Haven't actually read the article, and I'm going to the gym in 15min so I won't bother reading it before commenting, making what I'm about to say potentially a moot point.
Anyway, there are a few parameters that need to be recognised when talking about the Bulgarian method.
1) "Max" loads are defined as what you can do without psyching yourself up. Basically, if you can calmly walk up to the bar after an appropriate rest period and do the rep, that's what they're looking for. If you spend three minutes withdrawing from the world, going deep inside of yourself, conjuring up some empty void of deep-seeded rage, then take a lung-full of norse torque and scream as you get under the bar, you've gone far beyond what's normally recommended in the Bulgarian method. The training 1RM is often only about 85% of a real 1RM.
2) "Max" loads are usually defined as what you can do without assistive equipment, such as a belt. For me, that would basically mean never really going past warm up weights.
3) It's not expected that what you can do one day is what you'll be able to do the next day. Most Bulgarian method programs I've seen alternate between front squats and back squats every time you train, and accept as much as a 20% drop-off in loads used from day to day.
Combining those three points, if my true 1RM squat is 150kg, without a belt that might be only 120-130kg, and without psyching myself up that might be taken down even further to about 100kg. And I'm not expected to actually get 100kg every time I squat. I might get 100kg on Monday, after resting all weekend, then front squat 90kg on Tuesday, then squat 90kg on Wednesday, then front squat 85kg on Thursday, then squat 95kg on Friday. The effect here is that the training is actually a whole lot less intense and hardcore than it's made out to be, because on my good days I'm only doing about 80% of 80% of what can actually do, and on my bad days I'm only doing about 80% of that. With regards to the point about injuries, and the claim that the Bulgarian method is safer than other methods (a highly questionable claim), this might be a part of the rationale -- when you address the details you're actually doing much lower intensity than "daily max squats" suggests, and the volume actually isn't that high, either. When we train, we always need to trade off between intensity, volume and frequency. Most people seem to think that the Bulgarian method is some insane high dose of all of these, but it generally appears to be low-to-moderate intensity, low-to-moderate volume and high frequency, from all that I have read about it. Because of the relatively low intensity and volume, there's really not much to recover from when compared to my powerlifting training or more conventional bodybuilding training.
It's worth noting that, like many strength programs, the Bulgarian method is not designed to put heaps of muscle on you. It's designed to use your white muscle fibres, most likely without turning them into pink muscle fibres (which generally happens with hypertrophy training) and acquire so much practice that technique rapidly becomes second-nature. The Bulgarian method was not intended for bodybuilding, so holding it up against bodybuilding standards of effectiveness and efficiency, which appears to be the thoughts going on in some of the replies here, is missing the point of the method. Of course, sites like T Nation will try and market this stuff to bodybuilders, and honestly it's through bodybuilding culture that strength guys like me even have access to this information, so in one sense I'm glad they market it to bodybuilders so that I get to know about it, but bodybuilders aren't the guys who should be considering doing this.
WRT the point about Bulgarian lifters and steroids, I'll just say that I have some rather jaded views on how clean the Olympics are. Officially, the Olympics represent clean sport. However, professional athletes have scheduled drug testing rather than random drug testing (even random drug testing gives them 24 hours to actually do the test, which can be enough time to destroy the evidence of PED's in your system), and access to "sports scientists" who concoct PED's that pass tests or other drugs that aren't screened for and that cover up evidence of PED's. I won't go as far as to say that all who compete are taking some special supplements, however, if the sport is popular in a country and thus has a lot of funding, or if the individual athlete feels that they can make a name for themselves by cheating, then there's going to be a big push towards it. I wouldn't necessarily say that top level athletes using PED's indicates that their training methods are either ineffective or actually detrimental to those who aren't on the same PED's, although that certainly might be the case. At the lower levels (where I can say that if people are using PED's, they're not working), I look at Nick Horton and his lifters, who subscribe to the Bulgarian method, and notice that they all snatch, clean and jerk more than me, so something's going right, but as far as squatting goes, they don't appear to be doing any better than I am on one heavy and one light squat session each week.
There's a lot to consider on these issues, and I generally find that both those who are for and those who are against the Bulgarian method seem to overreach their arguments. Without having done it myself, all I know is my gut says maybe.
