Westside Barbell Doc on Netflix

Well him and Bell didn’t exactly leave on good terms

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I’m still waiting to see a legal squat

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Lol that’s true. With those multi-ply suits and how fat those guys are it’s tough!

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Well him and Bell didn’t exactly leave on good terms

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Mark Bell is the man. I need to read up on that story.

The documentary definetly made Westside seem like a cult. Anyone who left was scorned basically

Wait, those shirts made a 245 pound difference? That can’t be right.

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How do y’all feel about strongmen like Eddie Hall, Brian Shaw, Robert Oberst and Halfthor Bjornnson?

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They’re strong? They seem like good dudes for the most part. Strongman isn’t really my thing, but it’s a lot more functional fitness wise than powerlifting.

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I don’t remember the exact numbers but some years back a dude named Scott Mendelson hit like 1030 with a shirt and like 730 raw. I think it was the raw record at the time, but yea he hit 300 pounds more with a shirt.

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That’s insane. What is so special about the shirts that allow such a massive jump? I could be believe a difference of maybe 25 pounds or so, but 300 pounds is just massive.

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Most of those dudes just seem unhealthy as frick - red faced and out of breath just from speaking, fat, injuries galore, and then psychologically most seem to have a few screws loose or whacky priorities

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The documentary was fun to watch. Westside seems like a relic of an older time in powerlifting.

Now, weight classes and raw lifting are things. Just trying to be as big as possible and move max weight isn't what it was. You'll see a lot of ripped guys in lower classes who are strong as hell and lift raw today.

I think raw lifting has been great for the sport. A bench shirt is hundreds of bucks a beginner doesn't have. Now, people can jump in and lift like the pros from the get go. It has made things much more accessible.

The movement for overall health has also been a positive. Not everyone wants to sign up for CPAP and high blood pressure to push 400 in body weight. Now, you can stay 165 and break records.

I will say, I think the general single mindedness is common among all high achieving athletes. Sports tend to reward the people who are most aggressive and willing to sacrifice the most.

Laura Phelps was (IMO) fairly obviously on juice and lost some femininity in the process. She was cute in the face and there probably wouldn't be anything strange about it if she had never gotten on the gas.

Overall, it was a fun doc to watch, and Westside really is a part of strength history. That doesn't mean everything they did was optimal, but that's the case for a lot of originators.

I just watched the documentary. I’ve known about Westside for a while. A strength coach I knew is from Ohio, so I heard a lot of stories. You can say what you want, but you have to give Louie Simmons his respect. He wanted to break world records. Period. It didn’t matter if it killed him, and he had the same standard for any of of his lifters. You’re either here to be a monster or get the frick out. Geared, not geared, drugs or no drugs. It didn’t matter. Get your name on the board.

I think he’s a product of a generation long passed. Guys were just hard as fricking nails. It used to be that the top athletes would risk life and limb to be the best. It seems crazy to us, but that’s how it used to be. Now we see a lot of athletes who need to be pandered and give sorry excuses as to why they can’t perform, letting a lot of people down. Get your arse up and fight for the people who invested in you. Not for the money, but for the fricking pride.

I don’t know. I think there is a lot to admire about Simmons. Mother fricker will die in that gym. Who has that kind of fricking dedication anymore? The guys who really go to Westside and become a part of that history, know the cost. No one is forcing them to be there. There is a price to pay to be there, and it is due every fricking day.

I’m not saying I’m some kind of hard frick, because I’m not. But, I think there is a level of intensity and dedication from Westside that I would like to emulate in certain aspects of my life.

Louie is an old dog. His prime has come and passed. I think it’s understandable that he is so stuck in his ways. As for the claim with the reverse hyper, I will testify that it is a life saver. That bench has kept me in the game. Did it “heal” his fractured spine? No. Not really possible. But, I think it was a serious contribution to the sport and fitness in general.

His programming is probably better suited for advanced, and I mean advanced, lifters. I would never recommend the conjugate method for a beginner. All those variations work for guys who already have high totals and need something very specific.

I LOVE Neversate. I can’t really run his programs because of how my gym is set up, but his videos about technique and cues are very, very good. I recommend him for anyone under a barbell. And, as he says, he broke his back twice, and still lifts like a fricking beast.