Is Westside Barbell just a meme?

>"Hurr-durr I squat 800lbs."
>puts on a suit
>unracks bar
>does a curtsy with it

Are we talking for general strength training or specifically for raw powerlifting?

Either way, the generalities work. Lift heavy shit, lift shit fast, do rep work, do your gpp/conditioning to stay in shape (yeah, they were really bad about following this last one themselves). It's the specifics that get varied a lot.

For ME work, the main difference (since you should be picking exercises based on your specific goals, regardless of drug or equipment use) is that the drug free guy isn't going to be getting as beat up from the same volume of work since he's just not as big, strong or joint-compromised. So you can and should do more volume - work up slower (people miss this anyway and jump too much, it should be like 5% per set once you're past 50 and you don't drop reps till you're getting close to that max), maybe do some backdown work.

For DE work, the percentages and movements are kind of fucked for the average person. It works if you follow the actual guidelines (ie that the speed percentages need individual tweaking and should end up being about the highest that person can do without slowing down) but just grabbing the numbers based off an equipped bench and assuming bands/chains will go nowhere if you're a raw guy using straight weight. Also if you're a competitor this really should be your comp lifts done to comp standards, at the very least during meet prep if not year round. Box squats and unpaused benches are fine for the offseason but if you go into a meet having not free squatted for eight months you deserve to do the westside dance and bomb out. If you're not a competitor the DE work can be more varied - it's also possible to use 'athletic' stuff like jumps or power cleans or explosive pushups in place of the barbell work.

For RE work: You probably need more of it since you can't rely on the drugs for anabolism and you aren't going to get as much stress out of the DE/ME work.

I can go in further but that's the gist of it.

If he said that, he's bullshitting somebody because he's had multiple drug-free guys come out of that gym and do well (Chris Moore, for example).

>Alphadestiny

I do follow the guy and yes I created the thread after watching his video on how apparently Westside Barbell's methods helped him.

Is there anything I should know about Alex? Expose the guy if you will

>does a curtsy with it

Attached: keK.jpg (599x449, 36K)

I'm a fairly big fan of using some Westside-inspired stuff for full body workouts, but Alex is basically the stereotypical guy who heard about Westside, misinterpreted half of what he heard and then wrote a program based on it while he was super infatuated with all the new stuff he'd been hearing about. There's a lot in there that's the new convert enthusiasm of trying to apply shit to everything even when there's no need or benefit. Banded push presses as ME work, for example, are one of those ideas that just aren't good.

You sound you know your shit, I'm looking to hoard books on Strength, Athletics and General Cardio related

I already have the Westside Barbell Book of Methods(Havent read it yet) and Squat Every Day.

Is there anything else I should look for you can recommend to me?

Right, so just because he MIGHT have had some legitimate natties (who may or may not actually be natty) leave his gym with success, that means it works for the average guy? Unless you're planning on competing in geared lifting, there's literally no point in doing any of that shit (besides maybe having a speed day). And yes he actually said that... on camera

The WSBB Book of Methods is shit. It's basically a reprint of a ton of Westside articles over the years with no real editing or tweaking to make them fit together. Louie's bad enough normally, trying to figure out what two decades worth of him is saying is something else.

The best stuff for understanding the method actually comes from ex-Westside guys, since they're generally much better at translating Simmons-speak into English. "The Max Effort Method" by Wendler is a good primer to the whole approach. I think it's still floating around out there. There's probably some good primers for it buried on EliteFTS somewhere as well.

Beyond that, depends on what you're interested in.

is Louie really that bad at writing?

Alex has completely bastardized Westside. Half of the stuff in his $50 ebook is misinterpreted shit from Louie.

>$50

you have to be joking

Kind of. He's not a good writer and he tends to forget how little he has in common training-wise with most people reading his stuff (not unusual in fitness). He's also got a bad tendency to make up his own terms and do a shit job of defining them. Apparently he's a hell of a coach in person but it does not translate to the page.

The real issue with Book of Methods is simply the lack of any decent editing. It's an article collection and Louie's put out a lot of very similar articles over the years. Having three or four near-identical pieces in the book with no context given and no idea of which order they were written in? Fuck that noise.

yes

I'm not. The dude is a professional con-artist. Wouldn't be surprised at all if he's a fake natty as well.

is anyone natty nowadays?

jason blaha

It’s not even about the drugs. The dude is incoherent as fuck. You’re better off reading the soviet books he based his entire style on.

Like?

I've been wondering how does he look so bad after roiding and lifting so much?

Because he's fucking ancient and has done more damage to himself than just about anyone ever in the art of picking up heavy things. Also he only really cares about equipped lifting which is not going to be kind to a front photo.

I live in Columbus OH and used to work at the Sunoco right down the street from Westside.

I can tell you that 100% these dudes take steroids. I didn’t see Louie as much, but this guy Greg who trained there has discussed it with me before. When you have a customer that comes in to buy coffee and chewing tobacco nearly every morning, you get to know a lot about them. Most dudes are on gear at that gym.