters in the gyms
... but very few at the competitions. Why? Well, because
one must know how to 'deliver' one's strength on the
competing platform. The object of today's trainers is not to
teach an athlete the correct way to lift a barbell. Most
important, he must teach him to reason and make important decisions independently. Without thought there's no
creation. And without creation, progress in our difficult
work is impossible ...
"It seems to me that some of the talented athletes lack
one thing--they haven't had an injury. That's right. An
injury that will put them out of commission for a year
during which time they�ll have a chance to weigh every-
thing. I, too, would not be where I am if I had not injured
my back. I suffered for a year and a half thinking everything over ... After a misfortune, people pull through and
become, if possible, great people--and sportsmen. in particular. Those who are stronger find their way out and to
the top ...
"Do I worry? Well, of course. If you don't worry,
you'll never succeed at anything. In sports, without the
excitement of daring you don't get either victory or records.
When I'm too calm before a competition, I rouse myself
with hot coffee. The pulse must be beating--no less than
18 times in ten seconds ...
" Excitement before competition is very dangerous. I,
of course, have felt it. Sometimes I calm myself--everything happens as it must, and so what happens will happen.
I must win, because I have a solid supply of strength ...
"Waiting causes the most anxiety. The heavyweights
wait the longest, they put the final touch on the championships. Usually, I do this. And while the others are
competing, I can barely stand the noise of the barbells, the
monotonous voice of the judge. Everything irritates me
and annoys me. In addition to this, I worry about the team.
This puts a lot of strain on my will . . .
'They say that the strongest wins. But the strongest in
what way? I remember, at the time of the championships
in Lima, that Reding in training lifted record weights. He
had acquired a terrific strength and huge muscles, but he
lost to me even though he was physically stronger. Why?
Serge and I had different ways of training. Others thought
for him. He carried out the suggestions of his coach,
Dupont. Roughly speaking, Reding took in 'the science of
winning' though his ears. And this showed when he was on
his own with the barbell. But, as for me, I thought for
myself. Serge also lost because he wanted to beat me.
That's all he thought about. He worried constantly and
burned himself out before he even got to the platform . . .
For me the most important thing is to beat myself, to
lift the barbell that up to this point I have not yet lifted.
My rivals don't worry me very much. It's good when your
competitors are strong and bad when they are weak. The
same Reding, now dead, when he appeared without me,
beat the records every time. And I treated him respectfully
because he always kept me in shape. Now Enaldiev,
Rachmanov, Plachkov, and Bonk do the same ...
"There was a time when I was overcome with anxiety,
when I rarely competed so that I was losing a sense of the
platform. But when I started appearing often and with a
lot of gusto, my self-confidence returned, and with that
records and victories. Now, with a solid backlog of experience, I appear on the platform less frequently. But for the time being I've
not lost my fighting qualities. Any competition is a holiday for me. During my training sessions, I
get up an enormous appetite to lift the heaviest barbell and
to set a record. Other times, honest, I think to mvself:
train with weights of 150 to 200 kilograms, how will I push
250? But I firmly believe in success and know exactly how
much I am going to pick up in my second turn--the first I
do for the team ...
"At the championship, I am in a proper fighting
mood. When I put on my outfit and my shoes, this very
process transforms me. I become more energetic, more
excited. It's here that it's important not to lose your head,
you should compete as much as possible with sense ...
"What advice can I give to the young ones who come
out onto the platform with their teeth chattering from
nerves? First, you must enter a competition well prepared.
And for this you must train sensibly; you must work on
yourself physically but save your nerves. It doesn't pay to
get excited over nothing while training, to show off your
courage, to swagger. Save this charge for the contest. And
then be alert when you go up to the barbell . . . And, to be
frank, even I with all my experience, am sometimes very
nervous--you cant imagine ...
"I have observed that many train without sense. They
do a great deal of work for nothing. For example, Falev, an
athlete on the Soviet team weighing 110 kilograms, does
squats with a barbell weighing 320 kilograms. I don't use
one weighing more than 270. There is a difference of 50
kilograms in his favor. But he jerks 220, while I jerk 256.
Thus, it turns out that the result in the classical exercise is
not determined by the strength of the legs ...
"In order to avoid noise, I used to train alone. Now, I
go out among the people. I show the youngsters the whys
and wherefors. I tell them how to polish up their technique.
Naturally, this is more tiring since I also train myself."
Usually the great champions, while they are still
active, hide their methods of training. Alexeyev is not like
that. It would seem that it would not be to his advantage to
share his experiences with young heavyweights, potential
rivals, with those who are already striving to replace him.
However, Vasili doesn't refuse anyone his help.
"I can't do otherwise. What kind of team captain
would I be if I watched the methods and technical mistakes
of my teammates with indifference?"
My conviction that Alexeyev's priceless experience
will not be lost was strengthened when I saw that at the
end of 1976 he conducted a trial get-together at the
Podolsk sports base to train the young heavyweiahts. I
won't try to describe in depth Alexevev's method (he has
written about it in his dissertation as a science degree
candidate) but I'll explain the reason for its great effectiveness.
Usually the athletes lift barbells and then immediately
drop them. This takes several seconds. According to Alexeyev's method, the sportsman finds himself under the
weight for a period of two or three minutes. The entire
organism must sustain this prolonged effort, as the athlete
completes several consecutive exercises without letting go
of the equipment. The weight of the barbell is relatively
light, but the varied work with it affects every muscle cell.
By the end of the two-week session, all Alexeyev's
students had increased their bodyweights as a result of
muscle growth and at the same time they'd increased their
abilities. Here is what Sultan Rachmanov said: "At first I
trained in mv own way. I didn't believe that Alexeyev's
advice would help me. Now I believe ... My shoulders,
my back, everything is filling up with strength. There is
this to consider. Not everything will come my way, but I'll
take the most important! (At the USSR championships in
Karaganda, Rachmanov, who up until then had not been a
400 man, became the third prize winner with the distin-
guished sum of 420 kilograms. In the fall this athlete took
the USSR record in the snatch. And who is to know,
perhaps he will be the successor to the glory of the hero of
the Munich and Montreal Olympic Games!)
Each of Alexeyev's students noted that thanks to this
unusual system of working they have acquired a good
amount of self-confidence in their own strength. Yes, and
I too have noticed with what incredible ease the athletes
picked up the 160-kilo barbell in the snatch at the end of
the training session.
The 1976 annual Heavy Athletics ran a detailed article
which Alexeyev called "The Experience of My Training.'
In this first scientific publication of the strongest athlete,
the author refutes some unsound (although they've existed
for ten years) methodological concepts about how to develop strength in athletes of the heavyweight class.
He writes: "In the first years I trained according to
the accepted methods. But then, from 1966, I decided to
significantly increase the size of my training weight. This
immediately brought results. By the end of 1967, I had
gained 32.5 kilograms in my triple sum total and by the
end of 1968--42.5 kilograms. For athletes of the superheavyweight class, the average rate of growth had by this
time significantly increased."
Vasili includes a great variety of exercises in his
training. "Besides exercises in the-� snatch, jerk, or press,
pull and squats, I have used many other exercises with the
barbell and weights. Bends with the barbell on the shoulders; bends with the barbell on the shoulders while Iving
on the 'horse' bracing one's hips, with the legs secured;
jumps with the barbell on your shoulders; press on crossbars with weights; bending and unbending the arms in the
elbow joints; squats on one leg; throwing the bar upward
and behind; and other exercises. In addition, in the first
year of the time span analyzed, these exercises consisted of,
on the average, 360 lifts in the preparatory period and 158
lifts during the competition period. In the second year,
correspondingly 841 and 506 lifts, and in the third 880 lifts
a month."
And here is the conclusion that Alexevev drew at the
end of his studies: "The method of training I have used
can be recommended to athletes of the heavyweight class,
and also to those sportsmen, whose bodyweight does not
correspond to the height specifications. Young athletes
should not inhibit the growth of their bodyweight. They
should be more courageous about entering their proper
weight class ...
"One of the conditions for fast growth in the scores of
future athletes of heavyweight classes is the completion of
large amounts of exercises with the barbell and other
weights. The problem is that beginning athletes of the
light or middle weight, in order to become first-class
athletes, must increase their muscle mass by approximately
25 percent. For heavyweights it's 50 percent and more.
The growth of the muscle mass is directly dependent on
the amount of the training loads . . .
"It is also important to note that you can achieve high
scores at competitions by decreasing to a minimum the
lifting of barbells of maximum weight in the snatch and
jerk exercises, by significantly decreasing the number of
lifts of the barbell with big weights."
I don't doubt that in the near future the mining
engineer Vasili Alexeyev will successfully conclude his
graduate study as a correspondence student in the institute
of physical culture and will become a graduate in pedagogical studies.
He will probably change his qualifications because he
already considers himself outside weightlifting. He will
become a coach. A good one! But for the moment, Alexeyev
is thinking about his third victory at the Olympic Games.
I asked the champion how he was able in 18 years of
training to "grow" more than 70 kilograms of muscle?
"Earlier I didn't lift less than 20 tons. More often the
daily load was 25 to 30 tons. What's more, these aren't the
same tons that our 'boys' lift today. You have to multiply
their tons by two or three; that's the factor of difficultv
which I applied in my exercises. If necessarv, I would even
now be ready to lift 40 tons in one training session ...
"Besides, speaking about the physical makeup of
heavyweights, some experts feel that the ability to get high
scores should be combined with the development of a trim
figure. I have departed from this quite a bit. What is the
weakest part of a person's constitution? You don't know?
In my opinion, the part of the spine at the waist. And I
constantly reinforce it by growing a 'corset' with my
muscles. Yes, we superheavyweights are not too pretty to
look at, but our body makeup is expedient for picking up
record barbells."
"I'll have time to work on my figure when I retire
from weightlifting," Vasili said smiling. "For the moment,
I do and will continue to do only that which makes me
stronger. I notice some talented athletes spend more time
building their muscles for the sake of form and that this
muscular development impedes their abilitv to lift maximum weights. They aren't too concerned with their ability
to defend the honor of Soviet sports abroad. What is the
sense of their beautiful figures?!"
"My task for the future is quite clear," explains
Alexeyev. "It is to create in Ryazan, where I have settled,
a center for weightlifting. To get some coaches and help
them. I'll develop a method for each different age group--
from the beginning to maturity. I've tried out everything
on myself ... Maybe, I'll invite some boys with potential
to Ryazan, boys who don't have coaches or suitable condi-
tions for training. I don't mean this would be to lure them
away. We are still behind in many weight classes. I would
like to work, and I have no profit motive ...
"For the time being I still want to win and set records.
I love this occupation. I respect weightlifting. It teaches
you to master the art and at the necessary moment to
organize yourself. It's because I feel so 'in love' with the
barbell that I gave it the best years of my life. For me sport
is life. Hemingway put it well when he wrote: 'Sport
teaches you to win honestly. Sport teaches you to lose with
dignity. In a word, sport teaches you life'...
"There is no point in denying that for the sportsman,
as for the artist, recognition is a necessity. A good artist
controls his public. The sportsman first causes his public to
be amazed, then to worry about their idol, and finally to
love him for his skill, his strength, and his courage. One
wants to startle the world with something incredible. Then
they recognize you. For this it is worth working like a dog.
Especially since in our time, it becomes more and more
difficult to surprise anybody ...
"When I joined the weightlifting section, there were
no sharp definitions between the methods of training. I was
not used to training mechanically and I didn't like this. I
began to think for myself, how to organize an effective
system of training. I knew from my own experience that
with stubborn effort one can do anything. I didn`t spare
myself. I worked with maximum weights, analyzed my
situation, and again began training. I invented many things
myself. For example, I began to work a great deal with the
barbell in the water. I searched and experimented...and
here is the result. I made my way from 500 to 600 kilograms
in three years. From then on I wanted to be first ...
"At 28 I set my first record, having had a solid physical
preparation. I ran, jumped, played volleyball--with a first-
class sports strength. At the age of 12 I began to train with
homemade barbells. They are still to be found in my
mother's yard. All of them weigh more than two tons. I
didn't think of any records. I always respected strength in
people and I wanted to have it myself. What boy doesn't
want to be strong and skillful? I'm sure there isn`t one."
"Isn't the cultivation of one's physical abilities detri-
mental to the development of the mind?" I once asked
Alexeyev and showed him a quotation from the magazine
Bicyclist, which was published in Petersburg in the last
century. "To make a man an athlete and at the same time
a man of learning is simply impossible. In order to regulate
the body in accordance with physiological law it is neces-
sary for the physical work to be in reverse proportion to the
intellectual work. Only in view of these circumstances,
instead of opposition, can one achieve the desired balance. . .
"There is some truth in this," agreed Vasili. "I have
known from my own experience how difficult it is to read
even entertaining literature after a hard training session. I
can never sit too long in one place. It's torture for me. I
absolutely must move. Therefore it`s not easy for us to
study. And yet all Soviet athletes get a higher education.
But they lay certain claims on us. Some would like to see
the big sportsman as a well-rounded intellectual. But this
doesn't happen in reality. Take any scholar, dig a bit and
you will find that in many things he is an ignoramous."
"Do you think about leaving sports?"
"I clearly understand that I won't be around forever.
But I still have the desire to compete and compete. Even
though I soon will be 36 and age in sports is critical. I have
outlasted and I think I will still outlast some of the younger
'old men' who don't know how to compete. I've outlived
Patera, Dube, Reding, and Mang..."
"Our youth is now'coming up' "
"Whom do you have in mind?"
"Enaldiev, Rachmanov . . . "
"What kind of youth is this--they are about 30. It's
me who is young and coming up. But you can't make
comparisons with me. I am no worse now than I was in
1970 when I was 28 years old."
"And yet is there a reason to remain on the competing
platform? After all, your remaining in sports keeps you from
making progress in the industrial field."
"Sometimes I worry about this. When I was just a
Master of Sports, they offered me a choice--rather, thev
advised me to 'drop' the barbells because my absences
from work (while at the contests) interfered with my job.
At the factory I worked with zeal and at the Kotlas paper
works they appreciated me. They wanted me to become a
technical expert. But I wanted to achieve great things in
sports and I refused the tempting offer. I found work which
allowed me to spend more time with the barbells. I was not
wrong in my choice. I don't regret anything. Even though,
of course, I've missed some things. I imagine that if I had
not gotten so passionately involved in sports, I might have
had more success at the factory where they also appreciated
me. My principle is to work honestly.''
It is difficult to approach Alexeyev. But in rare mo-
ments of frankness, it's a real pleasure to chat with him and
listen to him. He has a tendency to be too stern and at
times he is somewhat unfair to our friend the journalist.
But it seems he can't be any other way.
Once a famous pilot and hero of the Soviet Union,
Georgi Mosolov, talking about heroic deeds, wrote: "The
strength of the muscles, as if blending with the strength of
the will, makes for a third strength, the strength that helps
sportsmen set phenomenal world records. That is the very
strength people find in themselves, people who have
crossed a limit that until then had been considered impossible."
The Russian giant has passed that boundary 80 times!
Sometimes he fought for victory (in spite of himself) and
won. In these moments Vasili Alexeyev was saved by the main component--the third strength--the indomitable will.