Plague of Strength

When people think of the men and women behind the curtain in the world of powerlifting, names like Mark Rippetoe and Louie Simmons, Dave Tate and Jim Wendler likely spring to mind, alongside the names of faceless, mononymous Soviets like Sheiko and Smolov. These names have been pounded into our heads over the last 20 years thanks to the glories of the internet, and being the relentless self-promoters and marketers that those people are, they have convinced you that either the old Soviet system is the best (due in large part to the ridiculous hype placed upon it by non-powerlifter Pavel Tsatsouline), or the modern Westside Barbell Club’s methods are the best, as they combined the best of the two earliest systems for powerlifting training- the Soviet system and the methods of the original Westside Barbell Club. Both assertions are absurd, because the Culver City Westside Barbell Club of the 1960s was by far and away the most dominant of the early powerlifting clubs, and their methods were derived from those of York Barbell’s Olympic weightlifting team.

That underfunded, underfed, underpromoted, and almost entirely unloved team regularly beat the Soviets, who were all professional lifters paid by the Soviet government to master their craft. The American lifters worked menial jobs at York Barbell for low pay to make a living as they trained to beat the pro Soviet lifters, while the Soviets enjoyed prestige, publicity, and significant financial backing from their government, making the playing field definitively un-level. And the Soviets knew it- this is why they considered the mastermind behind Westside’s methods, world record holding hammer thrower and early powerlifting record setter George Frenn, to be the veritable god of powerlifting.

If they weren’t long dead, they would be laughing their asses off at the idea that their methods were superior to those of York Barbell and the original Westside Barbell and belittling the shit out of the fake-ass racists populating the smelliest corners of the shittiest basement gyms and their heroes, the fake-ass racist slobs at the current Westside Barbell. In stark contrast to the felon-filled, anti-intellectual ranks of its current incarnation, the original Culver City Westside Barbell Club, led by ringleader Bill West, driving force Joe Dimarco, and mastermind strength training strategist George Frenn, was a amalgamation of the most interesting and diverse cast of characters in history. This band of weirdos were drawn from fields ranging from acting to neurology and rocket science to Olympic track and field, weightlifting, and the outdoor hammer throw to and boasted the loftiest academic and intellectual credentials as well as insane sporting achievements in everything from track and field to professional wrestling,and their training methodology reflected that desire to reject normalcy and really embrace their inner Gonzo.

Although the Ohio Westside Barbell Club has marketed itself far better than the original Culver City, California crew did, the former is a shittier, fatter, and far dumber iteration on the original. Rather than improving the methods of the original crew, they made them worse by introducing the methods of Soviet weightlifters to them. Those same Soviet lifters were ignoring the idiotic advice of their coaches and were following the advice of George Frenn and John Kuc, a world-record holding Olympic hammer thrower and former training partner of Jon Kuc, who years later would set a slew of massive powerlifting records.

In Westside Connection, you will learn about the original Westside Barbell, the crew who is basically responsible for turning powerlifting into a sport.

• You’ll learn about its three founders, powerlifters Bill “Peanuts” West and Joe Dimarco, and world record-holder in the outdoor hammer throw George Frenn; you’ll learn about the methods they developed (stripped of Louie’s unnecessary and unproductive tinkering and his asinine addition of periodization); and you’ll come to discover the Frenn was basically the god of powerlifting as far as the Soviets (who were again ignoring the periodization schemes developed by their coaches and using the methods of Frenn).
• Then you’ll discover who influenced them, and what their methods were. It’s here you’ll read about US Olympic weightlifting gold medalists Tommy Kono and Ike Berger, and how they and their teammates on the US Olympic weightlifting techniques transmitted their methods to the members of the Westside Crew.
• You’ll find about the lifters that Westside spun off, like Roger Estep, who would transmit Westside’s methods to his home gym in West Virginia and turn his home gym crew, the Wild Bunch, into a legitimate East Coast competitor to the Westside Crew.

This book is jam-packed with badass training routines from tons of god-tier lifters who were either a part of, and influence to, or an offshoot of the original Culver City, CA Westside Barbell like:

• legendary strongman and proto-powerlifter Chuck Ahrens
• US Olympic gold medalist in weightlifting and the 1950s god of squatting, Paul Anderson
• US Olympic weightlifting gold medalist and avid bodybuilder Ike Berger
• four-time FICH Mr. World-Universe and US Olympic weightlifting god Tommy Kono
• inventor of the incline bench press and god-tier bench presser Steve Merjanian
• the god of deadlifting before powerlifting was even a sport, Bob Peoples
• and the methods utilized by the odd gym that served as Westside’s primary local competition- Zuver’s Gym, an aggressively evangelical Christian Disneyland of a gym
• the only powerlifter Joe Weider ever begged to compete in bodybuilding, Roger Estep, whose body was as beautiful as it was capable of astonishing powerlifting feats
• Phil Grippaldi, a guy who went from being a world record holder in the Olympic Press and possessor of absurd 21″ ams at 198lbs to holding what I would imagine to be a world record for the world’s oldest crack dealer, as he was arrested at the ripe old age of 61
• and Pat Casey, the dude who was the first man to bench 600lbs in competition, as well as the first person to squat 800 and the first person to total 2000lbs.

If you can’t kick ass at powerlifting after reading this book, you should pick a different hobby. This goddamn thing has literally every method you could possibly need to confront any plateau or setback you might encounter in 120 pages of in-depth powerlifting insanity.

And you can use the tragedy strung throughout the book to drive you to make good decisions that will lead to a good life/training balance as well as an insane total.

But yo, it’s not all tragedy, because although there are a couple of unfortunate heroin overdoses in there and a crack dealer, they still boasted the world’s foremost neurologist and subject of the Robin WIlliams film Awakenings as one of their record-setting members, as well as NASA engineers, aerospace engineers, Italian sword-and-sandal actors (though he was one of the OD’s), and more Olympic medalists than I’ve ever heard of gathered onto a single team that wasn’t competing in the Olympics (and from multiple sports).

Rejoice! You can abandon all of those dumbass charts and cease with that endless planning, because none of it applies to you! This book explains why.

The methods of the Ohio Westside Barbell are in every way inferior to their predecessor.

Reject their false metal and embrace the true metal of the old powerlifting gods, the Culver City Westside Barbell Club.

$30 for 120 pages of old school training! Ebook format only.

Liked it? Take a second to support Jamie Chaos on Patreon!