Westside Barbell Book of Methods

by Louie Simmons

This book is a collection of training methods I have obtained through the past 30 years.
I spent 12 years training with the wrong methods, one being the western periodization that is a dead end street.

I use a 3 week wave system that leads to circa max and delayed transformation. The soviet system I started 30 years ago prolonged my career to the point where I made top 10 lifts at 54 years old. It has enabled Westside lifters to break 100 plus world records and has helped countless more.

I am proud my resume is never up to date. Why? Because I constantly break new records all the time, check out our top lifts in the back of the book and then check out our website for correct records. You will be amazed!

Genres: Fitness

238 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many books with their origins in repurposed blog posts, this one can be a little disjointed and repetitive. There's a credit to an editor, but I can't see any evidence that he did much to make this book flow. In a way, though, this ends up being a plus, although it makes the book a little tedious to read. Variations on "Mondays, we.... Seventy two hours later, we....This is the conjugate method" get old after awhile. But I have to admit that it's forever branded in my brain.

If you can keep in mind that you're reading this for vary practical reasons, though, and keep trudging along, there's gold here. It seems that every time Louie repeats the above statement, the surrounding statements add a little to your knowledge base. I'm just a 46 year old guy training on my own in my garage. I don't compete. I do, though, want to understand how to get my stalled lifts moving again, and avoid getting frustrated and bored. The last thing I want to do is blindly follow what some guy in a polo shirt at the globogym tells me to do.

Some of the things Louie recommends can get complex, so I decided to start down this road in stages. I started implementing the ideas a couple of months ago, starting with the basic schedule. I put together a simple spreadsheet to help me map out my basic changes in core and assistance lifts. Because I now have a basic understanding of what's going on, I'll be adding chains soon. NOT jumping into the deep end helped me make this work. The rusty, stuck gears are starting to turn again. I'm not progressing at the speed of light, but I am progressing.

So if you've heard that this book is repetitive, you heard right. If it interests you, you can live with that. If you've heard that it's complex, you heard right. Don't bite off more than you can chew; you can always ramp up the complexity later. Get the basics first, and treat it like a personal-growth journey. If you've heard that it's not for beginners just learning the lifts, you heard right about that, too. But if you have at least a little background, like putting thought into how you approach things, and want to learn how to keep your programming fresh and interesting without resorting to program-hopping, this book is a must-read.

[Giuseppe Zangari · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a bible.
Must have for anyone involved in powerlifting.
Louie it's a genius, I read his articles on internet since 2005. If powerlifitng is so popular right now (isn't it??) it's because Louie and westside-barbell.com (free articles from 1999)

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this is a very informative look at the Westside training methodology it's an extremely disjointed read. The same information is repeated multiple times throughout the book :

"You might not know this but...".

Actually I do because you said the same thing last chapter!

If you're wanting to know more about Westside it's worth a look but feel free to skim.

[Thai Son · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of stuff kind of went over my head, but I understood, and enjoyed many parts. I will not take this path. A lot of successful lifters have taken other paths. Besides, I don't really consider myself a pure powerlifter. I will read his recc-ed strength training bibliography.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book has a lot of editing errors - seems like a trend with westside books (makes me wonder if they were speech-to-text prints..) but I definitely have a better understanding of WSBB after reading and have a lot of new ideas to blend into training moving forward

[Isaac Accola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whiles the overall book can get a little repetitive it is a great read and pretty much sears the conjugate method in your head. They did just put out another version of this and it flows much better, more straightforward.

[Mark Miller Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book especially because it recommends books.

[Fabio Fogato · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the first 25 pages , Louie repeat the same concept. It seems a collage of various articles. Boring.

[Ray Dorl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abysmal writing; innovative methods. A must-read for any thoughtful meathead.

[cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book, very informative, and educating on not just the methods but their origination.. This book is written pretty much how Loui talks. Which is very jumbled and all over the place hahaha. We know he's an old school badass, and you can tell by the writing, and the fact that this book appears to be entirely written in a Word document! I love it.

[Sally Lehman]

Louie has wrecked his body with Powerlifting, then fixed it to the point of being a competitor over and over again, far past the prime ages that most people can. He lifts so much weight that he keeps tearing muscle. His style of writing shows that he is very passionate about what he's doing, and he writes about working as hard, and as smart, as he possibly can. Lots of good and some suspect advice, with a large heaping of ego, but it was still quite entertaining and I love how pragmatic he is.

[Mhinchley · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have a serious interest in strength training, you no doubt know of Louie Simmons and Westside Barbell - the home gym of some of the strongest men in the world. I read this book wanting to learn more about the Westside method, especially since I have recently started competing in powerlifting.

This book isn't for the gym beginner, or for the bodybuilder, instead it is written for powerlifters - or those looking to increase their maximum strength in the squat, bench press and deadlift.

I can't say this was a well written book (highly repetitive, and could have done with more editing), and Louie's reference to his own 'experiments' can not be seen as rigorous scientific study (his 'studies' generally just involve using members of his gym as guinea pigs to trial new ideas and does not involve 'control groups').

However I did come away from this book with a better understanding of the Westside method of training. If you are looking for the 'ideal workout' to increase your squat/bench/deadlift, this book will not deliver, instead the Westside method is a 'framework' on how you can increase your lifts through focusing on rotating special exercises (e.g goodmornings, reverse hypers), speed work, and working at the right volume for any given weight percentage (of your max lift) - the framework means, you have to do a bit of trial and error to make the framework work for you.

Louie Simmons seems to know a lot about strength training (and his gym has the results to prove it), so even though the book itself wasn't the best - the Westside method is something definitely worth looking into if you are serious about strength training/powerlifitng.

[James C Holloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great guide for a tried and true powerlifting methodology. The science is there and the repetition certainly drives in the finer points; it really makes a lifter want to get out there and try it all out. Louie also gives the reader plenty of sources to go to for more details on the science behind it all. The problems I see are it looks like it's just a large collection of articles and the editing could have used some work. Scientific formulas aren't reproduced properly (in my copy, published date 2007, purchased in 2015), and there are small sections where a paragraph or two are doubled up. All in all though, it's an excellent resource for more information on an incredibly successful strength training methodology.

[Joshua Wheeler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pros: 1. It does actually cover the methods used at Westside Barbell.

Cons: 1 - The information is SO strung out and unorganized you'll really have to take notes and pay attention in order to put it all together. 2 - Seriously, it's almost comically bad.

If you really want to know about Westside Methods, Google them. Read some articles and watch some videos. Don't waste money on this unless they come out with one that concisely covers the material AND has an editor. Even better, get ahold of page 206 where it lists Louie's top book recommendations on training, including old Russian manuals, an read those instead.

[Lisa Shapiro]

Still have so much to learn. Great advice and techniques for either the equipped or non equipped lifter.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book outlining Westsides training philosophy.