The Iron

Samurai: The
True Story
of Westside
Barbell
By the Iron Samurai
 Published by Westside4Athletes®
Made in the United States of America.

www.westside-barbell.com
Email: customercare@westside-barbell.com

Cover credit: Charlie Cataline

Editors: Martha Johnson and Doris Simmons

Copyright © 2020 Westside Barbell

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-0-9973925-4-8
 Contents

The Author.................................................................................i

Foreword ..................................................................................ii

Chapter 1
The Beginning .........................................................................1

Chapter 2
Early Competitions, Competitors and Advice ..........16

Chapter 3
Mid to late 70s .................................................................... 33

Chapter 4
Practicing the Way of the Samurai ............................. 50

Chapter 5
Emergence of the Westside System ............................ 70

Chapter 6
From the Garage to the Gym .......................................... 93

Chapter 7
Louie’s Reflections on His First 15 Years............... 107

Chapter 8
A New Lifting Life: Teaching.........................................116

Chapter 9
Working with Coaches ................................................... 122

Chapter 10
Great Athletes, Louie and Westside......................... 127

Chapter 11
Paying Tribute to the Men
Who Freely Gave Advice ................................................ 135
Chapter 12
The Dead Room................................................................... 147

Chapter 13
The Early 1990s ................................................................ 157

Chapter 14
Westside Women ............................................................... 162

Chapter 15
The Nineties, Continued ................................................. 169

Chapter 16
Moving into the 21st Century........................................ 178

Chapter 17
Pass It On............................................................................. 201

Chapter 18
Personalities that made Westside Famous ............207

Chapter 19
Paying the Bills: Intellectual Property ................. 231

Chapter 20
Westside’s Contributors-Doctors,
Experts, Professionals, Coaches .............................236

Chapter 21
Training—Football, Rugby, Track
and Field … Just Name a Sport ....................................255

Chapter 22
The Westside Guys............................................................266

Chapter 23
The Westside Barbell Business .................................282

Chapter 24
Westside Vs. The World .................................................288
 The Author

The Iron Samurai is the alter ego of Louie Simmons,

the founder of the Columbus Ohio Westside Barbell© Club,
established in 1986. Louie’s members have broken more than
100 all-time world records in powerlifting.
The Iron Samurai has watched from the sidelines as
Louie has acquired several decades of special strength training
experience for many sports and as he has been a consultant for
many collegiate and professional teams.
Louie Simmons is one of only four men to have made
Elite totals in five weight classes and was top 10 from 1971 to
2005. Louie has authored nine books, 15 DVDs, more than 250
articles as well as being a current lecturer and he holds 13 United
States patents.
This is the Iron Samurai’s first and only book.

i
 Foreword

Louie has traveled the world of strength for more than

seven decades. His many triumphs have been equaled by his many
setbacks. No setback, however, could stop him from finding a way
to succeed no matter how grim things sometimes appeared.
The hardest thing for someone to do is to change. Louie
knew that he must adapt or perish at his own hands of determination.
After having suffered many severe injuries, and death almost
claiming his soul in 1991, he also knew death could not take him yet
as there were many tasks at hand that still awaited him.
One of Louie’s lifters once said that everyone at Westside is
just an experiment. Maybe that was true, but he would change how
people viewed special strength training around the globe when they
saw the results that could be achieved through this training.
After many years of educating the public, he achieved
a level of mutual understanding primarily because of all the
materials he brought forward for all to see and use. Along the way,
he learned that it was better to have good people over good lifters.
Although the Iron Samurai is one of Louie’s alter egos,
it was not the one that replaced him in training or competitions.
That one he says will go to the grave with him never to be revealed
to others. His advice to everyone who reads his story or follows
his life adventures is to make your own choice—choose the ball
or choose the sword, but choose wisely.
Doris Crawford Simmons

ii
 Chapter 1
The Beginning

It all began in October of 1947 on the 12th day of the

month. That’s the day Louie was born to Gerry and Ruth Simmons.
Fourteen months later, his only sibling, a sister named Jeri, was
brought into the Simmons family.
Life was as normal as it can be for any young child until
Louie began the first grade. The family lived in a small house
on the east side of Columbus, Ohio, in a small town named
Reynoldsburg, Ohio. The town had its own school system, and
that’s where Louie started school.
On the first day of school, a boy took one of Louie’s shoes.
He was upset, of course, and when his father came home, Louie
told him what had happened. His dad told Louie that if it happened
again and he didn’t hit the boy for doing it, then he would be
spanked when he got home. At that point, Louie started to cry.
His dad went with the age-old retort, “If you cry, I will give you
something to cry about.” Louie believed him.
The next day during recess—day two of first grade—the
same boy tried to take Louie’s shoe again. But this time, Louie hit
the kid in the face. A teacher saw the incident and grabbed Louie
and jerked his arm, so he hit the teacher. And to cap it off, Louie
said he wanted to hit anyone who touched him first.
Well, that turned out not to be a good idea. The school called
the house and told his mother to come and pick him up. After she
arrived, the principal told her Louie was kicked out of school.
1
 “For how long?” she asked.
“For the year,” he answered.
“Are you serious?” she exclaimed.
“Yes,” he answered. He was serious.
Louie’s dad, a World War II veteran, said he did the right
thing. “Never let anyone push you around,” he said. “Nowadays,
people are bullied all the time. It is ridiculous. They are weak-
minded and soft as Charmin. They should grow some nuts, or they
will be afraid their whole life.”
So, the family moved to the west side of Columbus to a
small house. Once they were settled, they took Louie to his new
school, but it was too late in the year. The school system made him
sit out until the next year when he was seven.
School was hard for Louie, and he barely passed year
after year. (Louie later learned that he was dyslexic, which is
a learning disorder marked by difficulty in recognizing and
understanding written language, leading to spelling and writing
problems, especially transposing letters or numbers when reading
or writing.) Nothing of much circumstance took place until he was
12-years-old. In his spare time to make spending money, he would
pick up pop bottles to turn in, or he would drag old steel from an
abandoned gravel pit to take to the scrap yard. But things were
about to change.
A family from the city moved out to the country. Their
house was down the street from Louie’s family. They were the
Gray family, and the boys played sports. Mr. Gray was their coach.
Finally, the changes in his life were going well. First, he started
Little League Baseball. He was surprised to find that he had a
natural talent for the game. In one year of Little League, he hit 17
home runs to lead the city, and he became an All-Star. Then, one
home run in particular changed his life forever.

2
 There were not many
ball fields that had a home
run fence, but one did.
It happened to be in Valleyview,
where Westside Barbell is located
today (2020). In all the other
fields, he had to run out the
home run, but Valleyview had
a fence. When he hit his first
home run over the fence that
day, it was his first chance ever
to trot around the bases. It was
terrific to take his time, but
more important, he could hear the
cheers of the crowd for the first
time. At that very moment, he realized he was special—at least on
the ball field.
Mr. Gray was his biggest fan. He was a much better
ballplayer than Mr. Gray’s three sons, so it was sometimes
embarrassing to Louie, because he felt that Mr. Gray was giving
him more attention on the field than his own kids.
With the times came new friends, too. One friend was
Kenny Ward. Kenny was a 6’5” tall, Army veteran and another
big fan. The Grays were church people, and one of the church
members was Harold Rathburn, a general contractor. Harold also
loved to see Louie play ball. Kenny worked for Harold and asked
if Louie could work for the summer. Harold said he could if Kenny
would pick him up in the mornings, take him to work, and get him
home afterward. Kenny said, yes.
You Must Stand for Something or
Else You Will Fall for Anything
Looking back, it was as if a big puzzle was coming
together. Louie had his first real job, new friends, and new mentors
in Mr. Gray and Harold Rathburn. Harold was not only his boss but
3
became a lifetime friend that he still respects today even though
Harold passed away.
Harold did contract work for a multi-million-dollar
company called Schottenstein’s. Jerry Schottenstein was a
millionaire, but you would never know by the way he dressed or
by the old car he drove. Louie once recalled Jerry coming out to
the job site to pay Harold a “money draw.” He then looked around
and said, “Show me what you’ve done.” Of course, Harold was
pissed. Louie learned from that experience. In all these years, when
someone talks about himself, Louie now says, “Show me what
you’ve done.”
Louie began working for Rathburn Construction Company
as a block and brick laborer the summer he was 12. He would start
working at 6 am—one hour before the masons came to work—to
build the scaffolding, mix mortar, and load blocks and whatever
else was needed for the day’s work. He also would have to work
late if anything needed to be done at the end of the day. Louie
recalled that it took 23 shovels full of sand for each bag of mortar.
And that it took 534 cement blocks from the basement to the top
of the attic. And he never set the block down on the way to the top.
(Louie says to Master Kung-Fu, “The training must be severe.”
And not setting the blocks down during the climb was one of the
first tests to which he subjected himself.)
Louie’s First Weight Set
With the money he made working, he bought his first
weight set. It was a 110-pound set from Sears, and at 12 years
old, he could clean and jerk C-J it. Looking back, Louie says
it was the hard manual labor that gave him the strength to C-J
110 pounds, but also the ability to hit the baseball hard and very
explosively.
His first landmark year was when he was 12. He continued
successfully playing ball and lifting weights. At fourteen, he won
a high school weightlifting contest with a 260-pound C-J at about
145-pounds bodyweight.
4
 His Dad then made squat racks from tire rims and welded
uprights to them. Louie could squat! His squat was 410 pounds
at age fourteen. He would not break that limit for four years,
however, but more on that later.
Louie continued to work with Kenny Ward for Harold until
he barely, and it was truly barely, graduated from high school.
Louie did not mind working in the summer or after school until
10:30 at night. One job Louie remembers was knocking down
walls at Jerry Schottenstein stores in Columbus, Ohio. During
the summer he was 13, he traveled to work doing iron erection.
Allowing a 13-year-old to do that kind of work today might land
a person in jail. Those jobs during his teen years led the way to
operating heavy equipment—cranes, backhoes, bulldozers—and
welding. Later in life, he would run large steel erection crews
while operating a crane, and he became a certified welder.
Lessons Learned
In 1966 Louie was drafted. He had just graduated from high
school, and he began working full-time for Harold while waiting
to enter the Army. At that time, Louie had only lifted in Olympic
competitions, but he was fascinated by powerlifting. It was new
as a sport, but the men in the magazines looked so powerful, he
wanted to try it for himself.
He recalled training at a friend’s house when he was 13 and
looking at lifting magazines. He told his friend that he was going
to be in those magazines someday.
His friend replied, “Simmons, you will never be in any
magazine; no way!”
That comment never left his mind. It helped drive him to
where he is today.
But, back to 1966. There was a powerlifting meet in
Franklin, Ohio, near Dayton, Ohio, in November 1966 just before
he was to leave for basic training, so he entered. At that meet, many
things happened, much like when he was 12-years-old and met the

5
Gray family. There were 11 men in the 165-pound class that day.
Louie placed 10th—he had only beaten a 55-year-old man.
“What the fuck just happened?” he thought.
He had never placed less than third in all his previous
Olympic-style meets. He was hooked on powerlifting, and by that,
he meant he was through with Olympic weightlifting. (Of course,
he wrote a book about it later in life, but that’s another story for
later in this book.)
The Olympic weightlifters with whom Louie trained
needed name tags that said, “I lift weights,” except for his old
friend Jimmy Benjamin. Jimmy was a three-time national champ
at 132-pounds bodyweight. Their Olympic weightlifting coach,
Frasier Ferguson, was a former Mr. America. Louie lifted with
Ferguson from the time he was 14-years-old until he was
17-years-old; Ferguson did not help much; that was for sure.
(Note: In America, 99 percent of the Olympic coaches are
worthless, according to Louie. Just look at U.S. records.
The country hasn’t had any winners since Middle Heavyweight
Lee James won a silver medal in 1976, and Heavyweight Guy
Carlton won a bronze in 1984.)
A lot of good came from that meet. First, Louie found out
how weak he was while imagining a sign on his forehead that said,
“410-pound squat for four years running.”
The truth is the truth, but this was his new sport for life
as it would turn out. What sold him was that the lifters who lifted
that day included four who would be International Powerlifting
Federation (IPF) world champions: Vince Anello, George
Crawford, Milt McKinney, and the incomparable Larry Pacifico
(called Larry P by Louie) all had the biggest, most powerful legs
Louie had ever seen. And, those legs helped George break many
world records in the squat. George was a little eccentric when it
came to his personal life. Louie would call him once a month or so
and learn about squatting. George would always help.
One day Louie called George. Someone answered the
6
phone.
Louie said, “Is George there?”
The person on the other end said, “No, but I am his
connection to Earth.”
Louie said, “Ok. Thanks. I will call back later.”
Dave Waddington, the first 1000-pound squatter, told Louie
one day that George showed up late for the workout.
Dave asked, “George, did you work out?”
George thought for a while and then said simply, “Yes.”
Dave then, after a long pause, asked, “How was it?”
George said, “It was a good one.”
Then Dave asked, “Where did you work out?”
George paused and then said, “In my mind.”
Yes, this is a true story.
Louie also learned a life lesson later in 1970. He was at the
weigh-in and saw two lifters from Toledo. George Bell and Jerry
Bell, the first 165-pound weightlifter to pull 700 pounds, and they
were holding hands with a little boy.
Louie asked, “Who’s the kid?”
They told Louie, “Listen … someday this 10-year-old kid
will be someone.”
The “little kid” was Bobby Wahl, and years later, that little
boy held the world record in the squat at 148-pounds bodyweight
and became IPF World Champion. After that, Louie had respect for
everyone, no matter how small or how big, how young or how old.
Connecting with Westside,
Culver City
Once Louie entered the Army in 1966, he was stationed in
Berlin, Germany. At the commissary, he bought a lifting magazine
called Muscle Power Builder. Wanting to learn how the four
7
immortals were so powerful and strong, he was hoping to find
guidance on becoming super strong. The magazine had something
for everyone involved in bodybuilding, weightlifting, and the new
sport of powerlifting.
Louie never liked bodybuilding because the participants
were always smiling, and in his way of thinking, Louie thought
that it was not natural for a man. But he was impressed by how
much work and dedication it took to look like that. However, he
was looking for how to become a real powerlifter.
It was in this magazine that Louie found an article about
powerlifting from a gym called Westside Barbell Club in Culver
City, California. Westside caught Louie’s eye because he grew up
on the westside of Columbus, Ohio, but also because there was
an article about box squatting. Louie was always agonizing about
not improving from that 410-pound squat when he was fourteen to
now having it engraved in his mind forever. Louie read the story
over and over and said to himself, “What have I got to lose?”
He box squatted for three months just like they said using a
high box two inches above parallel with more weight than he could
squat, then reducing the weight and sitting on a parallel box for
some reps, then on to a low box—that were really milk crates—for
more reps. After three months, Louie tried a new record and lo, and
behold, he made an easy 450-pound squat.
“What the heck just happened,” he thought. He could
not believe it—450 pounds after being stuck for four long years!
This Westside Barbell must be the real deal.
The magazine came out bi-monthly, and Louie could not
wait to get a copy and see what program to use next. In six more
months, Louie hit 500 pounds. He could not believe it. All his
lifts were going up. Louie had been very good at baseball, having
played on a developmental team for the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was
mandatory to be out of high school and to be 17 years old, but his
Pony League coach got him on the team. At 15-years-old, he was a
starter, batted third and played right field. He had decided back then
8
that he was too short for making it in the majors. Now he decided it
was powerlifting full time.
While in Berlin waiting to be moved to Vietnam, fate stepped
in to change his direction. His father died in August 1968. He was
the only son in his family, and his father’s untimely death saved him
from Vietnam as he was infantry and sure to go there. Louie was
ready to go but was also glad he did not go as he saw many men his
age come home with terrible scars, both physical and mental.
Just before he was drafted, Mr. Gray, his Little League
coach, had died. Louie always looked back to how much support
Coach Gray gave him. And now his Dad was gone, too. His dad
would come to Louie’s games when possible and also attend his
weightlifting meets. He was a World War II veteran, and now he
was gone. He had told Louie not to mourn when someone died
because no one wants you to be sad, but instead to look ahead
and help someone in some aspect of their life. Louie has always
followed his father’s advice.
On His Own
It was now November 1969, and Louie was going home.
First, he started working for Harold again. Like before, he had
to work out of town for ten days and come back home for two.
Staying in a hotel was not much different than being in the Army.
Within a month, Louie moved out of his mother’s house and found
an apartment. The first thing he did was buy a Hercules 555-pound
set from York Barbell and build a power rack with holes every two
inches apart. That was January 1970. Though it is now 49-years-
old, that rack remains in good condition today.
Later everyone said you could build a power rack with
holes every two inches, and then it became every inch apart, but
either way, those designs were a copy of Louie’s rack design.
Louie soon found out not many people have an original idea, and
they copy many of his patterns.
January 1970 marked a special day in Louie’s life as it was
his first time to use roids—an anabolic steroid called D-ball at first.
9
The doctor gave him a prescription of 100 pills. He asked when he
could get another 100 pills, and the doctor, a female, said in 100
days, so Louie took one pill a day. Ironically, today he lives in the
town of West Jefferson, Ohio, a mile from the doctor’s office where
he got his first prescription.
As soon as Louie got out
of the Army, he started competing.
One of the guys made a four-inch
box to stand on for deadlifts. It had
a handle to carry it in and out of a
gym. Also, he would bring a set of
100-pound plates to the gym so he
would have plenty of weights for
deadlifts and box squats. But when
Louie worked out in his mother’s
basement at 1060 Richter Road, it
was just him—no training partners
for years, only a mirror and an AM radio.
It was hard at first working out of state a lot. He
remembers carrying a set of 100-pound plates up two flights of
stairs at Hoffmeister Gym in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was mostly
bodybuilders who trained there. While working in Louisville,
Kentucky, he trained at the YMCA. He was there at the same time
Bob Birdsong, a soon to be professional bodybuilder, trained by
doing 100 reps in the Goodmorning. Birdsong’s method was to use a
light weight around 100 pounds. He would do a rep to the front, then
to the right, then to the front, and then to the left, and so on, until 100
reps were completed.
Louie was small in 1970, but jacked and lean. The YMCA
had cheap bars, and Louie recalls doing a high box squat with
about 600 pounds. He bent the bar so bad that it couldn’t be used.
The YMCA staff was amazed that a 170-pound person could lift
that much, so they told him not to worry about the damage.
It was about this time that Mike MacDonald got out of the

10
 Army. He was known for
his great bench pressing,
sometimes breaking four
world records in the same
meet. Most don’t realize
it, but Mike was doing all
three lifts and totaled 1870
pounds, an IPF Elite status.
Today’s Cambered Bench
Bar was initially a MacDonald bar. It had a five-inch camber to
make benching much harder. It was one of Mike’s training partners
who came up with the idea because first, he put weight plates on
Mike’s back to do push-ups, but that was not hard enough. Next,
he would place weight plates on Mike’s back while he would put
his feet on a box and bands on chairs so he could lower himself
between the chairs. This was dangerous, so out of necessity, the
Cambered Bar—or rather the MacDonald Bar—was born.
Well Known Gyms
Things were going strong in 1970 with Thorbecke’s Gym
in Arizona. Thorbecke’s had some strong men like Jon Cole, Jack
Barnes, and Marv Allen. Cole totaled 2370 in 1972 at 286-pounds
bodyweight and won the Olympic Trials in weightlifting only to
have it said that it was not good enough for him to go. It was a slap
in the face to all the Olympic lifters. John Kanter, the first 242 to
total 2000 pounds, had even
bigger legs than the ones he
saw at his first powerlifting
meet. Jack Barnes ruled
the 181-pound class. Louie
was always chasing Jack.
To this day, Louie talks to
Marv Allen.
Westside Barbell
Culver City, Louie’s

11
mentor, was the top gym on the west coast with their leader Bill
“Peanuts” West, who got his name from eating peanuts and peanut
butter to gain weight. Bill was breaking lots of American records
as there were no official world records yet.
At 198-pounds bodyweight, Pat Casey, a huge and powerful
man, became the first man to bench 600 pounds, squat 800 pounds,
and total 2000 pounds. The Westside Way was rack presses, floor
presses, box squats, and Pat proved they worked.
There was another freak
named George Frenn. George
held the world record in both the
35-pound and 56-pound Hammer,
but also the American record
in the 242-pound class with an
854-pound squat, 816-pound
deadlift, and a 2100-pound total.
He did not train the bench as
he felt it hurt his throwing, but
made a 520-pound bench in
competition. George wrote many
articles for Muscle Power Builder
along with Peanut West.
Others of note at Westside
Culver City included Len Ingro, Tom Overholtzer, an unreal squat
machine, Bill Witting, and Joe Dimarco. Their training methods
were Louie’s workouts. Louie would switch a lift each week. For
example, he would do a rack pull, next week a Goodmorning, then
stand on a box and so on until he had four to six special squat and
deadlift exercises to rotate.
Louie was doing the Conjugate System before it had
been named by Yuri Verkhoshansky and A. N. Medvedev in 1972.
It was nothing new, as bodybuilders were switching many things,
including exercises.
The Midwest was also a hotbed for powerlifting. Long
12
before guys like Larry Pacifico, Jerry Bell, and George Crawford
dominated, Ed Matz’s Gym in Toledo, Ohio, and Vince’s Gym
in Cleveland, Ohio, built a strong foundation for powerlifting.
Many great Olympic lifters also called the Midwest home,
including the George Brothers and Jim Benjamin at Whetstone
Recreation Center in Columbus, Ohio.
The Midwest had men like Roger Ells who was doing
breaking squats for 20 reps, then pullovers. Milo Mag would much
later call them Super Squats and take credit for things like the
Magic Circle. (Louie had no idea, but he would also have people
copy his many inventions, too. But what the fuck … there are
crooks around every day.) Larry P started a strong gym named
Power Elite. There was also Glass City Power Gym in Toledo,
Ohio, and Central Indiana’s Weightlifting Club.
A strong gym in West Virginia known as the Wild Bunch
had strong-ass guys like Chuck Dunbar, world champ in the 114
Class. Louie also remembers Luke Iams, a super heavyweight.
When Louie first saw Luke, he was walking to the bar like a wild
man stomping his feet with his shoes untied. He never tied his
shoes. Louie could not understand why super heavyweights never
tied their shoes. He learned, however. They can’t.
Then there was Jack Wilson, a strong 165-pounder as well
as Louie’s long-time friend Paul Sutphin, who hit ten times when
only a handful could do that. The leader was Roger Estep, who was
built like Mr. A. and broke world records. Many thought Roger
duct-taped his knees under his suit. In Cleveland, when he broke
the squat record, the refs took him into the warm-up room and had
Roger take off his suit and wraps. There was no duct tape to be
seen. Louie was there. He saw firsthand that Roger didn’t use duct
tape and learned early on that losers hate winners.
The Godfather of powerlifting Ernie Frantz from Illinois
was strong as hell, and had backup from Bill Seno, a Mr. American,
competitor and bench press record holder. (More about Bill Seno
later.) In the late 70s and early 80s, Black’s Health World in

13
Cleveland would become one of the strongest gyms of all time.
Competing in Ohio
Louie started to compete in Ohio in the summer of 1970.
Dayton was a hotbed because of Larry Pacifico and his group, but
there was also Cincinnati’s Downtown YMCA, and teams from
Cleveland and Toledo that competed against each other.
Louie saw firsthand that it was hard to win in Toledo if
your team was from Cleveland, or if you would compete against
the Cincinnati YMCA and you lifted for the Central Indiana
Weightlifting Club. All the teams had some very strong powerlifters
competing for first place. Louie saw the light and lifted as non-
affiliated, and they gave him a break.
Louie was training out of his mother’s basement, and his
training partners were a mirror and an AM radio. At his first meet, he
totaled 1340 and won the 181-pound weight class.
One of his competitors was a guy from Toledo named Willy
Myers. His total was about 1250 pounds. Louie made fast progress
over the next year while Willy just kept doing the same total.
Eventually, Willy left lifting and became one of the hardest referees
to pass on Earth.
Louie trained in a power rack to act as a spotter, and most of
his benching was off pins. He would lower the weight down to a set
pin at chest level or midway up for a workout. His method was to
press just off his chest then two inches off his chest for one workout
for the week. The second workout, he set the pins at six inches off
his chest, then eight inches off his chest. And sometimes he would
do high pin lockouts trying to do 75 pounds or 100 pounds or more,
then regular bench. At that time, his bench was not very
good— about 310 pounds.
At a meet in Dayton, Larry P said, “Louie, if you don’t build
up your bench, you will never win a national.”
Larry P was right. Ten years later, in 1980, Louie would win
his first national with the number eight bench on the top 10 list.
14
 Steppenwolf and Black Sabbath
Looking back to the basement, Louie would train alone.
He would be by himself with Steppenwolf blaring “The Pusher,”
“Born to Be Wild,” and “Magic Carpet Ride,” or Black Sabbath
blasting “Paranoid,” “War Pigs,” “Electric Funeral,” and, of
course, “Iron Man.” To this day, whenever Iron Man is playing
Louie’s hair—if he has hair—stands on end and tears will come to
his eyes.

15
 Chapter 2
Early Competitions,
Competitors and Advice

Louie was already discovering that Ohio was full of top

lifters in all weight classes. His biggest rival was George Clark.
Later, George would drive Louie to the depths of hell to out-total
him. (More on that later.)
Larry Pacifico
Louie was
lifting with the greatest
powerlifters on Earth.
Larry Pacifico (Larry P),
for example. When Louie
was just getting out of the
Army, Larry P totaled an
American record of 1675
at 198 pounds. But on the
same day, Joe Weinstein
of New York made the same 1675 total at 198. Both were credited
with the total. Larry would go on to win nine world championships
and was unbeaten for 10 years. Larry P will go down as one of the
greatest lifters of all time in Louie’s view since he could be beaten,
but never was. He broke too many world records to count in the
bench, squat, and total. He had battles with men from John Kanter
to Roger Estep.

16
 Larry P would always give Louie advice. First, he told
Louie to work his triceps because he believed a lifter’s triceps were
75 percent of his bench. He would tell others that if they wanted
to bench more, they needed to gain weight and, of yeah, train your
triceps.
Larry P told Louie he had one of the best styles he had ever
seen, and that meant a lot to Louie.
Looking beyond the early years, later Larry P would have
a son called Jimmy, who was very strong and trained at Westside
Columbus for a while. And today, Larry and Louie, who met when
they were 18 and 19 years old, are still friends in their seventies.
George Crawford
Louie met
George Crawford in
1966 before his stay
in the Army. In 1970
Louie asked George
for squatting advice.
George’s best advice
was this: However
you start the squat
is most important.
George was right.
George was the king of the 165-pounders. At about five feet
tall, his legs were like tree trunks. His training partner was Jerry
Bell. Both were from Toledo, Ohio, and Jerry was ok at squatting.
At the time, he lifted in the 148-pound class and could deadlift
600 pounds. He favored the seldom-used Sumo-style. Jerry would
become the first 165-pounder to deadlift 700 pounds.
Here is a lesson Louie learned early on: You cannot be
great by association. George’s squat prowess had no effect on
Jerry’s squat, and Jerry’s deadlift had no impact on George’s
deadlift. Later on, Louie found it was biomechanics and mental
conditioning.
17
 Herb Glossbrenner
Carlos Luper from Indiana pulled Sumo-style like Jerry
Bell, making 650 pounds in the 181-pound class. Ronnie Hale was
the leader at the Indiana Weightlifting Club and asked if Louie
would lift for them at the Nationals. He had to say no because he
could not get off work, but it was an honor to be considered.
Louie did work out with the Indiana club. Louie never
had training partners, and when he jumped ahead of some of their
guys, he was told to wait his turn. This was new to Louie. It was
more like taking your turn in the warm-up room. It was their way,
and he was used to doing the Army way, so he went along with it.
It was at this workout in Indiana that he met Herb Glossbrenner.
Herb was a scrawny 148-pounder. His lifts were not impressive at
all. This could be the reason he became the powerlifting statistician
for years until he suffered a stroke.
One time he told Louie he was nothing but fast-twitch
muscle fiber. Louie just laughed and bought him another beer.
Louie was once at a meet, and Herb asked if Louie had a strong
grip, so Louie put the brain claw on him. Afterward, Herb was
asking if anyone had something for a headache. It was funny as
Hell, but not for Herb.
After Dan DeWitt published Powerlifting News, Herb
became the statistician for Mike Lampert’s Powerlifting USA.
It was these power magazines that everyone waited on to see
where they were ranked on the national scene. There was only the
top 10 listed back then, not top 20 or top 50, or who gives a fuck if
you made the top 100. That’s playing, not powerlifting. To see your
name was great, but if there was a picture, that was the greatest
thing that could happen.
Working on Training and
Technique
Louie was still using Culver City Westside to guide his
training. Muscular Development was a magazine Louie read all

18
the time as well. Bill Starr wrote an article called, “If You Want
a Deadlift, Don’t Deadlift.” Louie saw similarities between
Starr’sthe Culver City boys. Starr said to do rack and box pulls,
power cleans and high pulls for the upper back and lots of
Goodmornings. This was basically the same program the Culver
City boys were using for their deadlifting. Louie started out
Olympic lifting, so power cleans were nothing new. He found that
when your deadlift was up, so was your squat.
There was zero gear except for ace bandages—36 inches
for the knees and 18 inches for the elbows.
Louie also found that box squats helped the deadlift,
especially high box squats. Louie’s high box was 17 inches, and he
had to walk it out in his power rack. At 180-pounds bodyweight,
Louie made 805 pounds. He would set the pins just below where
the top of his shoulders would go for safety, then after standing
back up, he would, again, lower himself onto the box, then lean
forward and rest the bar on the pins. Next, he would unload the bar,
take 50 pounds off the top set and lower the box to 15 inches and
do a single. He could get the lower box weights back into the rack.
The box squats were done on Friday. His usual practice was
one single doing a planned weight on a 17-, 15- and 13-inch box
and 35 sets of three to five reps on an 11-inch milk crate. This was
done every Friday, adding weight each week. At this point, Louie
only knew progressive overload for all lifts. He would use this
system for almost 12 years until a second significant injury made
him think that there must be a better way to train.
Louie’s total started to grow in all three lifts thanks to
talking to the best in the game. He talked to Larry P mostly about
the bench and to Bill Seno from Frantz’s Club, a Mr. America
competitor and winner of Best Chest many times. He asked Bill for
advice on benching as well because, like Larry P, he held American
records in the bench. Larry P said to train the triceps because they
are 75 percent of your bench. Competing in bodybuilding, Bill
pushed the chest and delts.

19
 First, you need to know that Louie was 170-pounds
bodyweight, and Bill was a massive 250 pounds. He grabbed
Louie by the shoulders and looked him up and down. Bill said
with Louie’s body build, he should bench illegal benches one-inch
outside the maximum grip line. He told him to do a maximum of
six reps for a few weeks until he made no more progress, then start
over with eight reps adding weight each week until no progress
could be made. Bill continued that Louie should move on to 10
reps and add weight each week until failure, then go back to the six
reps and repeat.
By combining both working the triceps and the extra-wide
benches, Louie’s bench increased from 340 to 450 touch-and-go at
175-pounds bodyweight.
When lifting in Cleveland, Louie asked Ed Matz and Vince
Anello about how to push his deadlift. In fact, Louie asked Vince
what made Vince’s deadlift go up. Vince answered, “Everything.”
Louie asked, “What kind of answer is that?” He later
realized that just like the Culver City boys and Bill Starr, Vince
used many things to set unreal deadlift records.
When Louie competed in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ron Buchanan
was tough to beat. Ron was also a bodybuilder and was good at
the bench. As time moved on, Louie was getting stronger and was
moving into the 1400-pound total range.
The Rise of Powerlifting
Powerlifting was overtaking Olympic weightlifting, and
it would get worse for the weightlifters when in 1972, the press
was eliminated. It made weightlifting a pure speed-strength
sport. Most power meets in the early years were combined with
bodybuilding. The lightweight powerlifters up to the 181-pound
class would compete in the morning. Then, pre-judging would take
place for bodybuilding in between the heavyweight classes. After
the heavyweights would compete, the finals for the bodybuilders
would have the spotlight.

20
 This was great for powerlifting as the crowds were huge.
Louie says that the music for the bodybuilders for posing opened
the door for music for power meets. Louie started out Olympic
lifting at 14 years old and watched Olympic lifters like Russ
Knipp and Fred Lowe and how massive they were at 165 pounds.
It was George Crawford who had the most powerful legs he had
ever seen. Louie was thinking about John Kanter, Jerry Jones, and
George as well as Freddie Lowe, a sometimes-training partner
from Detroit and an Olympic lifter.
America was still holding its own on the world stage at that
point. Russ Knipp, a powerhouse in the 165-pound and 181-pound
classes, made 34 American records and nine world records.
Louie was always reading about the top American and Russian
weightlifters. In 1970 he saw V. Alexei become the first man to
clean and jerk 501 pounds, and he did it in Columbus, Ohio. Louie
saw it firsthand. Louie also paid a lot of attention to a Russian lifter
named Jaan Talts, a 198-pound world champ and record holder. In
Columbus, Talts weighed 228 pounds. There was not a 220-pound
class then, and he competed in the 242-pound class against Bob
Bednarski, who had clean and jerked 456 pounds. Back then, there
was also not a 275-pound class, but Bednarski dropped down to
the 242-pound class to escape the great Alexei. That day Jaan Talts
beat Bob to win the 242-pound class. Bob Bednarski was the big
man for America, and when Talts beat Bob that night, it spelled the
end for weightlifting in America. Bob was just about our last hope.
The world would ask America how to train, but by 1972
after the standing press was gone for good, the Soviet Union
lifters were killing us. Louie saw a Polish 148-pounder Waldemar
Baszanowski do back raises with 220 pounds for sets of five reps.
His erectors were huge, and Louie recalls that he was still doing a
split clean.
While he would remain a fan of Olympic lifting, Louie
believed it would go downhill until it hit rock bottom. However,
powerlifting had utterly consumed his life. Although he still had no
training partners at home, Louie was working in Louisville and had
21
people in the gym to cheer him on with big weight.
1971 Junior Nationals
The Junior Nationals was in Patterson, New Jersey, in
1971, and Louie wanted to lift there, but work was always in the
way. There was no chance, no chance in hell that he was going to
make it. However, on the Friday before the meet, his boss Harold
asked if he still wanted to lift in New Jersey. Louie said yes, but
I have to work. Harold said he would fly him to Patterson if he
wanted to lift. Louie said, “Hell, yes!”
There was no gear, just knee wraps. And with a two-
hour weigh-in, no help needed, so out they go. Louie called it
an unbelievable experience. First, he saw Big Jim Williams, the
Bench King. Most people don’t know, but Jim was also the super
heavyweight record holder in the squat. John Kuc was there, too.
He looked like a movie serial killer—no expression at all. They
trained together and were quite the tag team. But on this day, both
bombed out as well as the Ohio super heavyweight Tim Hasson.
Louie was going up against his old friend Ron Buchanan
from Cincinnati and a crazy man named Joe Spack, later
affectionately known as Spack the Whack. Louie broke Tony
Fratto’s national squat record with a 565-pound squat at a
bodyweight of 172 pounds. At subtotal, it was close with Ron and
Louie, and then the deadlift started. Louie could not match Ron’s
deadlift, but thought he had second place locked up until Joe Spack
came out of nowhere with a 650-pound deadlift attempt.
Louie thought, “Who the hell was this guy?”
Anyway, here comes Joe screaming at the top of his lungs.
He gets set over the bar when his glasses fall off. He picks up
his glasses, throws them to the crowd, grasps the bar, and pulls a
650-pound deadlift to push Louie into third place. This was Louie’s
first experience with Spack the Whack.
By trade, he was an accountant and would wear a suit coat
and pants with tennis shoes. Let’s face it; in 1971, no one wore

22
tennis shoes with a suit. Here’s a true story: Joe was training in
Miami at a downtown gym. He would load the bar, go out to the
street for a while, then run screaming into the gym and pull the
weight. Then he would load more weight on the bar, go back out
on the street for a while, start screaming, run into the gym, and
pull the weight. Again, he loaded more weight and went out on
the street. After a while, Joe did not come screaming back into the
gym. His associate went outside to see where Joe was. He found
him in the back of a police car. True story, really.
Back to the meet … Louie was still thinking about Joe
pulling his way into second place.
Making Progress
During the remainder of 1971, Louie made good progress
in all three lifts. He would look at Vince Anello with his long
arms and others like Marty Joyce, an East Coast lifter making
big deadlifts; even Carlos Luper had long arms, which makes
deadlifting easy, but not so much in the bench. Louie would look in
the mirror and think he could not grow longer arms, but realized to
become competitive in the deadlift he must build his lower back to
a new level.
Louie now more than ever read the Culver City boys’
workouts plus Bill Starr’s view on the deadlift. At about that time,
Louie met Bill Seno and started to use his program. It was really
a long-term workout along with working the triceps like Larry P
said. It was time to get
serious. Louie did not like
losing even to the best.
He was doing
meditation and mental
imagery, seeing himself
making new records. But
this time, he had an inner
personality that would
take over whenever he
23
walked into the gym. From early on, Louie never walked into a
gym. His other person took full control at all times.
It was 1972, and Louie was able to train at home most of
the time. He would talk to the best lifters at the meets for advice on
their specialty lift. In his own practice, Louie was switching heavy
lifts each week and making progress.
It would ring in his mind what Larry P said, “If he did not
learn to bench, he would never win a national meet.”
And worst of all, Louie knew it was true.
In 1972 Louie made a 1540 total at 175-pounds
bodyweight. He was lifting near Dayton as he knew Larry P and
his guys would be there as well. At that meet, he would make
new lifting friends, including Dave Waddington, who would
later become the first official 1000-pound squatter. At this meet,
however, Dave totaled about 1500 pounds at super heavyweight.
The second new friend was
Paul Sutphin from West Virginia.
Paul was the first person to ask
if he could take Louie’s picture.
This was something new, but he
later would constantly break for
photos. Louie and Paul still talk
today from time to time.
The third man was
Bill Whittaker, an Ohio State
University student who was at
the meet just to watch. In 1976,
Bill would become one of the first
training partners Louie ever had.
As he finished his schooling, Bill
would also become Dr. Bill Whittaker, a veterinarian.
The fourth man, George Clark, is a black Hercules. (George
Clark is pictured with George Crawford.) The magazines would

24
describe George as having been filled with softballs. This guy had
muscles on muscles. When George came into a meet, everyone
would stop and stare at him with disbelief.
Louie had made a 1540-pound total, which ranked him
number eight in Dan DeWitt’s Powerlifting News. Louie lived to
be number one on that list. In November 1972, he would make
a 1555 total. That was the good news. The good, bad news was
George—who came out of nowhere—made a 1600 total with a
500 squat, 400 bench press, and a badass 700 deadlift. What the
hell! Louie makes a 1555 total, but no one cares as George won
outstanding lifting for the 198-pound and under. Louie knew
his work was cut out for him. The best news was that Louie and
George became good friends from that time on.
Louie had a long ride home, and, as usual, he was thinking
about what just happened. He had made a lot of progress doing a
570-pound squat, 360-pound bench, and 625-pound deadlift. “I
train hard,” he said to himself as he continued down the road in
his Road Runner. After a few more miles, he thought, “Do I train
hard?”
Reading and Thinking and
Training
George was his immediate threat, and he had to do
something about that, so he did two things. One thing he did
was more of everything he was already doing. He did more
Goodmornings, more back raises, more
dumbbells, and more triceps along with
pushing up his power cleans. Louie trained
on a bar that did not revolve, but made a
320-pound clean.
The second thing he did was
to consult with a friend who was into
metaphysics. His body was getting much
stronger, but what about his mind? Would it
allow his body to do what it was capable of?
25
The friend suggested he read Jonathan Livingston Seagull. It was a
simple book of spirituality. It was about a seagull named Jonathan.
He was not like the rest of the flock. The flock sat around the docks
waiting for the fishermen to leave dead fish to eat. They had no
purpose in life; it seemed and desired, not a thing. They took it day
by day.
But Jonathan was different, much different as it would turn
out. For some reason, he had a burning desire to fly faster than any
other seagull. Jonathan would go as high as possible, start a dive,
and then most of the time, he would crash into the sea as his wings
would come apart. He would not quit, but would think how to
make an adjustment and try it again.
The elders said, “Jonathan, if you don’t stop, we will be
forced to ban you from the flock for good.”
But Jonathan could not resist, and no matter how many
times he would fail, he would try again. One day the elders came to
him and said he was banned for life. Now an outcast, he spent all
his time breaking new records. One day he thought, “I just made a
dive at 197 mph. There must be a limit.”
About that time, he saw a bright, glowing seagull 100 feet
away. In the next instant, the same glowing seagull was standing
next to Jonathan. Jonathan was in amazement. He said, “How did
you do that?”
The old glowing seagull replied, “Perfect speed.”
“What is perfect speed?” Jonathan asked.
“Perfect speed is being there. There are no limits if you
train your mind,” said the glowing seagull.
Jonathan said, “There are no limits. If you can think it,
you can achieve it.” Back to the sky, Jonathan flew, and he began
breaking speed records regularly.
Now, Louie thought to himself, I am no different than this
mystical seagull. Why should I have limits?

26
 Louie went back to training. He would stare into his mirror
and recite the lifts he wanted to do in the next meet. The 1972
Worlds were coming up, but Louie could not go due to work, as
usual. The next competition would be the Key to the Sea event in
Toledo, Ohio. Louie would say the lifts over and over and over
until it was instilled in his mind.
The 1972 Worlds were won by Bob McKee with 1635
total in the 181 Class in November 1972. Louie’s next meet was
February 1973. At that meet, Louie had a hard time making weight.
Someone told him he had better make weight, or he would have to
lift against Ed Matz, a big deadlifter from Toledo.
Louie said, “Who gives a fuck?” But he made weight on
the last try.
At the meet, Louie made a 605 squat, a 380 bench press,
and a 670 deadlift to total 1655 pounds, 20 more than the total that
won the Worlds. He out-totaled Ed Matz in the class below. But
what was really amazing is that Louie made the very lifts he had
recited at least 1000 times. It was 100 pounds more than he made
three months before. This was the first International Powerlifting
Federation (IPF) meet after they adjusted the new rules for
international meets.
In 1973 there were no wraps—not even wrist wraps—no
power belts, just shorts or a singlet. The two-hour weigh-ins were
hard on everyone.
The year 1973 also marked Louie’s first Elite Total. As it
would turn out, this Elite Total was the first of five he earned,
ranging from the 181-pound class to the 275-pound class.
Louie was one of three lifters to do it in five weight classes with
two-hour weigh-ins.
That simple, but life-changing book played a huge role in
Louie’s entire lifting career, but not only for lifting. It changed his
outlook for business and anything with which he became engaged.

27
 Falling Down and Climbing Back Up
Louie was on top of the world in February 1973, but not
for long. While driving back home from the meet, Louie said to
himself, “My back is indestructible! As the weights went up, my
back felt like it was made of steel cables!” Boy, was he wrong.
Back home and training again, Louie was doing bend-over
Goodmornings with a top set of 435 when he felt something snap,
and he fell to the ground.
He was at the Ohio State University Horseshoe Gym.
Usually, he would go down to the YMCA. The OSU Horseshoe
Gym was under the stands and was a decent place to train
when Louie wanted to do something big, but there was also a
lot of confusion with students working out and milling around.
There were usually top athletes like pro wrestlers, Judo and Karate
practitioners, and some Olympic weightlifters at the Horseshoe
Gym, but not tonight. Louie had let himself lose concentration, and
he had hurt himself.
Some guys took Louie home to his
girlfriend, Doris, who would later become his
wife of 45 years (and counting). He could not
stand up on his own, and the guys laid him on
the floor where he would stay for three days
peeing in a coffee can.
The pain was immense. Finally, Louie
got up with crutches and went to a doctor
who said he had fractured his L5 vertebrae
and dislocated his sacrum. He went to many
doctors, but no one could help, and he would be on and off
crutches for 10 months. Neither leg could be straightened due
to sciatica, and even just hitting a bump on the road would be
incredibly painful. Every exercise he had used before, he could not
do. But he would think every day about how to get back to lifting.
He was lucky. His boss let him do deliveries and supervise small
jobs to make his rent. While trying to get well, he read a book that
28
drove him on. The book was The Call of the Wild by Jack London.
The Call of the Wild hit Louie’s soul. If this dog could
persevere from one obstacle to another, so could he. There must be
a way, but how?
One day Louie was clearing his mind. Then he thought
about the fact that when he tried to do a back raise, he would kill
his back as soon as he applied pressure with his heels. But what if
you did it in reverse?
He headed down to the basement and laid two two-by-tens
across the safety pins on the power rack. He stood on a box so he
could lie on the two-by-tens and hang his leg down behind him
while he held on to the racks upright. Then he did a back raise in
reverse. First, it did not hurt; then, it pumped up his lower back.
He could not believe it and thought, “Can this be the answer?”
Yes, it was the answer to go back to running cranes and
walking on steel again. But most important, could this get Louie
back to the lifting platform? The answer was yes.
It was now mid-1974, and it was going to be a long way
back. Louie to this day credits those two books for making it
possible to total Top 10 for 34 years and do 735-505-675 at
63-years-old at 217-pounds bodyweight: Jonathan Livingston
Seagull, which made him realize anything was possible, and Jack
London’s The Call of the Wild, which taught him to overcome
anything. He has read each of the two books 100 plus times.
Louie believes an author’s goal is to have the reader become the
character, and he has developed the ability to do just that. Many
people have a full library but an empty mind. They are always
trying to figure someone out when they genuinely need to figure
out their own self.
Louie had no one to encourage him; just that mirror and
his inner self that repeated the same thing, “When will I be back?
When will I be back? When will I be back?”

29
 Meanwhile, Louie would notice that many top lifters would
disappear for long periods. Now he knew why. If you were strong,
you would get injuries.
Making Good Use of Recovery Time
While Louie was making a recovery, he would talk to top
lifters around the country. Louie remembers Ricky Crain, a super-
strong 148- and 165-pounder, would call and tell Louie I did this,
and I did that in training, but only this at the meet. What happened?
Louie responded, “Ricky, when you figure it out, call me.”
The same things were happening to Louie and other lifters.
Dave Waddington, the first official 1000-pound squatter from
Sandusky, Ohio, asked the same thing while eating KFC at Louie’s
house. It would be almost a decade before Louie would find a
better way—the Soviet approach, but more on that later.
What a year 1974 was! Mostly recovery, and oh yeah, he
married Doris, his girlfriend of two years. She knew lifting was
first in Louie’s priorities, but nevertheless, they would bond for
life. In fact, she would leave her mark in the iron game as well.
The world of Powerlifting was going strong. Don Blue,
a sometimes inmate, would break more world record deadlifts.
But most surprising, Don was stabbed in the lung and the eye just

30
before the Worlds, but he won anyway. Don was a tough
motherfucker. There were lots of lifters in the early 1970s.
Michigan had two lifting monsters with Fred Tallings at
165-pounds bodyweight and Claude Hampshire at 132- and
148-pounds. Fred was doing 700 pounds in the squat and deadlift.
From Canton, Ohio, was Jim Finch, a no-fat-at-all 148-pounder
with a pair of 640s.
The Wild Bunch from West Virginia had Chucky Dunbar
(pictured above on the bench). He was a great squatter and bench
presser, but sported a weak deadlift. At 114 pounds, a new little
man from California, Joe Cunha, was the latest man to beat. At
the Worlds in Dayton, Ohio, Chucky out of nowhere pulled the
deadlift needed to win.
Louie recalls when a friend from Michigan called him
about a 13-year-old kid who could deadlift 500 pounds. Louie
thought, “No way, Jose.” This mystery kid would turn out to be
the incomparable Lamar Gant. He was turned away from the first
IPF Worlds for being too young, but after becoming 14 years old,
he began a streak that may never be broken. He eventually won 16
world championships in a row.
It was in Dayton, Ohio, that Louie saw something he will
never forget. Great Britain’s Precious McKenzie came to challenge
young Mr. Gant. Precious pulled 556 pounds with a double
overhand hook grip to equal the 123-pound deadlift record and
win the Worlds. Lamar had to pull 617 pounds to beat Precious.
There was no way in Hell Lamar could break the world record
by 62 pounds. But no one told Lamar that as it came off the floor
slowly, but picked up speed until he locked it out for the win. It
was the first and last time any powerlifter got a standing ovation.
What seemed impossible was possible to the great Lamar Gant.
He would later pull 683 pounds at 132-pounds bodyweight.
There was another Japanese invasion— Hideaki Inaba,
a powerhouse 114-pounder who was unbeatable for some time.
His hamstrings were unbelievable, and he could pull in a very

31
close frog-style sumo over 520 pounds.
America had Ricky Crain at 165 pounds pulling 716
pounds. He became the first 165-pounder to squat 800 pounds in
the birthplace of lifting, York, Pennsylvania. These were the golden
years for the lightest classes.
Slowly America was becoming fatter and fatter. This would
go for the women as well. Louie tells of how he would go
downtown to pick up his wife Doris, and he would look for hot
girls walking down the street or getting in or out of cars to check
out a leg shot. But as time went by, there was less and less to look
at. Olympic lifting was dying, and bodybuilding and powerlifting
were growing by leaps and bounds.

32
 Chapter 3
Mid-to late-70s

Larry P was winning more world championships. The Culver

City guys were gone. Ron Collins of Great Britain was unbeatable
at 181 pounds. Because Larry P and Ron were in different weight
classes, there was always talk about a “catch weight” match between
them, but it never materialized. Louie was getting better, but very
slowly. He had been on crutches for most of ten months, but now he
could see a come-back sooner or later.
The Magnificent Seven
Tom Paulucci
It was around 1975, and Louie was training at the OSU
weight room with a new lifter, Tom Paulucci. Tom was from New
York and had just moved to Columbus to go to Ohio State University
(OSU) and train with Louie. Tom had found out about Louie from
Powerlifting USA magazine and a small hotline that came out every
two weeks. Tom was an all-round athlete doing Track and Field
and Powerlifting, but besides that, he was smart— one of the most
intelligent men Louie had ever met. Over time Tom would receive
his first doctorate in Psychology and then one in Law and became a
practicing attorney. Later, he would help represent Louie in a federal
lawsuit over one of Louie’s patents.
Tom also became Westside’s first 800-pound deadlifter.
He could do all the lifts: strong doing a 525x3 bench, 475-pound
incline along with that 800-pound deadlift, and a 405x3 power clean.

33
 [Lifters from left: Gary Sanger, Tom Paulucci, Louie
Simmons, and in street clothes beside Louie, Bill Whittaker.]
When Tom first came to college, he planned to stay with
Louie until he got an apartment. Tom threw 10 bags of clothes
and books on Louie’s steps to the second floor and went home for
the weekend, but he didn’t come back for eight weeks—no phone
calls, no nothing. Louie’s wife was ready to kill both of them, but
Tom eventually returned, started to train, and returned to classes at
OSU.
Later in life, Tom would develop serious health problems
and lose a kidney, but not before marrying and having two sons,
Ethan and Joey. Unfortunately, Tom died too early, leaving his wife
Candy, also a psychologist, and the boys. In 2020 Ethan still trains
at Westside. There is a picture on Westside’s Wall of Honor of Tom
doing the first 800-pound deadlift. Tom was one of a kind, and
Louie will never forget him.
The year 1975 marked the first time Louie had training
partners. It was ironic that Louie, who barely graduated from high
34
school, would end up in charge of five college students. Three
would receive doctorates and one a master’s degree. The five were
each from very different backgrounds.
Jimmy Seitzer
While Louie was training at OSU, a guy who looked like
Donny Osmond started a conversation with him. Jimmy Seitzer
was about 150 pounds and was trying to become a bodybuilder.
He wanted to know how Louie got so dense. Louie said it was by
powerlifting using heavy weights and lots of single-joint training
to almost total failure.

Jimmy was a gymnast at OSU, but injuries caused him

to retire his sophomore year. Now he wanted to get big for
bodybuilding. Louie did not like bodybuilding, but as a personal
challenge, Louie let Jimmy join him in the basement. Louie had
gone from 170 pounds to 180 pounds trying not to gain weight, so
he knew it would be easy to put some muscle on this chump.
35
 Jimmy showed up on time at Louie’s house at 590 Larcomb
Avenue, the same house Louie sold to Matt Wenning years later.
The first workout was a box squat workout, and Jimmy worked up
to a massive 275 pounds and then did many sets of Goodmornings
and back raises, reverse hypers on the power rack, some abs.
Finally, it was time for Jimmy to stagger up the basement steps.
Louie thought to himself, “He will never come back.”
But he did.
The stronger Jimmy got the better bodybuilder he became.
For 10 years, Jimmy would train with Lou, first from the basement,
then to the Garage Gym.
He won Mr. OSU when he could squat 500 pounds. When he
won Mr. Ohio, his squat was 600 pounds. He became Mr. USA and
was squatting 700 pounds. There was a correlation between his squat
and becoming a high-level bodybuilder.
At Westside, Jimmy would do belt squats, back raises,
reverse hypers with a strap in the power rack … all the basics.
Then, Jimmy went to local gyms in Columbus like
Powerhouse, Gold’s, and World’s Gym. World’s Gym was owned by
Mr. Lorimer, the man who put on the 1970 World Olympic Lifting
Championship. He still has the 501-pound barbell V. Alexis lifted.
It was the first 500-pound plus clean and jerk ever. America’s Ken
Patera had tried many times, but failed. In 1975 Mr. Lorimer would
also team up with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who may be the greatest
bodybuilder of our time, to start the Arnold Classic.
When Jimmy was at the local gyms, he would do
conventional bodybuilding exercises for shaping the muscles.
Each gym had a slightly different exercise machine that would hit
the muscle from a different angle, which made it possible for Jimmy
to also place fifth and third in the Mr. America contest.
Jimmy would finally get sick of bodybuilding and do
powerlifting. He made Elite totals in both the 198-pound and
220-pound classes.
36
 Jimmy was Jimmy and at a Power Meet in Bowling Green,
Ohio, he was wearing a Spanjan Power Suit—they weren’t much,
but it was the best suit you could buy. Larry P sold them. Larry
came up to Jimmy and said, “Where did you get that suit?”
Jimmy said, “I bought it from some faggot.”
Louie shared later that he thought Jimmy was dead, but
Larry laughed it off, so Jimmy lived another day.
A little D-Bal would drive Jimmy off the wall saying and
doing some crazy things. He may be the only person to Total Elite
in two weight classes and beat Lee Haney in bodybuilding. To the
present day, Jimmy and Louie are very close, and will be until
death.
Bill Whittaker
Bill Whittaker would become one of the early seven.
Bill was in veterinarian school at OSU and had seen Louie lift in
Dayton, Ohio, in 1972. After completing four years of college, two
years of biochemistry, and five more years of study, Bill became a
vet. During these years, Bill moved right behind Louie and lived
there for five years. When Louie would leave for work at 5 am, he
could see Bill studying. Late at night after 11 pm, Bill would still
be studying. And in between those times, he had classes. But he—
like everyone else—never missed a workout.
Bill had very thin hair, which, of course, everyone made
jokes about. He also looked like he had never seen the sun.
And, at 160-pounds body weight, he was much stronger than he
looked. He guest lifted at a Mr. OSU competition, and Arnold
Schwarzenegger was on hand to pass out the trophies. Arnold
watched as Bill pulled 620 pounds for two reps. Arnold then said
he could not believe anyone who looked like that could be so
strong. To this day we don’t know if it was an insult or praise from
the Mr. Olympia.

37
 Bill could never bench press very well. When Bill was
leaving the gym, Tim Gallagher said to Bill, “Call me when you
Bench 400 pounds.” Poor Bill. His bench was around 340 pounds.
We had a good laugh.
Powerlifting full-time and being a full-time student was
a juggling act, to say the least. But Bill lifted at the 1980 YMCA
Nationals and won the 165-pound class and Total Elite. There were
only a few men who could make an Elite total, and that was the
Senior National qualifier.
Louie said, “Bill, why don’t you go to the Nationals? You
made the qualifying total.”
Bill replied, “What’s that total going to do at the
Nationals?”
Bill was honest with himself. Bill finally became a vet,
moved to northwest Pennsylvania, and started a successful practice
that he runs even today in 2020. It’s funny, but Louie feels as close
to the First Seven as if they still trained together in that garage at
590 Larcomb.
Tim Gallagher
Next up was Tim Gallagher. Tim was studying chemistry
at OSU when he started training with the guys. Because of all the
triceps extensions he did, plus benching with a very close grip,
he had huge triceps. Tim made a 435-pound bench at 181-pounds
bodyweight and made the Top 10 List. He could not crack the Top
10 in the other lifts.
Tim told Louie it was easy for him because Louie had made
Top 10 lifts since 1971. Louie told him to wait until he got there.
“Then you have to run 120 miles per hour all the time,”
Louie said. “It’s not as easy as you think.”
Tim was a good training partner. Like the others, Tim had
good advice on training, especially the bench. The triceps around his
elbows were huge by doing heavy EZ curl triceps extensions along
with dumbbell rollbacks and Williams’ elbows-out extensions.
38
 Speaking of Jim Williams, Tim would use a Jim Williams’
workout for the bench. Williams had a 675-pound bench press in
1972. At that time, only six men had done 600 pounds or more.
Jim’s workout was nothing short of amazing: 315x10, 405x5,
475x5, 550x3, 600x2, 625x1 done five times a week before a
contest for a month. Tim did the math and used the same percents
to make his 435-pound bench.
For some reason, he was not good at test-taking at school
or at power meets. He tried to pass the Ph.D. entrance exam three
or four times but failed to gain access to the program. But upon
graduation, Tim had secured a job as a chemist in his home state of
New Jersey. He left with his wife and began a new life. A few years
later, his company wanted him to receive his doctorate. Tim came
back to college and stayed at Louie’s house while he retook the
exam, and just as before, he failed. Louie remembers Tim drinking a
six-pack before boarding the plane to New Jersey. Louie believes he
never did get that PhD, and hopes he and his wife are happy.
Gary Sanger

Gary was doing his graduate work at OSU after earning his
bachelor degree at Purdue University. Jimmy Seitzer saw Gary train
at the stadium gym and thought he would be a perfect fit for the
group.
39
 Always upfront, Louie said, “Motherfucker, he better be.
If he can’t make it, you will have to tell him to go.”
Gary showed up to train, and Louie could tell he definitely
had the body at about five foot five inches. He was jacked at 180
pounds. Louie soon found that Gary was very knowledgeable
about training and understood the box squats and the rack pulls and
the rest of the system. Gary had a strong bench press and squat, but
his deadlift was sub-par. His best was 560 pounds, but anything
heavy would stop at the knees in his perfect sumo form.
Louie put Gary in the power rack and set the pins at knee
level only to find he could lockout 900 pounds. This was not the
answer, but what was? Louie knew the bar would slow down going
up to knee level. Gary lacked speed, so Louie had Gary stand
on a two-inch and four-inch box to build a stronger, faster start.
It worked. Gary pulled a 620-pound deadlift at the next meet to
join Louie as the club’s second Elite status lifter.
Gary became a tremendous asset not only as a lifter, but
also developing new training methods and special exercises.
He became a full professor at OSU while also becoming a top
lifter in both the 181-pound and 198-pound classes.
In the Bob Moon Memorial Powerlifting Championship
in Findlay, Ohio, Gary was lifting at 198 pounds. He made a
785-pound squat, a new world record, but it was turned down two
to one. This was a very emotional moment for Louie. Even though
the lift was turned down, it was the first attempted world record
out of their garage gym. Louie recalls having to hold back his
emotions.
After that, Louie was lifting in the 198-pound class and told
Gary he would lift against him two times before moving up to the
220-pound class. Louie was ranked 4th and 5th for two years and
beat Gary twice with his deadlift.
Louie told Gary, “Now, you can lift against Roger Estep at
the Nitro West Virginia YMCA National.”

40
 The Garage at 590 Larcomb Avenue won the team title.
Louie was on and made the third-best all-time total, and Gary
was second to the jacked-up Roger Estep. Gary was ranked the
number one 198-pounder in the world in 1984. He did not receive
tenure that year, so he left for Louisiana State University, where
he became head of the Economics Department. Gary retired from
Powerlifting and pursued his long-time hobby of biking long
distances; he biked to keep his weight down during the time he
trained with Louie. Louie can remember Gary and his wife Pauline
staying after working out to talk about how to improve someone’s
lifts.
Louie realizes that today lifters do not do the basics—like
dumbbell pressing, pushups, and heavy sled pulls—but instead
are always looking for a new bench shirt or squat suit. It was more
than 10 years—1966 to 1976—before Louie got his first squat
suit and almost 20 years before the first bench shirt in 1985. John
Inzer sold a bench shirt called a Blast Shirt that might give you
10 pounds. But if your competitor wore one, so did you. It left all
kinds of marks on a person.
Jimmy Seitzer still talks to Gary today (2019), and it is
good to know Gary is still going strong.
Doug Heath
Then there was Doug Heath. Louie saw Doug at OSU
benching 205 pounds for 10 reps when Doug was about 115
pounds. Louie knew he was small, but really strong. What Louie
did not realize was that
Doug was 100 percent
fucking crazy. The
stronger he got, the more
insane he became. Doug
worked for the OSU
Maintenance Department.
After clocking in, Doug
would drive to the west

41
side of Columbus and stay at Louie’s house most of the day and
then go back and clock back out.
Doug was about 120 pounds and squatted 500 pounds in
the gym, but sometimes his emotions got the best of him. He was
really strong when he weighed from 114 pounds to 148 pounds.
He also was very determined. One workout, he was trying
a new personal best (PR) on the box squat with about 470 pounds.
Louie’s wife Doris came out to the garage and said it was time to
eat. Louie said one more squat, and they would be in. Well, Doug
missed it and then dumped it over his head. He said he wanted to
try it again. So, they unloaded the bar then reloaded it to the 470
pounds. He tried it again with the same result. This was repeated
seven times until he made it.
Doug had guts, and that’s what Louie liked about Doug.
Doug was not normal, but normal people will only give you
normal results. Doug said what Louie had told him came true.
He broke his first world record, but not the last, in 1990 with 400
pounds.
Doug won the worlds seven times, all over the world,
traveling with Louie’s wife, Doris. Louie will never forget the time
Doug made his first world record at Columbus State University.
Doug came over to Louie and asked, “What’s wrong with my
bench?”
Louie looked seriously at Doug and said, “Doug, you are
not being Doug. You have to get crazy.”
Doug said, “You’re right.”
Louie and Doug happened to be off by themselves having
this conversation. They were standing next to a bunch of folding
chairs. When Doug acknowledged Louie’s rightness, he proceeded
to knock over about 50 chairs, which made a huge crashing and
clanging noise. Doug ran off, leaving Louie all alone as the crowd
turned to stare. In the meantime, Doug ran to the contest bench,
yelling all the way and made his first world record. Afterward,

42
Doug brought a jacket to the garage that read “Dynamos,” which
became their team name.
In the Beginning
With almost 50 years of Westside history, the stories are too
numerous to tell them all, but some of Louie’s Doug stories are too
good to not tell and provide a good start for storytelling.
Louie walked into the 1979 Senior Nationals as Doug was
taking his last deadlift. Louie started yelling at Doug to make the
lift. After putting it down, Doug got on one knee and looked like
he was praying to the lifting Gods. Everyone stopped looking at
Doug and started looking at Louie, who by now was trying to hide.
Doug made Top 10 in two weight classes and won seven
world championships. At one, YMCA National Doug had to pull a
big deadlift to win.
Doug’s Dad was in the front row and asked, “Can Doug
make the lift to win his class?”
Louie said, “Hell, yes.”
Then, Louie walked up to Doug as he was chalking up.
Louie told Doug he had to make that lift after he had just told
Doug’s Dad he could. Doug looked at Louie, let out a yell, and
threw two hands full of chalk into Louie’s face. He then ran onto
the platform and made the deadlift for the win.
Louie still sees Doug at local meets. Doug will talk to Dave
Hoff, Westside’s greatest lifter nowadays. It is truly remarkable to
see a 1975 superstar talking to the current Westside star with no
generational gap between them, both trying to make Westside the
most significant gym of all time. Long live Doug Heath.
Nitro
The last of the magnificent seven was Louie’s first
American Pit Bull Terrier, Nitro. Nitro, a dark brindle, joined the
group when in 1976, Louie saw an ad in the paper asking someone
to provide a good home to a pit bull of 10 months old. Louie had
43
just married his true love, Doris, and they wanted a dog to keep
their Norwegian elkhound, Nikki, company while they were both
working.
They decided he was the right dog. When they put him in
the car, he looked mean as Hell, but after getting him home, he was
very friendly to everyone and everything. One day a baby kitten
found its way into their yard, where Nitro was sleeping. It came
up to Nitro and started to nurse off his tit. Nitro woke up, looked at
the kitten, and went back to sleep. That was Nitro—bad look; good
deeds.
He would always be in the gym while the crew worked out,
no matter how noisy it became. The guys would wrap Nitro up in
knee wraps and give him donuts all the time; he was a big part of
the club. It would turn out he would become the Westside’s biggest
star. He went from his likeness first being the logo for Westside
Barbell to then being on literally thousands and thousands of shirts,
coats, shorts, caps, key chains, and anything else you can think of.
After Nitro being a part of their lives for 13 years, one
day, Louie looked into the garage door from the backyard and saw
Nitro lying upside down in the gym. Louie went in to mess with
him, but Nitro was in that position because he had apparently died
of a heart attack. Louie had just lost his best friend. Nitro meant so
much to the guys that he knew it would be hard on everyone. Louie
also knew that Nitro was gone, but not forgotten. And to Louie’s
word, Nitro has never been forgotten. As those connected to Louie
wear Westside gear into the gym, each person is taking Nitro in
with them.
1977 Nationals, Lincoln,
Nebraska
Louie was on a magic carpet ride with his low back healed
and new training partners. Now he could begin the work to prove
his training method of switching a max effort (M-E) special
exercise each week is the best way to reach the top in the strength
game. At this point, the Westside System was in its first stage
44
of development, and everyone was contributing to a structured
method for overcoming plateaus. The entire gym was growing
stronger and stronger.
In 1977 Louie was going up to 198-pounds bodyweight
for one time then going back down to 181. He decides to go to the
Nationals in Lincoln, Nebraska. This turned out to be a meet Louie
would never forget.
There were always new lifters coming out of the woods, but
two really caught his eye. After flying into Lincoln, Doug Heath
and Louie took a cab to the hotel.
On the way, Louie said, “Where the hell are all the
people?”
He had an odd feeling that the world had ended, and when
they arrived at the hotel, zombies would run out and kill them and
eat their brains. But that was stupid; their combined brain mass
would not fill up a fly!
“Oh,” said the cab driver, “They are at the beach.”
Louie thought about this and said, “That must be some
fuckin’ beach.”
But, back to the meet … It was IPF sanctioned and it took
Louie forever to get his gear inspected, even though his gear
consisted of nothing more than a singlet, piss-poor wraps, and a
then-new four-inch power belt.
Somehow Louie came in a half-pound overweight. On top
of that, his belt was one-fourth inch too wide. They gave him a
knife to cut it down to legal width. By the time Louie had cut it
down, he had made weight.
He was talking to Perry and Mable Rader, who wrote Iron
Man magazine, a kind of art publication at the time, and then was
looking at the Iron Man display.
A kid comes up and says, “Hey, you’re Louie Simmons.”
(It was not hard to find Louie with his big mustache and a shaved
head.)
45
 Louie says, “Yeah.”
The kid says, “My name is Mike Bridges, and I am going to
break the world record bench today.”
“Great,” says Louie, but he’s thinking, “Who the hell is this
kid?”
Mike was wearing a jacket with patches all over it. Louie
did not know it, but this kid would become one of the four
horsemen of Powerlifting.
Louie recalls Mike breaking the 148-pound World Bench
Record that weekend, but that was just the start. Mike would
assault the world record in the bench, squat, and totals. There was
no limit.
Mike was training at Larry P’s in Dayton. Wearing a squat
suit may have given him up to 20 pounds in the squat, but there
were no bench shirts back then and no deadlift bars either. After
blowing up the 148-pound class, he moved on to the 165-pound
class and later on to the 181-pound class. He first broke the
148-pound class bench record when he was 16 years old and
benched 367 pounds at 148-pounds bodyweight. At 181-pounds
bodyweight, Mike made an 843-pound squat, a 529-pound bench,
and a 771-pound deadlift. Louie saw all of Mike’s big lifts at
meets.
Mike would talk to Louie a lot. Many said Mike was from
a different planet, but Louie had no problem understanding what he
was talking about. He was the first to tell Louie to push your feet
apart and then down to produce greater force. And, when benching,
he told him that he should push the bar toward the feet like decline
pressing. He said after you can decline more, then you can incline.
Jim Williams used the same method.
Mike would go on to win seven IPF World Championships
and break 54 world records before leaving powerlifting due to
illness. As this tale is written, remember that Louie saw them all,
and he truly believes Mike stands head and shoulders above all

46
others below 198 pounds. Louie has said people can lose books
and friends, but one can never forget memories.
Back to the 1977 Nationals in Lincoln, Nebraska: At the
rules meeting, they said if you jump out from under the squat bar,
you are out of the meet. Now remember, Louie has Crazy Doug
with him. On Doug’s first attempt—you guessed it—Doug dropped
the bar off his back and was kicked out of the meet. Doug said,
“No Way!” and started a scene. This was Doug’s way. But this
time, it did not work, so he takes his knee wraps off and throws
them into the crowd and runs off. One problem: these were the
only wraps they had with them, and now Louie has to go into the
crowd to get them.
In those days, knee wraps gave a lifter a lot more than the
squat suit the wraps would later become: a new story on the second
day when Louie lifted.
The second day, Louie was lifting against a rival named
Dr. Steve Miller along with the rest of the field. It was a battle for
second, but Louie was in reasonable control as he was very good in
the squat. Doug was to tell Louie when he would be up for his third
attempt. In those days, meets didn’t have the round system—the
weights just kept going up. But Louie is standing in the back when
he hears his name called, and he has 40 seconds to get to the bar.
“What the Hell! Where was Doug?” Louie thought.
(He would later learn that Doug was listening to Jimmy Connors
and John McEnroe play tennis.) Well, Louie ran out with no wraps
and no one to tighten his belt, and he was called out of time.
Those wraps became a second story—a horror story as it
would turn out for Louie. To make things worse, Keith Boyer won
second because of having taken the wrong deadlift weight. Louie
was pissed.
Also, at the meet was the immortal Dr. Fred Hatfield,
later to become known as Dr. Squat. He would become very
inspirational as Louie started looking for a more scientific
approach to power. Ironically, Fred would write a book with the
47
same name, but Louie’s first impression was that Dr. Squat was a
nutcase.
On his first squat attempt, Fred jumped out from under the
bar, just like Doug had done. The refs said he was out, but Fred
had hurt his hamstring, and he tried to stay in the meet, but rules
are rules, and they said no way, Jose. Get lost.
Fred’s technique was to dive-bomb the squat, and
everyone—including people like Dr. Ken Leistner—said it made
no sense to go down fast, but then, why was Dr. Squat so strong?
We know now that Fred was developing a strong stretch reflex.
This was thinking far in advance of the 1970s thinking, but it is
common knowledge today thanks primarily to the contributions of
Louie for bringing special strength training to the present.
Fred advised Louie to buy an isokinetic power rack, then
an electric stimulation machine, which Louie found made a huge
difference in strength performance and recovery.
The next time Louie saw Dr. Squat, it was in Canada at the
North America Championship. Fred was sitting on the bus that was
taking the lifters to weigh-in. Louie recalls that Fred was as red as
a beet. It was really unusual for a person to be that red. But what
happened at the weigh-in was ever more bizarre. Fred weighed in
at the 181-pound limit and laid his gear on the table. There was the
standard squat suit that gave a lifter 25 or 30 pounds, his power
belt, and his knee wraps. This was in the 70s as well, and common
knee wraps were next to nothing in thickness and no longer than
one and one-half meters. Fred’s wraps, however, are rolled and
thick.
The ref says, “You can’t wear these.”
Fred says, “Why not?”
Fred had sewed the waistbands of jockstraps together, which
made them at least twice the diameter of a standard pair of wraps.
After measuring the length, the ref found that they were IPF legal.
Fred was always working on the boundaries of legal
48
powerlifting through science. Dr. Squat would have an illustrious
career winning two IPF World Titles in 1983 and 1986. His best
lifts were a 1,014-pound squat at 256-pounds bodyweight, a
523-pound bench, and a 766-pound deadlift.

49
 Chapter 4
Practicing the Way of the
Samurai

Louie continued his practice of talking on the phone with

the top lifters in the country to discuss training. He was always
interested in Rickey Dale Crain, primarily because Rickey was still
making steady progress in all three lifts.
Rickey Dale Crain
The squat and the deadlift were Rickey’s forte, and he
broke national, international, and world records. Louie recalls
Rickey breaking the 800-pound
barrier at 165-pounds bodyweight
late in his career.
But as much as his numbers,
his platform antics were well worth
the price of admission. Rickey would
come out to the platform, saying,
“hello, hello, hello.” To whom? No
one knew. But this was Rickey. He
could separate his normal self to be
a super being. This is truly the key to
achieving greatness in any endeavor,
no matter what that undertaking is.
In the beginning, Rickey
would lift weights to become
50
stronger and faster for football and track. Like Louie, Rickey
began Olympic weightlifting at 10 years old. But, at 16 years old,
Rickey would lift in his first power meet, making a 400-pound
squat in the 132-pound class. That was placing second regardless
of age, and this was his first step to the path of greatness.
Someone is always responsible for influencing a young man
or woman to start down a path that will mark their existence on
Planet Earth. For Rickey, that person was his dad, Don Crain. Don
was working out at the local YMCA, so it was natural for Rickey
to follow in his dad’s footsteps. Because Don was organizing
local power meets, Rickey would come in contact with some
of the greatest such as Wilbur Miller, a big deadlifter, and Mike
MacDonald, the famous bench presser. Mike would sometimes
break the world record on his opener and then on a fourth attempt.
Mike also broke world records in four weight classes. He started as
a full powerlifter, making an IPF Elite Total before specializing in
the bench. Mike broke 36 official world records and five unofficial
records.
Then there was a very colorful Powerlifter named Jerry
Jones who would wear a yellow wig and a Mr. America lifting
suit. His legs were amazing, and his upper back was jacked as
well. (Louie asked Jerry how he got all those muscles, and Jerry
said they didn’t help in the bench.) But these were the type of men
Rickey had around to which he could compare himself.
Rickey told Louie that the 1980 Worlds was a highlight of
his career. He pulled an IPF world record deadlift to win, while
beating two former IPF World Champs along the way. Things like
this a person doesn’t forget.
Today Rickey climbs mountains and runs Crain’s Muscle
World that carries all of one’s lifting needs. Rickey is still going
strong as of 2019.
Louie’s First 700-Pound Deadlift
A lot was going on in the garage from 1978 to 1980. Gary
Sanger was going back and forth between Purdue and OSU.
51
Louie missed Gary when he was at Purdue finishing up on his
undergrad work in Economics, especially since Gary had a lot of
input into their training. But Louie and the guys were going strong.
Louie’s back was in excellent shape, and he was going for his first
700-pound deadlift in Sandusky, Ohio.
This was one of the two challenge meets Louie had
promised Gary when Louie had first started thinking about moving
from the 198-pound class up to the 220-pound class.
At the meet, Louie was set to pull his first 700-pound
deadlift when Tony Fratto was turned down with a 635-pound
deadlift. Tony came back into the warm-up room and deadlifted
500 pounds for 10 reps. Following each rep, Tony would throw
down the bar as he was calling the refs every profane word he
could think of.
Louie paid no attention to the commotion and kept waiting
for his turn.
Next up was Jack Sideris, a super-strong 220-pounder.
Jack was to become the Local Teamsters President in Cleveland
and was a tough mother fucker. The refs turned down Jack’s
675-pound deadlift just like they turned down Tony’s. But Jack’s
reaction upon seeing red lights was more severe. He walked up to
all three refs one at a time and said, “Fuck you, mother fucker.”
After calling the third ref a mother fucker, he slammed his power
belt into the brand-new gym floor and tore a hole in the hardwood.
This action later got powerlifters banned for life plus 10 years from
ever setting foot in the Sandusky YMCA.
The place was crazy, but Louie continued rocking back and
forth in his very calm state.
Now it was time for Louie to lift, except it was delayed.
Steve Wilson’s baby girl started to choke. They stopped the meet.
The medics had to clear her throat so she could breathe again. Once
she was ok, twenty minutes had gone by. Then the competition
resumed, and Louie walked to the platform and pulled his first
700-pound deadlift. Nothing else seemed to matter to Louie.
52
 Later, Louie was thinking back to last year’s Nebraska meet
when Jack bombed out in the squat. Jack was still going crazy at
1:30 in the morning. He walked in front of the hotel in his cowboy
boots and his underwear. No one said a word.
It should be noted that later in life, Tony and his brother
were deported to Italy for illegal activity concerning women and
starting fires. Still, Louie was good friends with Tony for years,
even after breaking Tony’s Jr. National Squat Record.
The next day when Jack, Louie and John Florio, who
Louie first met in 1972, were getting ready to board the plane back
to Ohio, an airport security officer walked up to them and said,
“If you have any guns on you, you had better get rid of them now.”
Florio looked him in the eye and put his fists in his face and
said, “We don’t need guns, we got these.”
Louie’s first thought was, “We are going to jail.”
The guard said nothing, however, and backed off as they
boarded the plane.
The Way of the Samurai
At this point in Louie’s life, he was staying on the path of
the Samurai. This means his focus was trying to become stronger
or more powerful or making someone else stronger or more
powerful. Louie had learned that total clarity and direction comes
through meditation.
Louie was married to Doris with a new house; both had
good jobs, and life was good. He knew it was the ego that blinded
one to all things. His lifting was going well, but it was hard to
train for the Nationals due to working out of town. He was ranked
fourth and fifth in the total as well as being around fifth in the squat
and deadlift.
The Bob Moon Memorial
The Bob Moon Memorial was held in the Findlay,
Ohio, YMCA. It was a “must-do” meet. In the early 1970s, the
53
Chattanooga Open in Tennessee was the “must do.” Then, it was
The Key to the Sea in Toledo, Ohio, and that’s where Louie made
his first of five Elite totals in five weight classes. But now, in the
late 70s, the Bob Moon Memorial was where every high-level
lifter wanted to lift.
Larry P would talk a lot of guys into lifting—like all
the Ohio greats, but also lightweights like the jacked-up Clyde
Wright from Baltimore and super heavyweights (SHW) like Don
Reinhardt, the SHW Kingpin. While waiting for the meet to start,
Louie watched Don, 6’3” and 363 pounds, dunk a basketball.
Bob Fortenbaugh, who coached at Black’s Heath World,
brought a 16-year-old chubby kid to the meet and told Louie,
“This kid is going to be something someday.”
At the meet, Louie pulled 710 pounds at 195-pounds
bodyweight, but that kid pulled 670 pounds at 198-pounds
bodyweight.
“Yes,” Louie thought, “He is going to be great.”
The next year when the Bob Moon was coming up, Louie
had hurt his back and could not train for about two and a half weeks.
But he had been looking forward to lifting, and to Gary was bringing
him a new power belt. All the other guys in the garage were lifting.
At the last minute, Louie said there was no way he could not lift. His
concession was that he would not try to make weight.
Louie came in at 200 pounds and made an 1860 total,
25 pounds more than his 198-pound bodyweight total. That total
meant he was number nine on the Top 10 list for the 220 class.
Two weeks later, Louie lifted again and made an 1890 total at
202-pounds bodyweight. This was sixth on the 220 Top 10 list.
This put him ahead of Bud Ravenscroft from California. And he
was only 40 pounds off the 198-pound total record held by Larry P.
Louie was going to the 220-pound class for good.
No one said, “Hey, you moron. You are only 40 pounds off
the World Total at 198 pounds. Don’t go up now.”
54
 But he did—not because it was hard to make weight,
but because of the easy totals. The 198-pound class was full just
looking at Ohio, not even considering the world.
Vince Anello
Vince Anello was one of those 198-pound Ohio lifters.
He could out-deadlift all 198s, but before Vince pulled 750 pounds,
he had this experience: First, to appreciate the story, you have to
know that back in the 70s, a pro and an amateur could not compete
on the same stage. It was at a professional bodybuilding contest
in Cleveland. Franco Columbo, a powerhouse who would later
win the Olympics in 1976-1981, was participating. He was best
known for his deadlift, and he called himself the World’s Strongest
Deadlifter. Franco did some guest posing, and then he deadlifted
650 pounds for two reps. Vince was standing backstage as Franco
pulled the weight. After that, they pushed backstage where Vince
pulled the same 650 pounds for 10 reps.
Vince said
later that he spent
two days in bed
after that.
Louie had
met Vince in 1966
during Louie’s
first powerlifting
meet, and he
remembered
Vince’s powerful
build. On this day, Louie weighed-in right behind Vince and saw
that Vince was as wide as he was tall. Vince was the world record
holder at 750 pounds at 181 pounds bodyweight. Louie and Vince
did not usually compete against each other, but on this day, Vince
was lifting at 198 pounds.
Louie was having a good day and was ahead for Light-
Weight Best Lifter. Vince was sitting next to Louie when Vince’s
55
handlers came up to him and said that Simmons was going to
win Best Lifter. Vince had to pull 780 pounds to win Outstanding
Lifter. The world record was 760 pounds by Ed Matz Jr. from
Toledo, Ohio.
Vince said, “Ok. Give me the 780 pounds for the win.”
Hearing this, Louie thought, “Could he really pull a world
record without any preparation as he had shut it down with his
opener 700 pounds?”
The answer was yes. It was hard, but Vince pulled it to
beat Louie out for Best Lifter. Louie saw firsthand the greatest
deadlifter on the planet. Vince, like many young men, was amazed
by Bob Peoples, who in 1949 was the first man to deadlift 700
pounds with a body weight less than 200 pounds. Vince would
later pull 821 pounds while still in the 198-pound class.
Vince Lubowicki owned the gym where Vince trained.
Lubowicki was a big supporter of Vince and taught Vince to build
a balanced body to be strong and to reduce injuries. Louie once
met Lubowicki at a meet in Cleveland and said he was a mean
mother fucker—he thought lots of old men were back in the 1970s.
Vince was one of the greatest lifters in the Golden Age of
Powerlifting along with Larry P, Ernie Frantz, and many others.
Vince was not only physically strong, but he also was a mentally
strong lifter. Herb Glossbrenner wrote about Don Cundy pulling
the first 800-pound deadlift and said no one under 200 pounds
could ever pull an 800-pound deadlift. Vince took it as a personal
challenge. The rest is powerlifting history.
Louie once asked Vince, “What makes your deadlift go up?”
Vince’s reply? “Everything makes my deadlift go up.”

56
 Roger Estep
Roger Estep was
unreal at 198 pounds, but
Roger was also an average
lifter with a 1600-pound
total. However, the next time
Louie saw Roger, he had an
1800-pound total and had put
on a lot of muscle, which is
saying a lot because he was
jacked before.
Louie asked Roger,
“How did you put 200 pounds
on your total so fast?”
At the time, Louie was training the Culver City way as
close as he could by reading their articles in Muscle Power Builder.
And then Roger tells Louie how he went to California to train with
Frenn and Bill West and how all of his lifts gained a lot. That was
good news to Louie as what Roger described was close to what
Louie was doing in Columbus. Roger came back to West Virginia
and led the West Virginia Wild Bunch—Jack Wilson, Luke Iams,
Chucky Dunbar, and the others—to become one of the strongest
power gyms in the world.
Roger set world records in the squat and broke Larry P’s
total record at 198-pounds bodyweight with a 1935. Larry P sent
Tony Finton to watch Roger and to check his gear—it was all legal,
nothing under the suit, but muscles.
Roger was a true legend, and all thought he would live
forever, but he developed cancer. Louie would talk to Roger often
at the end of his life and sent him Westside clothes to keep his
spirits up. Roger will never be forgotten.

57
 The Meltdown in Mississippi
Louie kept training the Culver City way by reading the
articles by George Frenn, Bill West, Pat Casey, and Joe Dimarco,
and his lifts kept going up. It was 1979, and the Nationals were in
Bay City, Mississippi. It would later be known as the Meltdown in
Mississippi for a good reason.
The meet took place at a high school in the middle of
nowhere. Bob Fortenbaugh picked Louie up at the airport. Right
off the bat, Bob says, “Hi, Louie, you know you are a borderline
squatter, so be careful.” That was what Louie liked about Bob. He
was truthful to all.
Their first stop was the hotel. To say it was in bad shape
was no exaggeration. Louie said he took his girlfriends to better
hotels than this.
Louie did not have to worry about his weight as it was
212 pounds. He had not been able to gain weight until Mike
Bridges told him about Cyproheptadine (Periactin) hydrochloride,
a histamine and serotonin antagonist. It helped put 10 pounds of
solid muscle on him.
As it turned out, Bob was wrong about Louie’s squatting as
Louie went three for three with a personal record of 733 pounds.
The head judge actually shook Louie’s hand. Chip McCain
would break the 220-pound class squat record with 782 pounds,
but not before he would buckle under the load and hit the floor.
He surprised everyone by making the lift on his third attempt
making it look easy.
Louie also hit an all-time high 462-pound bench easy on his
third attempt. The lift put him in good shape to place. Larry P was
impossible to beat, but second was almost like winning.
Rickey Crain was the first to come out for his opener.
After a lot of psyching, he grabbed the bar and started pulling.
He immediately stood up, but the bar was still on the platform.
He is looking at his hands, like, “What happened?” Rickey was

58
very theatrical, but it was no joke. The bar was sweating due to the
very high humidity.
Now Louie comes out for his opener: A “should be easy”
672 pounds to lock up second place. The weight came up easy
to lockout, but as Louie was holding the bar, it started to slip.
The judges could have given the down signal, but that’s not
how the IPF works. And then it happened: Louie’s bicep tore
completely off his right arm, meaning no lift, no second place,
no nothing, but pain.
Larry P came from the warm-up room with a bag of ice.
As Louie was walking off the platform, Louie’s old friend Vince
White from the Holy Hotel in Charleston, West Virginia, gave
Louie a handful of pocket rockets. Louie never took pain pills,
so he did see Alice when she was 10-feet tall.
He watched from the stands during the remainder of the
meet, which was run by Brother Bennett, the head of Drug-Free
Powerlifting. Louie said it was air conditioning free as well.
Louie heard Bill Kazmaier say, “Beam me up, Scotty.” That’s
how bad it was.
Louie got back to Columbus on Monday and saw three
surgeons. Two said operate. The third said if you don’t care how it
looks, leave it alone.
Two weeks after some of the Black’s Health World guys
came down from Cleveland to see him. Steve Wilson and Hoss the
Boss asked how Louie’s arm was doing. It was still black and blue,
but Louie said, “Let’s find out.”
They went out to the garage, and Louie started to work up
in the bench. Finally, with 485 pounds on the bar, Louie takes it out
by himself and presses it easy. Louie knows that if your mind can
do it, so can your body. Louie had what it takes to be a top-level
lifter: a lower level of anxiety and fear and never any depression.
That’s what is needed to excel at sports.

59
 Hoss, The Boss
Louie appreciated Hoss coming to Columbus to see him.
Hoss was first spotted in a bar in Cleveland by one of the guys
from Black’s. They got him to Black’s to start powerlifting. He
squatted 500 pounds the first time, but he did much better at the
Senior Nationals in Dayton. The event didn’t start the best for him.
He was sitting on a chair to get wrapped when he slipped off and
landed on his ass—all 330 pounds of it. They finally got him back
up and wrapped, and he made an 881-pound squat—really good
for the times. He also deadlifted 750 pounds at that meet. Not bad
for a guy five feet six inches tall.
Louie did a lot of heavy pushups over the years—like 58
reps with 100-pound plates—but five reps with Hoss on his back
starting off the bottom was a highlight for Louie.
Hoss would sing at the nightclub where he was a bartender.
It was called Lion Club, and he sang Steppenwolf and Lynyrd
Skynyrd songs. When Louie’s wife Doris was visiting John Black’s
wife, they would go down to the bar to hear Hoss sing.
One visit, Hoss was
dedicating some songs to
Doris when Bubba Bay and
his friend had a contest to see
who could break a beer pitcher
over the other’s head. Bubba’s
friend shattered a pitcher over
Bubba’s head, but when Bubba
hit his friend over the head, it knocked him out cold. When the
friend woke up and realized what had happened, he grabbed a
sword off the wall (Doesn’t every rowdy bar have a sword on the
wall?) and started chasing Bubba around the bar. The whole place
went crazy, to say the least. It was one of the wildest things Doris
had ever seen.
Doris was a bodybuilder who won Miss Ohio before
moving to powerlifting. Once when Hoss was in the front row
60
while the pre-judging was going on, he let out a loud noise every
time she hit a pose. The judges would look back and say, “Please.
Be silent.” But it did no good. Louie said the judges were afraid
after seeing Hoss with all his tattoos.
After Hoss would make his last deadlift at a meet, he would
yell, “It’s Miller time!” It was a powerlifting classic.
Hoss would die some years later, and Louie sent his family
a Westside t-shirt and a can of Miller beer. Hoss and the fun he
brought to anywhere he went will never be forgotten.
The YMCA Nationals, Nitro, West
Virginia
It was now time for Louie to start the rehab process by
working up to 700 pounds on a high pin.
The next Powerlifting USA came out and covered the
Meltdown meet. Mike Lambert, the owner of the magazine, said
that Louie’s bicep was so bad he would never lift again. But Louie
was already doing high-pin lockouts. Each week he would lower
the bar one-inch and pull 700 pounds.
The next big meet was the YMCA Nationals in Nitro, West
Virginia, in January 1980. This was seven months after the injury.
Louie would think, “How did these bad things happen?”
Both times he was on the top of his game. In 1973 he
thought his back was indestructible, and he broke it so bad it took
over a year before he could start training again. Now, it was 1979
when he was at his best, although his right bicep would always
remain in Bay City, Mississippi. Was this a test to see how bad
Louie loved powerlifting and the great men and women who were
involved in the sport?
Now Louie had training partners that, in their own ways,
supported Louie at all costs. He also understood that he would only
be as good as his competition.
When Louie was young, he wanted to beat the older lifters,
61
and later when he grew old, he wanted to beat the younger lifters.
The entire garage plus John Florio of Cleveland would win at the
YMCA Nationals. This time Gary Sanger would lift against Roger
Estep and come in second.
This was a break-through meet for Louie. But, as usual, the
best day of Louie’s life would turn out to also be one of the worst
days of his life. Louie would squat 765 pounds—17 pounds off the
world record—and take 785 pounds on a fourth attempt. However,
after he was wrapped up, it felt like Louie’s pubic hairs were being
torn out of his lower stomach, so he passed.
In the bench competition, he made an easy 480 pounds,
and it turned out that Larry P was right when in 1971, he told
Louie that if he didn’t develop a big bench, he would never win a
national championship. That 480-pound bench would be in eighth
place on the Top 10 list. This was a milestone for Louie, and as it
turned out, Louie would win his first national just like Larry P said.
He had pulled a 705-pound deadlift to total 1950 pounds—
third all-time high in the 220-pound class. The 705-pound deadlift
was 32 pounds more than the weight that had torn off his right
bicep seven months before.
But Louie would later find out that he had torn two holes
in his stomach and had a partial tear of the pubic bone. On the
drive home after the meet, he was in considerable pain in the low
abdomen and groin area. A lousy trend was developing. Was this a
test for Louie, or a curse? It didn’t matter. Louie was not about to
quit.
Senior Nationals in Wisconsin
In fact, he was going to the Senior Nationals in Wisconsin.
He was not able to squat 95 pounds without pain, but he said,
“Who gives a fuck? I am going to lift in the Senior’s no matter
what!”
Louie made it by taking lots of “test,” but with the same
pain. He opened with 733 pounds, but it didn’t pass. He made it on

62
his second lift, but with lots of pain. Something strange happened
to Louie at that point. For the first time, he told himself to pull out
of the meet before he injured himself even more.
For Larry P, this meet would mark the end of his world
championships because he only made a two and one-half kilogram
jump on his second attempt, which by the rules nullified a third
attempt.
Louie would go back home to see a doctor who confirmed
the problem. This time Louie would take some time away from the
heavy weights.
Why, oh, Why?
People would ask Louie why he
would do this to his body. Louie’s only
answer was always the same, “It’s just a
part of life.”
About this time, Louie watched
a movie called Shogun Assasin that
would forever describe the true meaning
of the Westside way. It is an epic tale
about revenge. The Shogun is old and losing his mind. He thinks
everyone is out to kill him, including his Decapitator. In turn, his
Ninja kills many innocent people.
The Shogun’s loyal Decapitator Ogami had killed 137
people who were the enemies of the Shogun. The Decapitator’s
wife, Azami, told Ogami that she had a bad dream, but Ogami
said a bad dream is just a dream. However, the Shogun had
summoned his Ninja to kill his Decapitator Ogami while Ogami
was doing meditation in his prayer room. Ogami is broken out of
his meditation by his wife, Azami, screaming. As Ogami runs into
the house, he finds his wife lying on the floor, severely injured and
bleeding while holding their young son Daigoro. Ogami says to his
wife, “Your bad dream has come true.”
Next, Ogami says to his son, “I know you cannot

63
understand my words, but if you choose the ball, you will join
your mother in death. Or, you can choose the sword and join me
on the road to vengeance, but you must choose one. Daigoro
crawls toward the ball, almost touching it, and then he sees the
shiny sword and touches the sword. Ogami picks up Daigoro and
proclaims, “You are my son!” and starts on the road to vengeance.
This single scene brought tears to Louie’s eyes, and at that
moment, he knew to choose between the ball and the sword was
the essence of Westside Barbell. This simply means that Louie
believes that if a powerlifter doesn’t want to invest his or her life
into powerlifting, he or she shouldn’t waste their time.
As years would go by, Louie watched many choose the ball
for one reason or another. There are too many to count who could
not rise to the high standards of Westside. Others were asked to
leave for one reason or another. Some were just not committed,
while others were not team players or were all about themselves.
Some fought the Westside System as if they were one of a kind.
Some would just quit for outside interference after moving to
Westside to train and make their mark in the sports world. Louie
has no doubt that for the ones who left or were kicked out, it was
for the right reasons.
Never A Quitter
Louie was coming off his third serious injury (two severe
back injuries and the completely torn off bicep), and it took much
contemplation to move forward. Louie would remember what his
father said to him when he was 12 years old. “When you die, you
must die alone, but you can never give up because once you quit,
you are a quitter.”
So, Louie would train his mind by thinking of nothing or by
reading one of his two favorite books: The Call of the Wild, which
brought him a hyper-aggressive mindset, or Jonathan Livingston
Seagull to reinstate the idea of no limits.
And, of course, there was the movie Shogun Assassin
with the scene where Ogami tells his baby son Daigoro that if he
64
chooses the ball, he will join his mother in death, but if he picks
the sword, he will join his father on the road to vengeance.
When Louie reads a book or watches a movie, he can
become the main character full of emotion. It is not unusual for
him to leave the house and drive to the gym at all hours of the
night. The first and second group of powerlifters did not know the
word “quit.”
Other Great Powerlifters
People were already coming to Louie for advice. Dan
Austin, the great 148-pounder, spent time with Louie. He would
become a major college strength coach.
George Hector stayed with Louie and Doris for a while.
George was massive and crazy strong. Much later, about 2015, he
would come to see Louie with his sons to buy a Reverse Hyper.
He still looked great.
Ohio was always hatching new superstars. There was
Bobby Wahl from Toledo, who would grow up from that 1971
meet when he was seven years old to become a world champion
and world record holder in 1983. He was lucky to have one of
the greatest squatters of all time, George Crawford, and the first
700-pound deadlifter at 165-pounds, Jerry Bell, as mentors.
Sometimes it looked like some superhero would come out
of nowhere. One such guy was Dave Jacoby from Bodybuilders
Gym, owned by Pep Wahl, who was not related to Bobby Wahl.
In three short years, Dave would leave wrestling to become one of
the great powerlifters in his era. In his first meet, he totaled 1615
at 220-pounds bodyweight. In his second meet, he made an 1890
total, an Elite Total. This was unheard of with no shirt, and the
suits were like lingerie, no joke. His body weight was up to 236
pounds, and he was moving forward.
Next, it was a 1960 total in 18 months of training. Dave
then won the YMCA National in 1983 with a 2011 total. Going on,
Dave made a 2070 total, then a 2166 total, and then it was off to

65
Dallas and the Worlds. His total was off by 130 pounds, but Dave
still won. Like most great lifters, Dave had good genetics and great
backing from his wife, Sylvia.
Other great lifters came from Pep Wahl’s gym, like the
148-pound Jim Finch, a powerhouse lifter. It always takes a
connection between the lifter and coach. Theirs was a special
relationship between training and friendship, much like all the
greats.
Powerlifting and Pro Wrestlers have always had a
connection, too. First, it was the Polish power Ivan Putzke,
another powerhouse with a 640-pound bench press. And the best
of both worlds was Doug Furnas, who wrestled in the NWA and
was a WPC World Champion. To this day, Louie will watch pro
wrestling, not the WWE, but Lucha Underground where men beat
the hell out of the hot women; it’s twice the fun.
The Power Team
There was only one team to beat around the early 1980s.
It was Black’s Health World of Cleveland, Ohio. Its owner was
John Black, a promoter of not just powerlifting, but anything that
could make money for his club or members. He needed money
for the club, so he
entered a tough-man
contest. As luck would
have it, he tore off a
triceps. This really
hurt his bench. John
had long arms, but
still hit a 451-pound
bench at 181-pounds
bodyweight with a
two-hour weigh-in.
John created great meets and always put together a program
book listing the top lifters who were competing. One such lifter
was Dave Schneider. At 19-years-old, Dave pulled a 760-pound
66
deadlift in the 220-pound class. Later he made an 837-pound squat
and deadlift. He would always wear a mechanic’s work shirt, but
Dave was a CPA.
The Black’s Health World guys were known as the Wild
Bunch, and for a good reason. The team was in LA and had dinner
reservations at a top restaurant. Some could barely speak English, like
John Florio, Tony Fratto, and Jack Sideris, who would later become
head of the Teamsters in Cleveland, which was a rough place in those
days around 1980, but Jack had no problem with the job.
The guys looked out of place in LA, but money was no
problem. Luke Iams, an SHW from West Virginia, was with the
group with his work boots untied as usual. Somehow the maître d’
mistakenly called out the wrong name, asking for the Smith party
rather than the Sideris party, and the guys got furious, but finally
got seated. Luke told Louie that he had not been embarrassed even
when eating off two plates at the same time, one with each hand.
But when the food took way too long to be served and Sideris
yelled out as loud as he could, “Where’s the food, bitch?” Luke
said he was then embarrassed for the first time.
Louie was lifting in West Virginia and was leaving from the
hotel at 7 am when John Florio was pulling into the parking lot.
Louie said, “Hey, John, are you coming from the weigh-ins?”
John said, “No, we are coming from the strip clubs.”
That says it all.
When Hoss the Boss
got stronger, he got more
tattoos. He became really strong
with an 881-pound squat and
a 750-pound deadlift. When
Hoss’ day was done, he would
say his signature quote, “It’s
Miller time!” Hoss has passed
on, as was mentioned earlier, but not forgotten.

67
 John Florio came to America in 1972 and could hardly
speak English, but became very successful with his own concrete
company while working for the railroad, and somehow becoming
an Elite powerlifter at Black’s Health World. John was a good man
and a good friend to all. John, like Hoss, is gone from this world,
but is probably working two jobs and powerlifting somewhere else,
because that’s the way John was.
Then there was Danny Wohleber. Dan was one of a kind.
Bob Fortenbaugh introduced Dan to Louie at a meet in Bowling
Green, Ohio, and told Louie this kid is going to be a superstar
someday. He was 16 years old.
Louie remembers saying to himself, “What, this fat kid?
No way, Jose.” Then Louie remembered Bobby Wahl and his 1970
commitment to respect everyone, no matter their age or size.
And in the deadlift, Danny pulled 670 pounds at
198-pounds bodyweight. Louie could hardly believe what he
was seeing. Then, at 17, Danny pulled 750 pounds at 220-pounds
bodyweight. At 18, he pulled 804 pounds, and at 19, he squatted
905 pounds, 30 pounds over the all-time world record. At only
23 years old, Danny squatted 960 pounds and pulled the first
900-pound deadlift with 904 pounds at 267-pounds bodyweight.
Gary Sanger and Louie would lift for Blacks at national
meets. Black’s Health World will always remain on the list of
one of the strongest power gyms in the world. Blacks won many
national championships. They entered two teams at a YMCA
Nationals and won first and second place. That is how dominant
they were.
At a meet in Cleveland, Jackie Presser, the top man in the
Teamsters, wanted to meet Louie with his shaved head and his long
Fu Manchu, so Jack Sideris introduced Louie to Jackie, who had
his two 300-pound bodyguards wearing pin-striped suits alongside
him. Jackie was about Louie’s height with a beautiful suit and
a flattened nose. Jackie wanted a picture with Louie. He said he
would put it next to the photo of him and Larry Holmes, the World
68
Champ at heavyweight boxing. Louie says he will never forget that
day.
The Westside Way
Louie has never refused to help or pass information on to
others, especially to the younger generation, and even to those
who have disputed Westside’s methods. When he was growing up
in the sport, none of the greats ever refused to help him, and he
swore if he ever was in a position to pass on helpful and accurate
information, he would.
Powerlifting and life had taught him humility and that one
must think lightly of yourself and more about the betterment of
others.
At Westside Barbell, it doesn’t matter how strong,
wealthy, famous, and smart you are; everybody is treated the same.
An Army is only as strong as its weakest soldier, so it is one’s duty
to bring that soldier up to par.
Louie had no idea how he would influence training around
the world, not only in powerlifting, but also in how to utilize
special strength for all sports.

69
 Chapter 5
Emergence of the
Westside System
Finding A Better Way
In late 1981 Louie had resumed training, but the groin
injury would continue to plague him for the rest of his career.
His work schedule was full. He had to drive 100 miles each way
for 18 weeks while operating a large crane nine hours a day.
Then, for the entire 18 weeks, every Friday, he would handle
between 800 and 900 pounds on the box squat. This led to easily
deadlifting 722 pounds, but with some pain. Louie did not think
much about it, but then his shin was hurting a lot, too. It was like
a wire had tightened itself around the shin.
One day, Louie had to squat on Saturday with only two
girls, Laura Dodd and Mariah Liggett, in the gym to spot. Louie
was taking a personal record (PR) on the low box with 725 pounds.
He set the safety pins to catch the weight if he missed … and
he missed. Then, bending forward to rest the bar on the pins, he
realized he had set them too low, and he was pinned between the
box and the bar.
By this time, he was close to being unconscious. His lower
back was in severe pain. He called his doctor and was sent to a
back surgeon who wanted to remove two disks, fuse the lower back
and remove some bone spurs. Louie went home and never went
back to the surgeon. Instead, he did acupuncture and acupressure,

70
stretched, and did Reverse HypersTM on the machine he invented.
While he was recovering, he said, “I am doing something
wrong. There must be a better way to train.”
Studying Soviet Methodologies
His speed was gone due to training wrong and enduring
the pain. Louie knew the Soviets were dominating the Olympic
weightlifting scene, and were both fast and strong. He called
Andrew “Bud” Charniga, Jr., who sold Russian training manuals.
“You know these books are classroom material, right?” Bud
asked.
Louie said, “That’s what I need.”
Louie bought all the books Bud offered. The first book was
titled Managing the Training of Weightlifters. Louie learned about
the importance of loading and training at the correct intensities.
Louie referenced the work of A.S. Prilepin for planning the
training loads along with the data of A.D. Ermakov and N.S.
Atanasov. For periodization, he learned about the Pendulum Wave
System by Arosiev in three-week waves.
Louie also started using the research of Y.V. Verkhoshansky
and L. Matveyev, R. Berger, C. Boxco, Bondarchuk, Komi,
Kopysov, and many more. V. Zatsiorsky and his book Science and
Practice of Strength Training, was published later in 1992, and
confirmed that Louie was on the right track with training. Others
like A. Vorobyev, R. Roman, N. Ozlin, and the list could go on
forever … but Louie, in 1982, would not read any scientific studies
from an American author.
Louie was learning about special training such as the
Dynamic Method, the Maximal Effort Method, and the Repetition
to Failure Method as well as how to arrange the Conjugate System
by connecting special strengths, special exercises, rotating volume
and intensities. Also, he was working with restoration and planning
for a contest with the Circa-Max Phase and combining it with the
Delayed Transformation Phase.
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 What the Soviet Training Did for
Westside
Louie first found the importance of the Dynamic Method.
Most lifters divided training days from heavy to light. But strength
is measured in velocities, not heavy or light. Instead, it is measured
by fast, intermediate, or slow.
By using the data in the Managing the Training of
Weightlifters book, Louie started training for speed strength
on Friday instead of adding weight week after week for up to
12 weeks. In his old method, the weights were too light in the
beginning to build maximal strength, only muscle mass. The
middle weeks it built power, but after two or three weeks, one
would lose most of the muscle. During the final weeks with the
heaviest weights, there was not enough volume to maintain the
squats for the contests.
Louie started using submaximal weights 75 percent to 85
percent in a Pendulum Wave System with maximal speed to push
up the lifts. (Remember Fmm in your basic physics classes?) The
workout was 35 squats, and 25 speed-strength pulls at 75 percent
to 85 percent. Eighty percent is the common weight for speed
strength. Seventy-two hours later, on Monday, it was Max Effort
(M-E) Day, where you max out on a special barbell lift. Special
barbell lifts included rack pulls, box pulls, low box squats, and
Goodmornings. By switching lifts, a new PR can be made each
week at over a 90 percent success rate.
He also learned that when you continue an exercise—either
classical or special—for three weeks in a row at 90 percent or
above, you will start to detrain due to the Law of Accommodation.
It was beginning to make sense—training must be divided into
special segments.
Besides the Soviet training manuals, there was the Soviet
Sports Review by Dr. Michael Yessis, a collection of Soviet
training articles by their top sports scientists. This gave Louie a
considerable advantage. The Soviet Sports Review helped close the
72
gaps and provided a new way for Louie to look at training.
Years later, however, Louie had a conversation with Dr.
Yessis and found him to be the most arrogant man to whom he had
ever talked. Dr. Yessis’s only idea for building strength and power
was depth jumps. He told Louie he taught Dr. Mel Siff everything
he knew. Mel was a good friend of Louie’s, and Louie is loyal
to his friends to the end. Louie was glad when the conversation
was over and thought Dr. Yessis must be a miserable man, but
nevertheless, the Soviet Sports Review was a big help in his
understanding of the Soviet system.
With the catalyst of the early Culver City training, and then
in the early eighties, the influence of the Soviet training, Louie
developed what has become the Columbus Ohio Westside System.
A lot of people said Louie was crazy doing speed strength training
and concentrating on single-joint training, but his results have
proven otherwise (Although just because it works doesn’t mean he
isn’t crazy).
First, he focused on the Reverse Hyper for the lower
back strength and restoration along with working the hips and
hamstrings.
Thanks to Dr. Squat, Louie bought a Calf Ham Glute
Bench, because next Louie and Gary Sanger wanted to build more
leg strength for both the squat and the deadlift. They used the belt
squat with a modified belt that held the weight out in front, which
caused the lifter to be forced to use the low back to stay in the
groove.
It was Hollie Evett who wrote an article about isokinetic
machines that had no eccentric phase, but first, Louie looked at
Bill Good and his hip belt that would allow Bill to lift more than
2000 pounds. Along this same vein, Paul Anderson would pick up
a safe every day that was about 3400 pounds, until one day he hurt
himself. He didn’t realize his safe was frozen to the ground.
Gary and Louie built a belt that made it very difficult to use
heavy weights because the weight chain was in front, forcing the
73
lifter to sit back just like a regular squat. It was hard to stabilize
because the weights would swing back and forth to make it very
hard to hold a proper squat position. A 400-pound and 500-pound
belt squat was very hard to achieve for a set of five or six reps, but
it was all in the legs. The guys made fun of Louie calling him a
moron, but not for long.
Louie’s belt squat is one of the most copied exercise
devices ever made. Later one of his so-called friends would try to
duplicate it, which led to one of Louie’s trademark sayings, “Often
imitated, always irritated.”
Dave Tate said, “Keep your friends close and your enemies
closer.” Louie found that he was right, you could say, exceedingly
right.
The Change
Louie now understood he had to introduce an entirely new
way of training. It had methods on different special strengths. Not
long before, Louie had never heard of special strength, explosive
strength, speed-strength, and strength speed. Now, Louie knew they
needed to focus on one special strength per day.
He also learned that there must be 72 hours between severe
workouts—meaning high volume on speed strength day where 25
squats and 25 pulls were done. He knew the squats and pulls were
only 20 percent of the total volume on Speed Strength Day, while
80 percent of the work was on non-specific single-joint exercises to
bring up the lagging muscle
groups. This was to avoid
injuries and produce constant
strength gains.
Small workouts could
be set for 12 or 24 hours and
were designed to work on
what was needed.

74
 Max Effort Day meant learning how to train by using a one-
rep maximum. Louie had learned that intensity is a mathematical
formula, not a physical feeling.
Men like Verkhoshansky and Matveyev led the way to
teach Louie the Soviet system with books like the Fundamentals
of Special Strengths as well as all the books of Soviet training by
Bud Charniga. All of these resources led to Louie learning the
methodologies of track and field and, of course, weightlifting.
Then Louie had to convert these ideas and findings to make them
work for powerlifting so he could begin establishing the strongest
powerlifting gym—Westside Barbell—the world has ever seen.
But change is the hardest thing for Humans to do. Louie
was asking the athletes at his gym to turn away from the only way
they had ever been trained and accept something new. When you
know only one way, no matter how bad it is, that’s all you know.
Like a bear caged its entire life, then one day, it is released to walk
on grass for the first time. It’s uncomfortable, but also exuberating.
It’s scary at first, but after time, it seems so natural.
Louie, it seemed, was a natural-born leader. It was not
long before all the guys were on the same page. After recovering
from Louie’s second low-back injury, it was nothing but the Soviet
methods for those at Westside.
Without a Plan, You Plan to Fail
At the beginning of his return from injury, Louie had
become so slow it was almost impossible for him to do two reps;
after just one rep, he would return the bar to the racks. But by
doing the speed-strength training, Louie was regaining bar speed.
This was the Dynamic Method that calls for moving a submaximal
load at the highest possible velocity.
At his first meet back, his lifts were faster than ever. It
was the Dynamic Method at work. Louie, at first, believed it was
fear of failure. Or was the training the reason for his new success?
Yes, it was the training. He credited the book Managing the
Training of Weightlifters by N. P Laputin and V. G. Oleshko for
75
the improvements. It was an Olympic weightlifting book with an
outline of all methods of training for all special strengths.
Now Louie had a real plan. Remember, without a plan, you
plan to fail.
Many Strength Coaches Need
New Training Plans
Many coaches—from colleges to the NFL—would ask
Louie how he formulated the training to meet the needs of a
powerlifter. Louie said it was easy. If you could not comprehend
the methods, put your mind in a training setting, and it should
become clear. But if you don’t understand the gym, there is no way
you could understand the complicated Soviet training system.
To this day, Louie cannot understand why Olympic
weightlifters don’t rely on Managing the Training of Weightlifters
to set their training plans in place. Louie is also amazed—or
may be concerned—with the lack of knowledge and the average
training IQ of the strength coaches who are training our athletes
today. The absolute worst of all, he believes, are the Olympic
weightlifting coaches. Our Olympic weightlifters are not good at
all. When the American powerlifters rule the world, why don’t
their Olympic weightlifting brothers? The answer is easy. Coaches
don’t have a clue how to train or what to train to reach the top in
Olympic weightlifting. The coaching is at best only basic. That is
why American weightlifters can only go to a certain level and then
stop making progress. This lack of progress is due to the lack of
knowledge of strength training and the use of special exercises.
There is no excuse when the Olympic coaches could buy
the same training manuals—not to mention the weightlifting
yearbooks—to guide them.
Olympic lifter Glen Pendley said Louie knows more about
Soviet training except for Bud Charniga Jr., but Louie did not
accept that when weightlifting was so bad in America. Bud said
speed is more important than strength. The Soviets would say

76
that strength is the most important. After all, if speed was most
important, why wouldn’t a 123-pound weightlifter lift what a
SHW lifts? Louie says that is why 99 percent of them are fucking
morons.
Louie thinks right behind Olympic lifting coaches are track
coaches in America. They run their athletes too much and run them
too long, which teaches deceleration. They cause too many injuries
and don’t take responsibility for the damages from overuse. After
biomechanics, it should be strength and power. This means greater
ground force with minimal ground contact, not running a mile
when you compete at 100 meters.
Louie always says there is no sense talking about what you
cannot fix … like the NCAA nonsense, for example.
Reflecting on the “Old Way”
As the story has been told, Louie’s first love was Olympic
weightlifting, but after four years of competing, he traveled to
Dayton, Ohio, to lift in his first powerlifting meet. Two things
convinced him powerlifting was his new sport. One thing was
how powerful the powerlifters looked. You did not have to ask,
“Do you lift weights?” On the other hand, the Olympic lifters had
to have name tags that said, “I lift weights.” And second, Louie
placed 10th out of eleven, beating only a 55-year-old man. Louie
had always placed first, second, or third. But not at his first power
meet. He was sold.
But it’s not 1966 anymore. Louie has used the information
and data from Soviet Union Olympic lifters as well as track and
field athletes to build the strongest powerlifting gym on Earth.
Plus, the top coefficient male and female powerlifters.
He was able to do it because he recognized he needed help.
Louie knew exercises, but the Western gradual periodization where
one starts with high reps up to ten for hypertrophy, then cuts the
reps to five or six for building power, and then closer to a meet
lowers the reps to be one to three for strength speed was a dead-
end street. It didn’t work because after going from the hypertrophy
77
to the power phases, you would lose muscle mass in 14 to 21 days
and start the power phase. Next, when building maximal strength,
the reps and the total number of lifts were again reduced. But then
you wouldn’t have a base, meaning you would not have the volume
to maintain the big weights at meet time. It was more detraining
than a training method.
Everyone knew it did not work most of the time, but that’s
all anyone knew.
The Better Way
Now, thanks to Bud Charniga Jr.’s translated Soviet
materials, anyone who wanted to learn a superior method to train
could do so.
Louie started first by using the immense data from A.
S. Prilepin’s research. Prilepin had coached the Soviet Junior
Team from 1975 to 1980 and the Senior Team from 1980 to
1985. He coached a man who was perhaps the strongest Olympic
weightlifter of all time. Victor Slots, a 100-kilogram lifter, is
famous for pressing 363 pounds from a deep front squat position.
The lift became known as a Slots Press.
Louie had heard of training by percents for years, but had
no idea of how to do it. Now, thanks to Managing the Training
of Weightlifters, it was fully explained along with knowing what
percentages would build speed strength, which was provided
thanks to A. D. Ermakov’s and N.S. Atanasov’s data on the
distribution of training loads. This would coincide with the three-
week pendulum wave devised by Arosiev and others.
All this information made it possible for Louie to run
continuous three-week waves ranging from 75 percent to 80
percent to 85 percent using 75 percent the first week, 80 percent
the second week, and 85 percent the third week. At the end of the
third week, he would roll back to 75 percent and change the bar or
change the type of accommodating resistance for the next three-
week wave.

78
 The waves would then continue year in and year out.
Why? Because Louie had learned from the data of Ermakov and
Atanasov that 50 percent of their training weights were between
75 percent and 85 percent. This meant that 80 percent should be
the average training weight, and that included everyone—the
Russians, the Chinese, the Bulgarians, and the Americans. There
is very little training at 70 percent and below because weights at
30 percent to 40 percent build explosive strength.
Many people with little training knowledge believe that
the Olympic lifts build explosive strength. This is a fallacy. To
train for explosive strength, you must train between 30 percent and
40 percent to build explosive power. It does not matter what type
of lift you use.
Ermakov’s and Atanasov’s data also showed that
2.4 percent of the time, 100 percent weights were used. Using the
Westside System, Louie and his athletes lift over 100 percent of a
one-rep max about 95 percent of the time in a special barbell lift on
Max Effort (M-E) Day.
When training using percents, an athlete will never over or
under train. Training by percents is based on the individual lifter’s
max lifts, not someone else’s. For each max lift, the individual
must do a set amount of work.
The calculation goes like this:
multiply 25 lifts by 80 percent
of the individual’s top lift. For
example, for a 600-pound squat,
use 80 percent, or 480 pounds
for 25 lifts. This is the total bar
volume.
Useful Feedback
Louie had donated a Reverse HyperTM and a Calf Ham
Glute Bench to Tudor Bompa, who wrote several books for
optimization of training load through periodization. Louie was
talking to Tudor’s assistant, who had three PhDs in sports training,
79
and the assistant said Tudor wanted to thank Louie for the
equipment Louie had donated to York University.
Tudor got on the phone and first thanked Louie, but then
said, “Louie, your training is all wrong.”
This intrigued Louie as his group was continually breaking
world records. Louie politely said, “What do you mean?”
“Your volume is flat loading,” said Tudor.
Louie said, “Let me explain.”
So, he told Tudor that each week in a three-week wave, the
load goes up five percent until the fourth week when it drops back
10 percent and then raises five percent per week during the next
three-week wave, but that the real key was the special single-joint
exercises. Louie went on to say that at the beginning of each three-
week wave, a new set of small special exercises are introduced
into the training. In the beginning, the total volume of small
special exercises will be somewhat small, but as one becomes
more familiar, the volume goes up. However, once one cannot add
volume or raise the average intensity, you must pick a new set of
small special exercises to avoid the Law of Accommodation.
After Tudor understood the process, he said it made perfect
sense how not only to raise training volume, but also how to
eliminate muscle imbalances.
Afterward, Louie said to himself (and to me), “If this
Westside training method makes sense to Tudor Bompa, then it
must be a sound training method.”
The Problems with Olympic
Lifting (Again)
In another experience, Louie was talking to a large group
of coaches in New Orleans about how he converted the Soviet
training methods to his own training. The group knew how
Westside was no longer taking part, but instead was taking over.
After the crowd left, Bud Charniga, who had a booth for his

80
Russian training books and his Ivanko weights, came over to Louie
and said, “I overheard what you said, and you know Louie, that
can’t work.”
Louie looked at Bud and said politely, “Bud, what do you
do with your books? Do you read them, or do you throw them in
the fireplace and burn them?”
Bud answered with a story about a lifter he trained who
made a 341-pound snatch, but could never go above it.
Louie knew at this point that the Olympic lifters and their
coaches knew nothing about strength training. First, the Olympic
lifters think speed is the most important aspect of training. When
not only fundamental physics, but all the Russian training manuals
state clearly that strength is most important. So, there is their main
problem. But second, they think if they have a set of rubber plates,
that’s all they need. At best, they may own a Calf Ham Glute
Bench. They have no belt squat devices, no Plyo swings, no heavy
back raises, no Reverse Hypers, no Static Dynamic Developers,
just a gym with no special equipment, and no music to entice a
new generation of younger lifters. A lousy atmosphere will never
bring positive results.
The Russians learned a lesson when they didn’t care that
the Bulgarian junior team was beating the Russian junior team.
Still, then the juniors became the seniors, and the Russians cared a
great deal about the senior team being beaten.
After he had watched a documentary on the current
Olympic weightlifters, Louie wrote a book on Olympic
weightlifting to try to help the new Olympic weightlifters. Many
Olympic weightlifters would visit Westside and show no back
strength and subpar squats, so the book he wrote was about special
strength training. Louie found both the documentary and the lifters
very depressing, to say the least. He couldn’t understand how the
American powerlifters could rule the world while at the same time,
the American Olympic weightlifters couldn’t get on the platform at
the Worlds or the Olympics. But he actually knew the sad answer:
81
No coaching and an inferior group to choose from. After all, who
wants to Olympic lift when it is a dead-end street?
Louie has seen it all. At a different sports conference, Bud
Charniga said that strength is not a factor in Olympic weightlifting.
One of Louie’s strongest lifters asked, “If two men were
equal in speed and technique, would not the stronger lifter lift more.”
Bud said, not necessarily, so Louie asked, “Then, why
wouldn’t a 123-pound lifter lift what a super heavyweight does?”
No answer.
One of the top Olympic lifting coaches who first did
powerlifting told Louie that when he did powerlifting after
deadlifting, he liked to power clean 405 pounds for one to three
reps and then asked if it was ok to do so. Louie said, sure, why
not? Two years later, the same guy who was now doing Olympic
weightlifting called Louie again and said, “Louie, I have a
problem.”
Louie said, “What is it?”
The coach said, “I cannot power clean 405 pounds
anymore. What’s wrong?”
Louie said, “You got weak. What do you think?”
This sums up the problem with Olympic lifters.
On a positive note, Jimmy Benjamin, a three-time national
champion, said two of his favorite special exercises were the
high box squat working up to 675 pounds at a bodyweight of 132
pounds, and isometric holds for time. Jimmy would pull a weight
up to a set pin and hold for a set time, adding weight when possible
in both the clean and the snatch. He would also set a pin at the top
of the second pull, then power clean or power snatch off the pin.
This technique is also used by the current Chinese weightlifters.
Louie loves the sport of Olympic weightlifting, but is
saddened by the condition it is in today. He says it will never
recover with its head in the sand.
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 Garry Benford
Louie was very busy from 1982 to 1985, learning the
Soviet methods and applying them to powerlifting. He also had
lots of work and was still recovering from his second low-back
injury. But his garage continued to be an active place. Westside has
countless visitors passing through its doors today, but in the early
80s, that practice started at Louie’s home and garage. For instance,
George Hechter, a massive SHW, would stay at Louie’s house and
train with the Westside guys.
One lifter from the garage team was Gary Benford. Gary is
from Pennsylvania and graduated from Slippery Rock University.
He found work running the downtown YMCA. Gary trained very
hard, but it came tough for Gary to make big lifts like some of his
teammates, although he received an Elite ranking as a 198-pound
powerlifter in 1990. But where he really excelled was in directing
meets. He was tremendous at hosting APF Senior Nationals,
YMCA Nationals, and WPC World Championships. He served
as the meet director for 11 national, and two World Powerlifting
Championships, and the meets ran flawlessly.
From the beginning, Gary was there in 1979, and 40 years
later, he is still doing bench meets in his 60s, making 440 pounds
at 198-pounds bodyweight. Louie sees Gary regularly. This is what
the Brotherhood of Powerlifting is all about.
From None to Too Many
Federations
In the beginning, there was no international body for
powerlifting. The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) was the first
organization that formalized powerlifting. However, when a lifter
paid for a lifting card, the money did not go to the powerlifters.
Instead, the Olympic weightlifters got the money. This made no
sense to Louie or to anyone else who was a powerlifter. In the late
1960s and early 1970s, a lifter would represent a specific section of
his state. The first AAU National was 1965.

83
 The USA called it powerlifting, and Great Britain called it
the Strength Sets. At first, the only weight classes were 123, 132,
148, 165, 181, 198, and heavyweight. The British dropped the
curl in 1965, and powerlifting was born in Great Britain. In 1967
the 242 class was added. In 1968 the International Weightlifting
Federation (IWF) added the 114 and 242 classes.
The first international contest was in 1968 with French and
British lifters, but no deadlifts were part of the competition, and
the squat rule was that you must stay in the bottom until the referee
gave a signal to come up.
The first USA and Great Britain meet was in 1970. In the
beginning, the bench was the first lift. Then, the biggest backer of
Olympic weightlifting in the USA, Bob Hoffman of York Barbell,
saw the light and hosted the first world championship in 1971 in
York, Pennsylvania, with only Great Britain and USA lifters.
Finally, in 1972, a committee founded the International
Powerlifters Federation (IPF), so the IPF was born. Both the USA
and the British had large numbers of participants and their stars.
But there were problems to work out.
During 1973 no wraps of any kind could be worn. They
had two-hour weigh-ins, no supportive suits, or power belts. Louie
made a 1655 total just two months after Bob McKee won the
181-class with a 1635 total.
Producing the rule book and training qualified referees
were the key focus of the IPF. Louie did not agree that an IPF
qualified referee status could be achieved in two months of
studying a rule book when it took three to five years to be an Elite
level lifter.
Larry P hosted the 1979 Worlds in Dayton, Ohio.
Powerlifting was now indeed an international sport.
The first drug testing was in 1982 in Germany. Louie
believed this was a big mistake. Some know how to pass a drug
test, and some did not. Louie felt it was an invasion of privacy.

84
To this day, Louie believes that if an athlete is subject to being
tested, then everyone connected to the federation should be
checked, including refs, spotters, officials, meet directors, and the
guy who collects the door money.
By the 1980s, television was getting in the act. By 1992 the
IPF started a single-lift competition in the bench press. Now, men
and women had a world championship.
There was only one federation, and it was the IPF. More
information about the IPF history, which helped Louie on his trip
down memory lane, can be found in a historical review written
by Dennis J. Unitt and located on the IPF website: https://www.
powerlifting.sport/federation/history.html.
Although there were a lot of positives, the IPF judging
was inconsistent, and the organization was power-hungry in many
people’s opinions, so it was bound to happen. Also, the IPF had
drug testing, and lots of people were opposed to having their civil
rights invaded. It was not against the IPF rules to take drugs. It
was against the rules to get caught taking drugs. Louie knew that
drug testing would take a sports hero and turn him into a criminal
in a single day. Even in the late 1970s, a heart doctor told Louie
in confidence that every male should take some form of anabolic
for a healthy lifestyle. Today (2020), every other commercial on
television is an advertisement for a testosterone booster. Fifty
percent of men have erectile dysfunction in the USA. (What the
Hell is up with that?) Louie has been on test from January 1970
to present with no health problems … at all. There were too many
rules with the IPF.
So, yes, it was bound to happen—another group would start
their own federation. Whenever a group becomes a monopoly, you
will have a mutiny where everyone wants to jump ship, and jump
ship they did.
First, the American Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation
(ADFPF) was born. It was headed by Brother Bennett. He ran
the 1979 Nationals in Bay City, Mississippi. It was the meet that
85
featured no air conditioning at 97 degrees. Louie’s right bicep is
still in Mississippi to this day. All told, with or without the bicep,
Louie was not impressed with their effort.
Then Ernie Frantz and Larry Pacifico created the American
Powerlifting Federation (APF) in 1982. The APF made many
changes in the rules, including no drug tests, twenty-four-hour
weigh-ins, and mono-lifts for squatting, so the lifter did not have to
walk weights out. Walk-outs were an unsafe method, but still used
in the IPF. APF used more durable supportive gear, including suits,
wraps, and shirts, along with specialty bars. IPF would force you to
use the bar you started the meet with for the other two lifts.
Louie made his first Elite total in Toledo at 181-pounds
bodyweight using the only bar available—a standard power bar. In
1985, Louie was going to be only the third lifter to Total Elite in
five weight classes in Toledo again. But this time, the IPF started
the meet with a thick, squat bar, so Louie had to bench and deadlift
with the squat bar. Louie joined Mike Roy, and Dr. Fred Hatfield
with five Elite Totals with a two-hour weigh-in. But how stupid
can you get? Things like this made way for Ernie and Larry to start
the APF.
While Frantz was older than everyone else (he was 48 in
1982), he was the most open-minded and innovated about lifting
gear. Frantz sued the IPF for not letting three women lifters lift in
a meet. One was Westside’s Laura Dodd. Frantz won the suit, but
the IPF would not pay. This meant the IPF would not lift in the
USA, or they would be arrested. Along comes John Inzer of Inzer
Products, and he bought the lawsuit from Frantz so the IPF could
sanction meets in the USA.
Why does Louie not like the IPF? For one reason, he was
going to do a free seminar for the first IPF Bench Press meet in
the USA. However, he was asked to take a drug test to do the
workshop.
Louie said, “Go fuck yourself.”
And that’s why Louie dropped out of the IPF years ago; for
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dumbass things like that. In Louie’s opinion, the IPF did not want
to keep up with the times—no mono lifts, gear restrictions, and
two-hour weigh-ins, which can be dangerous for those who try to
lose a large amount of weight.
When trying to make a Top 10 lift, the IPF members are
penalized with changing weight classes. The weight class changes
are due to the IPF trying to be accepted into the Olympic Games,
but this Louie hopes never happens because the USA would be
sending the country’s worst lifters.
The last straw for Louie, however, was when Doug Heath
was the winner of the 1984 Nationals, which was a qualifier to the
IPF Worlds. Instead of accepting Doug, however, they took two
220 pounders. This was bullshit in Louie’s opinion, but it was also
devastating for Doug. When you fuck one of the Westside guys,
you are fucking with Louie, and Homey don’t play that way.
And that was the main reason Louie and the guys signed
up with Ernie Frantz and the APF and its world body, the World
Powerlifting League (WPL). Now meets had a monolift, which
meant no more walking out squats, making it much safer for both
the lifter and the spotters. Now they had specialty bars for the
squat, bench, and deadlift as well as fewer restrictions on lifting
gear. And now they had 24-hour weigh-ins. All in all, they had a
much friendlier environment for competition.
Everything looked okay for a while, but anytime you
own a federation and have a team, you have a conflict of interest.
Westside won the APF National Team Championships from 1993
through 1997, and it was not easy. Frantz advertised his Frantz
Team as the world’s strongest powerlifting team, but in reality,
Westside had the world’s strongest power team after Black’s
Health World had dismantled. Louie will not say what Ernie would
do to win, but they still could not beat Westside.
One example was the 1994 APF Senior Nationals in
Elmhurst, Illinois. Westside dominated the team competition, but
at the end of the meet, which ran late, Louie and Chuck Vogelpohl
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had a plane to catch. Meet Director Sunil Bhojwani, who also ran
the Holiday Inn Express, rushed them to the airport with Chuck
still in his powersuit.
Meanwhile, back at the meet, Ernie was passing out the
awards, and when the Top Team award was being announced,
Ernie said, “In second place Westside Barbell.”
This was no joke to the Westside bunch, and Tom Waddle,
who had just won his Nationals at 308-pounds bodyweight, ran up
to Ernie and said, “What the fuck? Ernie, no way!”
Ernie saw Tom was no one to mess with and said, “I was
just kidding. Westside is the team champs.”
He was not kidding until it got serious. Matt Dimel had just
died in May 1994, and the Westside guys were giving Matt a send-
off to powerlifting Heaven.
For some reason, the last time Westside lifted in an APF
Senior Nationals, only two Westside lifters made two squats out
of 18 over-qualified lifters that Westside entered. This meet saw
Chuck Vogelpohl and Mark Chaillet go to the ground to squat deep
enough to get white lights. Dave Tate had to take his third squat at
the end of the flight due to a misload. It was turned down like too
many others. A lot of them were not Westside lifters. Louie walked
to the side referee and asked, “Are you telling me that was not
deep enough?”
And the ref said, “No.” And he turned his back on Louie
and said, “I could have turned it down for three or four other
reasons.”
Louie wanted to punch him in the face, but the ref was
already walking away.
Louie asked the head ref, Gary Baun, who was also the
head ref of the technical rules, “If you were lifting, you would
bomb yourself out?”
Gary, a huge 400 pounds, said, “Yes, I would.”

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 “Why?” Louie asked.
Gary, a very nice man, said, “You know.”
To this day, Louie does not know what he meant, but he
knew it was time to leave. But where?
Ernie was a top lifter and knew what lifters wanted was fair
judging and knowing when a rule change would happen, not when
his foes would show up at meet time. But that was not the case
with the APF and Ernie Frantz anymore.
Later on, when gear
got much stronger, Louie
first got the International
Powerlifting Association to
have a side ref slap the lifter’s
helper’s leg when he would
pass their lift on depth. Then
the Southern Powerlifting
Federation (SPF) began to use the same rule, then the World
Powerlifting Organization (WPO). This was the best in the world
who also decided to use the slap rule. But to this day, the APF
feeder organization did not adopt the practice. Louie is completely
confounded. The APF also tries to monopolize powerlifting by
having qualifier meets to make it back to a watered-down WPO.
And that is the last reason Louie will not represent the APF or the
WPO.
International Powerlifting
Association
Now the club would go to the International Powerlifting
Association (IPA), Mark Chaillet’s new federation. Mark worked
for the famed York Barbell Company, founded by the legendary
Bob Hoffman. Mark would host the IPS Nationals and World Cup
each year at the York Barbell Hall of Fame.
Westside was lifting at York Nationals, and World Cup,
and most of the top powerlifters would follow Westside to York,
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especially the heavyweights, meaning those lifters 242 pounds and
up to SHW.
It was all good until the WPO started up with significant
prize money, and the top lifters followed the WPO like five-dollar
hookers at a One Hundred convention. Louie recalls that Mark
asked him why the lifters stopped going to the IPA meets in York,
Pa. Louie told him it was the WPO, but Mark seemed to know
nothing about the WPO. Louie thought, how dumb can a guy be?
But on the other hand, Louie believed Mark.
Much later, Westside still lifts in IPA meets, but even the
IPA raised an ugly head at a meeting in Tennessee. What happened
is that Dave Hoff made a beautiful 1270-pound squat—the largest
of all time. Louie got the up signal from a side ref, and Dave
got the rack command and all the way it was good … the team
thought. But on Monday, somehow, Mark had watched a video
during the weekend and reversed the head judge’s decision.
Louie caught up with Mark at the World Cup in Nashville,
where Dave was competing. Louie told Mark that he had thrown
the IPA, the refs, and Dave Hoff under the bus. He also told Mark
that he could not do this again, and here’s why: What if Dave had
made a bench and a deadlift to break the total record? Then, if you
took away the squat, it would take the total record as well. Did
Mark even think about this? Louie highly doubted it.
At the World Cup, Dave did not break the squat record, but
he did get revenge by breaking the world total record twice at the
meet.
Louie has always been amazed at how power can go to
people’s heads when they are in control. It must be a disease of
some type …
World Powerlifting
Organization
Kieran Kidder, who purchased the APF and WPC, started
the World Powerlifting Organization (WPO) in 2000. It had cash
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prizes and championship belts as well as ring girls to show who
was lifting, what was on the bar, and what attempt it was. It was
first class. Only the very top lifters could enter.
At first, Westside’s Amy Weisberger was the only female to
qualify for the WPO. Then there were two when Laura Phelps, also
from Westside, qualified. Both Amy and Laura would hold the total
records in three weight classes. The WPO was held at the Arnold
Classic until 2007 and was then removed for several reasons.
The first reason was drug testing, or actually no drug
testing. Louie thought it was total bullshit. Did they forget the
bodybuilders and the strong men might take drugs? After all, who
doesn’t take drugs? Louie believes there should never be drug
testing. If you can obtain a drug with a prescription, it should be
legal.
Later, in 2018, the WPO wanted to have a revival of some
sort, but they let anyone in to compete. There were 40 women
when maybe four or five would probably qualify, at best.
The WPO was a good idea with Kidder running the
show. He was the first leader to invest his own money to make
powerlifting better.
Southern Powerlifting
Federation
Jessie Rogers founded the Southern Powerlifting
Federation (SPF) in 1998 and still runs it today. Louie has always
said it may be the best federation of them all. The judging is fair,
they have the right equipment, and the meets run fast with some
prize money.
Well, that’s Louie’s views on federations …
Why Can’t We All Just Get
Along?
It is hard for Louie to understand why powerlifters bad
mouth each other instead of uniting together. Here’s an example:
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In the early 1990s, a super-jacked woman was lifting in the APF
under the WPC auspices who came under scrutiny for being male.
Everybody turned on her. Louie recalls how sad it was to see the
female lifters looking down on her—even those that had receding
hairlines, five o’clock shadows, and walked like John Wayne in
one of his cowboy roles.
Louie never looked down on anyone. Was she a monster?
Maybe, but Louie would rather have Godzilla than Bambi. He had
seen East German women in the same situation being criticized for
not looking like the rest of the women.
This situation reminded Louie of a 1961 monster movie
called Gorgo by Eugene Lourie. It begins on the coast of Ireland.
Captain Joe Ryan was salvaging treasure when a volcano erupts,
almost sinking his ship. As they sailed into the closest harbor,
they noticed ancient marine animals floating on top of the water.
Had something been woken by the volcano? Of course, it had!
As it turned out, some of the local men had disappeared, but one
had been found. Based on the expression on his face, he died
of fear. Then, that night a sea monster surfaces and attacks a
group of fishermen and wreaks havoc on the island. The beast is
humongous—about 65 feet tall.
Captain Ryan captures the monster and hauls it onto the
ship. After hearing the news, scientists show up hoping to collect
the creature for a study, but Captain Ryan gets a better deal by the
owners of a circus in London. The circus names it Gorgo. After
arriving in London, they notice it is not an adult and is growing
every day. Now all Hell is about to break loose when its mother,
who stands a good 200 feet tall attacks and trashes the island where
Gorgo was taken aboard the ship, sinks warships and then follows
the ship carrying Gorgo to London. She comes ashore and goes on
a rampage destroying tanks, jets, and an entire family, but with no
effect. Then, after completely demolishing most of London, she
rescues Gorgo and returns to the Sea.

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 Before Gorgo was locked up in London, he was driven
through the streets of London to be looked upon as a hideous
monster. But payback is Hell as Dusty Rhodes would say. Why
did Louie tell this story? People of London thought Gorgo was the
only monster until his mother showed up to claim him, and they
saw the real monster. This is what happened to the women of the
APF. Maybe if there had been more mirrors, they would have seen
that the real monsters were themselves.

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 Chapter 6
From the Garage to the
Gym

Recruiting New Lifters

In the late 1980s, things were going well with training,
Louie was working a lot, and Doris was always fully supportive of
his lifting. They had a nice house, cars, jobs, and their health.
But there were significant changes taking place. It was
finally happening: The guys were graduating and starting new
lives. Bill Whittaker was leaving for Pennsylvania to start his own
vet clinic. Gary Sanger was done teaching at OSU and was going
to LSU, where he would later become head of the LSU Department
of Economics. Tom Paulucci had become a psychologist. (Later,
he would also become an attorney and work on some of the federal
cases when bad guys infringed on Louie’s patents.) Doug Heath
was no longer working for the fire department. Tim Gallagher,
while he did not go on to a Ph.D. program, had jobs waiting for
him and his wife in New Jersey.
In the meantime, Louie had loaned a friend some money
to buy a suntan business, but the friend could not repay the loan.
There is a saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice,
shame on me.” Yet, Louie agreed to go into a commercial gym,
thinking he could regain his money. But his friend’s wife stole
money from Louie, and Mark Marinelli tried to run over his wife in
the gym parking lot, so Louie became the full owner of something
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he never wanted.
The gym was open seven days a week for years with
no profit at all, but it did have a positive effect, because a new
generation of lifters came through the door.
But make no mistake, the real foundation of Westside
was built around the first group—Heath, Paulucci, Sanger and
Whitaker—in Louie’s garage. They were the first experimental
group who switched to the Soviet System and laid the foundation
of what is today called the Westside System.
Life moves on, however, and they were about to become
Westside’s history. It was time to recruit a new group to fully
implement the new system using the Dynamic Method, Max Effort
Method, and the Repetition Method to near failure along with
concentrating on single-joint training.
Chuck Vogelpohl
Now it was lifters
like Chuck Vogelpohl, a
young man who showed
great promise with his
body, but more so with his
mindset. He was ferocious
with the weights always
wanting to get bigger
and stronger. He would
seldom say a word, but
just by watching him, one
could tell he was destined
to become not just great,
but a legend in the sport.
He would become one of the greatest squatters of all time and
the only lifter to win two weight divisions at the WPO. Chuck set
squat records in the 220-, 242- and 275-pound classes.
A great training partner, he was always pushing himself and
his training partners to new heights. If someone was not keeping
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up, he would tell Louie to get his key and kick him out, which
Louie did because, as it turned out, Chuck was always right.
Louie thinks that Chuck was in retirement in 2000 when the
WPO was formed, and the high competition brought him back in
the game.
Chuck would be a large part of the developmental years of
Westside with chains, rubber bands, wave periodization, and the
new inventions that have made Westside famous.
Long-time Westside Lifters
It has been more than thirty years, and Chuck is still at
Westside training, boxing, and doing Jiu Jitsu to keep himself
busy. In fact, there are lots of lifters who have been at Westside
since 1986, such as Joe and Mike Jester. Also, Amy Weisberger,
one of the greatest female lifters of all time. Amy holds world total
records in three weight classes as well as bench and squat world
records.
It’s amazing how many old-time powerlifters still go
to Westside. In the early days, all the Westsider guys were real
powerlifters killing themselves to make a top 10 lift or break a
world record or do what a powerlifter is supposed to do, meaning
pushing their training partners to the limit.
Louie sees many of today’s powerlifters just lifting
weights; he sees no passion; no sense of urgency. He feels that if
you do not have passion, you are not a powerlifter. Louie likes
martial arts movies by the Shaw brothers. They always have
passion and seem to always be about a snake master fighting a
tiger master or a monkey master fighting a crane master. A monkey
master imitates a monkey, and a snake master acts like a snake,
including making hissing noises just like a real snake. If you do not
have passion, then you do not really represent what a true Westside
powerlifter at Westside should be.
Would there be a documentary about Westside if today’s
lifters were responsible for making the club famous? Louie says he
doubts it. Today’s lifters aren’t samurais, they are just tough guys.
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They are Ronins with no Master. Westside must be their master,
and then they can represent Westside to the highest of their ability.
Marcus Marinelli
Louie is very proud of Westside’s former lifters. Many have
earned their PhDs and other
academic credentials, and
others have made their way
in the business world. For
instance, there was Marcus
Marinelli, a strong 220-pound
lifter who could pull 716
pounds at 212-pounds
bodyweight. After lifting in
the garage during college,
he moved back home to the Cleveland area to start an MMA gym
called Strong Style. It is 30,000 square feet with two boxing rings,
two MMA cages, and a full line of specialty bars. He has a full-
sized weight gym with lots of instructors in all the martial arts.
(Pictured above from left: Dominic Rotolo, Louie, and Marcus.)
Marcus was a great training partner—always calling
someone out on a lift. Louie said something about his bench, and
Marcus got mad. They always got into fights, but then calmed
down and went back to training. One day Louie wanted the guys
in the gym to have a deadlift contest for reps on a two-man team
on the next M-E day. Marcus said he and Gino Cardi had to be
on different sides to make it fair. Louie said, “What the fuck you
talking about, mother fucker!”
Louie went into the house, brought out a can with all their
names on pieces of paper, and pulled out a name. “Cause we are
having this deadlift right now!” No one could beat Louie, and he
proved it right there. The whole gym was like that. It was a battle
every workout with one-on-one or two-man teams.
Marcus could go to church and get into a fight. He came
up with the bright idea that after each workout, they would have
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a wrestling match until only one man was left. The gym was
always getting into trouble, sometimes—well, most of the time—
outside the law. One time the Lord’s Gym (that was the name;
no joke), was talking shit about Westside in a bar on the east side
of Columbus. Once it escalated, people were run over, there was
a broken arm, and bottles were broken over Chuck Vogelpohl’s
head. As it turned out, Lord’s Gym went to Hell and back that
night. Louie won’t talk about the chaos in the early days in case the
statute of limitations is still in force.
Even today, Marcus and Louie see each other as often as
possible. Marcus today models Strong Style after Westside. Strong
Style has the World Heavyweight Champ, Stipe Miocic, who has
been lifting with Marcus from the very beginning. It is a strong
case demonstrating total loyalty.
Marcus does have a weakness. No, it’s not the stand-up
game or his submission game. It is onions. Yes, you read it right,
onions. Onions drive him crazy. If there is an onion in a 50-foot
radius, he will know it. While lifting in West Virginia, the team had
to stay in a small town where Luke Iams lived before his untimely
death. There was one place to eat in the entire village. It served
buffet-style meals. At night it was Italian food. Gino Cardi, one of
Marcus’ good friends, was always fucking with Marcus. While in
line, Gino hung a Vidalia onion on Marcus’ ear and nearly started
a riot when Marcus realized what he had done. Louie begged the
owner not to kick the team out because it was the only place to
eat in the whole town. Gino and Marcus were staying in the same
room, but that night Marcus slept in the hallway; what a night.
While in Cleveland, Marcus, of course, had problems with
some cooks at the restaurants where he regularly ate. Once, after
telling a server “No onions,” the food was brought out, and Marcus
right away detected the smell of onions. He threw the food on the
floor ran into the kitchen and threatened the cooks, who, of course,
called the cops. When the police arrived. Marcus could be heard
saying, “You don’t understand. They put onions in my food.” That
is Marcus Marinelli, in a nutshell.
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 Fighters Louie Has Known
Over the years, Louie helped with the strength training
for a heavyweight boxer who fought on Showtime television by
the name of Alexander. Still, his most famous fighter was Kevin
Randleman, an All-American at Ohio State who became the UFC
Heavyweight Champion while training with Louie. Louie says he
would never take any credit for Kevin winning or losing the UFC
belt. He did not like to work with athletes with sports where the
winner can be determined by opinions rather than by the numbers.
In powerlifting, the the highest number wins, or it is the fastest
time that wins in track.
Matt Brown trained at Westside for a few years and won
seven UFC fights. He would always go away to fight camp and
leave the family at home. He had Westside for strength and
conditioning, Adam DiSaboto for wrestling, Dorian Price for his
Muay Thai, and Carlos Carvello for his Jujitsu. It all worked out
fine. Sometimes he would go to Cleveland to Strong Style for extra
sparring and some tips from Marcus Marinelli. One day, however,
he decided to go to Colorado to train at the MusclePharm facility.
While Westside was hardcore, the MusclePharm was top of the
line. When Matt left, Louie told Matt a fighter cannot sleep on silk
sheets. Matt was gone for two years and had a losing record while
at MusclePharm. After suffering some injuries, he moved back
to Columbus to open a gym. Matt came over to Westside to see
Louie, and the first
thing he said was,
“Fighters don’t sleep
on silk sheets.”
Louie believes
in living within a
hundred miles from
where you were born.
This may sound
crazy, but this is what
Louie believes.
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 One day Marcus came to visit Westside with Dan “the
Beast” Bobish, a 300-pounder who fought for Pride in Japan.
Marcus wanted Louie to show Dan how strong his stomach was by
having Dan push his finger into Louie’s stomach and have Louie
flex his abs and push Dan’s finger out of his stomach. Louie said he
did not want to, but Marcus insisted.
So, Louie said, “Let’s go, Dan.” And when Dan had pushed
his finger into Louie’s stomach as far as possible, Louie flexed
his abs as hard as he could. Dan’s finger bent backward with a
cracking noise. At that, Dan grabbed Louie and pushed his chin in
Louie’s eye for about 10 seconds before letting Louie go.
Louie said, “That hurt like Hell.”
They went back to Louie’s house, and his wife said, “What
happened to your eye?”
Louie pointed at Dan and said, “This motherfucker.”
Everyone laughed, and they ate lunch.
Two weeks later, Dan had a UFC fight in Mississippi with
“The Experiment” Mark Kerr of Toledo, Ohio. At that time, the
UFC was not legal in all the states, but Mississippi was one place
a UFC could be hosted. During the fight, Kerr pushed Dan into the
cage and pushed his chin into Dan’s eye and forced a tap-out.
At the time, it was legal to push your chin into your
opponent’s eye. Louie never said a word, but it seemed ironic that
two weeks earlier, Dan put the same move on Louie. Nowadays,
Louie does not work with fighters; he leaves that up to Tom Barry,
who runs the business side of Westside.
The Twenty-Year Difference
Louie was now focusing on a new, younger group of lifters,
many who would win world championships or set world records.
Louie was 20 years older than the new guys, and that made it
easier to convince them to try new things. Louie was their new
teacher, but he soon found that he was really the student first, their
teacher last. The gym, for now, was open to the public, which was
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good and bad. The new group would become Louie’s “guinea
pigs” while using the Soviet methods. They would also become the
strongest Westside group of all time.
Kenny Patterson
A young boy of 14 years whose father had just died of
a sudden heart attack was brought into the gym. His name was
Kenny Patterson (Kenny
P), and Louie could not
turn him away. He was
132 pounds and had big
arms for a 14-year-old
kid. Louie started him on
percent training with lots
of special exercises for the
upper body.
Kenny P responded very fast to the training, but he was
a bench press phenomenon. Kenny P would grow into a full 275
pounds at five foot six inches tall. He had 23 ½ inch arms and
would close-grip 625 pounds and set many all-time world records.
He had lots of training partners who became close friends.
When Kenny P was 20 years old, he went with the guys
to Chicago to lift in a money meet. Frantz’s Gym had the world
record holder when Westside arrived at the event, but when it was
over, that record (712 pounds at 275-pounds bodyweight) was
Kenny P’s and now belonged to Westside Barbell. Louie liked
nothing better than kicking Frantz’s ass in his own backyard—no
matter if it was a full-power meet or a bench press meet.
Kenny P put on the biggest upset in bench press history in
Dallas, Texas, at John Inzer’s Bash for Cash. All the top benchers
from coast to coast were there. It was in a costly hotel, and
Louie remembers Willie Williams of West Virginia in the lobby
with a spit can and wearing a pair of bib overalls with the sides
unbuttoned and no underwear … he kind of stood out. But it was
supposed to be the Anthony Clark show.
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 When the Westside team showed up, the world record had
somehow gone up to 717 pounds, but who cared? Not Kenny P.
In the end, Anthony Clark made Big Bench at SHW for a new
world record, and everyone assumed Anthony had won the 10
grand plus a Dune Buggy. But Louie knew better. He had already
checked the coefficient, and Kenny’s new 728-pound world record
at 275 pounds had won by a small amount. Almost everyone had
gone, but Louie showed John Inzer the numbers, and John agreed
that Kenny P had won. To his word, John Inzer paid Kenny P in
full, including a Dune Buggy that was dropped off at Kenny P’s
house. Inzer Products has been a loyal supplier of Westside’s for
years, and Louie says he will always be indebted to John Inzer for
stepping up and honoring the win as Kenny P deserved.
Kenny P lifted in the Arnold Classic on a Saturday, and
on Sunday, while sitting in the gym, Dan Redding of Carson-
Newman University in Tennessee was visiting Westside and asked
Kenny P if he would do something to impress the football team.
Kenny P said ok and loaded the bar to 455 pounds. Then, with no
warm-up, he placed two fingers on the smooth part of the bar and
proceeded to do 10 reps cold. Well, Louie did not know if the team
was impressed, but he sure was. Kenny turned out to be a great
powerlifter pushing Chuck Vogelpohl to an 816-pound deadlift to
win the 220 class at the WPO.
At one point, Kenny P was hurt and not doing well with
his bench. Louie tried to psych him up by saying he was going
to come out of retirement and squat 700 pounds before Kenny P
benches 700 pounds again. Kenny said, “Old man, you will never
have 700 pounds on your back again.”
Louie came out of retirement at that moment. Not only did
he squat 700 pounds, but 800 and 900 plus. Thanks to Kenny P,
Louie did things no one over 50 years old had done, and no doubt,
no 60-year-old either. Louie may not have pushed Kenny, but
Kenny said the right words to get Louie back into the game.

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 Jerry Obradovic
Matt Dimel said he knew a
15-year-old who was really strong. His
name was Jerry Obradovic. He was a kid
who did not want to listen to anybody
at first, so he was kicked out within a
month. But Matt talked Louie and the
guys into bringing him back. So, they
did.
JerryO, as he was called in the
gym, knew that this time he had to follow
the rules and show up on time and train
like everyone else. He caught on and
started to fit in training with Kenny P and George Halbert. It was
not long before he was close-gripping 500 pounds. The close-grip
bench was his favorite lift. He later made a 545 close-grip when he
made a 705-pound bench. Kenny P had the record at 728 pounds.
JerryO was not just a bench press specialist, but he won Nationals
at 275-pounds bodyweight. Bill Nichols had a considerable lead
over JerryO with a 975 squat, but JerryO came back to win with a
strong 804-pound deadlift.
To push up his bench, JerryO liked steep inclines with a
close grip for delts and triceps extensions. He did upper back work
four times a week. The floor press also has been a favorite lift to
break his sticking point. It is not often when a lifter can excel at the
bench press and the deadlift, but JerryO did.
It is not uncommon for a Westside lifter to have the all-
time push-pull combinations in their class. JerryO still comes to
Westside in 2019 to train and always calls Louie to see how he is
doing. Once you are a Westsider, always a Westsider.

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 George Halbert
In 1993 Louie wrote
an article in Powerlifting USA
entitled “Three of a Kind.” It
was about three lifters in the
same gym, Westside Barbell—
and the only three lifters in the
same gym—who could bench
600 pounds. This book has
already covered two of the men, but perhaps the most explosive
member was George Halbert.
Louie met George two years before he came to Westside
when George made 470 pounds and 475 pounds. Later, Louie
asked George why he wouldn’t come to Westside earlier. George
said he had heard that they were crazy. Maybe so, but in one year,
George made a 628-pound bench press. After that, he went on a
record-breaking rampage setting world records in the 198-, 220-
and 242-pound classes. George totally changed how he trained.
The key to his training success was to push the special exercises,
small and large, and the bench press took care of itself.
Just like George’s teammates, he did rack lockouts, steep
inclines, heavy triceps extensions, and many other exercises for the
upper back. The program Louie had the trio utilize to break world
records is the program Louie used after coming out of retirement to
bench 600 pounds at 50 years old before anyone could bench 550
pounds.
This was a fierce threesome, but they had lots of backup.
Rob Fusner trained along with Kenny P, JerryO, and George and
broke the world record at 308-pounds bodyweight in Daytona,
Florida, along with Kenny P and George. Louie’s good friend
Ryan Cannelie was competing in the Daytona meet and said he
tried to psych out the guys in the warm-up room. Ryan learned it
was impossible when he bombed out at the event. When Ryan told
Louie this story, it was a compliment to Westside as Ryan became

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the greatest bencher of all time, making an unreal 1076-pound
bench.
Westside was full of
great bench pressers like J M
Blakely—all jacked up with a
Ph.D. in bench pressing. Louie
would watch J M do triples with
585 pounds for sets.
Louie found that to be
a good teacher, you must be a good student. One night, J M was
doing his favorite triceps exercises, the J M press. It is 75 percent
triceps extensions and 25 percent press. J M would use a close grip
and lower the bar to about six inches from his chin then push it up
first to fully utilize the triceps. But on this day, J M asked Louie
to hand him the bars. Louie added up the weight, and it was 545
pounds. J M did three strong reps. Louie could not believe the
strength of his arms. Louie checked the math and found J M could
do 80 percent of his 675-pound bench press. Louie’s best bench
was 565 pounds, and his J M Press was 365 pounds or 64 percent
of his best bench.
Louie pushed up his J M Press to 405 pounds for three
reps and made a 600-pound bench. Then 405 pounds for three
reps added up to 67 percent of his 600-pound bench. While Louie
was not as good at bench pressing as J M, he knew that his triceps
must be stronger to push up his bench. Louie could always learn
something from anybody.
J M was always doing things like setting a rock on the
bench with whatever he wanted to bench that day written on it. His
handout man at meets would write what J M was going to bench
on his forehead so J M could look up and see the number before
taking the weight out of the rack.

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 The End of Westside’s Team
Competitions
There was a bench meet in Lumberton, North Carolina,
that had advertised it had $8,000 for prize money. Louie called the
meet director to confirm they had the money. When he said yes, the
money was there, Louie said, have it in small bills, and we will come
down to pick it up.
The meet director never dreamed Westside would really
show up, let alone that lifters like the 198-pound world record
holder, Dave Watermen, would fly down to compete. They were not
happy when so many world record holders showed up to lift. Then,
the lifters weren’t pleased when, after weighing in, the bodyweights
were not posted. This was important to the participants because
winning the cash was based on the best coefficient.
Then the team saw the competition room. There were no
100-pound plates. The bench was very narrow, and the bar was not a
real power bar; it could have come from the local K-Mart. The meet
director and head ref said it was fair for everyone, but they did not
count on the amount of weight that was going to be loaded on the
bar. J M later said it was like benching with a three-inch chamber bar
as much as it bent when loaded with more than 700 pounds.
Dave Waterman had his own problem. The bench was very
narrow and slick, and Dave slid off to the side on all three attempts
and bombed.
But the Westside boys came through and were first, second
and third. Louie felt lousy about the meet results. Lumberton is
a small town, and $8,000 would have gone a long way for the
hometown boys.
After that, Louie said Westside should stop entering teams.
For instance, Circleville Barbell would host its annual bench press
contest and give a five-foot-tall team trophy that Westside would
win every year. Westside never cared about awards and never kept
trophies, so it didn’t seem right.

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 The last time they entered a team competition after Louie
said, “No more teams,” was when Bob Youngs entered them as a
team for a meet in Portsmouth, Ohio. The event was a few days
after Louie turned fifty years old. No one fifty or older had ever
benched 550 pounds. Louie did not want to lift, but was talked
into it three days before the meet. He was glad he did as he made a
570-pound bench to become the first man over fifty to bench over
550 pounds. He was not stronger, but smarter due to the Soviet
training. Back to the meet where, of course, Westside won the team
title. Also, of course, there was an argument about points, but no
way could any other team at that time beat Westside as a team.
Most gyms are like an open hand with the fingers extended
and pointing to nowhere, while Westside is a closed fist that can
cause great harm to all other gyms.

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 Chapter 7
Louie’s Reflections on
His First 15 Years

Sometimes Louie tries to empty his mind and think about

the 15 years from 1970 when he was released from the Army to
1985 when the second generation of young powerlifters joined
with him on his path to build strength. At the risk of repeating
some information, here is a summary.
By 1985 he had already hurt his back twice, torn his right
bicep off, and hurt his left knee when he slipped on ice at work.
The knee never got any rest because he used that leg to hold the
brake on the crane that he operated nine hours a day. He was
squatting in the low 800s, and sometimes he could feel the knee
tear when he was holding that much weight, but, what the hell?
Pain was not new to Louie.

Early Gear
Looking back to 1973, when IPF was forming its new rules,
there was no gear at all in the beginning and not even wrist wraps.
As the years went by, power suits came on the scene. Inzer, Mike
Bridges, and Pacifico were selling George Zangas’ SpanJan power
suits, and, of course, Titan had a suit. Louie wore SpanJan when
they came out around 1977. It might have added 20 pounds to
lifters’ squats, but they were really uncomfortable to wear and left
apparent marks on their traps and legs.

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 In the late 1970s, Louie wore a Titan suit, which worked
a little better than the rest. At the 1980 YMCA Nationals, Louie
and the Westside gang wore Miracle Squat Suits by Pat Malone of
Indiana. The suits were correctly named as it was a miracle if one
held up with big squats. At the Nationals, Louie made a 765-pound
squat when the world record was 782 pounds. After the event, his
suit had eight holes in it, and Louie had two holes in his stomach
and a partial tear of a tendon that connects to the groin, which has
so far caused him pain every day of his life.
John Inzer had a suit called the Z suit, which was made for
a close stance squatter, pushing the knees together. But Westside
used a wide stance with the knees pushed out to the sides. Gary
Sanger made a prototype suit for a wide squat stance. He sent it to
Inzer, and it became a Champion Squat Suit. No bench shirts until
one came out around 1985 by Inzer. It was called the Blast Shirt.
It may have added 10 pounds to their benches. If your competitor
wore one, so did you. They would cut the hell out of a lifter’s arms,
chest and shoulders, but a participant wore it to get an edge on the
competition.
Ernie Frantz worked at the prison and had the inmates
wear their denim shirts backward for support. This would, in turn,
lead Frantz to make a denim bench shirt that would add about 25
pounds to a lifter’s bench. John Inzer was smart, however, and
had a patent on the bench shirts, and this would lead to trouble
between Inzer Products and Frantz. Louie would understand John’s
dilemma all too much in later years as he dealt with his twelve US
and European Union patents with a constant stream of lawsuits.
Knee wraps in 1985 gave a lifter much more than squat
suits. Larry P called Louie and told him about a new set of knee
wraps that would add more to his squat, and Louie said, “How fast
can you send some pairs over here?” Louie saw early on that it was
the top lifters who were also producing the best lifting gear: Larry
P, John Inzer, Ernie Frantz, and George Zangas, with his strong
Thompson Power Team on the West Coast.

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 It was also true that the top lifters knew the most about
sport enhancing drugs. Louie would hear guys say, “I don’t need
drugs to get to the top.” If you want to get to the top, you do
whatever it takes. Louie’s favorite philosopher, the Road Warrior,
said two profound things: “Desperate men do desperate things,”
and “Don’t take a knife to a gunfight.” Louie found these two
axioms to be entirely accurate.
The next new lifting federation would emerge with some
rule changes, but it was the IPF that caused that to happen with
their power-hungry ideas. To this day, they have no mono lift, but
plenty of gear restrictions, and whatever bar the competition starts
with during the squat, is also used for the bench and deadlift.
Great Lifters Outside the US
America had great lifters, but so did other countries. A good
example is Japan’s Hideaki Inaba at 114-pounds bodyweight. No
one could dethrone him at the world championships. He would
eventually win about 18 IFP World Championships being the first
to lift 10 times bodyweight. There should be only a few in the Hall
of Fame, and Mr. Inaba would be one such man.
Another unique lifter was the King of England, Ron
Collins. No one could touch him at 181-pounds bodyweight, as he
was always breaking world records regularly. There was talk about
a catchweight contest between Larry P, the 198-pound King Pin,
and Ron, but it never happened. Louie did not care. Louie knows
there is room for more than one when it comes to powerlifting
immortals.
Westside’s house reaches around the world, and one giant
of the iron game was and will always be Gerry McNamara of
Ireland. Westside is very proud to have Gerry as one of its own.
He would dominate the world from 132 pounds to 165 pounds
internationally. His world record squat at 132-pounds bodyweight
is still 749 pounds. He held the 148-pound bodyweight record in
the squat at 808 pounds, and the 165-pound bodyweight record at
903 pounds.
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 Gerry would become Ireland’s first World Champion at
123-pounds bodyweight at the IPF Worlds in 1988. He also won
IPF Best Lifter, the WPC Best Lifter, and the GPC Best Lifter.
Louie and Gerry have been friends in person since 1991
when Gerry came to Westside. Gerry may not know it, but it was
such an honor for Gerry to visit Westside with his friend, Andy.
Gerry saw how to use bands and even came up with the idea of
putting a set of bands in front of the mono-lift so the lifter would
have to fight against them, pulling him forward.
Westsiders say, “Sometimes you win, and sometimes you
lose.” This could not be truer than when Gerry lost his 148 record
and the 165 record in the squat to his Columbus teammates as the
years would go by. Gerry gives Louie and the Westside boys a
lot of credit for his success, but Westside will always hold Gerry
and his Irish training partners in the highest esteem. But more
important than lifting, Louie says, is their friendship, which spans
more than thirty years.
One other monster who comes to mind is Eddie Coppin
of Belgium. Eddie pulled 826 pounds at 186-pounds bodyweight.
His favorite special exercise for the deadlift was the front squat.
The 826-pound lift broke the great Walter Thomas’s record. Louie
never forgot where special exercises came from.
Eddie had his sights on lifting
legend Ed Coan, and he had a good
start until it ended. Unfortunately,
Eddie is no longer with us, but he
will never be forgotten at Westside
Barbell.
Walter Thomas
Thinking of Walter Thomas,
he was one of the unreal lifters
from the USA. He was exceptional
in the early days making 10 times
bodyweight, which Louie believes he
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was the heaviest to do so at the time. Walter was truly a gentleman.
In his early days, he dropped out of high school, like many, but the
Army helped turn his life around.
Walter entered the Army in 1963 and made his life about
serving the United States government. He became a major before
his retirement, and was then selected for the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel.
The powerlifting world took notice when Walter first
totaled 1650 pounds at 165-pounds bodyweight. He won world
championships in the IPF, and he deadlifted a world record 821
pounds while also contending with a bad back. He won a world or
national championship for 25 straight years.
When Louie first met Walter, he remembers what a
gentleman he was and Walter’s strong, positive opinion about
serving the United States of America. What a legend.
The Two Strongest Powerlifters
and Bench Pressers
When asked to name the two strongest powerlifters from
before supportive gear was used, Louie said if he was forced to
name only two, the first would be Larry P with a 1900-pound total
at 198-pounds bodyweight and a two-hour weigh-in. The second
would be Jon Cole at 286-pounds bodyweight, who totaled 2370
pounds (905-585-885).
One of the best benchers was Jim Williams. He benched
675 pounds when only six men could do 600 pounds. The next
highest was 617 pounds by Pat Casey. The second-best bencher
would be Ted Arcidi, who benched 600 pounds for nine reps in a
t-shirt.
There were so many strong men in the 1980s. And, it
seemed to Louie that most of them were in his weight class. But
maybe Louie was a little paranoid … just a little.
Louie was always reading and learning how to become
stronger or make someone in the gym stronger. Back in the 1960s
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and 1970s, there were exercises known as the basics. The Zercher
Lift is among Louie’s most-used exercises for the squat and
deadlift.
Ed Zercher made it famous when doing odd lift
competitions. The barbell would be placed on the floor, and the
lifter would squat down and lift the bar off the floor with the bar
held in his elbows. Bob Barnett, a 165-pound prisoner who used
the Zercher Lift to break world-record deadlifts, could do five reps
with 395 pounds in the Zercher Lift. This produced a 675-pound
deadlift.
A second special exercise was the Goodmorning. Bruce
Randall, a lifter and later a bodybuilder, broke his leg severely
and could no longer train the squat. But he found that he could
do a power Goodmorning. The Goodmorning was done with an
arched back. After some time, he found he could do an arched back
Goodmorning and then drop down into a parallel squat. Bruce
pushed his bodyweight up to close to 400 pounds and could do
a power Goodmorning with 750 pounds while dropping into a
parallel squat. This special exercise made it possible for Bruce to
start bodybuilding after going on a diet, and eventually, he won the
Mr. Universe contest.
Both Bob Barnett and Bruce Randall inspired Louie to use
both special exercises to make a Top 10 lift for 34 years.
Louie was also fascinated by two men, Bill Good and Paul
Anderson, doing the Hip Lift. They would use a special harness
to attach it to a large weight and lift it with their leg strength. Paul
would Hip Lift a safe that weighed 3400 pounds every day. Paul’s
legs and hips were amazing, and his squat was out of this world.
He could squat 1160 in a bathing suit with no shoes. He would
also walk with 2000 pounds across his shoulders. This was in the
1950s, but it led Louie to do Belt Squats.
Belt Squats are different from Hip Lifts in that the belt with
the chain attached to the weight plates would hold the weight in
front of the lifter instead of the weight being at the center mass of
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the lifter. The Belt Squat was just like squatting, but without a bar
on the back. The special belt placed almost all the work on the legs.
Louie got the idea by watching Paul Anderson do Goodmornings
with a six-inch-wide strap held across the thighs to put all the work
on the back and not the legs to totally isolate the back muscles.
Louie used ideas from Bob Peoples, the famous deadlifter
from Johnson City, Tennessee. Bob would do many special exercises
from rack and box deadlifts to a special harness for Goodmornings
at different positions on the back. Perhaps Bob’s most innovative
device was a spinning table he used for developing centrifugal force.
When he reached a sticking point in his training, he used it to reach
new records.
Louie talks about a “deadlift only” competition that was held
in honor of Bob Peoples called the Night of the Living Deadlifts.
Yes, it was held at night. For years the meet director had called
Louie asking him to send a team to compete. One year the director
called Louie, and Louie finally said, “Yes, we will lift in your meet.”
Louie had his four top deadlifters go. Their best lifts were
915, 900, 875, and 860 pounds. Well, at the end of the day, the
Westside team members won the top four places. And on top of
that, the one woman from Westside, Nikki Anderson, wife of Jake
Anderson, pulled 512 pounds to win the Women’s Division.
The meet was canceled the next year. Sometimes you get
what you ask for, but that does not always mean you will like the
results.
Louie would use many old, but proven, special exercises for
Westside to win national and world titles or world records. But this
was just part of Westside’s success.
By 1982 Louie had broken his lower back twice and tore off
his right bicep completely. It was time for a change in training. Louie
looked to the Soviets for new methods. The Soviets used sports
scientists to work alongside their top athletes and coaches. The
Eastern Bloc countries in the 70s, such as East Germany, Poland,
Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, as well as North Korea and China,
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were defeating the United States with ease. Louie had to know how
they were doing it in almost all sports. He figured that someone must
have translated the material into English. Louie somehow found Bud
Charniga in Livonia, Michigan, who had several “classroom books”
as Bud called them by these sports scientists. Louie bought all the
books starting with the yearbooks, then the Fundamentals of Special
Strength. But what was special strength? Louie had never heard of
“special strength,” just strength.
Louie would soon learn about all special methods of training,
starting with Maximal Effort (M-E) training. Without knowing it at
the time, M-E training was already a large part of Westside’s training
methodology.
But now Louie and the guys also started to train for speed
strength where the bar velocity was intermediate. Speed strength is
training between 75 percent and 85 percent. This made up 50 percent
of the barbell training. This information came from data collected
from 780 high-skilled weightlifters, according to A. D. Ermakov and
N. S. Atanasov.
Louie had never considered the number of reps per set or the
number of lifts at a certain percentage of a one-rep max until after
reading the research of A. S. Prilepin, who was the Russian Junior
Coach from 1975 to 1980, and then became the Senior Coach from
1980 to 1985. Prilepin used his data gathered from 1974 to lead the
Russians to many world records.
The data led to having very high barbell training on speed
strength days for the bench, squat, and deadlift. Seventy-two hours
later, an M-E workout was used to build maximal strength. Through
the use of the data, Louie kept 80 percent of the volume on both the
days where small special exercises were intended to build strength
in a single joint such as low back, hamstrings, triceps, and deltoids
along with raising general physical preparation (GPP).
People would ask Louie, “Why do you think GPP is so
important for lifting?”
Louie would ask that person, “How much did you deadlift
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the first time you deadlifted?”
The average reply was 315 pounds.
Then Louie would ask, “How did you deadlift 315 pounds
without ever doing a deadlift before?”
The simple answer is GPP. What a recipe: Mixing the old
proven exercises with the scientifically proven methodologies from
the Soviet Union!
To this day, Louie says he owes everything to the older
American lifters who had developed many special exercises to
increase the classical lifts as well as to the men from the Soviet
Union who laid out a system of means and methods of modeling in
the management of training. There are too many to name. And Louie
would want to apologize to any of the great Soviet scientists who are
not listed below (but he isn’t authoring this book, is he):
A. Berger
C. Bosco
L. S. Dvorkin
P. Komi
V. Kuznetsov
N. P. Laputin
A. N. Medvedev
V. G. Oleshko
R. Roman
M. Siff
Y. V. Verkhoshansky
A. Vorobyev
M Yessis
V. Zatsiorsky
Louie asked Dr. Mel Siff why the Americans did not want
to use the Soviet training methods. Dr. Siff said he thought it was
because many Americans thought it was just those “Commie
bastards” trying to trick us.
It was sad to say, but Louie thought that answer made sense.

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 Chapter 8
A New Lifting Life:
Teaching

Louie had found a new lifting life. Now, he was teaching

the second generation. He was perfecting the Soviet methods
and producing world-record results. Over the years, the Westside
System would produce at least 20 world record holders in a 15-
mile radius of the famous Westside Barbell Gym. There were
groups from across Columbus, but the Gahanna Group and the
Newark Boys stand out.
The Gahanna Group
The Gahanna Group was a hard-training group of guys.
One of them, Mark Boda, a big, strong kid, but not championship
level, would move on to professional wrestling, but the travel
schedule turned out to be too much. In the gym, Mark was
extremely quiet and actually never said a word.
One day a group of coaches came to learn the Westside
System. One of the coaches was from Liberty University and
had said a prayer for all the Westside guys. Louie had already
apologized in advance for anything the coaches saw or heard, but
by then, Dave Williams had said the prayer before training started.
Louie had to train, so he asked Mark to explain what was going on.
Louie was worried about Mark being able to talk to the
coaches because, well, he never talked, but he still thought Mark
was the best choice. But this day, Mark opened his mouth, and he
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talked non-stop for the entire workout.
When it was done, Louie looked at Mark and said, “What
the hell? You never say a word.”
Mark said, “I’ve taken ephedrine.”
Louie asked, “How many?”
Mark said, “Twenty-five pills.”
“Holy hell, Mark,” Louie said, “No wonder you could not
stop talking.”
No one knew the second member’s name. He was just
called Gonzo, and he was fuckin’ crazy all the time.
Louie recalls a meet in Canton, Ohio, where his teammates
Joe McCoy was benching. Joe’s bench shirt blew, and the side
spotter jumped back out of fear. Gonzo jumped in to take the
weight off Joe when the side ref jumped off his chair and grabbed
Gonzo by the shirt and ripped it off Gonzo.
Dave “Zippy” Tate jumped in and ripped the ref’s shirt
while pushing him away. “Never touch one of our guys again,” he
said.
This was just a warm-up for things to come.
Gonzo was deadlifting and was turned down on his opener
by the same ref who ripped his shirt. When Gonzo got red lights,
he said, “Fuck!”
The ref said, “If you say that again, you are out of the
meet.”
Of course, he missed his second lift, but he said nothing.
On the third, he missed it again and just stood there with
his face as red as a beat, just staring at the head ref.
Louie yells, “Say it, say it.”
And Gonzo yells as loud as he can, “Fuck!!”
It was funny as hell, at least to the Westside guys.

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 The next lifter from Gahanna was Daryl Mayo, a second-
generation lifter. He would become reasonably strong, but was
prone to injuries, and did not last long.
The top prize, Joe McCoy, had the most talent among the
Gahanna guys. He was far ahead of others his age. He would win
the Teenage WPC Worlds, and then placed second to his older
teammates, the very strong Arnold Coleman at the 1995 WPC
Worlds. He won the 1994 Senior APE Nationals with Colman in
second place. Westside was in total control at the Senior Nationals
and WPC Worlds.
Joe met Doris, Louie’s wife, in Italy at the WPC Worlds,
but Doris did not realize Joe lifted in the same meet. Too much
wine Louie said.
What was most amazing was how Joe was able to see any
flaws in any technique, but it shouldn’t be surprising. Louie trained
the lifters not only to lift, but also to coach each other.
Joe was a fun guy, always saying things that got under
other people’s skin. Once Dave Zippy Tate was box squatting and
having a hard time. To make matters worse, someone said, “Zip,
you need to take a mat off your box.”
Dave replied that if anyone took a mat off his box, he
would hit them in the mouth.
So, of course, Joe took a mat off the box as Zippy was
going down. Well, Zippy barely got back up. After he racked the
weight, Zippy got really Zippy-fied and went crazy, wanting to kill
someone … and it did not matter who. Louie was laughing so hard
he could not defend himself no matter what. As usual, Zippy finally
calmed down, and after training, everyone went out to eat.
Joe was at it again on squat day when Big Bill was having
a hard time squatting. At the time, no one knew Big Bill, all 330
pounds of him, had an inner ear disorder that was causing him
severe balance problems. It did not help that there was loud music
playing. Big Bill continued to lose his balance and miss each squat.

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Joe just had to fuck with him every time he missed. Joe did not
know how mad Big Bill was getting, but knowing Joe, he also
did not care. After the workout, Big Bill told Louie in a very calm
but sinister voice, “Someday I am going to kill that Joe McCoy.”
Happy to say it didn’t happen.
Louie and Joe were talking to Willie Williams at a bench
meet. As usual, Willie had a mouth full of chew, and they could not
understand a word he was saying.
Joe turns to Lou and says, “Translation, please?”
Well, there was nothing wrong with Willie’s hearing, and it
was quite evident that Willie did not like what Joe just said.
“Later,” said Lou.
Joe walked off, thankfully, so Louie and Joe could live
another day.
Joe always seemed relatively calm when training. But, one
day, Joe had broken up with his long-time girlfriend, and when
Joe laid down on the bench, he could see the picture of her that
was taped on the ceiling. As he looked up, he said, “Oh, that was a
good one.”
Joe had to stop lifting due to a lasting stomach infection
that ended his lifting career far too soon. Years later, Joe became a
cop in Columbus. A man had killed two policemen in West Virginia
and had gotten away. He came to Columbus and, sure enough, Joe
and his partner got into a gunfight with him. His partner was shot.
Joe caught up to the killer and shot him nine times.
The lesson here: don’t mess with Joe McCoy.
The Newark Boys
The Newark Boys were big and strong and a big part of the
Westside team.
There was Tim Harold, a 6’7”, 470-pound giant. He came
to the gym with a 700-pound deadlift, but he was stuck. Louie
thought Tim had weak glutes, because he would rip the weight
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off the floor, but could not lock it out. He needed a special barbell
exercise to activate the hips and glutes. The answer was an ultra-
wide Sumo deadlift where collars were put on the barbell so Tim
could use a much wider stance to make the lockout more difficult.
In one year, Tim pulled 805 pounds with a conventional stance and
854 pounds Sumo.
The ultra-wide Sumos also pushed Tim’s squat above 1000
pounds. Tim would pass out sometimes during heavy squats and
found it necessary to drop weight. It was smart on Tim’s part, and
he dropped his weight down to 300 pounds. He says he regrets
retiring, but he is very happy and healthy today.
Zack Cole was a teenager in the 242-pound class. He had
impeccable form in all three lifts. He box squatted 700 pounds of
bands plus 600 pounds of weight in just briefs.
Zack could say the wrong thing at the wrong time. One
night when Josh Gutridge was squatting, Zack was sitting on a
bench and would say something just as Josh would do his squat.
Josh told him to “shut the fuck up.”
Josh took his second squat, and Zack said something.
Again, Josh said, “Shut the fuck up.”
On the third set, Zack could not help himself and said
something as Josh finished the squat, but this time, Josh walked
over to Zack and slapped him so hard it knocked Zack off the
bench. Zack never said a word after that.
Speaking of Josh Gutridge, he was a big kid when he
came to Westside for the first time at 19 years old. He later told
Louie he was scared when he got to the parking lot, but made up
his mind to walk into Westside. He was very strong at 6’5”, and
after a while weighed above 360 pounds. He was the tenth person
to lift a 700-pound bench at the same meet Mike Brown made a
735-pound bench.
The rule for paying $700 for the first 700-pound bench was
in effect. This meant Fat Matt Smith would not be one, so Louie

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called Matt on the way home to let him know, and of course, to
harass him.
Josh’s work kept him from training like he should, so he
stopped and trained prison guards in self-defense. He dropped
weight to about 315 pounds and helped train new members at Nick
Showman’s Showtime Fitness. Josh also helps run power meets at
Showtime by announcing the meets.
Joe Bayles was a stocky 242-pounder and was very
powerful, doing over 1000 pounds in the squat, a 700-pound
bench, and an 800-pound deadlift. Joe still shows up at Westside to
do some training and to help new guys understand what Westside
truly is all about.

Like the Guns N Roses song says, “Welcome to the jungle,

watch it bring you to your knees, we wanna hear you scream.” To
this day, the Newark Boys are Westside to the death.

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 Chapter 9
Working with Coaches

As Westside gained fame, it was not overlooked by sports

coaches. Bill Gillespie started reading about Louie and his training
method in 1990 and thought of them as a secret weapon for
football.
Ken Johnson of the Green Bay Packers and Johnny Parker
of the Patriots spent time at Westside and gave Louie a picture
of the two of them shaking hands on the 1996 Super Bowl field.
Louie takes no credit for their work, but Louie and Ken Johnson
did make a DVD together when Ken was at Green Bay.
Many coaches would visit Westside to decrease injuries
and increase speed. After all, it’s all about strength and power
development. It works for all sports, including baseball and rugby,
and others that might not immediately come to mind.
In fact, Westside has been huge in rugby for years. Louie
was talking to the All Blacks in 1990. Today the Melbourne Storm
with Coach Dan DiPasqua uses the Westside System to guide the
team to championships. Dan comes to Westside from Australia to
learn and train. Dan even went to the Night of the Living Deadlift.
The meet was a seven and one-half hour drive from Columbus
to Johnson City, Tennessee, but Louie was high on NyquilR and
probably didn’t remember having Danny in the car with him.
(Louie has lots of rib pain, and the NyquilR gives him some relief.)
Some assistant coaches would come to Louie, making
$15,000 a year who would later become NFL coaches and athletic
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directors at major universities or highly paid personal trainers.
Training the NFL Combine
Louie was asked to train football players for the NFL
Combine. The first player was a 6’5”, 295-pound lineman from
Oklahoma State, a fifth-year senior. His 40-yard time was 5.4
seconds. They said if Louie could take a tenth off the time, the
player could sign with a team.
Louie asked, “How long do I have him?”
“Twenty-one days,” said the agent.
That’s not much time, but Louie’s periodization runs in
three-week waves, so Louie was put to the test.
After 21 Combine days, the player was 305 pounds, a
13-pound gain, and ran a 5.1-second 40-yard dash. Three-tenths off
and 13 pounds heavier; it was easy. He trained about 12 linemen
over a few years averaging three-tenths off their 40-yard time.
Johnny Parker was staying at Westside when Louie worked
with a tight end from Ohio University. He was 6’4” and weighed
294 pounds with a 5.1 40-yard time. The agent said if Louie could
take a tenth off, Johnny would sign. Johnny said he could make a
lot of money because he could play both ways. After two months at
Westside during his pro day, the athlete ran a 4.7 forty, and his long
jump increased from 8’9” to 9’8”.
John Kerr from Ohio State signed with the Vikings, but
hurt his back and was cut. He came to Louie for rehab and tried out
for another team. On his pro day, John ran a 4.6 forty with a 38”
vertical jump. After training with Louie, John went to Houston for
a tryout and ran a 4.4 forty with a 44” vertical.
Training for the NFL Combine was so easy Louie found it
boring. With an average of reducing three-tenths for the forty while
increasing the vertical jump and adding reps to the 225-pound
bench test, he chose never to do it again. He told them how to do it,
and then it was up to them to try it. However, as a wise man once
said, you can give the key to the universe to one million people,
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but maybe one man will open the door.
The last group Louie would work with was four linemen
from the Big 10 and one player from the Mid-American
Conference (MAC) who trained the Westside System in high
school. Out of the five, three could not parallel box squat 400
pounds, and two could not bench 300 pounds.
One player was not spotting the other guys while squatting,
and Louie said to him, “Don’t you know how to spot?”
He answered, “No. We don’t have weights at our school,
just machines.”
That group spelled the end to NFL Combine training.
Of particular note, the player from the MAC had squatted
675 pounds in a high school power meet. After two years at Ohio
University, his squat was 525 pounds. After two months with
Louie, his squat was back to 675 pounds, and his box jump was
up seven inches. He then transferred to Iowa to train under Caris
Doyel, the head strength coach who came to Westside years before.
A Strength Coach’s Job
The main problem with strength coaches, according to
Louie, is that most played football, baseball, rugby, tennis, or some
other such sport and have no experience competing in Olympic
or powerlifting. Louie jokes about why he is not the head football
coach at Ohio State.
“After all,” he says, “It would be no different than a non-
lifter becoming the head strength coach.”
Louie would help train the Cleveland Browns in the late
1990s when Buddy Morris, a long-time major college and NFL
strength coach, was there. Buddy told Louie that at that time, they
only had a few players with championship abilities.
“Buddy,” Louie said, “That’s your job as a coach to
develop players with championship abilities.”
The important thing about a strength coach’s job, Louie
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says, is to build a stronger and more powerful player, not to build
on the player’s football skills.
Here’s an example: Louie watched Buddy run defensive
players backward, and while doing the drill, one of the players
stopped running and asked Buddy, “Why am I running backward?
I have been running backward since I was six years old.”
To Louie’s point, you cannot make a football player in the
weight room. After all, a team has more than a dozen special skills
coaches to make a football player a better football player.
Louie has seen it all. A coach said that he hates to see one
of his players go to Westside to train because when the athlete
returns, they are stronger, faster, and more powerful. Louie thinks
this coach should resign and work on an assembly line where
nothing changes.
Louie recalls going to the Browns to help the team in any
way he could. Butch Davis came up to Louie and gave him a big
hug and thanked Louie for his work. Louie knew then that the
Browns were in trouble, and he could not change the culture at the
Browns. Soon after, Coach Davis was near a nervous breakdown
and resigned from the team in mid-season.
Coaching is a high-stress job—knowing you can get fired at
any time—and the coach is always looking for a better job.
Why Pro Players Choose Westside
Many pro players come to Westside to improve their game.
An offensive lineman from the Raiders visited for a three-day
workout. After three days, he broke his standing long jump. This
lineman was in his fifth season, but somehow long-jumped his best
ever. How? Is Louie that good, or are the coaches that bad? Louie
had the lineman squat with weights plus bands for Accommodating
Resistance. He also did long jumps with a band around his body
that was released as he jumped. The lineman would write his thesis
on this subject when he continued his education after football.
A rugby player came to Westside from Australia after being

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cut from his team. After a month at Westside, he returned home
and captained the World Cup team.
This is a typical story that an athlete comes to Westside
because he or she is slipping, but after Westside, the athlete regains
their physical prowess and continues their sports career.

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 Chapter 10
Great Athletes, Louie
and Westside

Many great athletes, MMA fighters Kevin Randleman and

Mark Coleman, for example, come to Westside to add to their
sports repertoire.
Kevin Randleman
Kevin Randleman trained with Louie one-on-one while
winning the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Kevin was known
as “The Monster” for his physique and powerful fighting style.
A football player at Ohio State told Louie about Kevin
going into an after-hours club in Columbus. There was a street
gang drinking inside. One of the gang members came up to Kevin,
not knowing who he was, and started a fight. Kevin landed an
uppercut and knocked the guy out. Then, the group of six or seven
jumped on Kevin. He began to beat the hell out of all of them. The
football player who was from East St. Louis said he had seen a
gang beat up a man, but that was the first time he had seen a man
beat up a gang.
Kevin would ask Louie to tie up with him, but not once did
he hurt Louie … thank goodness.
Mark “The Hammer” Coleman
Later, Louie met Kevin’s buddy, Mark “The Hammer”
Coleman. Mark was one of the most intense humans Louie ever
met. Louie was asked to talk with Mark, so he went to Mark’s
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house. After getting there, the conversation started out nice and
calm, but as they talked, Mark got a crazy look in his eyes and
started rocking back and forth. Louie found a reason to leave.
A month later, Mark wanted to talk to Louie again, so
Louie visited Mark, and the same thing happened. Mark looked
like he wanted to kill someone, and Louie was the only one there.
A few months later, Louie was doing a Supertraining
Seminar with Dr. Mel Siff. Kevin was on the main card next door,
so after the seminar, Louie ran next door to see Kevin fight. He had
won in the first minute, however, so Louie missed the fight, but he
saw Mark and went over to say hello.
Mark saw Louie, came over, and gave Louie a hug. He
told Louie about the fight and then started talking about his young
daughters. He was so emotional
that he was almost crying. Louie
had seen both sides of Mark’s
extreme personality and believes
that is why Mark “The Hammer”
Coleman was UFC Heavyweight
Champion as well as the Pride
Grand Prix Champ and one of the
“baddest” men on Earth.
Mark Bell and the Goalie
The backup goalie for United Manchester was another great
athlete who came to Westside. He stayed for about six months
and was one of the greatest all-around athletes to walk through
the doors. He trained with the original two-time loser, Mark Bell,
while preparing for the WWE. Mark runs Super Training Gym and
invented the Sling Shot. Mark could not keep up with the goalie,
be it training or drinking.
The goalie got drunk while staying with Mark and his wife
and passed out in the only bathroom to the displeasure of Mark’s
wife. Mark has not only a gym but also a powerlifting magazine.
Mark is one of Westside’s famous alumni and one with a powerful
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personality.
Butch Reynolds
Butch Reynolds, an Olympic champion and former world
record holder in the 400-meter, was black-balled from track
competition after they said he didn’t pass his drug test. Years later,
the results were overturned, and Butch won a large amount of
money that he was never paid. It set a precedent that no one could
sue the Olympic Committee.
After the suit was settled, Butch wanted to redeem himself
and asked Louie to help him get ready for the 1996 Olympics in
Atlanta, Georgia. With only six months of training time, Butch
qualified for the Olympics at the trials with a 43.63, as Louie
recalls. He was to train 18 times from the trials to the Olympics,
but he only showed up at Westside six times. At the Olympics,
Butch pulled a hamstring—something Louie had previously helped
him fix—but with only six workouts, Butch was not fit to run.
After the Olympics, when Butch and his brother came to
Westside, Louie said, “Butch, why did you only train six weight
workouts when I told you to train 18 times?”
Butch said, “I thought it would be too much.”
Louie said, “It was not too much before the trials!”
More than 20 years later, Louie still talks to Butch as he
trains sprinters in Columbus.
Moe Robinson
Louie worked with Moe Robinson, a female Olympic gold
medal winner in the 4 by 400 meter. She was very powerful not only
with running, but also in the Westside weight room. The training
was identical to how Louie trained Butch. The men and women train
only one way, so Louie did the same for Moe. The only difference in
running is that a woman cannot accelerate for as long a time as her
male counterpart. This means that for women, she must train a more
significant portion of the sled work on acceleration.
Moe’s training at Westside led to a model for training
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women to sprint. Two athletes who became very important to
Louie were 15-year-old girls.
Shalon Conley
Shalon loved school and would graduate from high school
and go on to Columbia. She was very polite, very powerful, and
could jump onto a 55-inch box easily. But after going to Columbia,
she slowed down, and her box jump lost height down to 42 inches.
At one point, she gained weight. Louie wrote to the head track
coach and asked what happened to her power because she could
run faster and jump higher at Westside Barbell, a powerlifting
gym. Shalon graduated from Columbia and became a jet engineer.
Shalon and Louie are still close to this day.
Kylie Goldsmith
Shalon’s training partner, Kylie, was just the opposite of
Shalon. Kylie did not like school, and after graduating high school
and going on to college, she left two of them. She left Miami
of Ohio after she fractured her shin, jumping off a 36-inch box.
The track coach knew zero about sprinting. This was proven by
the fact that he would have her run 10 200 meters in a workout.
She then joined the Ohio State team. Again, she would suffer a
severe injury by tearing her Achilles tendon after a one hour and
five-minute warm-up.
Louie could not believe it; a warm-up of over an hour.
This was too much. Louie asked the coach how he trained his
talented girls compared to the less talented girls. The coach said
he taught both groups the same. At that point, Louie told Kylie she
should drop track and find a private sprint coach. He thought she
should find a coach who could teach proper running technique to
match her incredible strength and power. After all, she was training
at the strongest gym in the world under Louie’s guidance, and it
showed. He hooked Kylie up with Dr. Romanoff of Pose Method
Running. She had never been taught how to run correctly. This
would be a mistake.
Kylie is what Westside is all about. She goes to all of
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Westside’s power meets and spends a lot of time with Louie going
over training strategies or just going out to eat. Time will tell how
far crazy Kylie can go in the world of sprinting.
Carlos Carvalho
Visitors come to Westside from all over the world—from
China to Brazil. One Brazilian was Carlos Carvalho, a second-
degree black belt in Jujitsu who worked with many UFC fighters.
One such fighter was Matt Brown, who trained at Westside for his
strength and conditioning along with his other fight coaches.
Carlos was a funny guy. When he first came to train, Louie
had him pull a weight sled six trips of 180 feet.
Carlos said, “Wow, that was a good workout.”
Louie said, “Are you kidding? That’s just a warm-up.”
Carlos could not believe his ears. He had never worked out
with weights before.
Carlos was the cameraman for the “Westside Vs. The
World” documentary and spent a lot of time at Westside. With his
weight training, Carlos won a lot of matches with his new-found
strength.
Somehow thanks to Tom Barry, who runs the company side
of Westside Barbell, Carlos had to submit Louie in one minute, or
Louie would be declared the winner. Then at a power meet where
Carlos was filming, he was talking to a large group of people about
how he had one minute to submit Louie.
Louie overhead the conversation and said, “No, Carlos. I
have one minute to submit you.”
At this, Carlos said, “Louie just won!”
Louie tells a story about the time he was in the office, and
four customers were buying merchandise from Tom Barry. Carlos
busts in the door with a guy and starts yelling, “The mother fucker
is fucking my sister.” Everyone just stood there as Carlos kept
going on about what this guy was doing to his sister. Well, as it

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turned out, this guy was his brother-in-law. But, of course, that
was just a diversion to attack Louie. Louie got lucky, and body-
slammed Carlos on the office couch. Yes, it seemed Carlos would
somehow always get Louie in a chokehold.
Carlos is a world traveler, and after filming the Westside
story, he was off to his home country Brazil for a while. Carlos was
also a big part of Matt “The Immortal” Brown’s life as his Jiu Jitsu
coach. But most of all, he set the fight strategy for Matt’s UFC
fights. Lots of fighters from Brazil come to Westside to learn the
system in fight preparation.
The Bulgarian Doc
One fascinating man who paid Westside a visit was the
doctor “Doc” for the famous Bulgarian Olympic Weightlifting
Team. Doc and Louie talked about the difference between the
Bulgarian system and the Westside system that had just dominated
the WPO Championships.
Doc said the Bulgarian training system is the best of all
training systems, and in one way, he was right. Their method
was based on the Russian system first formulated by Russian
sports scientists like I. P. Zhekov along with Felix Verikovsky
and also N. I. Luchin, who was known as the father of the Soviet
weightlifting technique.
Doc told Louie how the Bulgarian sports machine first
started to train younger and younger boys with weightlifting to
develop strength and technique. This led to bringing aboard Nain
Suleymanoglu, known as the pocket Hercules, the youngest man at
16-years-old to clean and jerk three times bodyweight. Nain was in
the main weightlifting camp at 10 ½ years old. Their system was
to train only a model weightlifter, meaning one with perfect height,
limb length, and bodyweight.
The Bulgarian max was based on a day-by-day max that
would account for doing 4,000 max lifts a year compared to
the 600 max efforts the Russians and also Westside calculates.
The Bulgarians limit the special exercises due to having model
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weightlifters who can make progress with mostly the classical lifts.
They, too, do special pulls and squats, but little work on single-
joint exercises like back raises. Like all weight training systems,
they would continuously work on increasing total volume by using
more lifts in the 90 percent and above range.
When Louie asked about the negative part of their
training, Doc said that would be a mental breakdown, not physical
breakdown.
Doc told a story about a track girl who was doing jump
squats with 310 pounds until failure, then box jumping starting on
a 42-inch box until she was only able to jump on a 24-inch box.
After she finished, the coach had her power snatch 132 pounds.
One time she missed and the bar hit her head.
As she lay on the ground, others said she hurt her head.
To that, the coach replied, “I don’t care about her head. I am
worried about her legs.”
That was the theory of the head coach Ivan Abadjiev. He
would become Coach of the Century in 2000. Unlike other coaches,
he had the athletes spend most of their training time lifting at over 90
percent of a one-rep max. He coached 12 Olympic champs, 57 world
champs, and 64 European champs. His contribution to weightlifting
may never be duplicated regardless of the way many felt about
his methods. If he had an advantage, it was a steady flow of top
weightlifters continually coming to the program. Doc told Louie
many lifters would not even unpack their bags because they were
afraid about the extreme workload.
The Westside System Mentors
Louie said he wished he had a similar situation to pick and
choose from where a set number of powerlifters would run through
Westside. Just the sheer volume of lifters would raise the odds of
success. But the reality is that Louie was taking in young lifters
starting at 14 years of age while at the same time other lifters
would move to be close to Westside. The result was that over time,
within a 15-mile radius of the gym, 20 lifters held world records
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produced through their work at Westside.
The Westside system is a combination of the Soviet-style
training and the Bulgarian system developed by Ivan Abadjiev. Y.
V. Verkhoshansky and D. L. Dvorkin and a very few others who
also influenced Louie. But he never forgets his first mentors were
Larry Pacifico, George Crawford, Vince Anello, and Gerry Bell,
all from Ohio. Additionally, the first Westside system before there
was a Westside system in Columbus, Ohio, was the Culver City
Westside Barbell Club. It was the articles by Bill West, George
Frenn, Pat Casey, and Joe Dimarco that paved a path for Louie to
follow to realize his goals. It was the Culver City Boys who taught
the box squat and rack work. It was Bill Starr, who was very good
at Olympic lifting and powerlifting who wrote the article, “If you
want a deadlift, don’t deadlift.”
Years later, Louie still thinks how these men and others
paved the way for Louie, who then passed it along to the guys at
Louie’s Westside Barbell.

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 Chapter 11
Paying Tribute to the Men
Who Freely Gave Advice

Many men deserve special mention in this book. These men

freely gave Louie information on how to become strong over the
years. Here are a few of their stories.
Sakari Selkäinaho
One such man was
Sakari Selkainaho from
Finland. Sakari was the
strength leader for Finland’s
powerlifting team. He would
come to Westside in the early
1990s to train under Louie and
the guys.
Sakari’s bench was 369 pounds when arriving at Westside.
When he returned home, it had gone up to 435 pounds at
148-pounds bodyweight, and he would win the WPC Worlds.
He was one of the most informed about strength training
with whom Louie would ever converse. Many of the world’s best
deadlifters live in Finland, and many are lumberjacks by trade. At
the time, lumberjacks in Finland had one thing in common—they
would pull the logs to the main road by hand. They used several
methods to do so. They would walk with the tow strap over the
shoulder, walk backward or even pull the strap between their legs.
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 This style of work would, of course,
build the leg and back muscles, as well
as strengthen the hands, and we know it
takes strong hands to pull big deadlifts.
One lumberjack won a local deadlift meet
and was selected to lift for the national
team, but while training with the team,
his deadlift of 727 pounds at 220-pounds
bodyweight did not go up. It was the
lumberjack form of GPP that produced his
deadlift.
Sakari is well-read and speaks
five languages making it possible for him to talk to many strength
coaches not only about powerlifting but track and field training,
a sport with which Louie is fascinated. Sakari talked to Boris
Sheiko, the renowned Russian powerlifting coach, and received
good insight on how Boris would train his lifters to win world
championships and establish many world records.
Sakari is one of those special men who can gather
information and then put it forth in a manner that causes one to
make gains where they had not made gains in an extended period.
Whenever Louie needs to confirm something, it is Sakari’s number
he looks for. Sakari also helped Louie in producing his first two
books, The Bench Press Manual and The Squat and Deadlift
Manual. Sakari also helped Louie create the Special Strength
Manual for All Sports.
Louie will always be grateful to Sakari for all his help.
Boris Sheiko
Over the years there have been many great men come to
visit Louie and Westside Barbell. One such man was Boris Sheiko.
When touring the United States, Boris stopped in and had breakfast
with Louie before going to the Westside gym to watch training and
trade training ideas.

137
 Their training is very
different in Russian. Westside
trains with the barbell 20
percent of the time, and
small special exercises make
up 80 percent of Westside’s
training. The Sheiko method
is to do the classical lifts—
sometimes three times a
week—without many special exercises.
Louie asked Boris about the Goodmorning exercise. Boris
does many Goodmornings, but he uses moderate weights while the
Westside Boys go very heavy. Vlad and Burly Hawk both worked
up to 865 pounds in the bend-over Goodmorning.
Boris was very interested in the Reverse HyperTM and the
A.T.P.TM belt squat. He had asked Sakari about the training devices
and if they were effective. To that, Sakari said, “Most definitely.”
Boris went to Ashland College to do a talk for one of
Louie’s old friends, Jud Logan, a four-time Olympian in the
Hammer Throw. During the presentation, Boris said he would like
to take Westside back to Russia, which felt like a huge compliment
to Louie.
During breakfast, Boris’ interpreter and Louie were having
a friendly argument about Olympic weightlifting and whether
strength and power or technique is more important. Louie said
strength and power while Boris’ interpreter said technique.
Boris, who speaks no English, asked what they were
discussing. After learning about the debate, he relayed a story
about his visit to Bulgaria in 1996 while working with the
Olympic weightlifters. As the story goes, they watched a light-
weight Bulgarian doing some snatches and observed how bad his
technique was. He and his comrades decided the Russians had
nothing to worry about at the European championships in two
months.
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 Boris continued that at the championships, their Russian
lifter started his snatches with an easy first attempt with perfect
technique. Then, he moved on to his second attempt, which he
missed and then missed his third as well. Now, out comes the
Bulgarian with his heavier first attempt. He makes an ugly snatch
for three white lights. Then, he moves up and makes a good second
and then a good third attempt. Boris said strength and power are
more important.
Boris thanked Louie for being such a gracious host as he
and his entourage were about to leave. He also gave Louie a copy
of his book. But it was Louie who was utterly amazed and honored
that someone like Boris, who is a leader in his particular field,
would visit him.
Sometimes Louie thinks, “When will it end?” But it seems
it will never end as long as Louie continues to push the envelope
when it comes to training methods and new training devices that
make new strength goals possible and reduce injuries.
Jud Logan
Louie met Jud Logan at a seminar at Westside. The two
of them had a discussion about Jud’s hammer throwing and how
at one point, his progress stopped. At the time, his power-clean,
squat, incline, and even his push jerk behind the head were
stronger than ever, yet his throws had stagnated. He had been
talking to some former East Germans, and they told him he had to
increase his box jumping. Jud figured he had nothing to lose, so
he concentrated on pushing up his box jumping. Then, as his box
height went up, his throws began to increase as well. He was able
to box jump on a 56-inch box for a few sets of five reps.
To his credit, Jud competed in four Olympics. He now
coaches at Ashland College and still sees Louie on occasion.
Jamaican Track Strength Coach
The key to Louie’s ability to help all athletes is that he can
learn something from anybody.
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 Louie had just done a seminar with 76 people on a Saturday
and was in the gym on Sunday to work out when a jacked-up dude
came walking through the door. It was the strength coach for one
of the top track teams in Jamaica.
Louie had a good talk with him about working out.
Louie asked him if he measured the distance his sprinters could
accelerate or hold their top speed. The coach said no. He said he
never thought about it. Louie told him he had a way to measure it
and increase it.
He told the coach to have a sprinter sprint for a set time—
say six seconds. Then, he should measure the distance the sprinter
covered in that six seconds. Next, he should repeat the six-second
sprint and set the goal to cover more distance in the same six
seconds time limit. If the athlete increases the distance by one-half
meter, he or she would have increased the acceleration phase by
that one-half meter.
Louie told him that he can do the same thing at longer
distances. If the athlete can cover a longer distance, he or she has
progressed to top speed maintenance.
It was a great conversation, and Louie learned some secrets
for sprinting and safe running practices. The coach, after using the
Westside Reverse Hyper®, Athletic Training Platform® (A.T.P.) and
Inverse Curl®, purchased all three so his track team could use them
to prepare for the next Olympics.
Louie believes it is crucial to exchange information
whenever you get the chance … however,
Louie knows you learn nothing when talking!
Dr. Mel Siff
If one man was responsible for Louie’s full understanding
of the Soviet System and combining it with the Westside System,
that man would be Dr. Mel Siff.
Mel, like Louie, was fascinated with strong men and
how they became strong. He was born in South Africa, and his
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 father, Dr. Isadore Siff, was also
interested in strength training and
followed the exploits of Louis Cyr,
George Hackenschmidt, and Eugene
Sandow. Once Mel was grown, he was
hooked on learning about becoming
stronger. He read books on track
and field and Olympic weightlifting.
He attended Marist Brothers College
in South Africa, and then in 1960, studied at the University of the
Witwatersrand (“Wits”). He began to understand that sports and
science must be joined together to reach the top level of sports.
Mel was well-traveled, which led to meeting the great
Olympic weightlifter Serge Reding, who showed Mel how to plan
jumps, bounding, weight training, and even restoration methods.
Mel visited Russia, where he met Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky,
who is most famous for his research in shock training, also known
as plyometrics. They became friends.
Mel’s understanding that sports and science must be
joined and his realization about how little the Western coaches
knew about programming and periodization brought about the
book Supertraining. However, the book’s first name was The
Biomechanics and Physiology of Sport Specific Strength Training.
Supertraining was a combination of the works of Siff and
Verkhoshansky. Today, Supertraining is still the bible of special
strength training.
Dr. Siff was very critical of everyone in the US, but he
was fascinated by Louie and the methods of training he practiced
at Westside Barbell. He was very interested in Louie’s wave
periodization using three-week waves for speed strength with
weights ranging from 75 percent to 85 percent as well as explosive
strength using 30 percent to 40 percent in three-week waves.
He was equally interested in his Max Effort practice working up
to a new all-time record on a special barbell lift without any long-

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term planning—maybe deciding one hour before at breakfast—yet
was successful at over a 90 percent rate.
Yet, it was Louie’s Combinations of Resistance Training
that fascinated Mel the most. And this fascination led to Mel
coming to Westside to see firsthand how Louie had devised the use
of chains and rubber bands to cause maximum tension throughout
the entire range of motion.
Louie explained to Mel how chains provided
accommodating resistance (AC) with the correct method of
hooking the chains to the barbell. Louie said rubber bands would
not only provide AC, but the bands cause an over eccentric speed
effect and an increase in K-E that would lead to additional reversal
strength by generating a stronger deformation phase. The, the more
band tension, the greater the over-speed eccentric phase.
Louie explained that the second advantage to rubber bands
was controlling the type of special strength you desired. For
instance, after 18 months of experimenting, it was found by using
50, 55, and 60 percent barbell weight plus 25 percent band tension
at lockout, the lifter developed speed strength. By using more band
tension than the barbell weight, it would build strength speed. After
this, Mel was sold on what Louie was doing at Westside Barbell.
Supertraining is the bible of sport-specific strength training.
Besides Dr. Siff, Serge Reding, a powerhouse Olympic weightlifter
from Belgium, and Louie are the only men who are pictured in
Supertraining. Louie is there for his work with a Combination of
Resistance Methods. While books like Siff and Verkhoshansky’s
Supertraining and Zatsiorsky’s Science and Practice of Strength
Training name all methods of training, it was Louie who put all
the methods into a program that starts with three-week waves and
becomes a multi-year training system.
Louie convinced Mel that he could override the Golgi
organ reflex due to the extreme eccentric forces generated by large
amounts of band tension. Mel agreed and looked forward to using
force plates to prove Louie’s theory, but unfortunately, Dr. Mel
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Siff passed away. And Louie found the PhDs and their universities
would not commit to new ideas that would prove their outdated
work completely unvalued. This has proved correct not only on
AC, but also the topics of periodization, special exercises, and the
Conjugate System of Training. When Louie has college coaches
visit Westside, he is amazed at how little they know about the
science of special strength.
Before Mel passed, Louie would help him do seminars
focused on the information in Supertraining. From that time
together, Louie has fond memories of Mel, like when he would
bark like a small dog while in a store or restaurant. Two of Louie’s
favorite stories were when they were in Las Vegas doing a talk for
about 65 people from all over the world.
Mel was to start talking at 8 am sharp, but he was a no
show. Unfazed, Louie began presenting and had been talking for an
hour when Mel came flying in the door with his wife, who was in a
wheelchair. Mel gave the chair a push and came onstage. Without a
word to anyone, he started his presentation. Everyone was in shock
… except Louie. Louie knew how eccentric Mel was.
Meanwhile, Mel starts by saying, “You should not train
minimally.”
Louie said to himself, “That’s for pussies.”
Mel continued, “You should not train maximally.”
Louie thought to himself, “That’s what I always do.”
Then Mel, the person Louie knew to be smart and well
versed in all special strength training, said, “You should always
train optimally.”
Louie realized these were the most valuable words Mel
could ever say. After returning to Westside, he changed his training
volume to optimal. It was the most productive message Mel could
give Louie.
The next story was about how Louie and Mel were going
to talk at a university. The day before, Louie and the guys were
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squatting as usual, and Louie suggested they film the workout.
They were the only powerlifting team that had four men lifting
more than 900 pounds and two of them over 1000 pounds. Mel
was to talk about the unique physical qualities each man possessed.
Louie was last to squat and the only man over fifty years old who
could squat more than 900 pounds.
As the tape is running, you see Louie squatting, and Mel
starts by saying, “Let’s look at Louie Simmons. He is a moron.”
Everyone looks at Mel like they were thinking, “What’s
wrong with this guy.”
Mel continues, “Watch Louie box squat very strongly, then
he relaxes for 90 seconds and does the next set.”
No one noticed the background music was stuck and was
playing the same thing over and over.
Mel continues, “This is real concentration.”
Louie had no idea that the music was stuck, but was
entirely focused on performing a perfect squat. He later told Mel,
“The moron turned into a genius when it was time to squat.”
It was at that seminar that Mel had what was probably a
heart event. Mel said he was ok as Louie ran over to check on him,
but not long after Mel returned to his home in Colorado, he was
walking on his treadmill, suffered a heart attack and died.
The world of special strength and biomechanics lost a great
man. Mel’s death, of course, was a shock to Louie. Louie lost a
mentor and a close friend. Mel was open-minded about Louie’s
mixture of Soviet and Westside training.
May Mel Rest in Peace
Mel once told Louie that Supertraining would make 50 fake
experts in strength training. Louie believes Mel was right.

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 Richard Chow
Many people ask Louie the meaning of the five dots on the
back of his head. The person he has most enjoyed talking about it
with is his friend Richard Chow from New Zealand.
Highly educated, Richard earned a bachelor’s degree in
Osteopathy from London in 1995. He also earned a Masters in
Kinesiology from Texas Christian University in 2002, specializing
in motor control. Richard chose to visit Westside after hearing
Louie’s name at many seminars throughout the United States. He
comes to Westside twice a year to work on whoever needs help.
Richard also works on Louie, trying to keep him as healthy as
possible so he can train as long as possible.
Richard is of Chinese heritage, and he roams the Earth, like
Kwai Chang Caine, the main character in the 1970s television show
Kung Fu. Louie says this is not a joke; he walks everywhere he goes.
Richard says he thinks best while walking. Richard is one of many
who have played a role in the evolution of Westside Barbell.
While Richard was talking to Louie one day, he asked about
the five dots tattooed on the back of Louie’s head. Louie explained
that he has always been fascinated by Eastern culture and tradition.
The Buddhist and Shaolin monks have dots burned into their head
with incense. Three dots represent the Triple Gem of Buddhism,
which are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. To proclaim
devotion to these three things is to be a Buddhist. The next three
dots represent the three vows of Buddhists: one ridding themselves
of bad habits and evil thoughts, the other cultivating good ideas in
one’s mind and soul, and the third accumulating wisdom to help
alleviate the suffering of others. The master monks have three more
dots to signify the Buddhists’ training in morality, discipline and
concentration, and wisdom to become purer.
In that same manner, Louie said his five dots have dual
meanings. The first meaning to him is to signify how he was the first
to make five Elite Totals in five weight classes for five decades. The
second meaning is to represent power, speed, strength, endurance,
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and master of technique. In Louie’s mind, no one on Earth has the
same five dots that represent the categories, but him. Louie found
that to become a great teacher, one must first learn to be an open-
minded student.
Louie enjoys talking to Richard about his family in China
and how hard it was after the war. His parents overcame the odds to
become successful and started Richard on his road to realize his own
dreams. And one of those dreams was to visit Westside and Louie.
One of Louie’s dreams is to visit the Shaolin Temple, but he
wonders if maybe when he dies that his dream will come true.
Nicholas Romanov, PhD
One man who has spent a lifetime perfecting one thing
is Dr. Nicholas Romanov. Born, raised, and educated in Russia,
he was a high-level athlete—an accomplished high jumper. He
relocated to the United States in the early 1990s.
After being a high-jump champion himself, he coached
champions, conducted scientific research, and wrote two books
on technique and training after thinking there must be a complete
method to perfect running technique. Still, no such text on the
subject had been written. How can you improve your performance
and reduce injuries by increasing muscular elasticity? He said
one must recognize errors in your running style while developing
strength and flexibility.
His view on human locomotion as it relates to animal
locomotion is something to think about even though animals do
have two extra legs. Many credit The Pose Method for increasing
their long- and middle-distance running times. To this day, Dr.
Romanov travels the world, giving talks and seminars about why
he thinks The Pose Method is the perfect running system.
Coach Danny DiPasqua
The thousands of visitors that come through Westside’s
doors don’t always come through one or two at a time. One time
a bus pulled up, and 35 Brazilian powerlifters got off the bus and
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walked in to workout. Many strong men come to Westside and use
the Westside System. NFL and college coaches who pass through
Westside find new ways to run faster, lift more, and reduce injuries.
Westside has become huge overseas for all sports, but rugby is really
big on the Westside System thanks to Coach Danny DiPasqua of the
Melbourne Storm.
Dan comes to Westside almost every year to learn and train as
Dan is an accomplished powerlifter. He also likes to see what Louie
has invented. Louie knows better than anyone that you cannot stand
still, or you will get passed up. Sports are not different in that respect.
Another truism is that if it is not an advantage, it is a disadvantage.
Louie thinks that is absolutely true as well.
Finding the Way
Shane Hammond said he had figured Louie out. Shane said
Louie will use a new method or a new machine or a new person to
stimulate the gym.
Louie replied, “You are right.”
To that point, Louie has developed more than 100 IPF Elite
Lifters over the years, a number he did not believe possible. To
advance an athlete’s training, sometimes it is a person in the gym who
has an answer to a training need. Or, one of the visitors from around
the world will help solve a training problem. Other times, some
strong man or woman will come to Westside and inspire the lifters at
Westside to step up.
Louie tries to comprehend the true spirit of Zen: Before you
can understand others, you must first understand yourself. Don’t be
so fast to criticize others or form an opinion of someone without first
knowing them and their views.
When people ask Louie for the secrets of building strength to
break world records, Louie never replies, for there are no secrets. You
just have to find the way.

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 Chapter 12
The Dead Room

When asked about his view on dying. Louie simply said,

“We just die.” But he went on to explain his outlook saying, “You
can’t worry about dying when life is so fulfilling. But it does
happen, and in fact, we will all die at some point.”
Louie is always in a hurry to get things done. He will tell
Tom Barry to get his new book or patent out to the public, and
Tom will ask Louie why he is so impatient. To that, Louie will say
that no one knows how much time he has left to accomplish new
things. Louie is in his 70s and doesn’t know how long he has on
this Earth.

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 The Wall
Sometimes when the gym is empty, Louie visits to look at
the photographs of the deceased Westside lifters. He often thinks
about what they could have accomplished had they lived. None
were older than Louie. Some left for health reasons, while others
had demons that took control of their lives and led them down a
path of destruction. When so many people come to Westside, it is
natural that the numbers on the wall grow … some will die.
Louie visits The Wall to honor the fallen. He begins with
the men from Culver City Westside, who were the foundation of
his earliest training methods. The articles in Muscle Power Builder
were mostly by three immortals.
First is Bill “Peanuts” West. His advice through his training
articles led Louie on a long road where he met many people. Many
became life-long friends, and all have a place in Louie’s memories.
It’s been a singular path to obtain a mastery of exercises and
special strengths. Then there was Pat Casey, the first man to bench
600 pounds, squat 800 pounds, and total 2000 pounds.
Last but not least, George Frenn. Around 1970 George
would squat 854 pounds in the 242-pound class in track shorts and
a weightlifting belt. George also would deadlift 816 pounds and
total 2100 pounds. He benched 525 pounds, but seldom trained
the bench as it interfered with his 56-pound hammer throw world
record. George wrote many articles also, but one really caught
Louie’s eye. It was titled “Strong Legs Break World Records.”
Louie talked to Joe DiMarco on the phone, and it was quite
a thrill to get a call from an original Culver City Westside guy.
It was a somewhat confusing, but fascinating conversation. His
memory of Culver City was a bit different than the articles West,
Casey and Frenn wrote, but Louie felt blessed to talk to Joe.
One day Louie was sitting at home when the phone rang,
and on the other end was George Frenn himself. Louie told him
how great it was to talk to him when all of a sudden, George said,
“Louie, you owe me $5,000 for using the name Westside Barbell.”
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At first, Louie thought George was kidding. It didn’t take long,
however, to realize George was serious. Louie told George it was a
United States trademark, and Louie owned it. Then, Louie had one
of his international patent attorneys call George and clear it up.
Louie will never forget that call. Later, Bill Ennis, who
owns Weightlifter’s Warehouse in California, called Louie to
apologize for George. He said George had started to decline
mentally. Louie said no big deal. As usual, he took only the good
out of the call. It meant more than anyone will ever know to have
talked to George Frenn, no matter his message.
This is what led Louie to hang their pictures on the wall
to honor them forever and to oversee the training in Columbus as
Louie vows to lead the strength world today just like they did in
the 60s and 70s. With the old Culver City guys gone, Louie knew
it would not be long until the men and women in the Columbus
Westside would begin to meet their ends as well. No one wants
to die, and no one wants to see brothers and sisters die, but it
happens. Louie thought it was only proper to place their pictures
on the wall with the Culver City boys. So, in honor of each person
from the Westside family who passed away, a new image is added.
Sad to say, however, that it seems a new picture is on the wall
every time someone goes into the room.
For reasons known only to Louie, he will not go inside a
church, so he honors the dead by hanging their picture on The Wall
at Westside.
Sue Benford
A picture of Suzi Benford, the first wife of Gary Benford,
was hung on The Wall after she
died from cancer. Before starting
to train at Westside, she had
cancer in her back and could not
power clean a 45-pound bar. But
through pure determination, she
would make a 347-pound deadlift
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at 97 pounds and win not only a National title, but also become
a World Champion Powerlifter. Formerly a registered nurse at
Children’s Hospital in Oncology Pediatrics, Suzi became an
inventor and held a US patent in the child care industry. She was
an amazing woman and always had a kind word for every person.
Westside will always be grateful for her contributions and will
never forget her kindness and determination.
Tom Paulucci
Tom came to Columbus
in 1976 from New York to attend
graduate school at Ohio State
University. He was going to stay at
Louie and Doris’ house until he found
a place to live. Tom was smart but
sloppy. When he moved in at Louie’s,
he brought 10 large bags of books and
clothes and then went back to New
York to gather the rest of his stuff. But
Tom got very sick and had to stay in
New York at his mother’s house for six weeks. He didn’t even call
Louie to let him know what had happened. Louie had a constant
reminder of Tom’s absence, however. Tom had left the 10 bags on
the second-floor steps, and Doris often said that she was going to
kill Tom if he wasn’t already dead for leaving the bags in the living
room!
Thankfully, Tom got well and made it back to Columbus
to start school and begin training at Louie’s garage. Tom was very
strong and became Westside’s first 800-pound deadlifter. Tom
also won a national title, and he contributed to shaping the first
Westside System.
Tom tore his bicep, and the pre-op blood test showed a
serious condition with his kidneys. In fact, he had kidney failure.
He learned it was due to the illness he had experienced in the fall
of 1976 that had damaged his kidneys. In the 1970s, a kidney

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transplant was a serious operation, and it put an end to Tom’s
lifting career. But Tom became a licensed psychologist and a
practicing attorney.
Louie and Tom were best friends to the end. Tom was a
unique combination of super strength and superintelligence. After
Tom was gone, his wife Candy, also a psychologist, asked Louie
to train their son Ethan. Ethan would become a second-generation
Elite Lifter at Westside. Tom was a great lifter as well as a terrific
husband, but most of all, he was a great friend to Louie and
represented Westside until his demise.
They say dead men tell no tales, but Louie stares at the
pictures on The Wall every day as if one of them will reply to what
Louie is thinking.
Ron Jeter
Ron lifted at Westside in the 1980s at 148 pounds. He
held the deadlift record at Westside for more than 30 years. There
seems to be very few 148 pounders lifting at present. Ron was in
law enforcement and tragically killed in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a
shock to everyone who knew him.
Ron knew it was a dangerous job, but he loved protecting
the innocent from the perils of crime. Louie thinks about Ron
every time he looks at the pictures at night when no one is in the
gym. He thinks about the fact that everyone must die, but it seems
the Westside boys go too early, and many were not done with their
business. Some die much too soon and they had so much potential
in them that it is almost a crime.
Nick Winters
Nick was one of those men. He was only 29 years old and a
monster at six foot two inches and a rock-hard 350 pounds. He was
a farm boy and was a good-natured guy with a beautiful wife and
family.
He had benched 700 pounds for two reps raw and had
inclined 625 pounds with Louie present. This is what Louie lives

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 for seeing great feats of strength
by the Westside gang. Louie can
remember talking to Nick and giving
him a new bar on a Sunday in 2010
and then receiving a call a few days
later informing him that Nick had
passed on. He could not believe it, but
it was true. Nick was gone just like
that.
The picture of Nick at
Westside shows his thick back that
was as wide as the door on his barn in Indiana.
Louie is always looking for a replacement for Nick, but
there is no such thing. He is sadly missed.
Matt Dimel
Matt was invited to
Westside by Gary Sanger in
the early days. Gary was a
professor at OSU, and the
two of them could not be
more different. Matt was
working out at a Nautilus
gym and going nowhere. He
and Gary met in a nightclub,
and the next day he was training at Westside. At the time, no one
knew he would become Westside’s first world record holder in the
squat with 1010 pounds.
Matt was like a stepson to Louie. Regrettably, he was often
in some kind of trouble with the law for an assortment of things.
Louie told Matt to do high rep deadlifts with light weights—225
to 275 pounds—for sets of 20 reps. The work moved Matt’s
820-pound squat that he had been stuck on for a year up to the
world record squat of 1010 pounds.

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 Matt’s life was like the Chinese Proverb: Wine and lust are
the agents of disaster. His life was fast and hard ended too early.
He was only 34 years old. His life was special, but out of control,
and as they say, the brightest stars burn out the fastest.
There will never be another Matt Dimel, and the memory
of Matt will always be with Louie.
GFH—Get Fucking Huge!
Marlon
Marlon came to Westside for a
workout and, like many, never left. His
bench was 335 pounds, and he worked
up to 675 pounds. He was always helping
others not only in the gym, but with a
variety of other needs. Once when Louie
had a brand-new car, it stopped running
at the gym. To make matters worse, Louie
had Dan Redding, the strength coach of
Carson Newman University, with him.
Marlon had a towing service and came to
the rescue on a Sunday.
For reasons no one will ever know, Marlon jumped off the
Broad Street Bridge near the gym and killed himself. No one had a
clue he was going to do such a thing, but that’s life. He left a wife
and kids.
He will be remembered at Westside forever.
Dre Henry
Louie got a call one day from JerryO, who said he had a big
prospect who wanted to train at Westside. Louie told him to have
the guy call him.
The next day Dre called Louie and asked to train under
him. Louie asked Dre how big he was. Dre said he was five ten and
410.
Louie said, “Well, which is it? Five-foot ten or four foot 10?”
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 Dre said, “I am five foot 10 inches and weigh 410 pounds.”
Louie told him to come into Westside the next day.
Well, Dre was 5’10”, but he was actually 460 pounds.
The kid was huge. He said he tried bodybuilding, but realized
powerlifting was best for him.
When Dre was 10 years old, he had cancer, and after
the operation, they gave him testosterone and human growth
hormones. This combination made Dre as thick as any man Louie
had ever seen. The second workout saw him squat 1000 pounds.
But Dre had a hard time in meets due to anxiety. He would only
squat 920 pounds—nowhere near what he was capable of doing.
Dre was a misfit in his family as they were all tall and thin.
His Dad was about 6’3” tall and about 170 pounds. Dre asked if his
Dad could watch a workout, and Louie said, “Of course.”
When his Dad came to the gym to watch him squat, he
stood in the doorway, and Dave Tate said, “Who’s that?”
Dre said, “That’s my Dad.”
Dave said, in only his Zippy style, “There is no way that’s
your Dad!”
Oh well, that’s how Westside rolls.
Dre died a young man of 34 years. He had much more to
offer the world, but some things are not meant to be.
Gabe Ritter
Gabe, with good potential in the 242-pound class, came to
Westside and trained at night. He could not match Louie, but that
did not stop Gabe from leaving death threats on Louie’s phone and
fax machine. This was just how it was between the night crew and
the morning group. Louie would say the AM group was always 12
hours ahead of the PM group. Louie would go to the gym at night
just to start trouble, then leave. It was his strange way of showing
his love.
Gabe was a good family man while training at Westside
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and after buying his father’s stucco company. Things were going
great. He had just replaced his hot water tank, but it was not done
correctly, and it caused carbon monoxide poisoning. Gabe and his
entire family died, including the dog.
Westside will miss Gabe and remember him as a good lifter
and a good-natured man. His picture now hangs on The Wall at
Westside, where it will stay forever.
Bob Young
Bob came to work and to live in Columbus and found
his way into Westside. It was hard for him at first, but Bob kept
improving and made an 840-pound squat, a 540-pound bench, and
a 675-pound deadlift.
Louie’s best memory of Bob was at the IPA World Cup in
York, Pennsylvania. Louie had already lifted and had had a great
day. As Bob came into the warm-up room, Louie said the same
thing he had just told Gabe, “I own you, boy.”
Of course, Bob had some choice words for Louie as he
began to warm up. In the lifting area, Louie was sitting in the
middle between Bob’s mother and his girlfriend as Bob made
his first squat. As Bob walked in front of Louie, he gave him the
finger. Louie could not say a word with the Mom and girlfriend
there, but as the meet continued, Bob’s lifting was not going well.
After making only one bench, Bob was back in the warm-
up room. By now,
Louie had lots of shit
to say to Bob, but
Bob didn’t come out
for the last lift. So,
Louie, with lots of
nasty things to say,
walked up to Bob
and asked him what
he planned to take on
his last attempt.
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 Bob, with a depressed look on his face, asked, “What’s the
use?”
This threw Louie off his game. He could not say a word to
Bob. Bob told his girlfriend to go get a bottle of Jack Daniels as he
slumped in his chair. Bob’s depression ruined Louie’s entire day.
To this day, Louie still recalls Bob’s come-back that caused him to
stop in his tracks.
Westside will never forget Bob as one of the best shit-
talkers Westside ever had. He is missed.
What Happens After Death?
It is interesting what happens when someone dies. Others
talk at the visitation or the funeral and start to realize that death
may be just one step away. The next thing you know, the older
lifters start coming back to Westside to meet for breakfast and
train—at least the bench press. It is good to see the old guys again
on Sundays for whatever reason.
Louie never joins the old group as it is the current lifters
he is concerned with. Louie’s only thoughts are the present and
the future. Over the years, when someone leaves Westside, there
always seems to be a new prospect at the door to fill the shoes. If
one man or woman can be great, so can others.
Westside is one of only a few gyms that can have a
teammate break a world record that Westside already holds. This is
what makes Westside special.

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 Chapter 13
The Early 1990s
As the 90s got underway, time was moving fast at Westside,
with many young lifters going through the basics to later become
national or world champions or all-time world record holders.
In 1991 work had slowed down for Louie, and he was
training for the APF Senior Nationals in Pittsburgh. He was stronger
than ever and was going to take a low-box record in the gym, but
he was over-trained and felt tired. His best was 730 pounds two
inches below parallel. He worked up to an easy 685 pounds without
a spotter, but he planned to take 735 pounds for a new record. Chuck
V. and a couple of guys were spotting. Remember, it was 1991, so
there was no monolift, only a power rack.
Louie walked it out and made a new record, but he felt
his left knee tear a little. His knee had hurt since 1986 after it was
hyper-extended when he slipped on ice at work. When he went over
800 pounds at meets, it would sometimes feel like it was tearing or
stretching.
After Louie made the 735 pounds for a new record, Rusty
Carol and a super heavyweight (SHW) got into an argument about
whether Rusty could take the weight out of the rack.
Rusty asked the SHW, “Steve, why don’t you try to take it
out of the rack?”
Steve said he had responsibilities, and it would be too
dangerous. Louie owned 10 houses and had to take care of them
in addition to the gym responsibilities, so that statement made him
mad.
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 Chuck said to Louie, “Take one more,” and he loaded up
760 pounds on the rack. Louie said, ok.
But he was mad, and he forgot about his knee. He walked
it out and went down to the low box. He sat for a second and then
started up. At about three-quarters up from the box, his left patella
tendon broke in half. It sounded like a broomstick breaking.
Louie had heard this noise about 12 different times, but his
first thought was that it was ridiculous for it to happen to his own
knee. The spotter caught the bar, and Louie sat back down on the
low box.
“I broke my knee,” he said to Chuck. His kneecap was on
the side of his knee.
The medics showed up in 10 minutes, and Louie’s blood
pressure was 110 over 70. It was 9 am. By noon Louie was in
surgery. He is allergic to most types of anesthesia, so they were
using a low-back nerve block. It was fine after three hours, and
Louie left the hospital the next day.
The recovery went fine. Fourteen weeks later, Louie went
back to have the wires removed. The procedure was supposed to
take four hours, and then he could head back home. His wife Doris
had to work, so an employee, Diane Black, was with him.
In preparation for his surgery, they gave Louie an injection
to calm him. The dose put Louie to sleep. Next, they gave Louie
a form of anesthesia, although they were not supposed to do that.
It, of course, caused a reaction. Louie stopped breathing for four
minutes. The doctor arrived and performed a tracheotomy and then
inserted chest tubes while Louie was semi-awake. After this, they
placed an air tube in Louie’s chest and put him in a coma for two
days.
When the staff brought him back, Louie saw all the tubes
they had placed in him, but then lifted the covers and realized they
had not removed the wires from his knee. He got furious, but he
could not talk because of the tube in his throat. They asked for

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consent to operate, and Louie said yes. This time it went well, but
he had to stay six more days in the hospital.
Chuck V. and Doris picked him up and took him to
Westside. That was a Tuesday. On Sunday, Louie drove himself to
the gym with a cast on his leg, and his throat taped shut. He could
now talk since the tracheostomy tube had been taken out, and his
chest tube incisions had been sewn shut.
As soon as he walked into the gym, Dave Tate said, “You
are maxing out.”
“Mother fucker,” Louie replied.
So, Louie lay down and benched 355 pounds.
He was back at Westside, and he started to train the squat
again. After five months, he squatted 525 pounds. However, when
doing the squat, he shifted to the right and hurt his hip. He had to
start all over again. In eight months, he squatted 575 pounds and
again shifted to the right and hurt his hip for the second time.
He would eventually box squat 680 pounds, but it was
hard as he had to walk the weight out. His ribs caused him a lot
of pain—it felt like knives sticking into his sides. The pain never
stopped and made it almost impossible for him to sleep. This has
plagued Louie ever since and still does today.
Louie said he would not compete again. He had held a
National record,
won a National
Championship, was
one of only three
men to Total Elite in
three weight classes,
and had made a
Top 10 Lift in all
categories with and
without supportive
gear.

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 This was good for the guys as Louie could now be a full-
time coach at 43 years old. I remember seeing Louie as he was
recovering in the hospital. He looked bad. His head was swollen,
and it was evident his recovery was not going to be easy. He could
no longer operate a crane as his mechanical ability was reduced to
almost zero. But his comprehension for special strengths somehow
was elevated to new heights.
At this point, he began to concentrate on Westside as
a business. The first order of business was to apply for and be
granted a United States Patent on the Reverse Hyper. His invention
had been kept a secret for years, but seeing Larry Byrd call it
quits in the NBA due to back problems brought home to Louie the
importance of his invention. This patent would become the first of
12 United States and European Union patents that would lead the
industry in back rehabilitation.
The Westside System was falling into place, and the
Westside team—both men and women—were dominating the
world of powerlifting. The gym was strong with Kenny P, George
Halbert, and JerryO, just for starters. These three were featured in
Powerlifting USA in an article entitled “Three of a Kind.” Westside
had three Juniors who could bench 600 pounds. No one else could
claim such a thing.
Louie had set their program and later would bench 600
pounds at over fifty when no one else over fifty could bench
550 pounds. This is just an example of the teacher becoming the
student. But there were others in the 800-square-foot gym that
could bench. J.M. Blakely could triple 545 pounds in the J M
Press. Paul Keys could bench 625 pounds raw. Everyone fed off
each other—as they say, “Iron sharpens Iron.” More big benchers
were to come later.
But there were not just great benchers at Westside. In all
lifts, Westside has had an all-time world record from 1986 to
current times. There are only a few gyms where lifters can say
a teammate broke their world record. For world championships,

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they score only the top six lifters from each country. At the 1994
Worlds, Westside scored five firsts and three seconds. This means
Westside would have won the 1994 WPL Worlds by themselves.
Westside was leading the way with new training methods
and devices. These devices ranged from the Manta Ray, which
placed a bar two inches above the top of the shoulder to spread
the weight evenly across the trapezes and torso muscles; to
the Reverse HyperTM for the lower back; to the first Belt Squat
Platform that evolved into a special machine that ran with a cable.
Dave Williams came to Westside with information on
the Ab Bench from Dr. Fred Koch. Just like Mark Pittroff, who
designed the Manta Ray, Louie was always looking for an edge.
Jesse Hoagland, who invented the Safety Squat Bar, was
another man with an innovative mind. Louie met Jesse in New
Jersey and was very impressed with his other inventions as well.
Coach Dave Williams of Liberty University was the first college
coach to use it in a college weight room.
The world of strength is a give and take advice world.
Louie would design a Zercher Harness for doing heavy Zercher
lifts. Ory Elor, a Greco wrestler, made a 440-pound Zercher Lift in
his elbows at 213-pounds bodyweight.
Coach Dave Williams of Liberty was also responsible
for telling Louie about the original Jump Stretch Bands by
Dick Hartzell of Youngstown, Ohio. Dave asked Louie to do
experiments and tell Dave what to do with the bands. Well, those
bands would change Westside forever.
When the gym needed a stimulus, Louie would solve
the problem by adding a new method, a new lifter, or, of course,
inventing a new device to increase strength and power.

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 Chapter 14
Westside Women

The gym was strong as ever, but it wasn’t just the men making
a name for Westside. The women of Westside were great as well.
Doris Crawford Simmons
In talking about the Westside women, it makes sense to start
with Louie’s wife, Doris, who won six WPC World Championships.
Louie told her when she was 28 years old that she should
start some type of training. Doris did not want to powerlift at first,
so she began with bodybuilding.
She did not make the finals list in her first meets where
they would take the top six. It was a competition in Indiana where
once again she failed to make the cut. Someone told Louie that
she was outside crying because of her disappointment. Louie sat
down with her and a bottle of wine and suggested she stop going
to contests until she showed good progress in the gym. She took
his advice and did not compete for a year. After that, she won 12
competitions in a row, including Miss Ohio and second in Miss
USA in Colorado.
But something was missing. Louie loves all weight sports,
but he thinks there is something wrong when a woman can’t get a
guy to rub oil on her ass. That made sense to Doris. She knew that
a bodybuilder is at his or her weakest and smallest at contest time.
In contrast, however, a powerlifter is at his or her strongest and
biggest at contest time.

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 This caused her to change to powerlifting, where she
broke world records in the squat, bench, and totals. At the first
big meet—the APF Senior Nationals—she placed second to
Cheryl Finley, who was dating Doug Heath at the time. When she
competed in the WPC Worlds in Hawaii, she was the winner. She
traded places with Cheryl.
The Hawaii WPC Worlds was Doris’ first of many world
championships. She also won Junior and Senior APF National
Championships. During
her lifting career, she
set World Records
of 341 pounds in the
squat, 209 in the bench,
and 347 pounds in the
deadlift, and an 887
Total in the 105 Class.
Doris continued
lifting competitively
until 1997, but she was in a group to test the effect of adding chains
to the bar. Today, she oversees the Westside Barbell business and
continues looking for good times.
Mariah Liggett
One of Doris’ training partners was Mariah Liggett, a
powerhouse at 132 and 148 pounds. She pulled 484 pounds at
132-pounds bodyweight with a two-hour
weigh-in. Mariah could do 47 strict pull-ups,
plus one-finger pull-ups. She came to Westside
in 1980 from Slippery Rock University, where
she wrestled the state high school champion to
a draw in a gym class.
Mariah would later become a Ph.D. in
Exercise Physiology, but would never teach.
Instead, she joined the corporate life. Mariah
still lives in Columbus and is doing quite well.
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 Laura Dodd
Laura Dodd ran track for OSU and Athlete’s West before
becoming a Columbus police officer. She was going to run in the
Columbus Police Olympics and came to Louie for training. In the
track meet, she ran the 100-meter faster
than anyone in the previous five years.
While at Westside, she watched
Mariah workout and wanted to join. The
rest is “Hertory!” She became a national
and world champion. Along the way, she
would set world squat records and pull
534 pounds at 163-pounds bodyweight.
Injuries forced her out of the sport. She
is now retired from the Columbus police
force.
Louie says two things stand out in his memory of Laura.
One time she was doing special duty at an OSU football game, and
she ran down a lawbreaker and tackled him in front of more than
100,000 football fans. The second is that when she tested on the
Cybex machine at the OSU Exercise Physiology Lab, her results
showed 60 percent hamstring use and 40 percent quad. To this day,
it is the highest OSU hamstring test.

Sue Benford
Sue’s incredible determination is covered in Chapter 12,
but it is only fitting that her story also is told in Westside Women.
When Sue came to
Westside, she was recovering
from back cancer. She could
not clean a 45-pound bar
when she started, but she kept
training and eventually would
win the APF Senior Nationals
and the WPC Worlds.

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 She would deadlift an amazing 347 pounds at 97-pounds
bodyweight. She was a special woman who never gave up until
the end when cancer won out. Her picture hangs on The Wall at
Westside.
Sue Meaney
Sue came to Westside overweight. She wanted to powerlift
to get into shape. Most of the time, this does not work, but the
other women helped with her diet.
Sue first won the WPC Worlds as a SHW. She later dropped
to the 198-pound class in great shape where she dominated for a
few years, and then retired. Living on the westside of Columbus
and working in the trucking business, Sue and Louie see each other
on occasion.
Pam Crisp
Pam was built strong and beautiful. She became an APF
Senior National Champion and WPC World Champion. After
winning the WPC
Worlds in Hawaii,
she entered the World
Miss Bikini contest
and won $1,000.
Like most of
the Westside women,
Pam would walk away
from the sport with no
injuries and still lives
in Mansfield, Ohio.
Other Westside Women
How dominating was the group? They won seven of seven
weight classes at the Hawaii PPL Worlds. At the 1987 APF Worlds
in Dayton, Ohio, Benford, Simmons, Crisp, and Liggett won again
while Lisa Dellinger who placed second to Mariah at 132 pounds.

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 These named women were indeed not all. There were many
and monster women at Westside. Cheryl Finley was second to
Doris Simmons in the 105-pound class. Terry Fay, better known
as Fay Fay as her husband Tom trained at Westside as well, won
the 165-pound class for her first world championship with Dodd
just two and one-half
kg behind in second
place.
One of the
strongest women ever
to train was Debbie
Sorensen, who won
the Nationals, but
did not want to lift in
Dayton. She sat in the
audience and saw a
much lesser woman to win the title. Louie saw firsthand that some
cannot cope with success, and Debbie was one such person.
Anyone who was around Westside in the 1980s will recall
Terry Byland, an ex-thrower who was strong as hell. She squatted
573 pounds in the 1980s, but the judges turned it down. Louie
believes it was turned down because it was so far ahead of the
world at that time. She also pulled 563 at 181 pounds. Like many,
Terry left powerlifting and still lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Sue White, a very strong 148-pound lifter, pulled a
468-pound deadlift with very little training. Sue also lifted in local
meets, and she had a great future. But when Louie told her that she
could break Mariah Liggett’s deadlift record, it seemed to put too
much pressure on her. She gave up powerlifting much too soon.
Sue had a Ph.D. in statistics and instead focused on her career.
Sue’s roommate Denise was a hard trainer, but becoming a
World Champion or a world record holder was not to be. When Sue
stopped training, so did Denise. Westside lost two great women.
An equally strong and talented woman was Vanessa
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Schwenker. She was married to Jerry Schwenker, a great bencher
and a top bodybuilder. Just like Sue, Vanessa put too much
pressure on herself and stopped powerlifting much too soon.
Westside was lifting at a bench-only meet, and Vanessa
tore the back of her denim bench shirt. The team was in trouble.
Her best bench was 215 pounds, but at this meet, she made a
comfortable 260 pounds. After the competition, she had the shirt
sewn back together. At the next event, her bench was back to 215
pounds.
What just happened? Westside was too dumb to realize
that they had used the first open-back shirt. Soon after, at a money
bench meet in Daytona, Florida, Louie had to help a lifter from the
East Coast. While warming up, the participant barely raw-benched
365 pounds, but on the platform, he made 661 pounds. How did he
do it? The lifter used an open-back shirt. When Louie went back to
Columbus, he opened all the shirts. The new records came fast.
Why did Westside have such strong women? It was because
the competition was just as strong. The light girls had to compete
with women like Mary Jeffrey, a strong 114-pound dynamo from
West Virginia. She was trained by her husband Dave, a competent
coach who was also strong, but had many injuries.
There were women like Janice Roge, from Cleveland,
Ohio, and Dawn Reshel, who was coached by her husband as well.
It was sad to hear that Dawn died unexpectedly. Terry Grimwood
was a monster lifter who set lifting standards for women. She was
the first woman to bench 400 pounds, but she could not escape an
early death. One excellent woman lifter—maybe the greatest—was
Vicky Steenrod, who won 11 Nationals. There were others such
as D. Hart and F. Almy, and then no one could forget Lorraine
Costanzo. She was amazing.

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 Amy Weisberger
Westside was grooming a young female lifter who would
set standards for all women. Westside’s Amy Weisberger came to
Westside in 1987 and started training with the women full time.
First, she totaled 1180 at 123-pounds bodyweight. This is above a
male IPF Elite Total. No woman had done anything like this.
Then she
made a 1333 total at
132 pounds. This was
the first ten-times-
bodyweight total
for women. Then
she made an 1440
total at 144-pounds
bodyweight; again,
10 times her own
bodyweight. She made lots of world records on the way in three
weight classes. Her 123 all-time bench record was broken by her
teammate Anna Blakely, the wife of the famous J. M. Blakely.
Louie believes her most significant accomplishment was being the
only woman to qualify for the Real WPO, where World Champions
had little chance of winning.
Could any other woman total IPF Elite in one, let along three
weight classes like Amy? If it could be done, it would be someone
from Westside Barbell. There will be more on that later. Women
were sharing the load with the men, just like they do in the UFC.

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 Chapter 15
The Nineties, Continued

The Westside men were starting to make bigger and bigger

totals, and Louie began to write articles for Powerlifting USA. His
first article covered how to train by percents on Dynamic Day. He
said it is important to train at the right velocity as well as control
the total volume and control the correct number of lifts per set.
(Louie pictured with Chuck Vogelpohl, Kenny Patterson and Joe
McCoy.)
In 1990 Louie explained how there is no such thing as
an explosive exercise, but rather the focus should be on velocity.
Explosive work is trained at high velocity. Speed strength is trained
at intermediate velocity, and strength speed is trained at a slow
velocity. The article had a quote that was true then and is true now.
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 The stiff and unbending are the
disciples of failure. The yielding
are the disciples of success.
For all powerlifters, it is hard to keep focused on getting
stronger. It becomes a grind for many and opens the door to a way
out. Powerlifting destroyed Louie’s body, but if you live by the
sword, you die by the sword.
On the one hand, Louie does not like it when someone
quits. But, on the other hand, he does not want to see anyone get
hurt. Louie looks in the mirror and understands only pain, but he
will never stop trying to find a way to survive to see tomorrow.
One of the most powerful men who walked through the
doors of Westside has a steel cage in his back, has had two neck
operations plus a broken neck, and has torn-off his triceps. He, like
Louie, still trains on what he can. His presence at the gym is an
enormous boost to the young lifters.
Louie has been limited by rib pain from having chest tubes
and his throat cut to insert the tracheostomy tube when he stopped
breathing for four minutes, a condition he later learned was called
arterial thoracic outlet syndrome. However, he still worked out
with the guys. He had some good days, but mostly bad days. At
the time, his raw bench could have been 405 pounds one day and a
painful 185 pounds the next.
In 1996 Kenny Patterson had stopped making gains in his
bench press at a time when he only did bench meets. Before he
stalled, Kenny P would ask where the top benchers were going
to compete. This list of top benchers included Chris Confessore,
Anthony Clark, and Glen Chabot. At Inzer’s Baddest Bench
in America in 1992, Kenny P beat Anthony Clark in his own
backyard. One of Westside’s arch enemies, Glen Chabot, but
also a good friend of Louie’s, asked where Kenny P was going to
compete next. Kenny P said he did not care. Louie knew Kenny P
was losing the drive it takes to stay on top.

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 Louie thought long and hard about how he could motivate
Kenny P back to breaking all-time bench records. As he was
considering this situation, he heard Glen Chabot say that if Glen
lost the Arnold Classic, he would retire.
When Louie saw Glen at the Classic, he walked up to him
and said, “Hey, Glen, I hear you are retiring. Is that right?”
Glen got a good laugh with that one.
Kenny P did not respond, so Louie said something that
would cause Louie to do what no fifty-year-old had ever done.
Louie said, “Kenny, I am going to squat 700 pounds again
before you bench 700 pounds again.”
Kenny said, “Old man, you will never have 700 pounds on
your back again.”
It had been six years since Louie had competed, but he came
out of retirement at that moment. Before that, Louie had not given
a single thought to coming out of retirement. But after all, what
else did Louie have to do? Just think about Louie’s career: National
Champion, National Record Holder, one of only three men to Total
Elite in five weight classes, and he had totaled Top 10 for 20 years.
But he had an injury list of a bull rider: back fractures, torn biceps,
torn off patella tendon, throat cut, and chest tubes. But now it was
on, one way or another. He was not only going to squat 700 pounds,
but he would squat more than the 760 low-box squat that tore his
patella tendon and put his knee cap on the side of his leg.
But, the big question in Louie’s mind was, how was Kenny P
going to respond?
In the meantime, Louie was living on NyquilR and TylenolR
PM tablets to cover up the pain. At this point, nothing was real, but
the pain. All Louie could hear in his head was, “Old man, you will
never have 700 pounds on your back again” … over and over and
over. He would hear those haunting words in the gym, at home, and
in his bed when he woke up in the morning. Could Louie live up to
the challenge?
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 You Are Damned Right!
Now Louie had another life to live. He was really training
again with a goal. The gym was going strong with the new guys.
He could not help but think about Matt Dimel. He lived fast, and he
died young.
It’s All in Your Head
People ask Louie how much psychology is involved in
training all the bad asses, thugs, and felons who have come through
the gym. They follow that up with the question, “How did you
change them?” Louie would simply say that he didn’t change them.
Instead, based on his psychological assessment, Louie’s method
of motivation altered to fit each one of them; he said you have to
become like a chameleon. Louie could change, but many people
cannot.
Also, normal people can only give you normal results. And
normal people cannot provide you with world records. Many would
ask how he handles the nonbelievers and critics of his system, and
sometimes critics of him personally.
Louie replied, “Wolves don’t hear
sheep cry.”
There will always be haters,” Louie continued. “Why?
Because the world has many more losers than winners.”
Louie said to himself, “What if I can’t make a comeback
like I have many times before?”
But actually, he doesn’t know how to not make a comeback.
He lived by the adage that it means nothing if you get knocked
down, but only if you get back up.
Louie has always said that you must dream about it before
you do it. With so many significant injuries, he continued to question
whether he could do it once more. What might happen when he has
to squat 760 pounds when that much weight was what broke his
patella tendon in half? Bob Dylan sang, “How many times must a

173
man stand up before they call him a man.” Louie knows one thing
for sure; he has always gotten back up. With powerlifting being so
strong in the late 1990s, Louie knew he did not want to just come
back, he wanted to be near the top.
Competing Again
The first meet back was in Wheelersburg, Ohio, about 100
miles from Westside. Louie does not know what barometric pressure
is, let alone the pressure of a six-year layoff from meets, but he
worked on keeping things light all the time.
He was there with Mike Suskin, aka Paper Mache. Mike
got that nickname because he was not very strong when he came to
Westside. Louie can still remember when he received a letter from
Paper saying he wanted to visit Westside. Of course, Louie said,
“Sure, come for a week.”
When Paper arrived, he could only squat 335 pounds, bench
235 pounds, and deadlift 405 pounds. When Paper was ready to
board the plane home to New York, he said he wanted to come back
to Columbus, enroll at OSU, and train at Westside.
Louie said, “That’s a good idea,” but honestly, he never
thought that would happen.
One morning at Tee-Jays, a restaurant where the Westside
Guys had breakfast, a new car pulled up. Driving was Paper’s dad.
Paper got out with a suitcase, and his dad pulled out burning rubber
and leaving Paper with Westside.
At the return meet for Louie after Paper had made weight,
Louie had Joe McCoy’s girlfriend call Paper’s room and tell him the
scale was wrong, and he would have to weigh in again. Louie was
in Paper’s hotel room and was almost dying to keep a straight face,
when Paper told Louie he had to weigh-in again. Louie could not
take it any longer. He started laughing.
Paper said his favorite phrase, “So son of a bitch; you
bastard.”
It was one of the funniest things Louie ever heard.
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 Now, back to the meet. Louie was going to compete at a light
242-pound class. His dream was to Total AIPF Elite, but it seemed
impossible with what Louie thought would be a good bench around
430 pounds, but somehow, he made a 500-pound bench to make it
possible.
The question: “How would he squat after only doing box
squats and zero regular squats for six years?” Remember, his knee
broke with 760 pounds in the gym. Now on his third try, he took 760
pounds. Would the knee hold up, or would it break again?
As it turned out, his third was an easy three-white-light
success. When it comes to the fight or flight action, Louie only
knows fight.
This comeback journey would last three full years. In Louie’s
next meet, he squatted 820 pounds and totaled over 2000 pounds.
Then, in Cleveland at a Westside invitational, Louie squatted 840
pounds, but passed on his third attempt because of hip cramps. His
total increased again.
He told Jesse Kellum that he could squat 900 pounds. Jesse
said, “Why didn’t you do it, then?”
Louie thought, “Yeah, why didn’t I?”
Next on the list was a bench meet in Portsmouth, Ohio, about
100 miles from Westside. The Guys were all going to lift, and one of
them said, “Old man, why don’t you lift? You scared?”
Louie had just made a new record on the incline on
Wednesday. He had not entered the meet, and on top of that, he was
bringing the equipment.
So, Louie replied, “Fuck you, bitches. I will lift.”
No one had ever bench pressed 550 pounds at 50-years-old,
and that was Louie’s motivation.
The judges were not friends with Louie or anyone else at
Westside due to them always winning the team title. Joellen Glitt
was the head referee and never liked any of Louie’s lifts. But on this

175
day, Louie would win her over—not because of Louie’s bench, but
from her extra-long pause signal. The 570 pounds of weight were
loaded, and Louie lowered the bar to his chest for what must have
been a two-second pause. Somehow Louie made a strong press for
three white lights. It marked the first time someone fifty or older
made 550 pounds, or in this case, a 570-pound bench. Louie was 50
and two weeks old.
Later Joellen came up to Louie and told him that was the best
bench she had ever seen him make. One thing for sure—it was the
slowest, thanks to the long press-signal.
The old feud with Joellen started back at an APF Nationals
meet in Atlanta, Georgia. Maris Stromberg was working the desk
and saw Louie across the lobby. She yelled out to him, “What was
the Master’s record for women in the 165-pound class in the squat?”
Louie said he did not know, and to this, Maris said, “I thought you
knew everything.”
In a very loud voice, Louie replied, “You can stick those
Masters records up your ass.”
This did not go over too well. Ernie Frantz came over to
Louie and said, “You can’t talk about the Masters like that.”
By now, Louie was hot. He said, “I am an American, I pay
taxes, and I will say anything I want.”
Then Joellen came up to Louie and told him she had just won
the 165-pound Masters class as if this was going to impress him.
Louie replied, “Would it not mean more to make an Elite
Total than to be a Masters national champion?”
The next time Louie saw Joellen after the bench meet was at
the funeral home in Circleville, Ohio. She had died, and the family
was receiving mourners there. Louie does not make a practice of
going to funerals or weddings, but he made an exception to just drop
off flowers and say hello to Dean, Joellen’s husband. It was funny,
but Louie and Dean always liked each other.

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 At the next Full Power, Louie would squat 860 pounds to
break Chuck V’s meet record—no one broke Chuck’s squat record.
In the beginning, Chuck’s best squat was 738 pounds. Louie had
821 pounds. That was in 1991. But here it was 1999, and Louie once
again had a bigger squat.
Next up was the IPA National, and Louie squatted 900
pounds and put up a big total. Yes, Jessie, Louie told you he would
squat 900 pounds!
After that, Louie would go to the Eastern States Nationals
Push and Pull, which Louie called the Trailer Park Nationals because
it took place in a trailer park. The meet director was an OSU student
who was putting himself through college by running meets every six
weeks. It was the site where George Halbert and Jim Blakely made
their first official 600-pound benches. That’s the main reason Louie
chose the Trailer Park Nationals as the meet where he would make a
600-pound bench at over fifty years old. And, it was an easy success.
Louie became the only fifty-year-old with a 600-pound bench before
anyone else made 550 pounds.
How did he do it, you may ask? He got smart. He had set the
training for Kenny P, George Halbert, and Rob Fusner, who were
all world record holders. And before that for Doug Heath, who set
several world bench records at 132 pounds. Louie simply duplicated
their training programs, and the results spoke for themselves. For
those who don’t know Louie, he does practice what he preaches.
Louie believes one cannot have a massive ego in the world
of sports and continue long-term to have superior results. Louie
learned not to be too happy or to be too sad no matter how good
or bad things were in training or in the real world. This system of
thought would develop seven men who would hold all-time world
records.
Reflections on Pain and Suffering
Mimicking the events in the Godfather, Louie found that
just when he thought he was through with this life, he was pulled

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back in again. He suffered from constant and chronic pain in his rib
cage from the botched operation in 1991. He lived on NyquilR cough
medicine and TylenolR PM tablets day and night to mask the pain.
Sometimes Louie questioned whether he could endure the
pain that would not let him sleep more than one and one-half hours
at a time. He would think about Jack London’s book The Call of the
Wild and remember Buck’s unbreakable spirit that never let him give
up. Buck knew he would become the leader no matter what obstacles
stood in his way.
Louie would think, “Why am I doing this again? What do
I have to prove to anyone?” But the truth of the matter is that he
never cared what others said or thought about him, but rather only
what he felt about himself. He set his own bar high. Kenny Patterson
provided the circumstances to show his courage to overcome
physical hardships and make a Top 10 lift for 29 years. If you know
Louie, his concentration cannot be broken; not ever.
Whenever Louie thinks about how he may feel, he then
thinks about Buck and realizes it is not time to be logical, but he
must be primitive. As he has said, “A fighter cannot sleep on silk
sheets.” To this day, Louie finds it very difficult to read the Call of
the Wild because it brings such high emotions when thinking about
what happened to Buck after he became the pack leader. He became
immortal not only in print but in the minds of many men, and that
included Louie.
Louie said maybe he could also be immortal someday. But
it would mean keeping the gym breaking all-time records, inventing
more devices up to a dozen and putting into print his knowledge,
not only in articles, but in book form. And, of course, to continue to
make Top 10 lifts.
Maybe this is why Louie often stands silently, staring at the
pictures of the dead Westside members on the wall. He has vowed to
each of them that he will never stop trying to make Westside greater
than it was the day before.

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 Chapter 16
Moving into the 21st

Century
Around the year 2000, Louie began to look into the future
and plan for doing something great—like squatting 1000 pounds.
He thought it would take a weight gain to do it, so Louie pushed
up the volume and added more calories. Louie made his biggest
squat of 920 pounds weighing 233 pounds. It was a smoke show—
second on the Top 10 List behind the Great Ed Coan, and the third
time he broke Chuck Vogelpohl’s squat record (Chuck pictured
above).
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 In five months, Louie got up to 261 pounds. However, he
could not stay awake for more than five minutes or stay asleep
for as much as five minutes. The Westside boys were in Daytona
for a money bench meet, and, of course, as always, Louie helped
hand out. It seemed it still turned out that Louie would hand out to
90 percent of the lifters because hardly any of them brought their
own hand-out guys. It was tiring work. On the way home, while
the plane was still sitting on the runway, Louie had already fallen
asleep. He was snoring so loud the stewardess had to wake him
up. The other passengers were complaining about the noise he
was making. Louie got mad and asked for a cup of coffee to stay
awake. It barely helped, but somehow, he got home.
The next day a friend from Virginia named Doug Ebert,
an engineer, called and was ranting about his doctor. According to
Doug, the doctor said, “Doug, you are a big man, and you like to
lift big weights, but you don’t have to be big to do it.”
Doug was mad as Hell, but Louie said to himself, “Louie,
you are a little man trying to get big to lift big weight, and that is
just ridiculous.”
The next day Louie told Chuck V he was going down to the
220-pound class. Chuck did not say a word; he laughed at Louie
and walked away.
Louie set his sights on a “push and pull” meet 10 months
away. To make it serious, he told Dave Tate he planned to kick his
ass even though Dave was a 300-pounder.
On meet day, Louie was 217 pounds. The vital thing to
know is that Louie had not been a 220-pounder for almost 20
years. The guys knew Louie’s best bench was 507 pounds when he
lifted in the 220-pound class. Chuck didn’t go to the meet because
of seeing a client in Oklahoma City. Some of the other guys did not
take time to see Louie lift either, but they said he might make 500
to 510 pounds, and they had no guess on the deadlift, of course, as
this meet was a push-pull only.
Dave made a 540-pound bench, but Louie made 545
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pounds to win the bench, plus he made a 575-pound bench on a
fourth to make number six on the Top 10 at 54-year-old.
Dave said he would kick Louie’s old ass in the deadlift.
Dave made a 700-pound deadlift. Louie opened with 600 pounds,
then lifted 660 on a second attempt, and with everything on the line,
Louie pulled 705 pounds to—as he said 10 months before—kick
Dave’s ass. The deadlift made number 10 on the Top 10 lift list. This
marked 31 years of Louie making the powerlifting Top 10.
The price he paid this time? Louie’s shoulder was terrible. It
got to the point where he could not put his hand in his front pocket
or turn on the car radio or shift gears in his car.
It was about that time that he was going to Cleveland to
work with the Browns. His good friend Buddy Morris, the head
strength coach, had asked Louie to help out. Louie knew the
Browns were in bad shape when at that time, Head Coach Butch
Davis hugged Louie and thanked him for coming like he could
save the world.
As things sometimes work out, the Browns Team Surgeon
Dr. Anthony Miniaci said he wanted to meet Louie to talk about a
new shoulder replacement surgery known as the Hemi Socket. It
was new and somewhat untested, but could last a lifetime.
Buddy said, “Doctor, this guy has more than one life.”
So, it was decided and set up for Louie to have a shoulder
operation at the Cleveland Clinic. This time they placed an air
tube down his throat to ensure a good airway. Louie had told Dr.
Miniaci that he did not want to stay in the hospital, so one hour
after Louie was released from recovery, he left for home.
He called his teammate “Dollar Bill” and had him ask
his Dad, who was also a surgeon, for advice on what to do after
surgery. He said push the anti-inflammatory drugs and add heat.
Taking these actions took 75 percent of the swelling out of his
arm. In one week, Louie started benching with a broomstick to
gain range of motion. After that, he placed two and one-half pound

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weights on the stick and did high reps—up to fifty per set. Louie
also used mini bands to do external rotations. In three months,
he benched 300 pounds with a regular bar. Dr. Miniaci had given
no instructions because Buddy had told him not to bother; Louie
would not follow them anyway.
Louie made a full recovery, but more on that later.
There have been several men with the capability to total
3,000 pounds, but for one reason or another, they have stopped
training. Louie does not like a quitter, but it seems the brightest
stars burn out the fastest.
Dave Hoff
Dave Hoff
started training
at Westside at 15
years old, and now,
16 years later, he
is still at Westside
breaking world
records regularly. He
holds the 275-pound
class total at 3005
pounds as well
as a 1210 squat
world record. At
308-pounds bodyweight, he made a 3014-pound total for the total
record. He has only been beaten two times—once by five pounds
at 275-pounds bodyweight with a total of 2615 pounds. But his
competition never made any further progress.
Dave, however, went on to total 3005 pounds at
275-pounds bodyweight before moving up to 308 pounds, where
the only other person to beat him was his teammate A. J. Roberts in
a meet in Tennessee. A.J. ‘s total went up to 2855, a world record,
before a friend, Ratten Fuow of Finland, totaled 2956 pounds to set
the new world record total. There was a meet in Cincinnati in two
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weeks. Dave said, “Louie put me in the meet, and I will get that
record back to Westside.”
Just as Dave promised, he broke the 308-pound class total
record with a 2965-pound total, and after coming off the platform,
he headed straight for Louie and head-butted him, which brought
blood pouring from Louie’s head.
Louie said, “Great job.”
At the APF Senior Nationals, Dave totaled 3014 pounds at
308-pounds bodyweight marking the biggest total of all time. At
that meet, Dave body slammed Louie and almost killed him. Louie
had had a bone chip in his right hip for years, but the slam broke
it loose. Louie said it was a tough seven-hour ride from Chicago
to Columbus, Ohio, but as usual with Dave, it was worth it. Dave
has up to now (2020) never quit and is always setting more world
records with no end in sight.
Potential 3,000 Pound Totals—
The Nightriders
But what about the other powerhouses at Westside
that could have/should have, but never reached the mystical
3000-pound total? Well, Dave never was and never will be a
Nightrider.
For those who have watched the original Mad Max
from 1979, you’ll know that a biker named the Nightrider was
terrorizing the countryside with his biker bitch who wore a neck
collar and a long chain that the Nightrider controlled her with. He
would say, “I am the nightrider, a fuel-injected, suicide machine
riding a blacktop highway to Hell.”
But Mad Max plays chicken with the Nightrider and runs
him off the road. Next, Max catches up with the Nightrider and
bumps the back of the Nightrider’s car, and he loses it. First, he
starts crying, and his bitch says, “What’s wrong; what’s wrong!”
The Nightrider says, “I’ve lost it; I’ve lost it,” and then he
wrecks the car, and it blows up.
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 In the next scene, the viewer sees a coffin, but it is only
about three feet long. That’s all that is left of the Nightrider. This is
why Louie refers to those who quit before reaching their goals as
Nightriders. Just like the Nightrider’s coffin, it will only need to be
three feet long as no guts, and no heart, could be found.
The list of Nightriders starts with Mike Brown, a
powerhouse at 20 years old who made a 1074-pound squat,
a 735-pound teenage bench when the teen world record was
610 pounds, and an 804-pound deadlift. Reason for quitting: a
girlfriend.
Shane Hammond, with a 1050-pound squat, 860-pound
bench, and a 900-pound deadlift, got homesick.
A. J. Roberts, with three world record totals—the biggest
at 2856 pounds—but his best lifts were 2930 pounds. A. J. would
ask why the other guys would stop lifting, and Louie would say
he had no idea. But a year after leaving Westside, A.J. said he
could see himself doing more, but Westside never stops coming up
with new innovative ways to make more significant totals than his
1205-pound squat, 915-pound bench, and 815-pound deadlift.
A super-strong guy from Kentucky, Jake Anderson, came to
Westside with a 1950-pound total. In three short years, he made a
2800-pound total. Then primed to go over 2900 pounds, the judges
bombed him out. Instead of getting mad or getting even, he quit.
The sky was the limit for all four men, but for some reason,
it was not to be. Destiny can be a motherfucker. What makes things
worse is that Louie likes all these guys, but felt that he wanted
them to succeed more than they wanted it.
Louie has always tried to follow the ways of a Samurai—in
particular, Miyamoto Musashi. The word Shin-Ken means “real
sword.” Musashi would say to use a real sword, you must possess
the proper attitude to be deadly serious. To Louie, powerlifting is his
real sword, and he has and always will be deadly serious about it.
He began competing at 14 years old and continued until

184
63 years old when physical injuries stopped him cold. Unlike
Musashi, he was not always victorious in beating his honorable
opponents. However, he was victorious in the fact that he became
wiser not only on the platform, but also during training.
Louie has thought about what Musashi would say about
being able to perform two tasks at the same time. For example, a
samurai must wield the long sword with one arm. To ensure you do
just that, you also place the short sword in the other hand. Perhaps
that was their problem. Powerlifting was one task, and life was yet
another. Nevertheless, all of these men are dear to Louie for the
work they did while training at Westside.
World Record Holders in the
Squat
Westside currently (2019) has nine men who have held all-
time world-record squats. Each of these men has a unique trait in
addition to physical and biomechanical advantages, and have made
Westside what it is today. They have paved the way for others to
follow.
Matt Dimel
Let’s start with
Matt Dimel. Matt came
to Westside at about
220-pounds bodyweight
with a squat of 530
pounds at his first meet
in Ohio. His only goal
was to have a world
record, and he was a
natural squatter with the
perfect body. Matt was
a wild child and was always getting into trouble with the law.
Shortly after arriving at Westside, he was stopped at a
roadside construction area. A policeman saw an open container and
ordered Matt to pull off to the side. Instead, Mat sped away with the
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cops in hot pursuit. When it was over, he had committed more than
30 traffic violations that included assailing two policemen and a K-9
dog. That was just the beginning.
Matt was always in and out of trouble. Once his brother,
Dana, asked Louie why Matt did the things he did. Louie said, “I
don’t know. He’s your brother.”
Matt was running from the law and living in Cleveland.
He was on his way to Florida when he stopped at Westside to take
a big squat. At that time, the SHW World Record at 1010 pounds
was his. When Matt started to warm up, he asked Louie how he
looked.
Louie said, “You don’t look right in the eyes.”
But Matt decided to work his way up and try 1020 pounds.
On that night, Louie’s sister came over to film the workout.
The bar was loaded to 1020 pounds. Matt unracked it out of the
power rack—remember, no mono-lifts yet.
Matt set up good and started down when he blew one
patella and then the other. Down he went. Even with the spotters,
he got buried. In addition to the knees, he tore his bicep. Off to the
hospital, but after arriving, he had a reaction that caused the quad
tendons to rupture. If this wasn’t bad enough, the cops found out
he was there, and they were going to arrest Matt for several crimes
plus parole violations.
Matt called Louie, asking what to do. Louie suggested he
have his Dad hire a private ambulance to pick him up and take him
out of town. And this is just what he did.
Matt found his way to Texas, staying with an old friend. He
was safe for a while, or was he? Once again, he was arrested and
then brought back to Ohio. After a year and a half, he was released
and came back to Westside, but old habits don’t go away quickly.
Matt hit bottom and died in May 1994.

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 From the time a young, red-haired kid became a world
record holder and then fell on hard times was in a blink of an eye.
Every time Louie talks to Matt’s picture on the wall at Westside,
he wonders how things could have been different. But things are
meant to be as they are. Rest in peace, my brother.
Arnold Coleman
Arnold came
to Westside after he
was lifting in a meet
in Cleveland. He was
ready to squat, but he
had on sweatpants.
Louie said,
“Dude, you can’t wear
sweatpants. It is a
singlet or a squat suit.”
Arnold had no gear, so Louie gave him a suit to wear, and
that started a friendship that is still strong today.
Arnold, a model citizen who helps many young men in
Columbus, Ohio, owns several businesses. The total package:
strong, smart, and built like a Mr. America, he held the all-time
record at 181 pounds and also the squat record at 854 pounds.
Louie has good memories of Arnold, including how he has
represented Westside Barbell and Louie so well. They will remain
friends to the end.
Phil Harrington
Phil came from North Carolina and was having trouble
with his deadlift. He called Louie for advice, and Louie had Phil
start doing a lot of Goodmornings. After his deadlift not going
anywhere in over a year, it jumped from 560 pounds to 620
pounds in six months because of the added back strength from the
Goodmornings.
Next, Phil asked to come to Westside, and Louie said ok.
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It was not until Phil got to Westside that Louie found out that Phil
was crazy. It could be a good crazy or bad crazy, but that’s what
made him a great lifter, especially in the squat.
Louie and Chuck V. had Phil move his feet out wider on
both his squats and his deadlift. It did not take long for Phil to
break Arnold Coleman’s world record 854-pound squat. It is not
often that a teammate breaks another’s world record, but Phil made
a kg jump making an 856-pound squat for his first world record.
He would soon move it up and up to 903 pounds. This made Phil
the lightest man to squat at 900 pounds plus.
Interesting side note: Phil’s uncle was one of the first to
make rules for the IPF. Uncle Phil would be head judge in the
Power Station Pro-Am in Cincinnati until the IPF would not allow
him to judge in a multi-Federation meet. Louie tried to take the
politics out of powerlifting, but the IPF brought it right back in—
what bullshit.
Phil dumped a heavy weight in the gym at Westside, and
it freaked him out. After that, he would only lift raw. He broke
the all-time 749-pound squat by Tony Fratto, one of Louie’s old
friends from the 1970s with a 755-pound squat at 198-pounds
bodyweight.
Later Phil would start his own personal training company.
He also began to do Jujitsu like many Westside lifters after they
retire from competition. Louie sees Phil all the time at meets and
will always be amazed that Phil made all of the world records
while representing the world-famous Westside Barbell.

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Chuck Vogelpohl
Louie started
working with Chuck
just out of high school.
He was not built to be a
world record holder in
the squat, but he was very
tough and determined.
He worked out hard,
sometimes too hard.
More is not always better.
Louie was just back from the Supertraining seminar
with Dr. Mel Siff, where Dr. Siff had said, “You should not train
minimally, nor do you train maximally, but one should train
optimally.”
This had been eye-opening for Louie because he had
always directed mostly maximal training, not only in the physical
sense, but also very taxing mentally and emotionally. This created
routine training to be like a contest maximum when it should be a
non-emotional training max.
Louie set three books out for Chuck to read, but after about
20 seconds, Chuck left the room. Chuck did not want to hear about
optimal training. They say the most challenging thing for a human
to do is to change. This was true in Chuck’s life. Being extreme is
all he knows.
Chuck was one of the subjects in adding chains to the
training for Accommodating Resistance (AC). The chains
pushed everyone’s lifts up. But it was rubber bands that changed
everything at Westside. Bands were used for speed pulls using 220
pounds or 280 pounds of band tension at the lockout plus weight—
typically 50 percent barbell weight and 30 to 35 percent band
tension. For the power rack, the band tension ranged from 250
pounds to 350 pounds of tension at lockout. For super maximal
training, more band tension was employed.
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 Chuck would pull huge rack pulls with lots of bands added.
Louie asked Chuck, “What training effect do you gain from
this type of training?”
His reply was that it taught him how to think while training.
This is a huge plus when lifting a limit deadlift.
Louie had also noticed that Chuck’s legs were gaining size.
Louie said, “Hey, man, your legs are getting huge.”
Chuck’s reply was, “It’s the bands.”
Louie witnessed two of Chuck’s box squats that Louie
had thought impossible. In one workout with 640 pounds of band
tension, he made 835 pounds of barbell weight. That adds up to 1475
pounds. And a second workout with the 640 pounds band tension
plus 885 pounds of barbell weight added up to 1525 at lockout.
For speed strength, the average band tension was 320 pounds
plus barbell weight that together added up to 80 percent to 90
percent lifts for 25 lifts.
It was the AC
training with bands
that caused an over-
speed eccentric phase
that produced amazing
reversible action due to
the induced deformation
of the rubber bands
forcing the lifter
downward. The stored
energy is proportional to the applied force eccentrically. This is
Newton’s third law. It is also linked to elasticity and Hooke’s Law.
Hooke’s Law states the amount of deformation is produced by force
in proportion to the amount of force. You must also consider when
sitting on a box to squat that the collisions are not perfectly elastic,
making a box squat more difficult.
And lastly, let’s look at work where work equals force
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times distance (W=FD) and power equals work divided by time
(P=W/T) because the bands provide an over-speed eccentric phase
that will cause a stronger concentric. And why it is that the more
powerful you are, the faster you can do work in less time? The
missing link to training was science and, of course, that includes
fundamental physics—Newton’s Laws of Motion.
While reading Supertraining, it explained how kinetic
energy (K-E) is used in sports movements and how it can
contribute to reversible muscle actions. When the barbell is in
motion, it eccentrically has gravitational potential energy. It is
more efficient to increase velocity, not mass, to increase K-E.
When Louie understood Newton’s Second Law that states
F=ma (Forces [F] on an object are equal to the mass [m] of that
object multiplied by the acceleration [a] of the object) as well as
the fact that special strength is measured in different velocities,
everything changed.
With all this new-found information, the Westside lifters
took it to a new level. Chuck began to break world records in
the squat: First 1000, and then 1025 in the squat at 220-pounds
bodyweight. Chuck was cutting from 255 pounds to 220 pounds.
This began to take its toll on his body. He bombed out of the WPO
when he told Louie his legs felt like they weighed 300 pounds.
Louie talked him into going up to the 275-pound class in one
month, and at 264 pounds, he made an easy 1150-pound all-time
world record.
He would push the squat up to 1180 pounds for yet another
world record that also was the top coefficient squat of all time
until his teammate Dave Hoff made 1210 pounds at 271-pounds
bodyweight for the top squat.
Next, Chuck would drop down to 242 pounds and set the
world record with an 1140-pound squat. No doubt Chuck will go
down as one of the greatest squatters of all time. Along the way,
he won National and WPC World Championships and was a WPO
Champion in two divisions.
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 Chuck has played a huge role in the extraordinary
development of the world-renowned Westside System. It has
been a long journey of almost 35 years, and he is still training at
Westside and planning the training for the day.
To this day, Chuck is the worst loser Louie has ever seen,
but that also makes him a real winner. Chuck is like a general in
that he won’t surrender to either pain or gravity. He has chosen to
go out on his sword like a real Westsider.
Vlad Alhazov
Vlad is the strongest man who has ever walked into
Westside. When he first came, he had never squatted 1100 pounds
or deadlifted 800 pounds. Some had doubts about whether he ever
would. But not Louie. Louie saw greatness in him.
First, Vlad learned how to do box squats and how to use
Westside’s special strength machines that can strengthen the
weakest links. It could be the low back, hamstrings or hips and
upper legs that need attention to reduce muscle imbalances.
The Ukrainian was not ready for his first meet under the
Westside banner, but he made an easy 1100-pound squat and an
easy 800-pound deadlift.
Louie met Vlad at the last WPO meet and is glad he did.
Vlad pushed the Goodmorning and ran it up to 865 pounds for
three reps. He also performed three sets of five reps with 805
pounds in the deadlift. This would set up a meet with Donny
Thompson in Columbus, Ohio. Donny would win the competition
due to a 900-pound plus bench that Vlad could not overcome,
but he did squat an all-time world record 1250 pounds along with
a 925-pound conventional style deadlift to total 2805 pounds
to Donny’s 2850. Donny would go on to make the historic
3000-pound total and regain the SHW squat record at 1265 pounds.
Then Vlad went to New York to visit his girlfriend for five
months. On his return to Westside, he had gained some weight
and could not fit in his squat suit, but chose to squat anyway. After
working up to 800 pounds, he made 100-pound jumps up to 1300
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pounds. The tight suit made it impossible to sit back correctly and
was forcing him forward. It was at 1300 pounds that he got pushed
forward to the point that he blew out his MCL, ACL, and PCL
ligaments, and he crashed to the floor with the weight. If that was
not bad enough, the barbell landed on one of the spotters and broke
his ankle. It was a bad day at Westside. It took a long recovery, but
Vlad would come back to lifting, but this time raw as they say.
He squatted an unreal 1157 pounds raw. They asked how he
trained for it, and he said the same way, the Westside way with box
squats and heavy Goodmornings.
Vlad will always have a special place in Louie’s mind for
teaming up to first regain the SHW squat record that Matt had
held. Also, Louie gave back to the Soviet methods by having a
Ukrainian hold the most significant lift on the planet.
Wherever you are Vlad, Westside has the highest respect
for you and your incredible lifting.
Don’t Be Foolish
Westside is the only gym where a teammate’s world record
could be broken not once, not twice, not three times, but four
times. No other gym could do it. The reason it happens at Westside
is not because Westside lifters only concentrate on one lift at which
they excel. It is said to be proficient at one thing is to be a fool. In
fact, from Hagakure in The Book of the Samurai: “The person who
thinks of only one thing and nothing else, he will be foolish.”
Wes McCormick
Wes stopped by Westside one day and said he wanted to
join the club.
Louie said, “Ok. What weight class are you, and what are
your lifts?”
Wes said he was a 165-pounder, and his lifts were 800
pounds for his squat; 515 pounds for his bench, and he had a
565-pound deadlift. That would be 1880 pounds for his total. He
added that it was the top squat and total for the year. Louie told
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Wes that he would like to see him squat.
Wes said, “I got my gear with me now.”
So down to the gym they go.
Wes starts out with 500 pounds, then 550 pounds, then 600
pounds, and they all looked hard as Hell. But, Wes works up to 750
pounds, and it looked the same, so Louie told him he could have a
tryout.
“I will make you a deal,” Louie continued. “I will
guarantee you a world record in one year, which would have to be
870 pounds, but you have to promise me you will break the world
total record by Alexander Kutcher of Russia, which is 2172.
Wes said, “It’s a deal.”
In one year at the Flex Wheeler Classic in Tennessee, Wes
squatted 890 pounds for the world record and totaled 2020 pounds.
But Wes was in trouble with the law and had an ankle bracelet
for police security. He decided to cut it off even after Louie told
him not to. After getting home from the meet, the police take him
straight to jail for 130 days. Wes had a few concussions from
junior hockey, and sometimes it showed, but after getting out of
jail, he was back to training.
The next meet West squatted 900 pounds to be the lightest
man to squat 900 pounds. Phil made 903 pounds at 181-pounds
bodyweight a few years before to be the lightest to do 900 pounds
plus. Oh, by the way, Chuck was the lightest to squat 1,000 pounds
at 220-pounds bodyweight.
With the 900-pound world record squat, Wes benched
615 pounds and pulled a 600-pound deadlift to make the second-
best total at 165-pounds bodyweight with a 2115 pounds total.
However, he had to go back to jail for 140 days for a parole
violation. He made it back to the gym, and with some new training
partners, he had his mind on bigger squats and that all-time total
record.
Wes is just crazy, but Louie doesn’t care. He knows that
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normal people will only give you normal results. Louie and
Westside do not need normal results. Louie has dealt with all kinds,
and Wes is just Wes and sits next to Louie every day at breakfast
and will until the day he breaks the total record. When you break a
world record, you become a big part of Westside history.
What would happen to Wes if someone broke his squat
record? After all, the squat is Wes’ identity, and can a man survive
without an identity?
Alex Kovacs
Wes, Louie, and the guys went to Michigan for a meet
that did not go well for Wes. He was arrested for a minor parole
violation after the event. He then spent 100 days in jail before
making it back to Westside. But when something bad happens, it is
countered with something good.
In this case, it was Alex Kovacs. Alex was lifting at
148-pounds bodyweight and made a real hard 500 pounds. He had
come to Westside a few times with Dave Hoff and the night crew,
but he did not look too promising. Then, as they say, you can’t
tell a book by its cover. Within the year training at Westside, Alex
broke the world squat record of 810 pounds by making first 815
pounds, then 835 pounds to the amazement of everyone but his
Westside teammates.
What was next? Would he stay at 148 pounds or move up to
165 pounds and try to push up the 900-pound squat held by Wes?
Could it happen again? A teammate to break a teammate’s world
record?
Well, the team was to find out at the APF Senior Nationals
in Michigan where Alex came out at a full 165 pounds. After
blowing out his suit on a second attempt with 835 pounds, Alex
jumps to 903 pounds for a strong and deep lift.
Louie asked, “How could this skinny guy break three world
all-time squat records in two different weight classes?” Then he
remembered that Musashi said a Samurai would never look to the
right or left, but rather perfect his mental and physical technique by
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looking into his mind.
The rumor was that Alex would gain up to the 181-pound
class and take that record back.
Dave Hoff
Dave would start
at Westside as a fifteen-
year-old who had a lot of
potential. Most of the time,
only potential will not make
someone great. It takes many
things—the perfect body to
powerlift; the ability to learn
the proper technique; a high
work capacity, and work
ethic; but, to be the greatest, you also must have a unique mind.
At 19 years old, Dave became the youngest to squat 1005
pounds and total over 2400 pounds. He would also be the youngest
to total 2500, 2600, 2700, 2800, 2900, and 3000 with his best at
3014 pounds.
Dave’s most significant advantage is his bench press
with a top of 1015 pounds. Dave broke Chuck V.’s 275-pound
bodyweight squat record of 1180 pounds by doing 1210 at
271-pounds bodyweight.
Louie’s long-time friend Donny Thompson made the first
3000-pound total at 385-pounds body weight, but one year later,
Dave made a 3005-pound total at 271 pounds.
Because of many of Dave’s totals, Westside has 22 out of
the top 25 biggest totals of all time. How?
Because Westside Rules!
Dave also owns the two top coefficient totals at 275 pounds
and 308 pounds.
Dave is 100 percent Westside, and while lifting in Tennessee

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at Flex Wheeler’s Classic, Dave made a 1270-pound squat to break
the world 308-pound record. In so doing, he would have the biggest
squat of all time, as would Westside. Louie gave Dave the call-up
signal, and Dave got the rack command for three white lights. This
was one of the greatest moments at Westside Barbell.
Dave went on to make a bench and deadlift, but not enough
to break the total record.
On Louie’s drive home he said he was thinking how great it
was that Dave had just squatted the biggest weight on Planet Earth.
But on Monday, he received word that the lift had been overturned
by Mark Chaillet, the president of the IPA. Chalet said that Dave
had racked the bar before the rack command.
At the meet, Louie asked the head referee if he had given
Dave the rack command, and he said yes. It was a done deal until
Monday when Chaillet reversed the call. This made everyone look
bad—Dave, the judges, but especially the head judge. You cannot
reverse a lifting decision that was on someone’s phone.
Remember Rodney King? His terrible beating was on tape,
and the police got away scot-free the first time.
Louie had known Mark since he was a teenager. How
would he have liked a person two days later taking a lift away
from him that could have won his world championship? Then four
months later, Louie saw Mark at a meet in Tennessee.
“Mark,” said Louie, “There was no way you can take
Dave’s world squat away the way you did.”
He asked Mark what would happen if Dave would have
made a bench and deadlift to break the total record. Would the
total not count? He reiterated that this kind of change can just not
happen again. It was not right. Louie felt strongly that the people
on the internet do not pay to get in the meet, nor are they the
judges. He asked Mark why he would listen to a bunch of geeks
who cannot squat off the commode without a handrail.
Oh, by the way, Dave did not break the squat record, but he
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did set the total record twice. It was funny to Louie, but Dave was
not upset about the squat reversal. It must have been because Dave
knew it was just a matter of time … Now at 31-years-old Dave
is still making improvements. Louie showed Dave how he uses
A.S. Prilepin’s data on loading for the sets, reps, and volume per
workout. The number of lifts on speed strength day was outlined
by A.D. Ermakov and N.S. Atanasov in their 1975 data.
Dave has used the tables with his night crew to guide Alex
Kovacs to three world records. It is one thing to be a great lifter,
but most top lifters have never developed another lifter to be a
world record holder. This makes Dave a complete powerlifter now.
One thing about Westside is there are no suitcases, only gym bags.
This means that all of Westside’s lifters train at Westside.
Don’t Insult the Master
Greg Panora
Greg Panora came for a week to try-out, and Louie could
tell he was the real deal. But Russ Barlow had worked with Greg,
and Russ told Louie that Greg had too many problems to fix. Russ
thought Greg would not make much progress, if any at all. Well, if
Greg was going to train at Westside with Louie, then Louie took it
as an insult to say Greg could not go any further.
As it turned out, Greg’s best total had been 2250 pounds.
Inside of one year, Greg made a 2565 world record total. Greg
would break the total record several times until he made a 2630
world record total—so much for not making any progress! Russ is
a good friend, but made it personal.
Greg was also a great training partner for all of Westside.
After a few years, Greg returned to his old home. Louie knows he
misses Westside as much as Louie misses Greg, not only as a great
lifter, but a long-life friend. Greg now has his own gym and trains
lots of clients. Greg and Louie had a reunion in 2019, and it was
well overdue.

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Heidi Howar
Heidi Howar would leave Cincinnati and start training at
Westside. Her long-time trainer, Shane Sweatt, told Louie that
Heidi would not break any more records. Does this sound familiar?
Like Greg, Heidi has very high potential.
Right off the get-go, Heidi set the 132-pound squat record
at 617 pounds and a total record of 1505 pounds. Heidi moved up
to 148 pounds, and after an easy 620-pound squat, she benched
400 pounds and locked out 415 pounds, but as she locked it out,
her arm snapped at the wrist. This would be a set-back, but not for
long. Look for her to squat at least 680 pounds, a world record, in
2020, and that’s for starters.
When someone says that if someone comes to Westside,
they won’t make progress, it is not really an insult, but rather a
challenge and Louis is always up to a challenge.
Melissa Stevens
Melissa is a hard trainer and is always pushing the girls at
all times. She had a traumatic brain injury, but came back to break
her meet squat record by 55 pounds up to 520 pounds at 132-pound
bodyweight. Melissa is tough as nails for overcoming her TBI and
for continuing to improve. She will improve for as long as she trains.
Sinead Corley
Sinead was training with the night crew, but was going
nowhere fast with a 350-pound squat and a 350-pound deadlift.
After a year, she left the night crew to train in the morning crew
with Louie. First, Louie saw her weaknesses and addressed them.
Then, in one year, she made a 730-pound squat, a 300-pound
bench, and a 525-pound deadlift. Better training and a better
environment made all the difference.
The sky’s the limit for Sinead as her 730-pound squat is
sixth on the biggest squat list for a woman in 2019. Let’s see what
2020 will bring.

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The Little Giant
Jeremy Smith came to Westside in the summer of 2019 and
so far, has set three all-time world squat records at 123-pounds
bodyweight with 650-, 655- and 670-pound squats. He also broke
the Westside 132-pound record at 700 pounds at a bodyweight of
129 pounds.
At four foot six inches, Jeremy is a giant on the lifting
platform with a 1305 total and a 350-pound bench. His goal is
to hold the 123-pound record and to break Gerry McNamee’s
132-pound record of 749 pounds. Oh, by the way, Gerry in an
unofficial Westside lifter from Ireland. Jeremy is new to Westside,
but Louie says he has a bright future.
The Deadlifters
Vlad Alhazov
Vlad came to Westside without an 800-pound deadlift, but
left with a 925-pound deadlift plus a world record 1250-pound
squat. He was a monster with a crazy-strong back, but also a hard-
core attitude to go with it.
Louie misses Vlad, but no worries for him as he hit an 1157
raw squat record.
Chris Spiegel
Chris came to Westside after Drex Welch said he was a
big and powerful ex-football player from OU who could set some
records for Westside. Yes, he was no doubt strong and big at six
foot ten inches tall and 420 pounds. In his first meet with zero
gear, Chris made a 740-pound squat, a 630-pound bench, and
an 805-pound deadlift. Later he would just deadlift, making a
915-pound stiff-legged deadlift.
Chris had pulled 920 pounds off pin three in a Westside
rack, but he would later pull 970 pounds easy. Then he got
married, and after the honeymoon, he retired and lost more than
100 pounds. He concentrated on his job as an engineer at the truck
factory. His wife is also an engineer at the same plant. Louie stays
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in touch to make sure Chris is ok.
Josh Conley
Josh is married to Sinead nowadays, but in 2014 he wasn’t,
and he pulled 900 pounds at York Barbell in Pennsylvania. He has
some hip pain and still trains at Westside.

Jake Norman
At 6’7” tall with long arms and legs, Jake is born to
deadlift. He pulled 900 pounds in West Virginia in 2018.
Jake likes to do many things; too many if you listen to
Louie. He is a boxer, plays rugby, and is going to school. He is
always helping at the meets and is going to make a comeback.
David Jenks
David Jenks came to Westside with an 840-pound deadlift
at 242-pounds bodyweight, which didn’t change for more than a
year. He’s just like Jake, but pulled 890 pounds in 14 weeks. He
could have the world record total in the 242-pound class.
Westside’s average for the top five deadlifts is 886 pounds,
along with 26 more at 800 pounds or more.

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 Chapter 17
Pass It On

Louie is amazed at how many people come to Ohio for

an EliteFTS seminar only to show up at Westside to train with
the guys. Then they buy equipment at EliteFTS when all the time
Westside sells any kind of equipment and stuff a lifter would
desire. This does not bother Louie (too much). He is above that
bullshit, and to this day, anyone is welcome to come to Westside.
Many people think that Westside and EliteFTS are connected
somehow. That could not be further from the truth. Louie and Dave
Tate will always be friends, but they must keep their businesses
separate at all costs.
Louie always gives credit to the former Soviet sports
scientists for all of his success. It has been since 1982 when
he began to read all the information that Bud Charniga, Jr. had
translated to English. The Soviet information changed everything
about strength training for Louie.
Videos Share Strength-Training
Know-How
When the entire Westside Team began to make
improvements in their training in leaps and bounds and Louie
began to form a system of special strength training, he was asked
to pass the information on to others. At first, Louie said the system
must remain a secret, much like the Soviets did for decades. But
then a wise man told Louie that you can give the keys to the
universe to a million people, but only one may unlock the key. At
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that point, Louie began a series of tapes and DVDs to explain all
methods of strength training.
The first tapes—and they were tapes—were simply called
“Westside Secrets.” They were full of instructions on how to
bench, squat, and deadlift. These first efforts included “How to
Box Squat Correctly,” “How to Deadlift Sumo or Conventional
Style,” and “How to Bench from the Setup to the Lockout.”
They answered such questions as how many sets/reps are in a
workout, why it is so important to do a large workout every 72
hours, and how small workouts can be done every 12 or 24 hours.
The special exercises are limitless in the tapes. One shows
two young lifters, one of which Louie said was built for the bench.
This lifter was a 16-year-old Kenny Patterson who became a world
record holder in the bench press just as Louie had predicted. The
other young lifter was 19 years old and later in his career would
pull 816 pounds at 220-pounds bodyweight. He also would break
world record squats in three weight classes. Chuck V. added lots of
muscle and found the special exercises that made it possible.
While the “Secrets” series showed the special exercises,
it was the “Work Out” series that pushed the Westside System.
Now anyone could see how to box squat the right way. A bonus for
many was that after every workout, Louie would describe in detail
what had just happened. These were real workouts with the best
Westside had to offer. Many of the men lifting in the videos were
world champions or world record holders.
Westside uses small special exercises 80 percent of
the time. Louie let everyone in on how to do rollback triceps
extensions, the J.M. Press made famous by J. M. Blakely, and the
Dimel Deadlifts that pushed Matt’s squat—stuck at 820 pounds
for over a year—to a world record 1010 pounds. The same Dimel
Deadlifts raised Steve Wilson’s deadlift from 810 pounds to 865
pounds at the same 265-pound bodyweight.
For the bench, they showed old special exercises like Jim
Williams’ elbows-out extensions. There may be some confusion
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with the elbows-out extensions. Louie got arm barred by his friend
Don Damron in a friendly fight that Louie lost. But Louie did the
Williams elbows-out triceps extensions to rehab the elbow. Dave
Tate watched him and wrote about the exercise, and somehow Tate
Extensions caught on. Let it be known, however, that Westside
sends its sincerest apologies to the late, great Jim Williams for the
confusion. The workout DVDs demonstrated how to do reverse
hypers, Goodmornings, and calf-ham-glute raises.
No one would ever do what Louie did when he made a
DVD about Chuck V.’s training for the eight months leading up to
the Arnold Classic. It was entitled “Vogelpohl’s Triple XXX.” All
of Chuck’s workouts were filmed for the world to see leading up
to the Classic, where he won with a massive 816-pound deadlift
to beat his old training partner spectacularly. This takes a lot of
guts—there was a chance he would be best, or he would bomb out.
He did, however, win his second weight division.
Louie also made a “Deadlift Secrets” DVD to show how
over the years, Westside produced 30 men who had deadlifts over
800 pounds and four men who had deadlifts over 900 pounds. The
average of the top five was 906 pounds. Also, 34 men had squats
over 1000 pounds, and 15 men had bench presses over 800 pounds.
The top squat was 1234 pounds. The top bench was 1015 pounds,
and the top deadlift was 925 pounds. The top total was 3014
pounds, an all-time best.
In 1995 Louie made a training video with Coach Ken
Johnson and the Green Bay Packers for football weight training.
The “Explosive Power Training” DVD for all sports has
many GPP workouts such as sled pulling, and all types of special
jumping, medicine ball workouts, and mobility and flexibility
with stretching. Louie has vast experience in reactive training
methods with jumping of all kinds, weight releasers, and rubber
band training. He believes that reversal strength must be utilized
as much as possible in sports training and in the squat and bench
training.

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 A “Reactive Method” DVD was made. Because Louie
relies on special strength training, his next DVD was on “Special
Strengths Training.” It shows how to control volumes, intensities,
and how strength should be looked at as velocity training slow,
intermediate, and fast. When you understand this concept, you will
see strength in a different light.
Louie, the Author
To communicate all this and more, Louie found it necessary
to write books about training. The Book of Methods, published in
2007, is for any powerlifter from novice to a world champion. Next
in 2009, he published the Westside Barbell Bench Press Manual,
and then the Westside Barbell Squat and Deadlift Manual in 2011.
Explosive Strength Development for Jumping followed in 2014
because athletes sometimes neglect special jumping exercises.
Written in 2015, one of his most popular books has been Special
Strength Development for All Sports, including MMA.
Louie was asked how he would train for Olympic
weightlifting. Since the Conjugate System came from Olympic
weightlifting and track and field in 1972 in the former Soviet
Union, Louie copied from the Russians, the Chinese and the
Bulgarians—everything from special exercises to planning the
volume and how many workouts per week—and wrote Olympic
Weightlifting Strength Manual in 2016.
Louie works with sprinters who graduate from OSU and
need an extra tenth or a tenth and a half to sign a pro contract. They
spend about two months at Westside, make their improvement,
sign a contract, and are gone. But many times, Louie has to rehab
them before training them. This inspired Louie to write a book in
2017 on not only running, but prevention of injuries, which is titled
Strength Manual for Running.
People would ask Louie how to prepare a child for sports
and how old they should be when they begin. To answer these
questions, Louie wrote a book in 2018 about how to select a sport
for your child by doing tests for speed, strength, agility, endurance,
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flexibility, as well as hand and eye coordination, and provides
problem-solving like choosing tactics or forming a game plan.
While it is called The Rule of Three (for a reason explained in the
book), it is directed at starting the training of children from seven
to 10 years of age.
In many ways, however, the starting age for sports like
ice skating, dance and gymnastics, would be four years. It is
imperative to start at such an early age for these sports for the child
to comprehend the physical tasks that cannot be taught at older
ages. This practice was commonplace in the former Soviet Union,
which dominated the sports world in its time. Now you know why
some children will excel while others fail.
The Rise of Webinars
More and more coaches and athletes became interested in
the Westside system. Since Louie does not like to do seminars,
DVDs and books had allowed him to bring training materials to
everyone who wanted to learn without the travel that seminars
involve. He has now found Webinars to work even better. Webinars
in a seminar format are made to download directly from the
internet without the added production step of a DVD.
Using webinars, Louie has made public training on subjects
such as the Conjugate Method, Dynamic Effort, Football Strength
and Conditioning Essentials, Maximal Effort, and Accommodating
Resistance. The webinars have had the added effect of bringing
more traffic to Westside’s website. Because of this traffic, recently,
The Conjugate Club was born.
The Conjugate Club
Now a person can sign into The Conjugate Club on
Westside’s website and hear Louie give advice on powerlifting or
Olympic lifting, on track and field and how to reduce the rate of
track injuries and other wide-ranging subjects. Anyone can ask
questions about building a stronger athlete in any sport.

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 The Popularity of Podcasts
Today, Louie continues to write books, but he also spends
a great deal of time and effort on podcasts. It has become another
avenue for providing athletes a place to go for useful information
about getting stronger. He continues to be so appreciative of
the Westside guys and other guests who have participated in
photography, filming, brainstorming, and other activities that make
these DVDs, books, and podcasts valuable.
In all these communication efforts, Louie has found a way
to provide others a lifting community that he didn’t have starting
out when it was just him—no training partners for years, only a
mirror and an AM radio.

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 Chapter 18
Personalities that made
Westside Famous

Matt Smith
JerryO brought Matt Smith into Westside for a tryout.
Louie remembers saying to JerryO, “Why did you bring that fat kid
here?”
Jerry said, “Give him a try. He has an 1800 total at super
heavyweight.”
So, Louie did. Matt never missed a workout. He made
steady progress until he made a strong 2400-pound total.
Matt would go on to a gym record 1160-pound squat in a
poly suit and an 860-pound deadlift. His total of 2672 pounds was
the fourth largest of all time when he made it.
Sometimes the toughest contest can be with your
teammate. In this case, Mike Ruggiera and Matt were lifting in
Zanesville, Ohio, and they traded the lead back and forth. Matt
pulled an 835-pound deadlift to gain the lead. Then Mike pulled
an 815-pound deadlift to regain the lead. But Matt came out and
needed an 850-pound personal reload to overcome Mike’s big
bench and squat and win the battle.
Matt had a very strong lower back and could do an
820-pound Goodmorning. Now twenty years later, Matt still
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comes in and has breakfast and then runs the monolift for the AM
crew. Like the rest of the real Westside guys, Matt will be around
Westside to help or go to the meets and do whatever he is asked to
do.
Like Matt Smith, Matt Dimel told Louie that their workouts
should be available on tape for all to see. Well, they both got their
wish.
Mike Ruggiera
Louie met Mike in York in the late 90s, and Louie could
not believe how big Mike was. At that time, Mike weighed about
310 pounds. Later, when joining Westside, his weight jumped to a
super-muscular 360 pounds.
Mike squatted 780 pounds
and totaled 2180 pounds in that
York meet. Louie told Mike that if
he would come to Columbus and
join Westside, he would guarantee
Mike a 1000-pound squat and a
2400-pound total in one year.
Mike would make good
progress and lifted at the APF
Nationals in 2006. He pulled an
all-time 821 pounds in Detroit
at 1:30 am. Mike lived only 10
minutes from the gym, but Mike
never came back to everyone’s
surprise.
Eight years later, Louie saw Mike in Cincinnati at Laura
Phelp’s Women’s Pro-Am. Louie walked up to Mike and asked Mike
how he was. Mike said he was good.
Then Louie said, “The last time I saw you, it was 1:30 am
in Detroit, and I shook your hand after you pulled that 821-pound
deadlift. What happened?”

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 Mike said he had started a family.
“What does that have to do with you leaving the gym?”
Louie asked.
Mike replied, “You are a hard man.”
To that, Louie said, “Mike, I have to be a hard man.”
Then Louie wished Mike the best and never saw him again.
This is not new at Westside, and Louie has seen and heard it
all. People have to do what they have to do. Louie knows that if it is
more critical for him than the lifter to become better, then that can
become a problem.
Mark Burrows
AKA Chicken Hawk, Mark Burrows, came to Westside
more than 20 years ago. In the dictionary where the word “insanity”
is listed, there is a is a picture of Chicken Hawk. Hawk came to
Westside in the mid-1990s, but was not getting the instruction he
deserved, so Louie took him under his wing. Hawk’s main goal was
to total elite, but his training partners could not communicate with
him. Louie started to show Hawk how to build his weaknesses, and
pushed up the volume on small special exercises. After that, the rest
is history. Hawk would go on to total an IPF Elite in four weight
classes—all of this while going to school to become an RN. It took
forever, but after getting married, he received his nursing degree.
After that, Hawk was hired by the Cleveland Clinic.
Louie said, “Chicken Hawk, for once in your life, take my
advice and don’t say anything to the women nurses, or you will get
fired.”
In one week, Hawk was fired for calling the head nurse
a bitch. Louie always said this was just the start for Hawk’s total
destruction of his life.
While filming for the squat workout segment that called for
Louie and the guys to do back-to-back lactic acid tolerance squats
for 15 reps, Louie saw Hawk playing with the camera.

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 Louie said, “Hawk, get the fuck away from the camera, you
will fuck it up.”
Hawk says, “I’m not touching the camera.”
After the workout Louie would always watch the tape to be
sure everything was ok. At the squat segment, the picture went off,
and only music could be heard. Louie called Hawk on the phone on
his way back to Cleveland and cussed him out. To this day, Hawk
denies that he touched the camera.
It did not stop there. Hawk then broke the mono-lift and took
the handle back to Cleveland so Louie could not fix the mono-lift
until his crazy ass came back to Westside.
One day Louie and Chicken Hawk decided to have an
intervention for Dollar Bill, a lifter who was addicted to the nightlife,
especially the Strippers. Two weeks after Dollar Bill’s intervention,
he was high drunk and who knows what else when he wrecked his
motorcycle and would have died from his injuries, but he was able
to summon the police with his cell phone. Chicken Hawk and Louie
decided it was not a good idea to ever do another intervention after
how that one turned out.
Louie had told Hawk to take his advice, and please never get
married because if he had kids, the world could end long before it
should. And like always, Hawk did not listen.
The next thing we know, he has twins. Tommy and William
were now the newest members of Westside. Louie recalls Fred Boldt
telling the boys that if any stranger would come up to them and ask
if they wanted a ride, they should take it. Now the boys are about
12 years old and come to Westside when they are off parole.
When you see Hawk and the boys at meets, you will know
the love of a father for his boys. Here it is 2019, and Chicken Hawk
and his boys are still making Louie’s life very chaotic, but that’s how
Louie likes it. Especially when Hawk says to Louie, “You are the
worst father ever!”

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 Kenny Patterson
As was mentioned earlier, Kenny came to Westside in
1988 and started powerlifting at 14 years old. He would go from
a 135-pound bench at 14 years old and at 22 make a 640-pound
raw bench at 275-pounds bodyweight. At that weight, he had 23
and one-half inch arms and was setting world records with his
teammates at Westside.
When you think about it, Kenny grew up to manhood at
Westside. He had lots of role models—some good, some bad. He
would travel around the country, beating world record holders in
their own backyards.
Kenny started working at 18 years old at Mars Corporation
and worked his way up the corporate ladder until reaching the top.
Louie is very proud of him.
They had lunch recently as Kenny’s job calls for him to
move to Arizona, but he told Louie he will call when he comes to
town on business.
Kenny also told Louie that he had watched the
documentary Westside vs. The World and was somewhat
disappointed that it had made Westside look like it was run by
thugs. Louie, who never took the first penny from the film and
will never watch it, said it can in no way portray the real story of
Westside Barbell. But he knows the media all too well as they go
after a couple of idiots that their fucked-up lives far surpassed their
lifting exploits. It happens in the newspaper, on television, on film
and even gossip. (Louie knew that this is just one reason I found it
necessary to write The True Story of Westside Barbell.)
It was good for Kenny to call Louie for lunch before
leaving for Arizona, and when Louie asked his opinion, Louie was
thankful for Kenny’s honesty.
Jim Wendler
Jim came to Westside after playing football at Arizona at
the fullback position. The first thing Louie told him was that when
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his strength equaled his incredible power, he will do something great.
This was when Jim squatted 800 pounds. When asked
about his goals, Jim said a 1000-pound squat, a 700-pound bench
press, and a 700-pound deadlift.
It didn’t take long to reach his goal and total 2400 pounds.
No one knew that in powerlifting, the 2400 pounds was his
ultimate goal, and he would walk away from powerlifting for good.
Jim worked for Dave Tate and EliteFTS and, at that time,
wrote a book entitled 5-3-1. It was a simple workout plan, and it
sold thousands of copies. Jim had lots of talent as he was also in a
rock band. He fit in quite well with all his crazy tattoos. Louie still
runs across Jim at local restaurants now and then. They talk about
the old days at Westside when Dave Hoff was about 18 years old.
Once a Westsider, always a Westsider.
Jerry Obradovic
Jerry Obradovic, or JerryO as he was known, came to
Westside when Matt Dimel found him in a Nautilus gym. JerryO
was 16 years old. He was a loose cannon and didn’t want to use the
Westside System. So, he was kicked out. But, then, he asked for a
second chance and made the best of it.
JerryO was a big kid and started out at 242 pounds. He did
his best, however, at 275 pounds. He won the APF Senior National
after being way behind following his squat. Bill Davis from Frantz
Gym had squatted 959 pounds to JerryO’s 804 pounds. Jerry then
out-benched him and followed that with an 804-pound pull to win
the 275-pound class.
JerryO ran into some health problems that set him back for
some time. In 2005, though, Jerry, Chuck V, and Louie lifted in
Zanesville, Ohio, in a Push Push with money for the Top Three.
JerryO won with 810 pounds in the deadlift in the 308-pound class;
Chuck V was second with 805 pounds in the 275-pound class;
and Louie came up third with 715 pounds in the 220-pound class.
Louie’s was a Top 10 Lifter at 57 years old and a total of 34 years.

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 JerryO was also very strong in the bench. He had a
close-grip raw of 585 pounds, a 705-pound shirt bench with his
teammate Kenny P holding the world record at 728 pounds in the
275-pound class.
To this day, JerryO comes by Westside to see Louie or calls
him every two weeks or so. It was hard on Jerry when Matt Dimel
died in 1994, but he knew he had to keep going for Matt’s sake,
and would always wear the Westside colors until the day he dies.
Bob Coe
Bob Coe came to the Garage Gym with Matt at 17 years
old. Matt Dimel had met Gary Sanger at a Columbus, Ohio, night
club called the Dixie Electric Company in 1991. The nightclub was
about a half-mile from Westside’s location today in 2020.
Bob told Louie how Matt
wanted to be the world’s strongest man.
Bob was a skinny bodybuilder at 17,
and Louie told Matt and Bob that if
they wanted to train at Westside, they
had to get as big as possible. Their
response? They got new tattoos that
said, “Get Fucking Huge.” Today,
many lifters wear that tattoo.
Louie recalls the guys doing
push-ups with a 100-pound plate
on their backs. Bob did more push-
ups than Matt, so Louie said, “I
can’t believe a faggot bodybuilder can do more push-ups than
a 300-pound powerlifter.” Louie always did like to fuck with
peoples’ minds to see how they react. Still does, in fact.
Bob said, “Here it goes.”
Louie could tell Matt was mad as his red face was even
redder than usual, so they went out in the alley. Louie walked up to
Matt, and Matt pushed Louie so hard he landed on his ass and slid

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for about 10 feet. Louie got up and hit Matt with a single leg and
then picked him up. But Matt got Louie in a standing guillotine
and tried to choke Louie out. The next thing, Louie picks Matt off
the ground, something Bob had never seen happen to Matt. But
Louie and Matt were about to go over the neighbor’s fence. Louie
knew he would land on his head with Matt on top of him. Instead,
he asked Matt if he wanted to stop. Matt said yes, and they lived to
play again.
In another incident, when Matt was a little drunk, he picked
up Bob and slammed him on the hood of the car just missing the
hood ornament, but scaring Bob to death. Matt also did the same
thing to Louie, but did it twice in a row. When Matt did it the
second time, Louie grabbed Matt by the sides and did not let go.
Later that night, Louie got a 12-pack and went to Matt’s house.
Matt, his brother Dana and his Dad were sitting in the front yard.
As Louie walked up, Matt said, “Hey, motherfucker, look
what you did.”
Louie, who barely escaped with his life, asked, “What are
you talking about?”
Matt stood up and pulled up his shirt. On his sides, Matt
had two handprints bruised into his sides like a Kung Fu movie.
This was how things were with Bob, Louie, and Matt.
Bob always had terrible luck when it came to lifting. First,
he wanted to make a Masters Total as he knew an Elite Total was
not in the cards. It was the return to lifting meet for Louie, and Bob
said he wanted to try for his total. His squats were good, and his
bench was a personal record. The deadlift was Bob’s best lift, and
it would take a 710-pound deadlift to make the total.
Mark Camboni was calling Bob’s lifts, and he knew what it
took to total Masters as Mark was a 275-pound lifter himself. Mark
called for a 705-pound deadlift on Bob’s final attempt, which he
made.
Louie was lifting and did not know what Bob needed for

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his 275-pound Master Total, but on his way home, he added up
the numbers in his head and knew Bob was five pounds short.
Later that night, Bob called Louie and was very upset about it.
On Monday, Louie told Gritter, the head of the night crew, that he
thought that Mark Camboni did it on purpose. Gritter said Mark
would not do that to Bob. But, two weeks later, Gritter went to
Mark’s house and took his gym key. And that was all she wrote for
Mark.
About six months later, Bob was going to try to bench 500
pounds in Charleston, West Virginia. Bob took the 500 pounds on
his third attempt, but at lockout, Bob tore his triceps off his arm.
The bar came down on Bob’s head, but the spotters caught the bar
just in time before there was severe damage.
Bob was in a good deal of pain, and the medics were called.
His bench shirt had to be cut off. Crazy Matt Hawkins pulled out
a huge knife and was ready to cut Bob’s shirt off, but instead, he
cut the shirt off Louie and, in the process, cut Louie’s arm twice.
Louie took the knife to deal with Bob’s shirt, but in the process,
he managed to cut Bob’s arm three or four times. In other words,
Louie did not do any better than Matt would have, but he simply
wanted in on the action. When the medics showed up, they asked
where all the blood came from.
Louie said, “Don’t worry about the blood. He tore his
triceps muscle.” It was funny at the time … even to Bob.
The Passing of Matt Dimel
In 1994 Matt was starting to have some serious health
problems, and Bob and Louie were doing their best to help Matt
out. Matt was living with a woman who had more issues than Matt
did. She had a little girl called Harley, who was about four years
old. Matt loved Harley like she was his own.
The news came as Louie, Chuck V, and Butcher, Louie’s
American Bulldog, returned from an out-of-town trip. When they
pulled up at Louie’s house, his wife Doris came out to the car in
the rain to tell them Matt had died the previous night. Louie was
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sad to hear it, but he was not surprised. Later they learned that he
had a stroke. Matt had gone through a lot in his life. It seemed he
was always in some type of trouble from blowing off his knees to
getting hooked on morphine at the hospital. After being in and out
of jail for small things, now on November 17, 1994, Matt is dead.
Matt was like a son to Louie, and Matt was Bob’s best friend. Bob
took it very hard, and to this day, it is hard for Bob to talk about
Matt’s death.
Bob would go about his workouts, but something was
missing. It was a kid who got Bob on track again. That kid was
Dave Hoff. Dave came into the gym in about 2004 at 15 years old.
Now Bob could help guide Dave into the Westside System and on
to stardom. Dave was
to become the strongest
geared powerlifter of
all time. Bob worked
out at night and
oversaw all of Dave’s
workouts. But the story
is getting ahead of
itself. Before that time,
Bob trained with Jeff
Adams, aka Gritter.
Jeff Adams aka Gritter
Gritter came from Dayton, Ohio, which is about 60 miles
from Columbus and Westside Barbell. It was 1995, and Gritter
started with the morning crew working out with Kenny P, Chuck
V, Joe McCoy, JerryO, Todd Brock, Fuzzdog, and George Halbert,
just to name a few.
Gritter’s best total was about 1400 pounds at 198-pounds
bodyweight—nothing to call home about. Louie told him that what
he was doing was not the Westside System, and he suggested that
Gritter visit Westside for a few workouts. Gritter started to make
good progress after just a few weeks and broke both his bench and
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deadlift records. Like everyone else, Louie had Gritter train in the
morning under Louie, Chuck V, and the other guys who knew the
system. Todd Brock helped him a lot with his technique not only
with the three powerlifts, but also how to do the special exercises.
Louie told Gritter it was on a trial basis to see if he could be
a Top 10 lifter and that he should come until Louie told him not to.
When Gritter first arrived, no one would trust him. They thought
he was undercover from another gym. It had happened before, so
the guys were very cautious about what they said. Chuck V was
the worst—he thought everyone was watching Westside for some
reason, which Westside does not want to talk about.
The gym was insane when Gritter came to train between
1995 and 2008. It was a contest every day. Lifters had to have
tough skins to survive the high level of competition at every
workout. Of course, this environment at the gym made a meet a
joke—no pressure there at all. Each lifter’s main competition was
mostly one of his or her teammates.
Chuck V came up to Louie one day when they were floor
pressing. He said, “I hate that fuckin Gritter.”
Louie said, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Chuck said, “He is always dissing me when he gets in front
of his turn.”
Louie said, “Chuck, you’re crazy.”
About that time, Gritter started rubbing his shoulder
because he just had it operated on a few months previously.
Chuck said, “Stop rubbing it, Gritter, or I will tear it off and
beat your ass with it!”
Gritter said, “Go ahead. The only thing holding you back
is fear.” It was supposed to be a joke, but Chuck just glared at him
like a homicidal killer.
Later, Joe McCoy said, “Gritter, do you know how close
you came to dying?”

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 Over time, Gritter somehow won Chuck over, except
for what kind of music to listen to during their workouts. Chuck
liked rap. Gritter liked heavy metal like ACDC or Metallica. The
deal was that whoever arrived first got to pick the music. Louie
said Gritter always got there first when he went to the night crew.
To this day, Louie knows every line of every song ACDC ever
performed. He breaks into a cold sweat when he hears their music.
Gritter was working out with Chuck and learned really fast
that Chuck liked to push the guys to failure and then pass that point
until they would go backward in training. Grit was too smart to fall
for it.
It is because of Chuck that Louie uses the phrase, “intensity
is a mathematical formula, not a feeling.” Louie has always been
disappointed in Chuck for not training optimally. If you remember
from an earlier chapter, that’s why Dr. Mel Siff’s message at the
seminar in Las Vegas hit home, even though Dr. Siff was late,
Louie had to start the session without him, and when he did arrive,
he walked in front of a talking Louie and began to talk about
controlling volume. The crowd, of course, could not believe what
just happened, but Louie knew Mel was very eccentric and meant
no disrespect. It was just Mel being Mel.
Anyway, the message … First, Mel said one should never
train minimally, and Louie thought that was for pussies. And
then he said you should never train maximally. Louie thought to
himself, “What the Hell! That’s what I do.”
And next Mel said the most profound thing that Louie had
never paid attention to before: You must train optimally. When
Louie got back to Westside, he laid out three books to explain to
Chuck why this was so important. Chuck looked at the books for
about 15 seconds and walked out of the room.
Years later, Chuck said he wished he had listened to Louie
that day. Louie had trained and competed for 16 years more than
Chuck, yet both Chuck’s and Louie’s careers ended at the same
time around 2012. Louie was 63 years old and at 217 pounds
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made a 730-pound squat, a 505-pound bench, and a 675-pound
deadlift while Chuck was getting a cage in his back. The world
is not flat, and there is more than blood, sweat, and muscle tears
to powerlifting. Or, as Dr. Squat, Fred Hatfield said, “a scientific
approach to powerlifting.”
Gritter came to Westside with a lot of injuries. Most were
joint-related from bone chips in the hips and elbows. When Gritter
would squat, he could not use a wide stance, but he still made Top
10 squats, and at 198-pounds bodyweight, he could bench raw 500
pounds and 600 pounds with a denim shirt.
The doctor said it would take three separate operations to
make his elbow completely straight. Gritter said, “no way, Jose.”
After a while, Gritter was in charge of the night crew. He
ran it like an Army sergeant. When you walked through the door,
there was no time for talking; it was time to work out. You did not
wait for someone; you began to work out. If you did show up late
and there was 405 pounds on the bar, that’s what you started with,
or you had to wait until everyone else was done.
Gritter was hard on everyone new to see if they were really
Westside material. Joe Bayles came for his tryout, and it was 90-
plus degrees with no air conditioning on.
After a hard first workout, Joe said, “That was a good
workout.”
Gritter said, “We are not done. We have to do our GPP.”
Joe said, “What are you talking about?”
“Pulling a weight sled,” replied Gritter, and headed outside.
Joe was not alone. With them were Josh Guthridge, a super
heavyweight, and a huge kid Tim Harold who was about 450
pounds at six foot seven inches.
Gritter inherited a powerful group who would go on the
bench in the sevens, squat over 1000 pounds, and pull over 800
pounds. At that time, Louie paid the first 700 pounds benched and,

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along with a teenage superstar Mike Brown and Josh Guthridge,
were number nine and 10 to win $700.
On the way home Louie called Fat Matt Smith to tell him
he was out of luck about making money because the first 10 got the
$700. It was the same for the squat. The first 10 lifters to do it got
the cash. This was a great group from nearby Newark, Ohio. Once
they proved themselves, they asked if they could bring a young kid
by the name of Zak Cole. Zak had great technique in all three lifts.
At 19 years old, he made a big total and just missed an 800-pound
deadlift. But you guessed it; Zak got his first girlfriend and quit
powerlifting. The same thing happened to Mike Brown. This was a
significant loss to Westside, but the show must go on.
To be a star in powerlifting, you must make powerlifting
the first thing in your life. The window is small for most as many
things can steal your soul and leave you with an ordinary life. To
Louie, that is no life at all, but rather a slow death.
When it came to being a nice guy, Gritter would come in
dead last or at least tie with Louie. But Louie was a motherfucker,
and when someone would come to visit, he would send them to the
night crew with Gritter.
A hot girl wanted to visit Westside and train for a couple
of weeks. So, Louie said she would have to train at night. All she
wanted to do was train on bicep curls in the power rack. Gritter
would yell at her and make her cry until she stopped coming.
Afterward, Louie said, “Gritter, you are an asshole.”
To that, Gritter said, “Fuck you and get the fuck out of here.
No one wants to see you come here at night.”
Louie loved to watch the night crew and have something
smart to say just to piss them off. Chuck V came in one night and
watched the group squat. Chuck came over to Louie and said,
“Have you ever seen them squat before?”
Louie said, “Yes, Chuck. Every week.”
Louie would come in at night and watch the guys squat,
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and Gritter would say, “Don’t come in here and shake your head
every time we squat.”
Louie retorted, “Is there something wrong with you? I don’t
shake my head.”
Gritter replied, “The Hell, if you don’t, you senile fuck.”
The truth is that Louie did not shake his head until they
started saying he did. But after that, he made it a point to get
caught just so they would yell at him. To get them mad made
Louie’s day, and then he would leave.
Gritter was hard on everyone, but he would always talk
about how he hated all foreigners. Eskil Thomasson was from
Sweden, and Gritter would call him a puss. One day they were
taking a max on the box squat, and Eskil was trying a new record
with 700 pounds. After taking the weight out of the monolift, he
said, “Rack it, rack it. I lost my confidence.”
They reracked the bar, but Gritter said, “If you don’t try it
again, then get your gym bag and get the hell out.”
Eskil had no choice but to try it again or buy a one-way
ticket back to Sweden. Gritter knew the same thing had happened
to Eskil while he was training in the morning crew. And he recalled
Joe McCoy saying when Eskil wanted to re rack the bar, “Oh, you
should never have said that.”
Somehow Eskil stayed 10 years at Westside. He came in
1993 and left in 2004. In 2019 he came back to his real home—
Westside Barbell.
Westside could be mean. It tried to bully everyone it could.
It would find an easy target and regularly fuck with that person.
But there was one person who caught more hell than any two
people at Westside and probably the entire planet Earth.

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 Karen Sizemore
As Bill’s brother said about the bride in Kill Bill: “This
woman needs her revenge, and we deserve to die.”
Karen came to Westside for a few workouts with Amy
Weisberger, but somehow like a rat, found a place to hide in the
open for years.
At 275 pounds and five
feet two inches tall, it was hard to
hide, but she did it. At first, it was
supposed to be about getting in
shape and losing weight. Well, she
got in shape. And, she got strong,
real strong, but something went
terribly wrong as she broke a record
and gained some weight. At this
point, she was cursed with a new
name—Size Master.
It fit well, but the guys—
mostly Gritter and Eskil—were the
worse. At the start, she had to weigh
in every day in front of Gritter. The
guys thought it was funny, but Karen hated it. At home, her mother
was a little lady about 115 pounds at best, and she was always on
Karen about her weight gain.
Louie was the worst of all. When Karen would walk into
the gym and set her gym bag down, Louie would stick a bag of
“Five burgers for $5” in her purse. Then Louie would ask, “Karen,
did you stop at Burger King again?”
“No, Louie,” she would say, “You know me better than that.”
Louie would ask, “Can I check your bag?”
She would say, “Go ahead.”
Louie would pull out a bag of hamburgers and say, “What
the hell is this?”
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 Karen would be speechless, and then Louie would break
down laughing. He was such an asshole.
Louie would also put empty pizza boxes in her bag when
she was not looking.
Once when Louie’s wife Doris was out of town, Karen
asked if she could stay all night at Louie’s house.
Louie said, “I guess. What’s the worst that could happen?”
It was Karen, Louie and Jackie Chan, Louie’s Pit Bull.
Karen said she wanted to take a shower.
“Go ahead,” Lou said, “Just please shut the door.”
So, Karen jumps in the shower, and, of course, she did not
shut the door. Later, Louie said he thought she was trying to break
up his marriage. The next thing Louie knows, Karen is yelling
at Louie to come to get Jackie out of the bathroom. Jackie was
digging at the see-through shower door.
Louie went in and saw Jackie trying to get in the shower,
and Karen’s soaped up body. Somehow Louie got Jackie out, but
not before he saw Karen naked. Louie and Jackie had temporary
blindness for three weeks after this ordeal.
Louie, at his worst, took Karen to a Chinese buffet. Because
Karen always looked at the menu forever, then chose the buffet;
Louie had given the server a $20 bill to tell Karen that the buffet
had just closed. He wanted to see her face, and he said it was worth
it. As she moaned and groaned, Louie broke out laughing.
On the other note, Karen started at ground zero and went on
to squat 650 pounds, bench 450 pounds and deadlift 500 pounds.
Louie thinks the squat and bench were the biggest lifts by a female
at that time. Later she started having severe pain in her forearm.
Louie advised her to stop lifting, so her next goal was to lose
weight. She was a physical fitness teacher and a role model at a
Catholic school. It was essential for her to lose weight to show the
school population what discipline can accomplish.

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 She lost close to 200 pounds and began to train her two
German Shepherds to do tricks and wear unique outfits and to
perform agility tests. She also began to do modeling, especially
modeling vintage clothing, like the pin-up pictures of the 1950s
and 1960s.
Karen still goes to Westside meets when they are in
Ohio, and she stays in touch. She loved Westside and Louie, and
Westside will always love her.
Amy Weisberger
Gritter also trained
Amy Weisberger at night
and had his hands full as
Amy was very eccentric,
to say the least. Amy
moved to Westside in 1987
and is still at Westside
to this day. She traveled
from Ohio University in
Athens, Ohio, and then
from Cincinnati three times a week—about an hour and 45 minutes
one way.
Like many, her former trainer said she would not go any
further than her 780-pound total. This was an insult to any, but
Louie took it as a real insult, and everyone knows revenge is best
served cold.
Gritter, as you learned earlier, was in charge of the night
crew, which Amy trained with, but Louie was there most of the
time. Amy was powerful, but had trouble with the gear. The gear
was not much in 1987, but just as Gritter had the right combination
for Amy, she would try a new suit or shirt, and that’s when all hell
would break loose. This would go on forever.
Amy had to be different from everyone else. And Louie was
a stat man. If every top lifter was wearing a certain shirt or squat
suit, he thought it should be good enough for Amy.
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 But somehow Amy became the best coefficient woman
lifter in the world with her first world total record of 1180 pounds
in the 123-pound class. She held the bench record at 300 pounds
until her teammate Anna Blakely broke it with 303 pounds. Anna
was J. M. Blakely’s wife at the time.
So much for Amy being done with that 780 pounds total.
Huh? Gritter was always kicking people out of the gym in the
1990s and 2000s. If Gritter ran the night crew today, he would
not let half the people in the gym! After all, there is a sign on
the door that says you must ask Louie if you are eligible to train
at Westside. Just because you can spot or you are someone’s
girlfriend, that does not mean you are good enough to train at
Westside.
Louie found that a gym can be like our government—
bigger is no better.
When Amy came to Westside, it was only 800 square feet,
so it was much more selective. Louie had to move Westside to a
bigger space, not for the lifters, but because of his new patented
equipment. But through it all was Amy—she even sports a
Westside tattoo.
Next, Amy moved up to the 132-pound class and made a
10-times-bodyweight 1333-pound total. At this point, she holds
two world total records and the first 10-times bodyweight total
for a woman. It also made her the first to qualify for the world’s
strongest meet, Kieran Kidder’s WPO. So much for being tapped
out with that 780-pound total.
Now Amy had new goals—the first to break the world
squat record at 148 pounds. It belonged to Kara Bohigian at 250
kilograms (551 pounds). At the WPO, she made 252 ½ kilograms
for a world record. Not only did she push her squat up to 590
pounds while at 144-pounds bodyweight, that success came with
a 500-pound deadlift and a 10-times bodyweight total for her third
world total record. This was something no one could duplicate
until another Westside woman, the incomparable Lara Phelps,
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made total records in three weight classes—the 148-, the 165- and
the 181-pound classes. This could not happen anywhere except
Westside Barbell. Inside the mystical walls of Westside, it seems
anything can come true.
It has been more than 30 years, and Amy still walks inside
the walls of Westside. She had hip surgery and has slowed down,
but she stops in to see how Louie and the AM crew are doing.
Gritter Stories
Gritter was still running the night crew and doing some
excellent lifts. In fact, he made top 10 lifts with a 750-pound
squat, 600-pound bench, and a 1900-pound total. His deadlift was
not very good, though, because his elbows and hips were full of
arthritis.
Louie told Gritter to know his role when lifting against
Jesse Kellum. Gritter warmed up to 405 raw single. Jesse lay down
and did five easy reps and said, “You are running with the big dogs
now, old man.”
Louie saw Jesse and Dave Waterman bench 500 for three
reps with their feet on the bench. Those were the strong days.
Louie would have Gritter work with a lot of foreign lifters, and
Gritter would always tell them how much he disliked anyone who
was not from America.
A guy and his girlfriend from Ireland came to watch the
AM crew, and Louie knew he was not very strong. With that in
mind, he picked them up at the hotel late that afternoon so they
could train with Gritter and the night crew. When the guy got
started, the bar had 120 pounds of chain on it. The poor guy could
not control the bar enough to stand back up. At this point, Gritter
started to call him every name you could think of, but no matter
what, the guy could not stand back up with the bar. It got worse.
Gritter started calling him names even Louie hadn’t heard of. Then
it was so bad Louie walked out of the gym, and just think, Louie
doesn’t have a heart!

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 After the workout, Louie took them back to their hotel. On
the way, it was total silence until the guy said, “That was what I
needed.”
Louie said, “What do you mean?”
“The way that guy was yelling at me, it woke me up,” he
replied.
Louie said to himself, “What the fuck!” but he said to the
guy, “Oh, I’m glad it worked.”
Louie had seen it all, or had he? Some guy asked Louie
if he could bring his son to the gym for some football training.
The kid was way too small to play football at Ohio University,
but Louie said they would take him through some workouts for a
couple of weeks.
Of course, Louie had him come in with the night crew, but he
was going to lead him through the workouts himself. Louie has him
get on Westside’s non-motorized treadmill, but realizes the kid was
wearing a Michigan shirt. This cannot happen at Westside … ever.
Now Gritter sees it and says, “Take that fucking shirt off.”
The kid just laughs and keeps walking.
Gritter said it again, except he said, “If you don’t take it off,
I will rip it off!”
The kid thinks he is kidding until Gritter walks over and
rips it off him. This kid was about 140 pounds and was in shock.
At this point, Louie had to get the kid some Westside shirts and
then talk to his dad. His dad said it was ok and he thought it would
be good for him. And Louie never saw the kid again … go, Bucks.
Oh, by the way, the kid went into broadcasting.
Chris Doyle, the University of Iowa strength and
conditioning coach, came to see Louie and the guys train, and
while they were there, two Westside guys got into a fight over one
spilling a coke on the other guy. The lifters just kept on squatting
while Louie and a couple of guys broke up the fight.

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 About an hour later, Louie remembered about the fight and
told Chris he was sorry. Chris said it was no big deal—football
players get into fights all the time.
One of the assistant coaches had a big bag of Iowa shirts to
give away. When he offered Gritter a shirt, Gritter said, “I would
not wipe my ass with that shirt.”
The coach said, “I understand. Our fans wouldn’t take an
OSU shirt either.”
Louie was quite honored to have Coach Doyle come to
Westside. Today, Coach Doyle is the highest-paid strength coach in
college football. Hey, Chris, if you read this, Louie could use a few
bucks.
Gritter’s mind was always up his ass. He still talks today
about a hot girl who would train at night with baggy shorts and
no panties. But Louie says it’s hard for him to remember anything
about that.
Gritter was, is, and will always be crazy.
Matt Hawkins
However, one of the craziest guys that ever trained at
Westside was Matt Hawkins. Matt was from the south and had
to move because he kidnapped a dog that was barking too much.
He drove it out of town. Once he had to move, why not Westside?
His deadlift sucked at 560 pounds when his body weight
was 220 pounds. Louie told him to try extra-wide sumo pulls
with the collars on the inside of the plates to build strong hips and
greater flexibility. In six months, Matt pulled 650 pounds at a meet.
It also pushed his squat up, too. Matt stayed to himself most of the
time, but he was a great training partner.
One day when he had just started at Westside, he tried to
put plates on for Louie. Louie grabbed the plate and said, “Matt, do
you respect me?”
Matt said, “Of course.”

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 Louie said, “You can respect me outside the gym, but inside
your job is to try to kick my ass. Ok?”
Matt said, “I got it.”
Westside was lifting in York, Pennsylvania, at the IPA
World Cup when Mark Chaillet came up to Louie and asked if that
was Matt Hawkins.
Louie said, “Yes. Why?”
Mark told Louie that Matt came to train at his gym. He
came with nothing, and Mark helped him get started.
Louie continued to listen, but thought to himself that it was
the same way it happened at Westside.
Mark went on to explain that then one day, Matt just
disappeared, and Mark never heard from him again.
Louie answered, “Well, Matt seems happy at Westside,”
and he thought to himself that Matt would probably be there
forever.
Shawn McDonald drove his fellow lifters crazy with things
he would do to others. One day Dave Tate said, “Someone should
shoot that motherfucker.”
After the workout, Matt went to Shawn’s house and pulled
a gun on him with a plan to kill him. But he said later that he
couldn’t do it because he did not know what to do with the body.
Word of this got back to Dave. He told Louie he should have a
talk with Matt at lunch, but he didn’t tell Louie anything about the
incident or why he should talk to him. Meanwhile, Louie knew
nothing of any of this.
Louie knew something was wrong, however, when only
he and Matt showed up for lunch. He thought to himself, “What is
Dave up to?”
They ordered their lunch, and then after a while, Louie said,
“Hey, Matt, Dave said I should talk to you.”
Matt said, “Oh yeah, I was going to kill Shawn McDonald,
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but I didn’t know what to do with the body.”
Louie thought for a minute. He then said, “Matt, I own
Westside, and you don’t do anything without asking me first.”
Matt said, “Ok.”
And Matt went back to eating like nothing had happened at
all. Just like that, it was done.
Matt was just Matt after that and continued making good
progress and being a good training partner. One night, however,
Matt, who, believe it or not, was a third-grade school teacher, got
mad at a student. He picked up the kid and his chain and shook the
chain violently. This happened on a Wednesday, and that was the
last time anyone anywhere heard from Matt Hawkins.
In the powerlifting world, it is hard to completely
disappear, but that is what Matt did. Louie has always wondered
what happened to him. He was hardcore, but it was all about
Westside for Matt. Louie hoped he was successful at beginning a
new life. He will never be forgotten.

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 Chapter 19
Paying the Bills:
Intellectual Property
Over the years, a lot of lifters would come through
Westside, and they would need more sophisticated equipment to
have new means of improving their lifts and reducing their injuries.
Years ago, when Louie broke his L-5 and dislocated his
sacroiliac joint between the sacrum and the ilium of the pelvis, no
one had an answer for him about how to fix it. He then found a
special exercise to rehabilitate himself.
He lived on Goodmornings and back raises for his lower
back training, but lost his concentration and severely injured his
low back. Everything he used to strengthen his low back caused
severe pain. When he tried to do a back raise and exert force with
his ankles to raise his upper body, it caused pain where it was
impossible to do a single rep.
One day Louie said to himself, “What if I did the reverse
and held my upper body stable and raised my legs behind myself
like a reverse hyperextension?”
He hooked himself in a power rack so that he could lie on
his stomach while having his legs hang off the end, but not touch
the ground. His legs could swing underneath his body to cause
what, in theory, would be traction. The experiment worked …
Louie felt no pain for the first time in almost a year. A bonus was
that it pumped blood to the lower back, which helped to heal it.
This was late 1973 or early 1974. Now that he was repairing his

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low back, he had two goals. One was to return to work again. The
other possibly more important goal was to train again. By 1979 he
was pulling 710 pounds at 198-pounds bodyweight.
Reverse Hyper
The day came when the gym’s costs began to increase,
and Louie had to find ways to pay the bills. It was the time that
Larry Bird had started to have back pain and was talking about
retirement. It was also the time—around 1992—that Louie built
the first prototype Reverse HyperTM and began the process of
obtaining his first US patent. The patent was granted in 1994.
Now Louie could sell his Reverse Hyper to people who
wanted to build a stronger lower back as well as help rehab a bad
back. Louie coined the phrase “prehab” to eliminate “rehab.”
The income from the Reverse Hyper and the power racks,
t-shirts, and DVD training videos helped support the gym. Things
were now looking good for Westside and for Louie. He had had a
real setback after his knee surgery. Because of the reaction from
the anesthesia, he could no longer run cranes or work on steel
erection jobs. Instead, he began to focus on using his knowledge of
special strength training to make his living.
Roller Reverse Hyper
Ten years later, he made improvements on the Reverse
HyperTM by using a roller system for the feet and making the
table tilt.
Plyo Swing
The Plyo Swing came next. It was used to build strong
and explosive legs. It came with band connections for developing
overspeed eccentrics. Louie referred to the overspeed eccentrics
action as virtual force—a force that is present, but not recognized.
The Plyo Swing helped produce a female with a 40-inch
vertical jump, which was performed at OSU, and a male with a 44-
inch vertical jump performed at an NFL try-out.

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 Scout
Next invented was a Reverse Hyper that could be folded
and stored for residential use. Louie contracted with another
company to market the product and pay him royalties. However,
they sold it on television with the name Core Evolution. This
is where things started to go wrong. First, the contract was for
a Reverse Hyper that could be folded and stored, not a product
like the Reverse Hyper, but called Core Evolution. This was an
infringement on the trademark.
Then, when it was time for the first royalty payment, they
called Louie and basically asked him not to be mad and told him to
bring an attorney. The mess they made would last for almost three
years ending up in federal court. Core Evolution was being sued
by several others, and the company paid a bank $3 million. Then
they declared bankruptcy and left Louie and Westside paying out
$125,000 with no return. Westside was owed about $1,750,000, but
that’s how it goes. To add insult to injury, the bank took possession
of the folding Reverse Hyper, and Louie had to buy his own patent
back for $10,000 but sell it under the name Scout.
Dual Pendulum
Louie saw a lot of psoas tightness in lifters, but also in
athletes from all sports. To help athletes with this problem, he
developed the Dual Pendulum. It allows one leg to be extended at
a time where the opposite arm also can be extended to release the
psoas while in an open chain position. Open chain position means
no legs or hands are contacting the ground. This became a popular
machine. Football teams are very fond of the Dual Pendulum.
Inverse Curl - Hip Quad
Louie got a call from Brady Mattingly, who said he had a
hamstring device that also helped increase mobility in the hips and
had the same patent. He said his problem was that he did not have
a well-known name to market the product successfully, like Louie
and Westside Barbell did.

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 Louie asked why the machine was so good. Brody said it
worked like a Russian leg curl with a method to reduce the athlete’s
body weight. As he or she became stronger they would reduce the
weight on the machine that would, in turn, work the athlete until it is
possible to do a perfect Russian Leg Curl without falling the last few
inches as he or she pushed to complete the exercise.
When Louie saw it in action, he said, “This is the real deal.”
It was far superior to a calf-ham-glute bench.
The patent was not quite complete, so Louie bought the
idea and finished the project. At that point, Louie became the sole
owner of the Inverse Curl. It has been a great asset to not only the
guys at Westside, but now athletes all over the world.
Medical Reverse Hyper
Back in 1992, Louie had the idea to get a Reverse Hyper
into the medical community, but it was always the same story—it
does not cost enough. Over the years, various groups paid Louie
royalties to get the Reverse Hyper into the medical community or
on an infomercial. Well, we all know how the infomercial turned
out … not good.
None of these groups were successful in introducing the
Reverse Hyper into the rehabilitation market. Some thought the
machine needed controls to help lift a patient on and off.
To remedy this objection, Louie started on the sixth patent
improvement to remedy problems with the lower back. After a few
years and a whole lot of money, it was done. Well, not quite. A
very large company from Europe became very interested and put
together a deal with Westside and using technology from NASA,
the machine is very smooth. This project is still ongoing.
Maximal Recruiter 19 (MR-19)
Louie believes the world is all about weights and
measurements. He knows all about weights, but it is measurements
that currently interests him most, which drives his concentration on

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track. He has had great success with two Olympic gold medalists,
both who compete in the 400-meter. Then, two young girls came to
train under Louie for sprinting. They are both very driven, but have
completely different personalities. One girl named Shalon Conley
started at 16-years-old while in high school and then entered
Columbia University. She became a jet engine engineer who ran
her fastest times at Westside while in high school.
The second girl, Kylie, also came while she was 16-years-
old, but has remained. Currently, at 23-years-old, her life revolves
around the track—running in both 60-meter and 100-meter events.
Louie has advanced her training by adding the MR-19 for the hips,
hamstrings, and abs. The MR-19 is a specifically designed machine
based upon human locomotion that creates maximal recruitment
of hips and hamstrings while statically recruiting the abdominals.
It has been a great success, not only for Kylie and her track career,
but also for all sports. The MR 19 is just another weapon in the
Westside arsenal.
Still Going, Still Growing
The various machines plus all the educational materials,
including articles, DVDs, podcasts, webinars, and the 10 books
Louie has written as well as lots of miscellaneous items and
clothing have kept Westside going and growing since Louie’s start
in powerlifting. Here’s to many more years.

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 Chapter 20
Westside’s Contributors-
Doctors,
Experts, Professionals,
Coaches

Powerlifting can be hard on the body. It is just a matter of

time until an athlete needs a doctor for something.

Doctors of Note
Dr. Hurt
The first doctor that Louie would come in contact with
was Dr. Hurt. Louie’s mother worked as a registered nurse in Dr.
Hurt’s office. Dr. Hurt was the doctor who prescribed Louie’s first
Dianabol, known as Dbol. Dbol works to speed up your muscle
growth in a few different ways. Primarily, it increases the levels
of testosterone in your body, allowing a person to feel a surge of
power and stamina when you take it. This allows an athlete to train
harder for longer, resulting in more gains than you would usually
get without it.
When Louie asked when he could come back again for
another prescription, the doctor said in 100 days. Louie, who was
then and is today good at math, knew that the bottle had 100 pills.
He was to take one pill a day.

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Dr. Dwyer
The second doctor who prescribed Dbol to Louie was Dr.
Dwyer on the OSU campus.
With no power belts or other gear in 1973, Louie made a
1655-pound total, 20 pounds more than Bob McGee’s total at the
Worlds three months earlier.
Dr. McNamee
The next doctor Louie would come into contact with was
Dr. McNamee, a chiropractor just down the street from where
Louie lived. When Louie was recovering from his severe back
injury in 1973, he had constant visits with Dr. McNamee. The
doctor told Tom Paulucci, one of Louie’s early training partners,
that Louie had rocks in his head.
Dr. McNamee was an interesting guy, and he told Louie a
story about his early days of schooling. He said that after becoming
a chiropractor at the Palmer School, he thought he had only learned
one part of chiropractic medicine, so he enrolled in the Chicago
School. While at the Chicago School, his advisor discovered he
was already a licensed doctor of chiropractic medicine from the
Palmer School, and he tried to have him expelled. The advisor
wasn’t successful. The reason Dr. McNamee wanted both degrees
was because one school concentrated on the neck, and the other
concentrated on the lower spine. What a story!
Dr. David Ryan
Dr. Ryan, also a doctor of chiropractic medicine in
Columbus, Ohio, worked on some of the Westside guys. When
Matt Dimel needed a low-back adjustment, it was almost
impossible for him to get any SI movement. Dr. Ryan, however,
found a way to do it that the Westside guys still use today. While
making a side adjustment, Dr. Ryan would keep the top leg straight
so it would move up the body further and would then cause
movement to the lowest part of the spine, which in turn slid the SI
into proper alignment.

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 This was a lifesaver for Matt and many others. Like in most
gyms, someone would make adjustments to the lifters in the gym,
and at Westside, that person was Louie.
There was a big lifter at Westside who was a highway
patrol officer by the name of Jim Bryant. Bryant also had lower
back problems. Over two years no chiropractor had any luck in
fixing Jim’s problem. But Louie used the same method to adjust
Jim that had been used for Matt and totally eliminated his pain.
For some odd reason, lots of Louie’s friends go to jail, and
Dr. Ryan became one of them. Thank goodness he showed the guys
how to fix a low-back ailment before that happened.
Dr. Bryan Neidenthal
Dr. Neidenthal was a chiropractor who specialized in the neck,
or, more precisely, the top vertebrae (C1) called the atlas. So, as you
can see, Westside had experts for the top and lowest parts of the spine.
Dr. Neidenthal would work on Louie and his wife Doris often. At one
point, a Westside lifter named Chris Suzzo worked for Dr. Neidenthal
doing rehab and performing traction in a Westside ATP.
Louie found you must be healthy to be as strong as possible,
and one form of rehabilitation was chiropractic adjustments. Louie,
Doris, and the Westside guys have continued with this type of care
starting in 1974 with Dr. McAnee and continuing through today.
Dr. Bill Nuckols
Louie met Bill Nuckols
in 1972 at OSU. He was going to
medical school to become a pain
specialist. He was jacked up from
being on the wrestling team at
Bowling Green University, where he
had done his undergrad work.
Louie would sometimes lift
at the OSU weight room. Back in the
early 1970s, the weight room was in

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the south end of the Horseshoe. Bill could pull about 550 pounds
at 180-pounds bodyweight when Louie was pulling 670 pounds
at the same weight. They struck up a friendship back then, but did
not see each other again until the mid-1990s when Louie found out
Dr. Nuckols performed prolotherapy and chelation. Chelation is a
process to cleanse the blood of dangerous minerals. For example, it
is used as a treatment for lead poisoning.
One of Louie’s friends, Jud Logan, a four-time Olympian
in the hammer throw, told Louie to try chelation with vitamin C
for recovery, which he thought worked fantastic. Louie and George
Halbert were both having some shoulder problems and discovered
that a Dr. Nuckols could administer the injections. When Louie
went to see the doctor, he could not believe it was the same Bill
Nuckols he had met 25 years earlier. But it was him. When Dr.
Nuckols saw Louie, he said no charge for anyone at Westside.
The prolotherapy worked great and kept Louie benching
big until 2002 when he made a 575-pound bench at 220-pounds
bodyweight, which ranked him sixth at 54-years-old.
Dr. Nuckols often came to train at Westside and helped the
guys whenever they needed it. He would show up in all Westside
gear with camo pants and Army boots and a big medallion hanging
around his neck. He had a beautiful wife who was also a doctor,
sons Khari, and Quran, and daughters Tuere, and Tiombe who are
very beautiful like their mother.
Sadly, and unexpectedly his wife died early. Then Dr.
Nuckols found himself in legal trouble, went to jail, and lost his
license to practice medicine. Afterward he opened a gym and did
personal training until he died in 2019. It was a shock to Louie that
Bill was the third Westsider to die in 2019, and he will be sadly
missed.
Dr. Dave Beversdorf
Dr. Dave came to Westside and trained with Amy
Weisberger. He was not too strong at first, but very intelligent as
he was one of the top neurologists in the United States. He trained
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hard and benched 700 pounds after starting with a low 300-pound
bench.
After Louie had his second knee surgery and almost died,
he was always looking for ways to stop the pain in his ribs. Dr.
Dave tried an assortment of nerve medications, but none worked.
Louie will always be thankful to Dr. Dave for helping in any way
that he could. He worked at OSU on grants, but his career was not
going in the direction he wanted there. Then Missouri University
called and made him an incredible offer. Dr. Dave moved to
Missouri to start a new life with a wife and their first child. Louie
keeps in touch time-to-time, and Dr. Dave always says that his
time at Westside was the best of his life.
Dr. Jay Blatnik
In more recent years, whenever anyone at Westside needed a
hard adjustment, they went to Dr. Blatnik. After Dr. McAnee passed
on, Louie began going to Dr. Blatnik on the advice of Tom Paulucci.
Tom was a very strong 275 pounds, and once Dr. Blatnik
knocked the air out of Tom, but that never happened to Louie. He
was rough, but good, and that’s all Louie cared about. Get in, get out,
and go back to training.
Westside has outlived many of its members and lots of its
doctors. Dr. Blatnik, unfortunately, was one of them. Life comes,
and life goes for everyone. It is just hard to think about your doctor
dying before the patient.
Dr. Gayle Hatch
Dr. Hatch was of all things a one-man-band putting on
powerlifting meets each week single-handedly. He pulled a trailer
full of equipment that included the lights, bars, and weights. He
was the only judge working from the front chair. A few Westside
lifters lifted in one of his meets. Gritter had two Westside guys
judge on the sides for only Westside lifters. Dr. Hatch had no
problem with it, but Westside never did one of his meets again.
Dr. Hatch was a hard worker for powerlifting and a good man.
Dr. Larry Miller
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 Larry has been a great bench presser for years going
back to the early 1980s when he would compete at 132-pounds
bodyweight against Doug Heath. Every money bench meet that
Westside competed in Larry was there. He won the National Bench
Press Championship in four weight classes. Larry had a long career
and often came to Westside Barbell to train or to bring some lifters
to learn from Louie.
A dentist by trade, he began his work-life in his father’s
pharmacy when he was 13-years-old and continued until he went
to dental school. He is still practicing dentistry at age 65, but is
thinking about retiring.
Louie has said that when you meet someone, they are your
friend for a lifetime. That is a common bond of the powerlifter.
It is 2020, and Louie is sure Larry will be coming down from
Cleveland for years to come.
Other Contributors to Westside
Barbell
Besides medical help, others have to contributed to Westside
in many ways.
Greg Glassman
Louie had never heard of CrossFit, but back in the 1990s
on Thanksgiving Day, Louie got a call from Greg Glassman, the
founder of CrossFit. Later Greg said Louie talked to him for three
hours. Louie said he did not remember the call, but at that time,
Louie was living on Nyquil and Tylenol PMs to fight pain from
the arterial thoracic outlet syndrome that he was left with after his
near-death experience.
After that call, Dave Castro interviewed Louie and asked
him to begin a series of powerlifting seminars for CrossFit
members. Louie would rather the seminars have been called special
strength seminars because CrossFit is undirected fitness that
encompasses maximum strength, speed, and special endurance.
It wasn’t his call, and he agreed.

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 Greg built CrossFit into one of the biggest physical fitness
cultures in the world. Anyone can do CrossFit at some level from
just a beginning fitness enthusiast to men and women who could
compete in an Iron Man competition. CrossFit was and is a great
concept for all people who want to be fit.
Louie appreciates Greg Glassman and CrossFit for
introducing Westside to the world of CrossFit.
Chris Mason
Chris Mason of AtLarge Nutrition LLC has sponsored
protein and other supplements for all the guys at Westside. Not
only is Chris a sponsor, but he is also a close friend of Louie’s.
When he comes to Columbus, he stays at Louie’s house. Chris
and Doris go to the casino to drink and gamble, not “all of their
money,” as Louie says, but enough to have fun. Chris is strong,
pulling over 750 pounds. In addition to his work with AtLarge, he
is a manager at a Hyundai dealership.
Chris is funny as hell, too, mostly without trying. One
winter night, Chris had been out of town with Tom Barry, who runs
the business for Westside. Tom dropped Chris off at Louie’s in the
middle of the night when it was about zero outside. Louie heard
them coming down the driveway, so he opened the garage door
and came out to talk to Tom. Louie was not wearing shoes and was
wearing only a t-shirt and underwear. As Louie was talking to Tom,
Chris shut the garage door with Louie outside.
Louie said, “Tom, did that mother fucker shut me out of my
own house?”
Tom said, “It looks like it.”
Tom called Doris to come let Louie in. Louie and Tom still
fuck with Chris about that one.
Louie would have Chris present nutrition information for
an hour at the CrossFit seminars when Louie was the main speaker,
mostly to let Louie relax outside for a while. But it seemed to
Louie that in about 15 minutes, people would start coming outside

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because Chris was boring them to death.
Louie would always say, “Good job, Chris.”
Chris would always answer, “Fuck you, old man.”
It’s about time for Chris to visit Louie again and say the
craziest things you ever heard. But one thing is sure—Chris is all
Westside until death.
Mark “Smelly” Bell
Smelly came to Westside years ago to build himself up for
the WWE. One of Smelly’s brothers wrote for the WWE, and his
other brother was a wrestler for some time.
Most of the time, when they are together, Louie would call
Smelly a two-time loser. When Smelly was doing a video demo
for the WWE, it showed him beating up a little guy on a bench.
He tells the guy if he ever sees him again, it’s going to be bad.
Smelly sees him exit a restroom and beats him once more. As he
walks away, Smelly says, “You are a two-time loser.” The guy was
Smelly’s brother. That same brother would later do a documentary
on steroids that was very good.
Smelly did not make the WWE, so he moved to California,
where he became very successful by producing a magazine called
Power. He also opened a large gym named Super Training. Along
the way, he developed a device known as the Sling Shot. It hooks
around the arms and assists in helping lock-out heavier weights
than the lifter can normally do.
Smelly did some CrossFit seminars for Louie, but then
Louie fired him. Why? Why not? Remember, he’s a two-time loser.
There are very few people Louie would say he is proud of, but
Mark Bell is definitely one of them.

A. J. Roberts
Not only was A. J. a great lifter holding the 308-pound
world total record more than once, but he also helped Louie guide
the new lifters on how to train. A. J. is one of only two men to beat
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Dave Hoff head-to-head. He did CrossFit seminars for Louie, but
he became bored and moved on to motivational lecturing.
A. J. was a big part of Westside and is sorely missed. He is
now happily married and living in sunny California. Louie knows
that no matter what A. J. does, he will be successful.
Laura Phelps-Sweatt and Shane Sweatt
Everyone knows Laura as the record-smashing woman with
54 world records—that must be a record in and of itself. She and
Shane met Louie in Cleveland at a bench press seminar, and they
decided to learn every bit of the Westside System.
Later, Louie
asked Laura and Shane
to help him do the
CrossFit seminars to
learn all about special
strength and GPP along
with the loading and
lifting techniques. They
picked it up perfectly. It
was not long after that
until Louie asked if they would do the seminars for him rather than
with him as Louie’s knee and foot could not handle standing up for
two days straight. They began to handle the CrossFit work from
the East Coast to the Midwest and overseas.
Shane was good. He had it down pat. Louie knew Shane
was doing a great job because he was boring Louie to death. This
is not an insult, but Shane would sound just like Louie, and Louie
said it was time to give it up to Shane. Laura and Shane would do
them together. Later on, Shane would do the seminars while Laura
would stay at home and run their three gyms.
Looking back, Louie believes it is very important to be
a high-level powerlifter to teach the Westside Seminars. Louie
has always admired Laura and Shane from starting from scratch
and building a very successful business and, at the same time,
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a powerful powerlifting gym. He always voices his thanks and
appreciation for Laura and Shane.
Rogue Fitness
Before CrossFit, a very small company started up on
the east side of Columbus by the name of Rogue Fitness. It was
founded by Bill and Caity Henniger. The building was about 5000
square feet, and they sold all types of fitness gear.
Louie and Doris paid a visit to Rogue, and that started a

long-time friendship that eventually led to a business deal. Rogue

would sell many of the Westside products from power racks and
sleds to the Reverse Hyper through a licensing agreement that
helped Westside tremendously. The joint business venture grows to
this day.
But the real story is how Bill and Caity began an empire
from 5000 square feet to the present-day main building of 750,000
square feet. To Louie, they are the modern-day Henry Ford and
how he built his dynasty. The sky’s the limit for Rogue as they
are involved in Strong Man, CrossFit, and about everything you
can think of that has to do with strength. Nowadays, they are
worldwide.
Louie is looking forward to being more involved with
Bill and Caity. He is thankful to them for marketing Westside
equipment worldwide and for it being a small part of the Rogue
juggernaut.

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Doug Ebert
Doug has been a fan and a long-distance friend of Louie’s
for more than 25 years. More than anything else, though, Doug has
been a consultant on how to use bands and measure the amount
of tension they provide. This helped Louie to use overspeed
eccentrics and opened his mind to how to increase kinetic energy
(K-E). He learned the key to increasing K-E is adding velocity, not
mass. The bands add extra resistance, but not weight that could
cause the load to be heavy in the bottom. In considering “What is
work?” he learned how gaining more power means the work can be
done faster. It helps to fully understand elasticity and Hooke’s Law.
Doug would watch tapes of Westside’s meets and would
bring up questions like “Why did George H’s concentric phase
more than double from one major meet to the next?”
Louie watched that specific tape and found that George was
wearing a denim shirt at the first meet and switched to a polyester
shirt at the second. This showed Louie that denim provided a more
powerful start from the chest, which is very important to know.
Doug still gives advice on the guys’ lifting.
Louie would record many of the workouts for instructional
DVDs, but for one reason or another—from language, music, or
arguments—the recordings could not be used for all ages. Doug
wanted Westside to make the DVDs open to anyone and call them
Westside Wars. He suggested putting out the unedited versions of
the training tapes to show how intense the training was. He thought
it could include segments such as the money they would bet,
leaving breakfast without ever getting food, and the guys having an
in-house contest. Thinking back, it might have been a good idea.
When Doug could not answer a question or solve a
problem, he would find an engineer who could help Louie. Doug
and Louie still talk about training to this day, and hopefully, will
for many years to come. Louie greatly appreciates all that Doug
has done.

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Joe Dells Aquila
Louie is very intelligent with an IQ of 178, but he was told
that it was out of 1,000. Anyway, he was definitely smart enough to
make very smart friends, like Dr. Joe.
Dr. Joe’s main skills and expertise are in particle physics,
high energy physics, quantum field theory, theoretical particle
physics, experimental particle physics, theoretical high energy
physics, and high energy physics phenomenology.
Many times, Dr. Joe would come to Louie for advice,
but not on physics. The advice he wanted was on training. It was
amazing for Louie just to hear Dr. Joe talk about any advanced
mathematical equations even though Louie would comprehend one
percent of the conversation.
Dr. Joe was not in good health and had trouble getting
enough oxygen. He told Louie about going to the doctor for his
condition. The doctor said he should have about 70 percent oxygen
consumption after the procedure he wanted to perform. Dr. Joe
said, “You don’t understand, I am a genius,” in his unconcerned
way.
Yes, a genius, but one day Dr. Joe came to Westside to
train, and he drove his Acura NSX. When it was time to leave,
he could not remember how to start it. It was funny to see him
puzzled by a car when he understood theoretical particle physics.
Louie was speaking to a large group of people, and he
asked Dr. Joe to explain how bands could produce accommodating
resistance. After about 10 minutes, the group was collectively
staring at Dr. Joe with a “What the hell is he talking about” look.
Westside and Louie consider Dr. Joe, a close friend.
Forever Westside.
Former Lifters
After many Westside lifters retire, they come back to
Westside and help run the monolift or spot and many times give
advice. A group of former lifters meet for breakfast then train the
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bench on Sundays just like the old days. Don Damron, Jimmy
Ritchie, Bob Coe, and Matt Smith stay close after two former
Westside lifters died long before their time. Bob Young and Gabe
Ritter passed on in 2019, and it made the guys think about their lives
and their connections to Westside. Many came to Westside just out
of high school, and Westside is a place in which they grew up.
Most of all, they understand what it means to be a true
Westsider and how important it is to commit your life to a living
entity. Today, too many think it is all about themselves and their
phones and how they record every shit lift they do. At Westside,
Louie judges you by how strong you are and nothing else. Some
say don’t throw stones if you live in glass houses. Most are not
overachievers.
Brent Traley
Brent came to Westside in the 1990s and first trained in the
morning group to understand how Westside really works before
going to the evening group. Brent would end up with the night
crew—Gritter, Eskil, and the boys.
He would become one of the most dedicated Westside
lifters of all time, doing very well and hitting over 2000 pounds
total at 198-pounds bodyweight. Later he moved to Tennessee
and started a new job. He made the trip back to Columbus to train
or help the guys, but he also helped the lifters by giving them
breathing machines for the big boys. For more than 25 years, Brent
has done anything to help Westside reach its goals.
Louie and Brent have always been close—Brent gives
Louie’s wife Doris wine and moonshine when visiting Westside.
There’s no reason to change now, Brent. Stay healthy.
Visitors to Westside
Westside has thousands of people visit the gym from all
over the world and from many sports.

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Fighters-John Saylor
John Saylor first came to Westside to buy a Reverse HyperTM.
He was suffering from a painful lower back from practicing Judo all
of his life. He was bullied at six, but unlike all of these pussies today,
he did something about it. He began a life of Martial Arts becoming
a black belt in Judo, Jujitsu, and Muay-Thai. He was the Olympic
Judo coach for seven years before he lost that job when he pulled a
Judoka out of bed for not going to practice. John now runs his own
Jujitsu Club called Shingitai Jujitsu.
John does seminars all over the country. John told Louie to
be great, you must sacrifice such as when he went to Japan at 19
years old to work with more than 300 Judo black belts.
John tells a story about being in Japan and working with a
top black belt. John got caught in an arm-wrestling bar. The guy
would not stop after John tapped his submission. The guy was
trying to break John’s arm. At that time, a professional WWE
wrestler and also an advanced Black Belt from America called Bad
News Brown jumped in and punched the Japanese man in the chest
so hard it almost killed the guy. No one tried anything like that
again. John didn’t know, but two weeks before, a Japanese Judoka
tried some dirty stuff on Bad News, and he picked the guy up
and was going to throw him out of the second-story window. The
Japanese were pleading with Bad News not to do it. Everyone was
scared to death of him from that point on.
Louie offered John the Ply O Swing prototype he had made.
So, John came down to Westside to pick it up. After loading it up
on John’s truck when everyone had gone home, John said, “Here,
Louie. I want you to have these silver pieces for it.”
Louie told him he did not want anything for it, but John
insisted on giving Louie the silver. When Louie would not take it,
John got mad. He said, “You are taking this silver or else.”
Louie looked at John and could tell two things: 1) If he did
not take the silver, John was going to kick his ass, and he would
still take the Ply O Swing, or 2) Louie could take the fucking silver
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and not get his ass kicked. He thought for a second and said, “Give
me the silver, you asshole.”
John got the Ply O Swing, and Louie still had two arms and
two legs, so all was good.
John contributed to Louie’s book Special Strength
Development for All Sports by writing a chapter on conditioning
for grappling. They are good friends to this day and forever.
Combat Sports People
Louie loves all types of combat sports and would get a
call from a guy in Puerto Rico when Juan Manuel Lopez, the
featherweight world champion, was training. Juanma saw a picture
of Louie with blood all over his face and was concerned. Of
course, Louie often had nose bleeds and thought it was funny, but
he appreciated the concern. Juanma was one of Puerto Rico’s best
boxers, and Louie was a big fan.
Dan Severn
The MMA
world was just getting
started, and somehow,
Dan Severn, a wrestler
from Michigan, came
to see Louie for some
strength training. Dan
the Beast was a UFL
Hall of Fame member
and one of the first
real true world-class
wrestlers to compete
in the UFC. The Beast did it all—professional wrestling; he was a
two-time NWA Champion; a two-time All-American at Arizona;
and as an MMA fighter, he would compete in the UFC, King of
the Cage, Pride FC, Cage Rage and others. His MMA record was
101-19-7.

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 When he came to visit, Louie could sense that he was tough
as nails, but too nice in the cage. When he fought Royce Gracie
and was on top, Louie wanted to know why he didn’t knee him in
the hips. The Beast said he would never do that. Louie was always
thrilled to see guys like Dan. It was such an honor.
Kevin Randleman
Louie had the pleasure
of working with Kevin the
Monster at Westside. He was an
All-American wrestler at OSU
who would win the UFC Belt.
His training partner Mark the
Hammer Coleman, would also
not only win the UFC but also
become the Pride Champion
after becoming an All-American
at OSU like Kevin.
Kevin was easy to train, and Louie never thought Kevin
would break his arm or something. Mark, on the other hand, was a
natural-born killer. It was in his eyes when he looked at you. But
deep down, both were very good guys. Both are true legends in
both wrestling and in the MMA world.
Mark Marinelli
Mark would train for powerlifting
for about 10 years at Westside before
he began his MMA career. After some
combat sports, Mark started strong-
style MMA in Cleveland, Ohio. His
top fighters so far have been UFC
Heavyweight Champ Stipe Miocic and
Jessica “Evil” Eye.
But long before that, he trained
a heavyweight by the name of Dan “The
Beast” Bobish. One day Mark and Dan
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came down to Westside. Dan was 300 pounds of hard muscle.
Mark had Dan push his fingers into Louie’s side to show him
how strong Louie’s ads were. At first, Louie said no, but then said
ok. Louie flexed his abs and snapped Dan’s fingers backward. At
that time, Dan grabbed Louie in a tie clench and put his chin into
Louie’s eye for about a minute. There was no way Louie could
get loose. They all went to Louie’s house, and Doris said, “What
happened to your eye?”
“This motherfucker,” said Louie. That’s just the way it is
for Louie. As strange as it seems, Dan was submitted in Mississippi
by Mark “The Experiment” Kerr when Mark put his chin in Dan’s
eye when it was legal, of course.
At the fight in Mississippi, Dan and Mark Coleman were
both fighting. Mark was fighting a famous kickboxer called
Maurice Smith. So, Louie had a lot of interest in the fights. He was
with Mark Marinelli’s group, so he was allowed in the back. He
was sitting alone looking at a closed-circuit television when Tank
Abbott came in drinking a beer and was the only one with a police
escort. He sat down right beside Louie. Everyone knew Tank was
crazy. Tank started getting loud and mad because he had lost a fight
in just 52 seconds of the first round to Vitor Belfort from Brazil in
1997. And Vitor was fighting on the card.
Now with only one cop around, Tank was getting irate, and
Louie says he thought to himself, “don’t even look Tank’s way or I
might die right here.” Somehow it worked out, and Louie made it
back to Westside.
Alexander
Louie worked with a heavyweight boxer by the name of
Alexander who fought on Showtime a couple of times, but would
never get into shape.

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Matt Brown
As mentioned
earlier, the immortal
Matt Brown was the
next MMA fighter to
train at Westside. He is
very tough and had it
all at Westside with his
wrestling coach Adam
DiSaboto, Muay-Thai
coach Dorian Price, and
Jiu Jitsu coach Carlos
Carvello who said Mark
had two things going for him, “Westside and he is a tough mother
fucker.”
Matt would leave and take his family to Colorado, which
Louie said would be a big mistake. When Matt left Westside, Louie
said, “Fighters don’t sleep on silk sheets.” When Matt came back
to Westside years later with a losing record, the first thing he said
to Louie was, “Fighters cannot sleep on silk sheets.” Enough said.

Carlson Gracie
Jujitsu royalty came to Westside in the name of Carlson
Gracie Jr. When he walked into Westside, he looked like any old
man—he could barely bend over.

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 “This old man was really Carlson Gracie”, Louie wondered?
He needed mobility and flexibility, so first it was traction
in the ATP and, of course, Reverse Hypers. Then, Louie moved
him on to power walking and the Inverse Curl Machine to loosen
his hamstrings. To finish off the three-hour rehab session, he could
now touch his toes. Three hours earlier, he could barely touch his
knees. The shoulders regained their former range of motion after
using the band bar and exercises with the rubber bands. Carlson
left with some Westside gear and the Fountain of Youth. He started
doing tournaments again after his visit.
The Curse
Louie is constantly surprised by the people who walk into
Westside for help. He is humbled and honored by their presence.
This includes the many people who visit Westside every year.
Sometimes they are a pain in the ass, but he will never turn anyone
away. There is a reason for this. When Louie was 14-years-old,
he cleaned and jerked 260 pounds at 140-pounds bodyweight in a
contest at school. A man would drive Louie to a weight lifting club
called Park of Roses to train once in a while.
The coach at the club was Frasier Ferguson, a former Mr.
America, who would not help Louie at all even though he was the
strongest boy there. On the way home after a visit, Louie’s older
friend, who was from Texas and worked at the Columbus Dispatch,
the local newspaper, said that Frasier was an asshole because he
would not help Louie.
Louie did not pay much attention at the time, thinking,
“Who cares?” But years later, he understood what his friend meant.
Because of Frasier, Louie has vowed that if he could help anyone,
he would … and has. It has been a type of curse, but it has made
Louie the man he is today.

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 Chapter 21
Training—Football,
Rugby, Track
and Field … Just Name a
Sport
Training Football Players
Louie does not like to train football players, but has been
doing so for the past 30 years.
A lot of coaches, like Joe Kent for one, came to Westside to
learn the basics of training for football strength and conditioning.
Next to come was Buddy Morris. Then, after leaving Pittsburgh, he
took the job with the lowly Cleveland Browns around 2000. Louie
went to Cleveland and helped to train some of the players. It was a
sad time for the Browns.
Next to come was Kent Johnson, who was with the Green
Bay Packers. Like Buddy Morris, Kent would stay at Louie’s home
so they could discuss training and ask and answer questions. Louie
would then stay at Kent Johnson’s house, answer questions until
midnight, and the next day help train the players in the weight room.
Johnny Parker would also visit Westside for extended
periods to learn the conjugate system. Somewhere Louie has a
picture of Johnny and Kent shaking hands on the Super Bowl field
when Green Bay played the Patriots in the mid-1990s.

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 Johnny watched Louie take a 292-pound tight-end from
Ohio University from a 5.1 40-yard dash to a 4.7 40-yard dash in
two months. The tight-end later started as a rookie in Detroit.
Louie did this over and over, but quit because it was too easy.
It was boring.
Many NFL coaches use a modified Westside System to
train their players. A fifth-year lineman from the Raiders came for a
three-day training workout. On the third day, he broke his standing
long jump record. How did this lineman break his standing long
jump record after playing football for almost 20 years? It was easy at
Westside.
Michael Thomas as an NFL rookie, caught the most balls
in 2018-2019 with the Saints, and was the 2019 NFL receiving
reception leader for a single year. Michael trained at Westside before
enrolling at OSU and comes to Westside in the offseason. Ohio State
coaches visit Westside to learn a safe way to train.
John Kerr, a former OSU linebacker with a back injury,
trained under Louie after the Vikings cut him. First, Louie repaired
his back. John went to a Pro Day at Houston and increased his
40-yard times from 4.6 to 4.4 and his vertical from 38 inches to 44
inches. He was crazy and did not return to the NFL.
On the other hand, a linebacker from OSU by the name
of James Laurinaitis had a vertical of only 30 inches, but played
about seven years in the NFL. (By the way, the Animal of the Road
Warriors fame was his Dad, Joseph Laurinaitis). It comes down to
whether you can play football or not.
Louie knew this all too well. Pat Ivey, a former NFL player,
was cut twice after making the teams and told Louie he lost the
ability to play high-level football. Pat became the Head Strength
Coach at Missouri, and then later went into administrative work.
A high school football player from Columbus came to train
at Westside before leaving for Virginia Tech. His name was Dave
Cardecca. He was a lineman, and he went on to the NFL. He was at

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Westside one day when some visitors asked Louie, “How would you
train a high school football player?”
Dave, all six foot seven inches of him, asked, “Can I answer
that?”
Louie said, “Of course.”
Dave simply said, “I do what the powerlifters do, and then I
play football.”
It’s that simple.
Clemson was killing the college football scene in 2019.
Their Head Strength Coach is Joey Batson. Louie and Joey began
talking over 30 years ago, the same with Chris Doyle of the Iowa
Hawkeyes. Both come to Westside. Louie takes no credit for their
success, only that there is always some connection to greatness.
John Welbourn
John Wellborn, who played nine years in the NFL, called
Louie to talk about how to push up his bench. Louie had written
an article entitled “How to Bench 500 Pounds Easy,” which John
had read. After talking to Louie, he made the NFL. He said it
was because he could bench 500 to 570 pounds and pull 700 to
770 pounds. John told Louie he believed a person was either the
hammer or the nail, and you better be the hammer.
Once when John came to Westside for a visit, Louie had
him put Groove Briefs on for a speed-strength workout. It made
John’s eyes bloodshot from the pressure. John could not believe it.
When he was showing an OSU lineman some blocking techniques,
he made the college lineman look like a high school kid.
Phil Richards
People from all over the world come to Westside for
advice about how to improve strength and conditioning programs.
One coach who led the way was Phil Richards, former Strength
and Conditioning Coach for the Worcester Warriors. Phil used a
Westside System to achieve a 26 and 0 season for the Warriors.
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This was and is the only undefeated team in the premier rugby
league. Phil wrote a book outlining how he used the system so
successfully. After coaching, Phil turned his attention to super
nutrition.
Louie often thanks all the coaches who took a Westside
template for their teams.
Danny Di Pasqua
Danny Di Pasqua of the Melbourne Storm made a trip
to Westside to learn the system years ago. Danny also trained at
Westside when he visited. He is very strong at 181 pounds and he
powerlifts.
Danny asked, “How can I cut in-season injuries?”
Louie said, “Start wrestling during the off-season.”
Danny later commented that just like Louie said, the
injuries during the season were reduced considerably.
Danny joined the guys at a competition during a visit in
2010. It was during the time that Louie was taking Tylenol PMs
and Nyquil for his rib pain. The team was going to The Night of
the Living Dead Deadlift Contest in Johnson City, Tennessee,
which was seven hours away from Columbus. Danny and Tom
Barry, who at that time was an intern, rode with Louie. To this day,
Louie does not remember the trip. He does, however, remember
the meet.
On a side note, after the meet, the director asked Louie if
he would bring some of the guys the following year. Louie said
he would. The next year Louie and Doris chose four men and one
woman, Jack Anderson’s wife Nike, to compete. The four men
were Josh Conley at 350 pounds and a 900-pound deadlift, Chris
Spiegel at six foot four inches and 420 pounds with a 915-pound
deadlift, Jake Anderson, at 320 pounds with an 875-pound deadlift,
and last but not least, Shane Hammer at 320 pounds and an
860-pound deadlift.
At the end of the day, they had earned first through fourth
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place. Doris took a picture of the four in the warm-up area. She
said, “I feel so sorry for the other lifters.”
That was an understatement. And to make things worse,
Niki pulled 512 pounds to win total in the women’s group.
There was no meet the next year.
Back to Danny … He had made several trips to Westside
and had become very successful with the Melbourne Storm.
Louie does not say much, but he is very proud of Danny and his
accomplishments, and to have played any small part of it is special.
Jesse Kellum
Louie has said that you learn nothing when you are talking,
so he always listens when someone talks about training, but
especially when it is Jesse Kellum. Jesse is one of the strongest
powerlifters of all time, beating Chuck Vogelpohl at the WPO at
the Arnold Classic.
Louie did board presses in the late 1960s, but found no use
for them. Jesse told Louie to do them in the early 1990s, and because
Louie and the team had begun doing triceps work, now the board
presses worked. To gain his great bench strength, Jesse would walk
on his 80-foot long dip bars to build the triceps at the elbow for
extensions. Louie saw him bench 495 pounds for three reps with
his feet on the bench, and that was all Louie had to know. Jesse was
doing lots of plyos in the 1990s for his squat and deadlift.
Judd Logan
Judd Logan came to hear Louie talk, and the subject of
jumping came up. Judd made four Olympic teams in the hammer
throw, but he could not make further progress. He tried pushing up
the weight training, but it did not help.
We know now that as the weights grow larger, the
bar velocity becomes slower, thus producing no gain in force
production. But, one day, while talking to some East German
throwers, they suggested adding box jumping to the program. Judd

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began to increase the box jumps, and when he made three by five
reps on a 56-inch box, his throws began to increase once again.
When Louie heard this from Judd, a four-time Olympic
competitor, he knew it was a good tool to help others.
First, it was with Kevin Atkins, an OSU shot putter who
came to Ohio State, but would do all of his strength training at
the Garage Gym. Kevin had a 57-foot throw as a freshman, but
a 70-foot, 10-inch throw as a senior. His bodyweight went from
260-pounds to 330-pounds on a six-foot, four-inch frame. It was
done with training all three velocities.
Rob Golabek
Louie has always used jumping along with weight training
to increase explosive power. It’s what Louie used when Rob
Golabek came to Westside. Everything had stalled for Rob—his
throws and his strength. His squat was 600 pounds and could not
go any higher. His coach had no idea how to push up his strength,
and that was holding his throws back.
Rob decided to visit Louie for a few months and see if
it was true that Louie could make anyone stronger and more
powerful. After five months, Rob had replaced that 600-pound
squat with a 900-pound squat. Louie remembers trying to explain
how the system works with three-week waves for speed or
explosive strength with an M-E day 72 hours later. After several
days of explaining, however, Louie just said, “It’s easy,” and left it
at that. Not only did Rob’s weights go up, so did his throws.
Rob taught throwing techniques for more than nine months,
then threw his longest throws ever. This seemed impossible, but
it’s true. Later Rob would help with the technique and workouts
for throwing. And then Rob opened his own gym and made Louie
proud.
Laura Dodd
Louie likes track and field. The sprinters have always
fascinated Louie for their strength and power. Laura Dodd came to
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Louie first for her sprinting before winning a world championship
and her world record-holding in the squat.
She ran for OSU and Athletes West, but retired and only
competed in the Police Olympics. Her times had gotten slower for
five years in a row when she came to Louie. After nine weeks of
training and a weight loss of 15 pounds, she ran her fastest time in
five years.
George Nichols
About the time Louie was at OSU with Kevin Atkins, the
shot putter who trained at Louie’s garage, he saw George Nichols.
The Big 10 60-meter champ was running the 100-meter.
This was George’s last year, and he had two goals: to
qualify for the 100-meter in the Olympics and to go to Africa and
become a missionary. The second goal George could do on his
own, but to run a 10.20 100-meter, was far beyond his and, more
importantly, his coach’s ability. He needed to run a 10.20 to qualify
for the Olympic 100-meter race. His best was 10.47. The head
coach said George would never run any faster. He slowed down a
lot for the last 40 meters.
When Louie heard his coach say George will never run any
faster, Louie said, “Fuck that,” and asked George to come train
with him. George said, ok.
Nine weeks later, after some specialized sprint training,
George ran a 10.17 100-meter to make his first dream come true.
The training consisted of wide-box squatting, reverse hypers,
and power walking with a heavy-weight sled. He also had lots of
hamstring and calf work along with isokinetic squats and pulls for
both maximum strength and explosive strength.
It had always puzzled Louie why the sprint coach never
came to ask Louie how he took the three-tenths of a second off in
nine weeks when the coach had worked with him for four years.
Oh, by the way, it took 33 years to duplicate that time by an OSU
sprinter, and, yes, it’s the same for the shot-put record. From 1987

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to 2019, the shot-put record still belongs to Kevin.
One OSU coach did come to Louie to find out how, but she
could not comprehend what he was telling her.
She said, “I use complex training.”
So, Louie told her about Maximum Effort (M-E) training
and how it was far superior to all other strength methods. He
suggested she read The Science and Practice of Strength Training,
which is a book on M-E training.
After she read it, she said, “Ok, but I do complex training.”
Louie said, “You should have been a stripper.”
She just looked at him.
The early work Louie did with Laura Dodd and George
Nichols gave him a template to use for the next 100-meter to
400-meter sprinters.
Butch Reynolds
It became real in the mid-1990s when he got a call from a
world record holder in the 400-meter—Butch Reynolds, a 1988
Olympic champion.
But before Louie received the call, Butch had a problem
to solve. The IAFF said he didn’t pass his drug test in 1990, and
he was banned from track. Butch was no quitter, and he sued the
Olympic Committee. After a lengthy legal battle and a finding that
the testing procedures were flawed—testers had marked specimen
“H6” as testing positive while Reynolds’ blood specimen was
“H5”—he was reinstated. He also won millions of dollars, but he
never could collect a cent.
Now that he was reinstated, he wanted to run in the 1996
Olympics in Hot Atlanta. That’s when he called Louie, and Louie
was ready to train. They only had five and one-half months before
the trials, so it was on. Louie had him do lots of box squatting,
special hamstring work, and box jumping for strength and power.
For top-end strength endurance, he did power walking with heavy
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weights. He used light weights for weight-sled sprinting.
It was time for the trials, and Butch was ready. He ran a
43.63 to qualify and then on to the Olympics. Butch was scheduled
to train with Louie 18 times before the games, but Butch trained
only six times. At the games, he pulled a hamstring and sat on the
track and watched Michael Johnson win gold.
After about two months, Butch showed up at Westside with
his brother, who also ran a sub 44 400-meter. Louie was glad to
see him, and he asked, “Butch, why did you only train six weight
workouts when I told you to train 18 times?”
Butch said, “I thought it would be too much.”
Louie said, “It was not too much before the trials! All that
training got you to the games.”
Oh, well. Louie and Butch are still good friends today and
are planning on putting their heads together for one of Louie’s
long-time track athletes Kiley, a real powerhouse with an iron will.
Mo Robinson
One thing led to another, and Moushaumi Robinson, better
known as Mo, a female gold medal winner in the 4 by 400-meter
in the 2004 Olympics, came to Westside and Louie. She looked
like iron—what a track body. She was very powerful not only with
running, but also in the Westside weight room.
Louie already knew what to do with Mo after working
with Butch. The training was identical to how Louie trained Butch.
The men and women prepare only one way, so Louie did the same
for Moe. The only difference in running is that a woman cannot
accelerate for as long a time as their male counterpart. This means
that for women, you must train a larger proportion of the sled work
on acceleration. Louie does all work by time, just like Glen Mills with
the weight training. No bodybuilding, just Max Effort or top speed
endurance with light belt squatting or power walking with a sled.
Louie had lots of experience by now working with OSU
sprinters or hurdlers who had just graduated. Also, Butch would bring
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top area high school sprint stars to train. Moe’s training at Westside
would lead to a model for the training of the sprint for women.
Moe said she had trained all around the world, but Westside
had the best method for a track athlete. Her team was always
harassed, however, with the drug testing from 2004 and they
decided to pass on the 2008 Olympics.
A Brief Word on Drug Testing
and Bad Coaches
Speaking of drug testing in sports, how can anyone take
anything they want and then watch professional teams or college
teams be subjected to constant drug testing? If a doctor can write
a prescription for a legal substance, why can’t an athlete take it?
A study should be done and prescribe it to the everyday fat ass.
They try to ban a woman sprinter because she has a very
high testosterone count. This is ridiculous.
They don’t ban a basketball player because they are too
tall, or a football player because he is too big, too fast, or even too
smart.
The drug testers are depriving athletes from making a
living. Drug testing in sports should be limited to drugs that are
illegal to the general public.
The coaches are toxic, for the most part, in track and
field. A 26-year-old female was brought to Westside for strength
training. She was a coach and could not qualify for the heptathlon
for six years, but after nine weeks at Westside, she did qualify for
the nationals. But after that, her coach refused to bring her back.
That’s the track culture—arrogant and stupid.
One such coach is wholly convinced that his method
of running is the only way. But physics says something totally
different. A coach should never try to make their athlete look
stupid—ever. The runner just wants to run, not become a Ph.D.
in biomechanics. Nor associate with someone who has no people
skills or someone who belittles those they come in contact with.
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Louie cautions all track athletes: If you run with the lame, you will
develop a limp.
Hey, Ory, Lose Weight
One day a big Russian came to Westside and wanted Louie
to train his three children. Louie said he did not like to teach kids,
but the man said he threw the shot against Kevin Atkins when
Louie was working with Kevin. After some discussion, Louie said
yes to one child, a Greco wrestler called Ory. He was about 260
pounds and enrolled at OSU in freestyle.
But he did not like it.
“Ory,” said Louie, “You must lose some bodyweight.”
Louie had no idea what he told him, but Ory dropped down
to 213 pounds and was ranked fourth nationally.
Louie told Tom Barry to find out how Ory lost the weight.
Ory told Tom, “I did what Louie told me to do.”
At that point, Louie asked Ory what in the world he told him
to do. True story.
Pavel Tsatsouline
Kettlebells became popular around 2000, and their use was
led by Pavel Tsatsouline. He would visit Westside and do demos on
how to do a Kettlebells workout. For the most part, Westside uses
Kettlebells on their band bar for rehab.
Pavel always asked how Westside could break world records
with such light training weights. The average weight trained on
Dynamic Day for speed-strength for squatting is 80 percent, 85
percent, or 95 percent of a one-rep max for 25 squats and deadlifts.
Many don’t understand the Westside System at all. Pavel has many
books on training, and Louie likes them all.
A man once said that Westside Barbell is like a giant spider
web—it has caught every sport in some way or another. It covers
all sports from MMA boxing, to football, to baseball, to rugby, to

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golf, to swimming. You name a sport, and they use some part of the
Westside System. Sometimes they don’t know where it came from.
People from all over the world come to Westside to train.

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 Chapter 22
The Westside Guys
World Bench Record Holders
Doug Heath
Westside has always had good bench pressers. For the
men, Doug Heath was Westside’s first all-time bench press record
holder.
Doug became a world powerlifting champion seven times
in the WPC and was cheated out of going to the IPF Worlds by the
Selection Committee. But Doug could really bench!
Their relationship began when Louie stopped by the
OSU weight room under the Ohio Stadium—also known as the
Horseshoe or The Shoe—and saw this kid bench 185 pounds for
eight reps weighing only about 115 pounds. It was Doug Heath.
Louie invited Doug to train with him in his garage. Doug became
the lightest man at 132 pounds to bench 400 pounds.
The Great Joe Bradley had benched 396 pounds without a
bench shirt, which was crazy. He had to have 18-inch arms. But at
that time, a blast shirt by Inzer might give you 10 pounds if you
were lucky.
That was just the beginning for Doug as he would break the
world mark a total of five times. Doug was 100 percent out of his
mind, but that’s what made Doug The Powerlifter.
Doug and Louie are still best of friends and see each other
all the time.

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Jay Fry
Westside was lifting at a meet in nearby Dayton, Ohio,
and George Halbert saw a kid bench 525 pounds at 181-pounds
bodyweight. George saw something in Jay Fry and asked Louie if
Jay could train at Westside with George for the bench only.
Louie said, “Sure. Let’s see what he can do.”
Jay benched in a shirt 23 weeks in a row and made 700
pounds in a meet—this was tremendous progress, but it got better.
Jay would break the 181-pound world record two times ending
with 750 pounds.
Jay would also make a pro total at 181-pounds bodyweight
in Tennessee, so he would be a real powerlifter, not just a bench
fag. Jay’s wife, Jean, was a killer in the gym, too, making pro
in two weight classes both the 123-pound and the 132-pound.
She was a full powerlifter and represented Westside all the way.
Jason Coker
Jason came to Westside from Big Iron Gym in Nebraska
with Rick Hussy, the owner. Jason broke Jay Fry’s 181-pound
work record with 771 pounds. While at Westside, he made a
900-pound bench at 198-pounds bodyweight, the lightest man to
make a 900-pound bench.
He was also a great powerlifter squatting 1000 pounds at
198-pounds bodyweight and 1040 at 220 pounds. He was Top Five
at 181, 198, and 220 pounds.
Jason moved on and started his own Team Coker Power.
George Halbert
George Halbert would come to Westside after being stuck
at 475 pounds in the bench for two years. Louie asked George
why it took him two years to make a move to Westside. He said he
heard they were crazy. And maybe they were, but after one year,
George had a 628-pound bench.

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 George would hold world bench records in the 198-, 220-,
and 242-pound weight classes. Along the way, he would trade the
title of World’s Best Bencher with his teammate Kenny Patterson
and New York’s Dave Waterman.
While lifting at a cash bench meet in Orlando, Florida,
George had broken the 242-pound class record and had one more
attempt when the police came in and said the meet had to be over
in 20 minutes. A hurricane was coming and whoever didn’t leave
would be arrested. This probably cost George another world
record.
Louie ran around telling all their foreign lifters to leave
or be arrested. It got worse. Tony Ramos had rented a car so the
group could drive back to Columbus, which they did, but it took
17  hours. And with Chicken Hawk (Mark Burrows) in the car, it
was a crazy 17 hours. Tony’s 10-year-old daughter will never be
the same.
Kenny Patterson
Kenny Patterson (KP) came to the gym at 14 years old and
said he wanted to get bigger for football. His father had just died,
and Louie said ok.
People ask Louie quite often how to train a young kid—so
much so that a year or so ago, he wrote a book about preparing
boys and girls for athletic success. And as Louie recommends
today, when KP started out, he used the very same training
program that his most advanced lifters used. Most know it as the
conjugate system that came from track and field and Olympic-style
weightlifting from the former Soviet Union. Louie has asked many
times, “Why start someone out wrong just to change the system
late?”
At first, KP’s three-week waves were for his 135-pound
bench, but he would eventually raw bench 640 pounds and set
world records in his rivals’ backyards. KP dropped down from 275
pounds to 220 pounds and became a great powerlifter.
One of the more memorable match-ups became known
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as the Battle of the Century with KP and Chuck Vogelpohl at the
WPO Finals in Columbus, Ohio, at the Arnold Classic. Chuck
chose not to wear a bench shirt, and it almost cost him the WPO
Belt. Chuck had to come from behind and pull an 816-pound
deadlift to win. Chuck was a world record holder in the squat, and
KP was a world record holder in the bench. Louie said there was
hostility between them even though they were training partners at
Westside. Whatever it was, it brought the best lifting out of both.
Those were the days.
Louie recently had lunch with KP, and Chuck V still trains
at Westside on Mondays and Wednesdays and has breakfast with
Louie and the guys after BJJ training. Sometimes Chuck and Louie
discuss how Westside has changed since around 2012 or 2013.
They don’t see the same drive and determination the old guys had.
There are a few who exhibit that drive, but not many.
One who does show drive and determination is Dave Hoff,
who is the current King of Powerlifting. Also, the list could include
Alex Kovatch, Jeremy Smith and Heidi Howar, who at this time
holds several world records.
Some bomb out a lot while others have gone nowhere in
more than six years. Others criticize Louie and the Club, but don’t
hesitate to put their hands out like little bitches. They take, but
never give to the program or to further enlighten the rest of the
world.
There is talk about producing a documentary about Louie
and the gym. Louie says whenever they make a documentary about
an institution, the new lifters have to live up to that standard.
But let’s get back to the bench pressers …
Six-Hundred-Pound Raw Benchers
Rob Fusner
JerryO, a long-time Westsider, had a guy that wanted to try
out. His name was Rob Fusner, soon to be Fuzz Dog. Jerry was
to bring him to his first meet, but of course, Jerry was a no show.
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Louie said he would handle him at meet time. It went something
like this:
“Louie,” asked Rob, “What am I supposed to do first?”
“You mean put on your Groove briefs?” Louie replied.
“No,” answered Rob, “I mean, what lift do I do first?”
“Are you kidding me?” asked Louie. “It’s the squat, then
the bench, and last the deadlift. Then you add them up, and the
biggest total wins.”
Rob said, “Ok.”
Then in his very first meet, he made a pro total. He became
a full powerlifter and a good one.
To win the IPA Worlds, he beat a top 308-pounder—Dave
Barno—with some deadlift strategy. Louie knew Dave could
out deadlift Rob by a lot, so on Rob’s third attempt, Louie called
a big number. Rob was already ahead going into the deadlift.
Dave countered with a huge deadlift. Then, at the last minute,
Louie changed Rob’s deadlift, which he made, but his competitors
didn’t check. Dave kept the same big deadlift and missed, which
made Rob the winner. Later, Dave came over to Louie and said,
“You mother fucker.”
Louie started laughing, and Dave laughed, too, and said,
“You got me this time.” Dave was a good friend and super strong.
He died much too early—at the age of 35 in 2006.
After that, Rob started to really push his bench training
with Kenny P. and George Halbert. At a Bench for Cash meet
in Daytona, Florida, his competition was Ryan Kennelly, who
would become maybe the greatest bench presser of all time. Ryan
was new to the game and tried to psyche out the Westside guys
by close-gripping 635 pounds. It worked against Ryan, however,
since he bombed with 711 pounds. Rob, on the other hand, made a
738-pound world record.
Ryan was the second king to fall under the Fuzzman. Rob

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stopped lifting for some personal reasons, but Louie will always
miss him, not only for his great lifting, but for being a good person
and a true Westsider.
Marcus Marinelli
Louie’s friend Marcus Marinelli, who trained at Westside
for 10 years, then started an MMA school called StrongStyle in
Cleveland, Ohio, said, “No one gets an award for doing something
easy. You have to train hard and then train harder.”
Westside Great Benchers
Besides the world record holders in the bench, there are
many great benchers at Westside.
Joe McCoy
At 19 years old, Joe made a 515-pound bench at 184
pounds. He was a Teenage World Champ, then an Open WPC
World Champ.
Kenny Patterson
KP had a 640-pound raw bench in his early twenties. KP
became a great powerlifter as well.
George Halbert
George made a 625-pound bench on one of the Westside
training tapes. George was also a pro-level powerlifter before
specializing on the bench with a shirt. George’s raw bench started
at 475 pounds and ended up at 625 pounds at Westside.
Rob Fusner
Rob could bench 600 pounds raw. Like all the Westside
guys, Rob did lots of inclines, seated presses, pin lock-outs, and
was always pushing up the triceps extensions.
J.M. Blakely
J.M. of the JM Press fame was very strong raw as well as
in a shirt. Interesting note about J.M.’s wardrobe, he had 23 bench
shirts all in different sizes. He, like KP, had 23-inch arms. Louie
saw JM do some amazing things in the gym.
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 J.M. asked Louie to hand out some JM Presses to him one
day, and, of course, Louie said ok. But J.M. started working up and
up and up until Louie handed J.M. 545 pounds for a triple.
Louie said to himself, “What the hell did I just see?”
J.M., KP, and Mike Wolf had some of the strongest arms
Louie has ever seen.
J.M. would do easy triples with 585 pounds in the bench.
One day when Louie came into the gym, George Halbert and J.M.
were doing sets of three reps with 350 pounds of bar weight plus
280 pounds of band tension. Louie recalls trying to lift the bar off
the rack, but he could not begin to budge it. At that time, Louie
was 52 years old and could still raw bench 500 pounds.
They looked at Louie, and one said, “Get the fuck out of
our way, old man,” so Louie went to the other end of the gym, like
they told him to … somewhere safe.
J.M. is highly intelligent and eccentric. He would put a rock
on his bench with the number he wanted to bench that day written
on it. His hand-out guy would write the number, like “700” for
example, on his forehead, so J.M. would be looking at the number
when having the bar handed to him. J.M. would help anyone and
even talked to a lifter on the way out to the platform.
J.M. will run into Louie on and off in Columbus. J.M. was
a real asset to Westside Barbell.
Paul Keyes
Paul played football in Florida at the Division I Level then
moved to Columbus and trained at Westside. He was big—about
6’2” tall, and around 290 pounds. He had huge wrists and could
really bench. His floor press and regular bench were both 625
pounds. He, like many, had trouble with a bench shirt. As strong as
his upper body was, his lower back was very weak. He could not
pull 455 pounds with the plates eight inches off the ground.
Paul is a stay-at-home dad and had to move to Tennessee.
That ended his Westside days, but once you are a Westsider, you
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are a Westsider for life. Currently, Louie still sees Paul at meets in
Tennessee, and it is always good to see him.
Mike Wolfe
Mike has trained at Westside for around 20 years. He has
been as big as 440 pounds, but he also has a big bench winning the
Arnold Classic with an 860-pound bench around the late 1990s.
He now only benches raw, making 650 pounds in a meet.
Mike has some of the biggest arms Louie has ever seen.
But, no wonder with the heavy hammer curls and 125-pound
rollbacks that he does.
Mike trains with George Halbert every Sunday. He said he
will train with them until the day he dies. Louie said he will make
sure he is around to hang Mike’s picture on the wall. They both
laugh at that one, and Louie says, “See you next week.”
Burley Hawk
Yes, Burley Hawk is his real name. Oh, he is burly at 385
pounds and 6’4’’ tall. Lifting raw, his best lifts are 905 pounds,
615 pounds, and an 805-pound deadlift. He really pushes the guys
at Westside in the bench and deadlift because of his upper body
strength and his super-strong lower back.
Burly is a funny guy and is always fucking with Louie.
He likes to punch Louie whenever he gets a chance. Louie calls
him Big Ben because his hands move so slowly. Burley is sure to
get much stronger if he can stay healthy. The best thing Burly does
is make the other guys better.
J.L. Holdsworth
J.L. came to Westside after playing football in college.
He was big—about 275 pounds—and in four meets, he made the
fourth-highest 275-pound class total.
J.L. would use a super arch to bench. Chuck V. and Louie
told him he would hurt his lower back. He would not listen. After
the bench at the Senior APF Nationals in New Orleans, J.L. could
barely move because his lower back was in so much pain. He could
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hardly walk. In fact, Louie and Chuck V. almost had to carry him
onto the plane. After that, J.L. gave up powerlifting for good. After
only four meets, his raw bench was 625 pounds.
J.L. started to train athletes about 10 minutes from Westside
near the Ohio State campus. He, like many, became very successful
and continues to visit Westside to see Louie once in a while.
Tony Bolognone
Tony trained at Westside for at least 15 years. He was a full
powerlifter with big totals at 275-pounds bodyweight, 308-pounds,
and SHW.
Tony was good in gear or real good raw with a 600-pound
plus. His squat would have broken Matt Smith’s squat record at
1160 pounds, but after standing up with 1170 pounds, he tore both
ACLs. This put Tony into retirement, where he now sells real
estate and runs a small gym. He also became a family man with his
first son.
It’s funny that his gym is five minutes from Louie’s house.
Nick Winters
Nick was a farm boy from Indiana and a freak if there ever
was one. He could raw bench 700 pounds for two reps, which
he did at the cage during the Arnold Classic. Louie saw him
incline 625 pounds at Westside. At 350 pounds, he looked like a
bodybuilder.
Since Nick had never deadlifted before, one day he asked
Louie if he could.
Louie said, “Sure, but use straps to be sure you don’t tear a
bicep.”
Nick said, ok.
On his first try, he made a 745-pound deadlift. Later, he did
850 pounds in stiff-leg style. This kid was strong.
Nick was only 29 years old, but that would be as old as he
got because he would, unfortunately, die of an enlarged heart. This
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should never happen to anyone to end their life so young. He left
a young wife and a great family who would drive over with him
three hours from Indiana. Of course, there is a picture on the wall
at Westside, so no one will ever forget his greatness.
Former Greats
Matt Smith
Matt came to Westside courtesy of JerryO.
“Why did you
bring that fat kid here
with an 1800-pound total
at SHW?” asked Louie.
JerryO said, “We
need a spotter who can
lift something.”
Matt trained hard
and made good progress.
In four years, he posted a 2400-pound total, which was good for a
Top 10.
Matt would go on to total 2672 pounds, which was fourth
All-Time. On the way, he had battles at the 2006 APF in Vegas
beating all the WPO contenders, but most of the time, he had to
outlast his SH teammate Mike. At one meet, he had to pull 835
pounds to get the lead over Mike, but then come back on his third
attempt to pull 850 pounds to regain the lead. It was always fierce
but friendly battles with Mike. Rivalries need a rival, and inside
Westside are many rivalries.
Tim Harold
Tim was a giant of a man and came to Westside like Matt
at 18 years and also with an 1800-pound total. Tim’s experience at
Westside demonstrated the evolution of special strength training
because while it took Matt four years to total 2400 pounds, Tim
made it in two years.

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 The Eccentric Ones
Jimmy Seitzer
Louie met Jimmy Seitzer in the early 1970s when Jimmy
began his bodybuilding career. You know the story: he became
Mr. USA and third and fifth in the big Mr. America contest.
Jimmy would also become a Pro Powerlifter in the 198-pound and
220-pound classes.
Later on, while at Westside, he saw Tony Ramos hook
Kettlebells to a barbell to cause it to vibrate to work on the small
muscles and the tendons and ligaments. At that point, Jimmy
made a bar out of fiberglass. The bar would vibrate as well as the
Kettlebells, which are held to the bar by rubber bands, now called
mini bands. They bounce chaotically, and the bands received a
U.S. patent. That is all well and good, but he was obsessed with the
concept and produced at least six bars that do the same thing. It is
a good product, but you would think it would spawn a new product
that could be used for some other training discipline.
Training devices and special methods must be used
together, but to think that one device can change the future of
strength training is crazy. It takes a crazy and determined person
who continually works on their product to perfect its use. Jimmy is
your man and Louie’s friend.
Jimmy is not the only eccentric person Louie has come
across. There was also the Band Man.
Dick Hartzell
Louie had heard of jump stretch bands in a talk with
Liberty University Strength Coach Dave Williams when the coach
said, “I will pay you to tell me what to do with jump strength
bands.”
Louie said, “I don’t want any money, but I also have never
seen them.” Louie had, however, read what Medvedev said in 1967
that you must hook rubber bands or cords to the barbell.
Louie told Coach Williams that he would do experiments
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with the bands, and he is glad he did.
Dick Hartzell was coming to Columbus the next week
to a basketball camp, so Louie and Dave Tate went to see him.
When Louie put a set of bands over his shoulder, he knew it would
change weight training forever. He told Dick that he would be
selling lots of bands after he wrote about them.
Dick just looked at Louie like he was crazy. He would soon
find out, however, that Louie was right. To the point that Dr. Mel
Siff talked about a system now known as the Combinations of
Resistance Methods in his book Supertraining.
After talking to Dick, Louie discovered that Dick felt
that a lifter only needed rubber bands for any type of resistance
training—no weights, just bands. After Louie had done a lot of
work with just barbell weights and rubber bands, both had their
own limitations. First, only using barbell weight, the load can
be too heavy in the bottom, and when using only rubber bands,
the load can be too light in the bottom due to band tension.
But, by combining the barbell load plus the band tension for
accommodating resistance, it was the perfect world.
But, of course, lifters can be set in their ways. Barbell
men saw no need to add bands. And Dick said, “Why not use just
rubber bands?”
But Louie knew that very few had ever made a real
champion on their own. It’s one thing to have 150 college athletes
come through the door each year, but could they start a kid out at
14-years-old and make him or her a champion?
Dick would ask Louie, “Why don’t you have someone hold
back their teammate with a band instead of pulling a sled?”
Louie answered, “Dick, would you like to hold back
someone for two and one-half miles? How do you hold back a
350-pound person? How do you add more resistance when the
holder might weigh 150 pounds?
Dick had no answers.
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 Dick told Louie that he had a guy who could squat 850
pounds, but when he came to Westside, the guy could only squat
500 pounds as Louie thought.
Louie asked the guy, “How are you hooking up the bands?”
He showed Louie, and it had no tension in the bottom and
none half-way up. In fact, it only had tension at the lockout. Louie
paid a visit to Dick’s gym in Youngstown, Ohio, and saw the set-up
himself. It was just like the kid said.
The entire Missouri strength staff came with Louie led by
Pat Ivey, the head strength coach. Louie was to demonstrate how
accommodating resistance worked by pulling 135 pounds with 170
pounds of band tension. But as Louie called person after person out
of the crowd, no one could deadlift the weight. This situation was
destroying the demonstration, so Louie pulled.
He asked Dick, “What the hell are you doing here?”
And, again, the bands had no tension in the bottom.
But Dick still believes to this day that it is all about bands.
Everything that provides an advantage must also be a
disadvantage in some way, but especially if that’s all you use.
If that’s all you use, you will face the Law of Accommodation.
Everything has a place in training, but the key is when and when
not to use them.
Considering Dr. Romanov’s Pose
Method
Louie saw Nicholas Romanov Ph.D. talk at a CrossFit
conference in California in the early 2000s. He was talking about
the correct method of running, a subject about which he has written
many books. His approach is referred to as the Pose Method. His
idea of running is for the runner to simply fall forward down the
track to utilize gravity to pull the runner toward the finish line.
Pose is a common phrase used in the former Soviet Union,
meaning position, which Dr. Romanov refers to when the center
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of mass is achieved. Like many things, it is easier for a novice to
learn than someone who has learned poor technique from years of
running. This is a straightforward method to start running.
Dr. Romanov was a high jumper and coach, plus he became
a professor. He believed there must be a correct way for anyone to
run. He set out to prove it with the Pose Method.
Because sprinting has stages—reaction, blocks,
acceleration, top speed maintenance, and of course, some amount
of deceleration—and due to different body positions during a
sprint as well as the fatigue factor, the body must and will change
position to some degree. This would cause The Pose to be affected
to some degree.
But Dr. Romanov’s theory is that it should never change.
Louie knows that no matter what, Dr. Romanov is totally
convinced that each and every Pose will be the same. Louie
admires Dr. Romanov, but he has his detractors. One is Henk
Kraaijenhof, who, most politely says that running or sprinting is
not falling, as Dr. Romanov has proposed, although he believes
him a brilliant and unorthodox thinker.
But Dr. Romanov sticks to his guns, and this is what Louie
admires about his Russian friend.
Ideas that Matter
It is interesting to note that all three men are dedicated to
their views and will be to the end of time. Louie has his ideas,
but his ideas come from many men—some very strong like
powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters, but most were in the
sciences from physics, mathematics, and biomechanics. His ideas
also come from many experiments that produced well over 100 all-
time world records through the truth of special strengths. Westside
Barbell is Louie’s entire life. All his memories and friends are from
the time in the Club. Louie thinks everyone should feel the same if
they train at Westside.

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 Loyalty
This is not the case with many of the lifters at Westside.
But Louie could always count on a very few guys.
Brent Tracy
Brent Tracy trained at Westside around 2000. He was
dedicated to Louie, to the gym, and to his teammates. Even today,
Brent does anything he can for the Westside guys, no matter what,
and that includes helping at meets anywhere and anytime. Louie
respects Brent for his lifting, his team involvement, and above all
else, his friendship.
Jerry Obradovic
JerryO came to Westside at 16 years old, and today, in
his 40s, he still trains at Westside. JerryO was very close to Matt
Dimel, and it hit him hard when the guys lost Matt in 1994.
He calls Louie at least once a month to see how Louie is doing if
he misses him at the Club. Jerry is very fond of his brother as he
is his only living family member. It is still Westside that he loves
best, and he can never leave it as it is genuinely his real home.
Matt Smith
Matt has been training almost all of his adult life. JerryO
brought Matt to the gym to help spot, but he became the fourth
strongest man on Earth until personal problems got in the way.
Matt comes in to help out the guys and to train on Sundays
with Bob Cole, Jimmy Ritchie, and Don Damron to keep the old
guys together. Matt also goes to meets to help out anyone who
needs help.
Louie was hard on Matt to the point that Matt wanted to kill
him. But one day, Matt told Louie that he treated him better than
his dad. To that, Louie said, “Your dad must have been a mother
fucker.”
They are still best friends and watch out for each other.
It will always be that way. Westside rules.

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Mark Burrows AKA Chicken Hawk
Chicken Hawk came to Westside more than 20 years ago
to irritate Louie. He made Louie’s life a living hell. How? Just by
being Chicken Hawk.
People often ask how Mark got his name, Chicken Hawk.
It  came from a cartoon with Foghorn Leghorn and his little
sidekick Henery. But at Westside, it became Chicken Hawk
because, like Henery, who bugged Foghorn all the time, Chicken
Hawk would drive Louie crazy. Sometimes Louie would want to
kill him, but in the end, Chicken Hawk would always win out …
somehow … at least in his own mind, as small as it is …
Hawk had his share of injuries, but he was nuts and would
always come back. Louie said he would write a book about Hawk,
but he would not know what category to put it in—comedy,
suspense, mystery, or tragedy. His story could fit in all of them.
It got way worse in 2007 when twin boys came to the Chicken
Hawk household. Hawk said he wanted to make sure if Louie lives
a long life, the boys would be there to continue to fuck up Louie’s
world. So, no matter what, Hawk is like the son Louie never
wanted. After all, as Chicken Hawk always says, “Louie, you are
the worst father a son could ever have.”
Hawk is making a comeback after Judo. He got all the
support from everyone at Westside, especially his biggest supporter
Louie. Long live Chicken Hawk.

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 Chapter 23
The Westside Barbell
Business
Louie made Westside Barbell a corporation in 1987.
The attorney that filed the incorporation papers misunderstood the
name Louie and his then partner intended and instead presented
the company name as TEE AND ELL WEIGHT LIFTING AND
EXERCISE ENTERPRISES, INC. Oh well, that’s why being
able to have a DBA (doing business as) name is so important.
It was the beginning of a great life with many ups and downs.
The ups included being granted many trademarks and patents.
But trademarks and patents must be protected, so there have been
downs like needing to use lawsuits to gain that protection.
Some of those lawsuits were very costly, and that’s why
one trademark reads: Often imitated, always irritated. Louie
quickly learned that very few in the fitness and exercise business
have ideas of their own. Louie built the first mechanical belt squat
that is regularly duplicated by many companies, but no one can top
the ATP Belt Squat.
Louie also built something that everyone said could not
be made—a power rack with holes two inches apart. Then Louie
topped that with a rack with one-inch spacing. They are almost
indestructible as Westside has two such racks that are now more
than 30 years old and still in good working condition. The racks
are not only sold by Westside, but many companies.

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 Nitro Immortalized
As many people now know, Louie’s dog Nitro died while
he was playing in the Garage Gym. That dog, like all of Louie’s
dogs, meant a great deal to all of the Westside members.
Louie went to the best tattoo artist in Columbus, Marty’s
Artistic Tattooing, with a picture of Nitro, and the artist created
the likeness so many people are familiar with today. Once it was
complete, Louie started selling Nitro-logo t-shirts. Then Louie
began to advertise in Powerlifting USA magazine. One thing led
to another, and Westside began to sell a full range of clothing for
both men and women. Today thousands and thousands of people
worldwide buy Nitro t-shirts and more.
Diane Black
Louie was still working full-time in the steel erection trade,
so all the profits from these endeavors were kept in the company. In
1986, Diane Black worked for Louie doing almost all of the business
along with managing the commercial gym that Louie bought, but it
was good and bad.
The bad part was that the gym was open for seven years, seven
days a week, with no profit at all. Good, though, was that Louie met
many current members, such as the Jester brothers who came in 1986.
Louie’s first patent application was for the Reverse HyperTM.
He did not set out to grow as a business, but the company did grow
and thrive.
At about that same time, Diane Black put her degree to good
use and became an international science editor full-time. She was a
huge part of the early growth of Westside Barbell. She still trains at
Westside in between the main workouts 34 years later with Cathy
Shannon, ex-wife of Jimmy Seitzer.
The First Patent
Tim VanHorn was a long-time Westsider who owned
one of the largest spring companies in the United States. Louie

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would design a machine, and Tim would build the first prototype
to present to the patent attorney who would then work toward
Louie being granted a U.S. patent. Currently, he is up to 11 patents
in all, and all inventions have made money. But when you have
something that no one else has, it can become trouble.
Louie made most of his living by being paid royalties.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, a group from Cleveland
paid for the rights to put the Reverse HyperTM on an infomercial.
After five years, they stopped paying. Louie was awarded $40,000
in federal court.
Louie would then go to Federal Court, twice actually, for
patent infringement by the same Texas company. How dumb can
you be?
The big case, though, was when another group from
Cleveland signed a contract to sell the Reverse HyperTM on
television, but then refused to pay Louie one cent. He would have
made royalties accounting for roughly $1.8 million. Of course,
they owed the bank $3 million. After they went bankrupt, they
left Louie holding an empty bag and a bill to pay five attorneys
$125,000.
Then there was a nutrition company that used Louie’s
“brand” and the Westside name to sell a line of supplements. But,
again, at the end of the day, they did not—could not—pay Louie
the $28,000 they owed. There are good manufacturers and bad
manufacturers, and Louie always says he’ll just leave it at that.
Louie’s relationship with Rogue Fitness has been nothing
but great. Louie was there at the beginning of Bill and Caity
Henniger’s Rogue endeavor when it was 6,000 square feet. Now
all total, it covers more than one million square feet. Rogue Fitness
is the modern-day Henry Ford—just unbelievable.
Janelle Goldbach
Louie wanted to keep his company small, but that
changed drastically in 2011. They hired Janelle Goldbach, a high

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school student who had been working at a Mexican restaurant
they frequented. They trained her to take orders and handle the
shipping. Although Louie and Doris liked working from home,
eventually their business expanded too much to continue. In the
10 years Janelle was with them, the business grew to a size where
they rented an office and 500 square feet of warehouse space.
With the move, the business was growing at a steady rate.
Doris and Lou hired Chara Baker to work part-time with Janelle.
Chara moved on, and her replacement, Kristy Friesen, came
onboard for a short time.
Tom Barry
That’s when Tom Barry joined the crew. Tom was born
and bred in Kilkenny, Ireland, where he majored in Exercise and
Health Studies and obtained a degree from Waterford Institute of
Technology. In 2011 Tom had the opportunity to study under Louie
through an internship program. But then a two-week internship
turned into a full-time position at Westside Barbell headquarters.
Eight years later, he now runs the business for Louie and Doris.
The transition from Ireland to Westside was relatively smooth
for Tom for many reasons, but he says three reasons stand out.
First, he says there are very few places you can talk freely
and shoot the shit with your boss about training, fighting, and
general crap talking.
Additionally, he says Louie and Doris helped with
everything along the way, including helping him get a car, work
visa, and accommodations. He says whether they know it or not,
they became his second family who truly made Westside home.
And the third reason he says, but a huge one, is that Lou
and Doris trust that he knew (or kind of knew) what he was doing
and they gave him the freedom to try new ideas and products.
Some failed. One failed greatly—publishing 3,000 books with no
page numbers and no table of contents—now that indeed had to be
a great day. Thankfully, most of Tom’s ideas panned out, and the

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ones that didn’t they learned from and moved forward.
It might be hard to believe that his contribution to the club
and all the members past and present would not be through his gift
of ungodly Irish strength—yes, that’s a joke. But Tom does bring
Westside a work ethic to promote Westside’s education, ethos,
and business so that everyone willing to listen and learn can train
optimally. He has learned about the athletes of the past who put
Westside on the map, including their training errors and injuries so
everyone can reap the benefits of having the most optimal training
method there is.
Initially, Tom’s objective was to gain accreditation for
Westside’s Special Strengths Certificate. From there, his internship
went from strength and conditioning to business. While working
on the business side, he discovered how a “website company” was
charging $5,000 a month for a few hours of work each week. It
was quite the education for Tom. He learned that if you don’t know
every facet of your company, people tend to take advantage of your
ignorance.
Tom has also learned that between listening and learning
from experience, books, and YouTube, there is nothing you can’t
teach yourself so that you have enough knowledge to equip
yourself to obtain success.
Tom thought that the strength and conditioning world was
crazy until he discovered how cutthroat the exercise equipment
industry could be. Just like many others, he had originally thought
Louie was crazy when he talked about how friends, coaches, and
charlatans fronting as reputable businesses would stab you in the
back for the sake of monetary gain.
Since working full-time at Westside, he has learned the
good, the bad, and the ugly of maintaining and enforcing patents
and trademarks while understanding the actual value of what
legal contracts provide. He worked through four equipment
manufacturer changes and lived to tell the tale and learn from the
experiences.
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 Westside’s Growth
Since 2011, the company has grown by more than 322
percent with the help of other employees along the way.
● Doris Simmons, who once did everything and now takes
care of billing and accounting
● Janelle Goldbach
● Marty Mitchell, head of equipment sales
● Chara Baker
● Kristy Friesen
● Elliot Baum, who wholly revamped processing and order
fulfillment
● Jason “Gus” Gusic, a United States Marine veteran
who was a regional sales manager and is now running
Westside’s Tactical content and seminars
The facility has grown to three offices and 3000 feet of
warehouse space. The office space houses the current headquarters
staff of Tom Barry, Dave Groves, the customer care “socialist,” and
Joe Lasko, who is in charge of social media and creative content.
Westside’s social media and direct customer base has gone
from 1400 people to more than 300,000 people, and they have a
huge following for their podcasts. Their Conjugate Club, an online
exclusive content member site, has close to 1000 members and is
still growing.
Louie has given Tom full control over all media and self-
publishing of Louie’s books, DVDs, and Podcasts. Tom also has
an active role in coaching athletes, mainly those from the NFL,
MMA, and golf who train at Westside Barbell.
In the last 10 years or so, Louie had stopped doing seminars,
no matter how profitable they were, mainly because he found the
travel so tiring. Now Tom makes Louie answer questions and do
Podcasts during the week. And, each week, people continue to come
to Westside to ask questions and train with the guys.

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 Chapter 24
Westside Vs. The World

Years ago, a father brought his young son, who was about
10 years old, to Westside. The kid could not believe what he saw.
The oldest and smallest man in the gym was kicking everyone’s
ass. The boy had seen many professional athletes—Michael Jordan
for one—but this bald man seemed mystical in some strange way.
That man was Louie, and that kid was Michael Fahey, who would
grow up to be a documentary filmmaker. A 2009 media production
graduate of Florida State University, Michael worked with Spyder
Media for four years, followed by a year as an editor at Monica
Beach before being a freelancer editor with NFL Network and
Food Paradise.
Michael came back to Westside in 2015 with hopes of
doing a documentary about the history of Westside Barbell. Louie
is a private man, but after some convincing, Louie agreed to let
Michael start working on the project that would be known as
Westside vs. The World.
One reason Louie agreed was the involvement of Louie’s
friend Carlos Carvalho, a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Carlos
was always trying to choke Louie out. It was fun for both Carlos
and Louie. Carlos is also an experienced cameraman, and he
worked with Michael on the project. Carlos’ involvement made
Louie feel more comfortable.
So, they began the task of making Westside vs. The World.
It would take roughly three years to film and another year of
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production, and the next thing you know, people could see it on
Netflix. From world-famous lifters, world records—too many to
count—trademarks, patents, all manner of education materials, and
now a documentary.
Louie said, “I guess Westside has done it all from MMA,
NFL, college sports, rugby, every sport you can think of.” The
“secrets of Westside Barbell” allowed anyone to look inside the
lives of Westside’s members.
Some welcomed it while some, like Marcus Marinelli,
would not talk about the things he had seen over the 10 years of
training and being close to Louie, then and now.
Louie knew that some would praise him and the methods
he taught that were a big part of the development of the Westside
System during the 80s and 90s. But he also knew others would say
nothing but bad things about how he had run the gym and bad-
month his methods. Those people don’t bother Louie at all. He
reminds himself that they are not worth mentioning. Remember,
wolves never hear sheep cry.
Louie did not want to do a documentary because the guys
who made Westside are no longer at Westside or are too beat-up
and old for the young lifters to listen to them. Louie feels strongly
that the older lifters were the ones who built Westside, and most
of today’s lifters are tenants who enjoy the work of the Westside
pioneers.
But nevertheless, the documentary has brought a lot of
attention to the world of powerlifting. Most people don’t want
to believe that the Soviet System works because of the Soviet’s
connection to Communism. This idea was brought to Louie’s
attention by Dr. Mel Siff of Supertraining fame, who spent a lot of
time with Louie and Westside. And there is a lot of truth in that.
But now that Netflix has taken Westside vs. The World
to the silver screen, loads of people know the story of Westside.
Michael and Carlos did a great job, but the truth is that there is no
way to catch everything and everybody who contributed to the rise
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of Westside Barbell. Michael has found a way to get powerlifting
on television, but even now that it has been, the sport still falls far
behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, Boxing, MMA, and every
other sport that you can think of. Why? There just isn’t a fan base.
It’s a great sport, but it does not appeal to the general public.
Maybe that is because of the attitude of lifters like Louie.
Louie said he never cared who was in the audience, but instead he
cared who was in the warm-up room. In other words, who were
his competitors that day? Louie says the only respect one needs is
self-respect.
Louie felt that someone should tell a more complete story
about Westside. He thinks that story can only be told by someone
who was really there and that someone is me—the Iron Samurai.
The documentary title Westside vs. The World is accurate.
The Westside world has always been a system that most did not
understand. The truth is that in powerlifting, all others would call
upon themselves to try to defeat anyone at Westside.
It is about rivalries. There are rivalries between ball
clubs, fighters, schools, cars, sisters, and brothers. So, of course,
it would happen to Westside by any club or individual. Blacks
Health World, Big Iron, and the West Virginia Wild Bunch were
Westside’s only true matches for a while, but everyone must pass
a test, the test of time. And only one club has passed that test, and
that’s Westside Barbell.
Maybe one of the greatest rivalries was between a
young Samurai by the name of Kojiro and the Greatest Samurai
Miyamoto Musashi. From a very early time in his life, Kojiro
wanted a match with Musashi, but it would take many years to
fulfill his dream. As a young man, he would practice most of every
day perfecting his trade. He would use a very long sword that made
it more lethal than others, but hard to master.
Musashi would not be with women often, but his former
girlfriend was dating Kojiro until she learned he killed sparrows
for sport. She said he was too savage for killing the defenseless
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birds and that she was leaving him to go find Musashi.
To this, Kojiro said, “Tell Musashi to take care of his life
because if he dies, I die.”
This was the beginning of a rivalry to end all rivalries.
It would come to an end at the famous duel on the isle.
After years of training, Kojiro had truly mastered the sword and
was now worthy of a contest. A challenge was made to Musashi to
meet on the island, and Musashi accepted.
It was set for daybreak, but Musashi was late to throw off
his opponent, who by this time was a true Master Kojiro, and it did
not seem to matter.
Kojiro always used a very long sword. Knowing this,
Musashi, while sitting in the boat, saw a broken oar. He picked
it up and began to carve a wooden sword that was a few inches
longer than Kojiro’s drying pole. It was time to land the boat.
Kojiro was patiently waiting there.
As Musashi stepped out of the boat, he yelled, “Are you
ready?”
To that, Kojiro walked forward until both were well
in killing range. They were in a perfect vacuum. Nothing else
mattered, but one must die.
Then Kojiro came down with his long sword and cut the
headband of Musashi, which he first thought was Musashi’s head
itself.
This gave Kojiro a sense of victory, but at that very
moment, Musashi landed a fatal blow to Kojiro’s head, and Kojiro
lay motionless with no sign of life.
Blood came from his mouth, but somehow his lips made a
smile of accomplishment. Kojiro was still holding his sword as he
was leaving this Earth and traveling to the next.
Musashi looked down at his headband. It made him realize
that this man Kojiro was his ultimate opponent.
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 Musashi whispered to Kojiro, “You were magnificent.”
Now that Musashi’s last adversary was gone, the duels
were to be no more. Musashi would now lay to paper how to
become a great Samurai.
Louie has always led as close a life to a samurai as
possible, never straying from the way. And this leads us to the real
story of Westside versus the world.
It started in 1970, and Louie was beating off the local
181-pounders, so Louie would pick a 198-pounder to compete with
by the name of Fred Myers. Fred was from the Glass City Team
from Toledo, Ohio. He did not know Louie had selected him to
beat, but it worked for Louie to have a rival, whether Fred knew or
not.
In 1971 Louie went to Patterson, New Jersey, for the Junior
Nationals. There he placed third and set the Junior National squat
record. He had second place locked in behind Ron Buchanan
of Cincinnati, Ohio, but a crazy man Joe Spack, aka Spack the
Whack, came from far behind and pulled a 650-pound deadlift to
push Louie to third place.
This told Louie he had to build his deadlift. He made steady
progress until he was ranked eighth place with a 1540-pound total.
In Dayton, Ohio, he made a 1555-pound total, but George
Clark made a 1600-pound total with a big 700-pound deadlift.
Louie now had a real rival in George. That was November 1972. In
that same month, Bob McGee would win the first IPF Worlds with
a 1635-pound total.
After George beat him, he began to train much harder. In
February 1973, he totaled 1655 pounds, the highest that year at that
time. Louie got his revenge, but it was short-lived as he suffered a
serious back injury that would put him out for almost four years.
But George would get his payback as he totaled 1675 pounds.
Marty Joyce was also a strong competitor, but the King of
the 181s was Jack Barus. No one could beat him.
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 After recovering, Louie moved up to the 198-pound class.
Larry P. was the undisputed champ with Louie and several others
100 pounds behind. Louie was fourth and fifth in the total.
Roger Ester was powerful, first breaking the squat record
and then breaking Larry P.’s total record in Cleveland, Ohio, in
1978.
One strong rival was his teammate Gary Sanger. Louie told
Gary he would give him two tries to beat him, but Louie won both
times. Then Louie said he would move up to the 220-pound class
and leave Gary to compete with Roger, as Larry P. had moved up
to the 220-pound class as well.
The next big meet was the YMCA Nationals, where Louie
would win his first Nationals along with his first Top 10 Bench. His
total was third all-time.
But for Gary, now he had to contend with Roger Ester, and
Gary was now taking Louie’s second place to Roger.
Louie would have so many rivals to talk about after making
the Top 10 for 34 years. But Gary would eventually become the
number one 198-pounder in the world in 1984. Paul Dicks and
Walter Thomas would push Gary all the way to the top.
When Matt Dimel set the SHW World Record Squat that
put a target on his back. His main rival was Anthony Clark, a
monster of a man who would eventually break Matt’s squat record.
Matt would rupture his patella tendons and both quad tendons, but
come back to win the APF Nationals in 1991.
Matt’s main rival was himself. Just to overcome the fear of
hurting his knees again. But he did just that. Matt was a hell of a
man and was Westside all the way.
Chuck would break onto the scene in 1987, winning the
YMCA Nationals at 220-pounds bodyweight. He would hold world
records in the squat in three weight classes: 1025 at 220 pounds,
1140 at 242 pounds, and 1180 at 275 pounds. Chuck also won the
WPO in two divisions. He may be the only man to do so.
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 Travis Mash and Jesse Kellum were his two top rivals.
Chuck set the standard for all of powerlifting for intensity
wearing his flame hat. He still trains today at Westside and has for
33 years.
It was Chuck versus the world because he was in all the
experiments with bands, chains, and percentage training working
on speed strength. The Westside System kept Chuck in the World’s
best for 25 years. Yes, he did pass the test, the test of time.
Both George Halbert and Kenny Patterson lifted at the
highest levels in the bench press for years with Dave Waterman,
Anthony Clark, Glenn Shobit, and many others who held world
records. At one point, Kenny beat Anthony Clark in Clark’s
hometown coefficiently and won over $10,000.
Dave Waterman, who held the 198-pound world record,
came up to Louie in Daytona, Florida, and said of George, “I never
had any competition before.”
Louie replied, “You do now.”
George made three world records ending with 683 pounds.
Glen Chabot said he would retire if he did not win the
Arnold Classic. When Louie next saw Glen, he said, “Hey, Glen, I
hear you are going to retire.”
Yes, Glen got beat.
Everyone was after Westside, but it was at the same time
that people from all over the world were coming to visit Westside
to learn the Westside System. It is Louie’s honor to have visitors,
even though they can sometimes get in the way.
Ricky Hussey started a very strong gym called Big Iron in
Nebraska. Louie asked why he started a power team.
Rick said, “I always wanted a gym like Westside.”
Coming from Rick, that was a huge compliment, but now
more teams wanted to kick Westside’s ass.

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 Everyone wanted to prove the old way was the best, but it
did not work out that way.
Rob was supposed to be a victim when he lifted against
Ryan Kennelly in Daytona, Florida, but he was no one’s victim.
And not only did he beat Ryan, but he also set the all-time world
record in the 308-pound class.
Ryan got his revenge, however, on Rob and all the world
lifters with his big benches. He knows what it is like to be hunted.
Vlad Alhazov came to Westside to break a world record. At
first, he made his first 1100-pound squat with 1105 pounds. He also
deadlifted 805 pounds for his first 800-pound-plus pull. But Vlad
would go on to squat a world record 1250 pounds and a 925-pound
pull. Then, after getting out of gear, Vlad made an 1157-pound raw
squat. That seems undoable, but not for Vlad.
His best total was 2805 pounds when competing against
Donny Thompson, who made a 2850-pound total that day. Donny
got his real first taste of powerlifting at Westside. Donny would
become the first man to total 3000 pounds.
With all the world records, world record holders, the latest
and greatest, Westside’s star is Dave Hoff. Dave started at Westside
at 15 years old. Louie and others could see something about him
that set him apart from other 15-year-olds, or for that matter, that
set him apart from all other powerlifters all together.
He began to show great promise at 17 years old. He would
bench 515 pounds in a shirt at 212-pounds bodyweight. He would
eventually make an 815-pound bench. At 19, he totaled 2445
pounds at 252-pounds bodyweight.
He became the youngest to squat 1000 pounds by doing a
1005-pound squat. This would start a rampage that led him to be
the youngest man to total 2400 pounds through 3000 pounds and to
make that total three times.
Dave would be beaten only two times. One of those times
was by his teammate, A J Roberts, who had broken the 308-pound
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class total record on three separate occasions.
Dave would also be the only powerlifter to bench 1000
pounds with a best at Westside of 1015 pounds.
Normal people will only give you normal results. Dave,
like many of the Westside guys, is far from being normal. His mind
works like no other, but it can work against you just as easily.
Jeff Adams, aka Gritter, ran the night crew like a drill
sergeant, but he would have health problems. The guidance and
structure that Gritter provided left the night crew with Gritter’s
exit.
Dave would take over that role, but without standards, the
lifters would start anywhere from 5:30 pm to 7 pm. One must pass
Louie’s tests to train in either the morning or the evening crews.
Unworthy lifters, however, began to train at night. The old saying
is if you run with the lame, you will develop a limp.
The standards broke down until Westside’s sponsors were
offended to the point that Louie had to smooth it out with one
of the major sponsors. It came to the point that the entire night
crew had to be suspended for life. This would spell the end of the
Westside connection with Dave Hoff. As with yin and yang, there
must be a counterbalance to maintain balance.
Westside will go on as it always has, but with new faces
and new world records. Like Satchel Paige said, “Don’t look back
because someone might be gaining on you.”
As long as Louie has a breath of air Westside will grow.
Many don’t know, but powerlifting is less than 10 percent of
Westside’s audience now. All sports have come onboard from NFL
to MMA to track and field events.
Louie does not get internet on any devices, neither on
a phone, tablet nor Ipad. He has a Jitterbug phone. It has nine
numbers and people like to make fun of it. But he can take and
make calls. While everyone else is on their phones, Louie is
continuing to educate himself on all matters of sports science.
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 But for the people who use their phones and computers,
Westside has formed the Conjugate Club to provide information
for all sports. Louie isn’t against the technology; he just
doesn’t want to use it himself. He knows the immense value of
communication and education, and if people want information on
their phones, so be it.
Louie is now 73 years old. He has no wish to stop producing
world record holders. He is heavily involved in training a young
female sprinter who he has worked with for eight years, and he is
looking forward to seeing her win a world sprint championship
someday.
As 2020 comes to an end, look for a rebirth of Westside.
When Louie needs new energy and inspiration, he goes to his
roots by reading his three favorite classics starting with Jonathon
Livingston Seagull for imagination, then The Call of the Wild for
tenacity, then Musashi for a stable lifestyle.
Louie will never stray from the way.
And as Louie has often demonstrated, when others see a
wall, Louie sees a door. Just walk through it.

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