All Things Gym

Best of Olympic Weightlifting

  • ATG Shirts
  • Patreon
  • ATG Podcast
  • Rep Max Calculator
  • Contact
    • About
Home » Featured » Visiting the Kazakh Weightlifting Training Camp in Poland *Ilya’s Deadlifts*

Visiting the Kazakh Weightlifting Training Camp in Poland *Ilya’s Deadlifts*

August 23, 2015 By Gregor Winter

While in Poland Nat (hookgrip) and I got the chance to visit team Astana (basically the best male Kazakh weightlifters) in the Olympic training center in Spała.

We attended both their morning and evening training session. Because some of the guys were preparing for competitions we were not allowed to film everybody (we saw some great lifting though).

We were allowed to film Ilya Ilyin, Vladimir Sedov and Zhassulan Kydyrbaev though.

Below the videos is a quick write up of our trip.

Afternoon Session

Update 23.08.2015: Ilya’s Deficit Snatch Grip Deadlifts without Hook Grip.

During lunch he said he is doing all kinds of deadlift variations right now. Coaches have him do this one to improve his grip which in turn should help improve his Snatch.



Update 10.07.2015: Ilya going for 155kg x3 … wait no, let’s make that 2



Update 02.07.2015: Ilya doing a Clean Complex with 180kg.

Clean + Clean + Split Jerk + Power Jerk + Slowmo



Update 01.07.2015: Vladimir Sedov and Zhassulan Kydyrbaev’s morning and afternoon training.



Update 28.06.2015: Ilya snatching 160kg. The heaviest weight for him that day.

Update 26.06.2015: Ilya snatching 150kg for a double.



Update 23.06.2015: Just a glimpse of what the training hall atmosphere was like.

It’s all about finding a good balance between joking around and focus 100% on the task at hand, which is what everybody on the team is able to do. (Song is “Beatbox”)



Update 21.06.2015:

Here it is,  Zhassulan Kydyrbaev’s full Afternoon session. 20 minutes of lifting with lots of slow motion.

  • He works up to 160kg x1 Snatches twice (with no extension snatches in warm up)
  • then he has to do 2 “attacks” up to 190kg C&J; that means 170 2+2, 180 2+1 and 190kg 1+1
  • and he finishes the day off with squats

Update 19.06.2015: Zhassulan with a 170kg 2 Cleans + 2 Jerks Complex

Update 19.06.2015: Zhassulan’s 160kg Snatch in Full Speed and Slow Motion.

Update: Here is Ilya’s afternoon session filmed by Hookgrip.

Ilya snatches up to 160kg, Clean & Jerks up to 180kg.

He then proceeds to do grip work with Snatch Grip Deficit Deadlifts without hookgrip. He goes up until he fails 170, 190. His coaches think that his improving his grip will improve his overall snatch performance.

At lunch Ilya also told us that he started to do deadlifts (in all variations), whereas before that deadlifts weren’t really a concern of him.

PS: Germans, if the video is blocked for you, unblock it with a proxy service.

Morning Session

Here is the 11 Am training session. This was a light session to get the week started.

Zhassulan had 4 sets of 2 reps 200kg Squats, 125 kg Snatches and 155kg Clean & Jerks on the menue (see training plan photo below).

And Here is Ilya’s Morning Session as filmed by Hookgrip.

Notes

How we got there:

During Junior Worlds we saw that lots of lifters from Team Astana (basically the best male Kazakh weightlifters like Vladimir Sedov, Zhassulan Kydyrbaev, Almas Uteshov, Rustem Sybay, Denis Ulanov, Kirill Pavlov, Ermek Omirtay, Vladimir Kuznetsov and more) were training in the Polish Olympic Training Center in Spała.

Right away Nat suggested that we should visit them. A couple of days later Ilya also posted on Instagram that he is coming to Poland.

Nat messaged Toishan Bektemirov, one of Ilya’s coaches, and asked if it was okay for us to drive up there and take photos and video of the team. He gave his OK.

So now we only needed the OK from the Poles. And who better to ask than the president of Polish weightlifting, Szymon Kołecki, himself? Luckily he also said it was no problem.

Sunday arrived and we jumped into my Tesla Model S 2001 Volvo and drove from Wroclaw to Spała. 2 hours 40 minutes later we arrived in a very small town in the middle of nowhere in the Polish country side.

hotel-champion-spala-atg

At the reception everything went surprisingly smooth (thanks to Monika who called the hotel the day before and told them that an American and a German will will arrive the next day).

A photo posted by ҚЫДЫРБАЕВ ЖАСҰЛАН БАЛҒАБАЙҰЛЫ (@zhassulan.kydyrbaev) on Jun 14, 2015 at 4:04pm PDT

We checked in, got our Wifi passwords and by pure luck ran into the Kazakhs who were sitting in front of the hotel. Sunday is their day off from training, so they headed to McDonald’s in downtown Spała.

Here is a map of the whole complex.

spala-training-center-map-atg

Next we headed to our room to set up the ATG & Hookgrip headquarters.

Hotel room

Lunch was served from 12 to 15:00. You could choose from a couple of different kinds of meats. veggies, potatoes, buckwheat, rice and salads.

After a quick walk through the town we headed back to the hotel and explored the facility.

The rest of the day consisted of working in the hotel room, dinner in a pizzeria, and more working.

The next day, Monday, we almost missed breakfast were it not for the kind lady behind the counter who let us in after they officially closed the buffet.

Then it was time for the first training session (11 AM, watch the video at the top of this post).

spala training hall small

We headed to the training hall and slowly one lifter after the other entered the hall and started to warm up and stretch.

Ilya arrived a little bit later. When he did, everybody came up to him and fist bumped him. You could feel that they all look up to him.

It should be pointed out that the team works great together. The hall was filled with a positive atmosphere (lead by Ilya dancing and joking in between sets).

Oh and everybody stepped on the scale before workout. Ilya weighed in at around 113 (with shoes and clothes). His next competition is will most likely be the president’s cup in Grozny in December.

Ilya-greeting-atg

Ilya getting a pre workout massage.

Ilya-getting-massaged-atg

Kirill Pavlov and Zhassulan looking at the training plan which was pinned next to each lifter’s platform before the session started.

Kirill-Pavlov-and-Zhassulan-Kydyrbaev-looking-at-the-training-plan-atg

Close up of the training plan.

See for Monday afternoon it says: Snatch up to 160 in 2 attacks. “3,2,1” means “do 140kg x3, 150kg x2 and 160kg x1”.

2 attacks means do all that twice.

Zhassulan-Kydyrbaev-training-plan-atg-wm

Translation from Sergiy:

Monday AM:

  • Back Squat 200 4×2
  • Snatch 125 4×2
  • Clean&Jerk 155 4x(1+1)

Monday PM:

  • Snatch 160 2x(3,2,1)
  • Clean&Jerk 190 2x(2+2, 2+1, 1+1)
  • Front Squat 210 2x(3,2,1)

Tuesday AM: rest

Tuesday PM:

  • No Hook Grip Snatch 120 5×2
  • Deficit Clean 140 5×2
  • Snatch Pull from high and low deficit 170 5x(1+1)
  • Obliques 40 4×10

Wednesday AM:

  • Front Squat 180 4×2
  • Muscle Snatch 100 4×2
  • Lower Abs 4×12

Wednesday PM:

  • Snatch 150 2x(3,2,1)
  • Clean+Push Jerk 170 2x(1+3, 1+2, 1+1)
  • Back Squat 230 2x(3,2,1)

Thursday AM:

  • Medium grip overhead press from the bottom position 65 4×4
  • Muscle Clean 110 4×3
  • Jumps 4×7

Thursday PM: banya/sauna

Friday AM:

  • Front Squat 190 4×2
  • Snatch 130 4×2
  • Clean&Jerk 160 3x(1+1)

Friday PM:

  • Snatch 165 2x (3,2,1)
  • Clean & Jerk 195 2x(2+1, 1+1+1, 1+1)
  • Front Squat 215 2x(3,2,1)

Saturday AM: rest

Saturday PM:

  • Clean grip overhead press from the bottom position 65 4×4
  • Deficit Clean Pull 200 5×3
  • Dips 25 4×8
  • Upper Abs

Sunday: rest

After his session I even got Ilya to do the #ohpchallenge !

Ilya-ohpchallenge-atg

After training everybody went to cryotherapy, which Nat and I couldn’t resist to try. So we quickly bought our cryo gear (headband, gloves, shorts, mask and socks) and went into a – 110°C room for what felt like 2 or 3 minutes.

After that we had lunch together in the cafeteria.

Here is a photo of Ilya’s lunch. That is all he ate after the 11 AM session. No meat. Only buckwheat, Potatoes and a salad. He said he doesn’t count calories or macros, he just eats. Also he weighed in at 113kg this morning (which clothes/shoes).

Live tweeting @ilyinilya1 's lunch from the Spała training center pic.twitter.com/7wrWDsyVYa

— hookgrip (@hookgrip) June 15, 2015

Coming up next: the 5PM training session with more videos and heavier lifts.

Filed Under: Featured, videos, weightlifting

About Gregor Winter

Hi, I run ATG.

Follow me on instagram @gregorwinter (and ATG @atginsta).

Comments

  1. lifter says

    June 18, 2015 at 19:10

    awesome, love this stuff.

    • grafiksudd says

      June 18, 2015 at 20:01

      Same here!

  2. deeringcenter says

    June 18, 2015 at 20:10

    so cool

  3. Cody says

    June 18, 2015 at 20:30

    Love it! Great stuff all around. Keep up the good work!

  4. george says

    June 18, 2015 at 21:19

    just curious but is 3,2,1 definitely 140×3, 150×2, 160×2, as opposed to 160×1?

    • Gregor says

      June 18, 2015 at 21:26

      That was a typo, forgot to change it here in the post. it’s 160kg x1 of course

  5. Beto says

    June 18, 2015 at 22:09

    great Gregor, do you have the other weeks of training? It looks like that they are in the beginning of the cycle.

    • Gregor says

      June 18, 2015 at 23:20

      Nope, they just gave the athletes the plan for this week.

  6. Robertov says

    June 18, 2015 at 23:18

    Tell us more about Ilya’s diet, please.

    • Gregor says

      June 18, 2015 at 23:21

      There is not much to say about it. Ilya doesn’t eat meats and doesn’t count calories / macros. He just eats.

      • av1998wl says

        June 19, 2015 at 14:09

        No meat whatsoever?

  7. Leviathar says

    June 18, 2015 at 23:23

    Is Vladimir Kuzneitsov, Kirill Pavlov, Denis Ulanov and Rustem Sybay competing at asians?

  8. Rory Taylor says

    June 18, 2015 at 23:55

    Awesome vids Gregor! did Ilya and Zhussalan and Vladimirs programs vary much? in terms of exercises?

    • Gregor says

      June 19, 2015 at 09:06

      I have not checked the others programs

  9. mrtn86 says

    June 19, 2015 at 02:24

    good post, thank you

  10. lifter says

    June 19, 2015 at 06:30

    Just saw the 2 morning sessions, for some reason though the afternoon video isnt there at all.

    • Gregor says

      June 19, 2015 at 09:07

      It’s there , as an embedded facebook video. maybe you have some scripts blocked that prevent loading the player.

      I embedded the youtube video now

  11. Artur09 says

    June 19, 2015 at 08:58

    The food is very poor. Only enough for a small child

  12. Leon says

    June 19, 2015 at 10:13

    Thank Gregor. Great stuff.

    For anyone who is interested to read in more detail about the training of team Astana look here:

    http://www.sportivnypress.com/2014/scientific-methodological-aspects-of-training-the-kazakhstan-select-team/

    “Scientific – Methodological Aspects of Training the Kazakhstan Select Team

    Ivan Sivokhin, Alexei NI, Enver Turkileri

    Olimp 42-48:2-3:2012

    Translated by Andrew Charniga, Jr.”

    • wlift84 says

      June 19, 2015 at 11:21

      Ilyin and co. aren’t under Ni and Turkeleri anymore and if you compare the plans they don’t match at all.

      • Beto says

        June 19, 2015 at 12:44

        you are right, Ilya is not under Ni and Turkeleri coaching, but I think that there is not much differences between the training plan of Astana team and the national team.

      • Leon says

        June 19, 2015 at 12:45

        Thanks, but honestly I don’t care that much. The article was interesting to read, but I don’t understand why people try to deciver the training plan of Ilyin. Do you guys want to adapt his training?

        • wlift84 says

          June 19, 2015 at 14:44

          I certainly don’t! Just wanted to make a note for those who find this later. Wasn’t meant as a critique of your link, which is of course interesting. 🙂

  13. supbro says

    June 19, 2015 at 10:44

    Thanks for the write-up Gregor, really appreciate it! Great stuff.

  14. german hang says

    June 19, 2015 at 13:23

    Thank you very much for your concerns about german visitors! Luckily we can watch the vid without any restrictions.

    Greetings from germania!

  15. wlift84 says

    June 19, 2015 at 14:52

    Is “Team Astana” just a casual way to differentiate or is there now an actual Astana weightlifting team similar to the cycling, football etc. teams?

    • Magneto says

      June 19, 2015 at 15:57

      Ilya Ilyin is a member of the “Astana Presidential Sports Club” (see wiki). Ilyin calls it “PPSC – Presidential Professional Sports Club”. It’s a form of sponsoring and marketing for the capital city/brand “Astana”. The money comes from a national welfare fund.

      Since Ilyin is the central figure of some kind of “subteam” of Kazakhstan weightlifting (he left the national team and founded his own) the people around him probably benefit from the sponsoring in some way too.

      However, the name “Team Astana” must be Gregor’s idea 😉 Probably with the cycling team in mind (Astana Pro Team).

      • Gregor says

        June 19, 2015 at 16:26

        Team Astana is not my idea. Ilya calls it team Astana too (he doesn’t call it Presidential Professional Sports Club when talking about it). It’s just shorter.

        • Magneto says

          June 19, 2015 at 17:29

          Ah, okay. I was willing to give you the credit 🙂 I was refering to his YouTube videos (the good old days, lol), where he used that description.

          Edit: Is there a chance you can get your hands on their training playlist?

  16. Huntington Hayes says

    June 20, 2015 at 03:04

    Just wondering why they are choosing to train in Poland?

    • Sergeyevich says

      June 20, 2015 at 12:20

      I think szymon kolecki invited them, last year they also got invited

  17. lifter says

    June 28, 2015 at 19:12

    Cant wait to see some videos of ilya getin back into heavy weights a couple months from now.

  18. Guillermo Bujanda says

    March 15, 2016 at 20:24

    Gregor just wondering what camera’s do you use on these trips?
    Mirrorless?DSLR? GoPros?
    Or all of the above!

    • Gregor says

      March 15, 2016 at 20:25

      All of the above

Support ATG
Support ATG on Patreon The ATG Shirt
ATG Shirts on HookgripNew ATG Script Shirts on Hookgrip All Things Gym Instagram
All Things Gym Patreon
All Things Gym YouTube
All Things Gym Facebook
All Things Gym Twitter
The ATG Hoodie ATG Hoodie on Hookgrip Store

Featured Posts

Om Yun Chol 169kg Clean & Jerk World Record

Tatiana Kashirina & Coach Interview

Team China Day 1 2017 Junior Worlds Training Hall

Clarence Super Sunday

Clarence Kennedy SUPER Sunday 227kg / 500lbs Clean PR, 320kg Deadlifts + Heavyweight Tricking!

Lu Xiaojun 175kg Snatch World Record

Lu Xiaojun 175kg Snatch World Record Video

New Romaleos ColorEuropeans Try RogueEurope.eu

Copyright © 2023 · Gregor · All Things Gym