The Westside Legacy and Where I Diverge: Programming, Progression, and Peaking Rewired
- Josh Hezza
- Apr 9
- 18 min read
The Westside Legacy and Where I Diverge: Programming, Progression, and Peaking Rewired
Respect the Roots, Build Your Own System
Before we get into the differences — let’s make one thing clear.
This isn’t a takedown of Westside. Not even close.
The Westside Barbell system — and Louie Simmons’ Book of Methods in particular — is one of the most important contributions to modern strength training. It’s been misquoted, misapplied, and misunderstood more times than I can count, but the core ideas? They work. They’ve always worked. And they’ll continue to work for lifters who understand how to run them with purpose.
If you’re looking for a deep dive on the origins of Conjugate, the structure of Westside, or the history behind it all, I’ve already written about that in detail:
This article isn’t that. This article is a comparison — of how the system started, how it evolved, and where I’ve personally diverged after nearly 15 years of running, coaching, and refining it with hundreds of athletes across strongman, powerlifting, hybrid sport, and rehab environments.
My version of Conjugate isn’t a rewrite. It’s a field-tested evolution. And that evolution only exists because I’ve run the original system long enough to understand why it works — and where it breaks down for real-world lifters.
If you’re thinking about adapting Conjugate, there’s something you need to hear:
You don’t get to diverge from a system you don’t understand. If you haven’t read the Book of Methods front to back — don’t skip ahead. Study it. Run it. Log it. Then, once you see what your lifters need, you’ll know how and where to adjust.
That’s what I did. Not because I thought I knew better — but because over time, I saw what lifters were struggling with: fatigue that wasn’t managed, peak weeks that didn’t stick, accessory work that wasn’t doing enough, and DE days that had all the intent but none of the context.
So I built my own system — still Conjugate at its core, but structured around:
Real strain without burnout
Rotation that serves a purpose
Speed work that teaches, not just moves
Recovery that’s programmed, not assumed
Athletes who aren’t all enhanced 24-year-olds in monolifts
This isn’t about who’s right. It’s about what works — for your body, your goals, and your competitive calendar.
You can see my version of that system in: 🔗 Barebones Conjugate for Strongman 2.0 🔗 Fix Your Weaknesses: A Conjugate Guide to Building Unstoppable Strength 🔗 Big Pecs, Bigger Paychecks 2.0
This article is the synthesis of all that — a side-by-side breakdown of what I took from the Westside legacy, what I adapted, and what I rewired to make Conjugate work in the real world.
Let’s get into it.
Philosophical Bedrock: What Are We Really Trying to Build?
Before we can talk sets, reps, waves, or rotations, we need to talk about why we train the way we do. Because at the root of every program — Conjugate or otherwise — is a philosophy. A belief system about what matters most.
And if you don’t understand the philosophical bedrock of your method, no amount of spreadsheets, specialty bars, or Westside tattoos will save you when the system starts to crack.
This is the first of a deeper series breaking down how my Conjugate programming differs from the classic Westside model — not as a criticism, but as an evolution. So let’s start where it matters: the why.
🧱 Westside: Strain-Focused, Geared-Centric, Adaptation Through Survival
The foundation of Westside — especially in its early years — was built on one central idea: strain reveals adaptation.
Louie Simmons didn’t invent this. The Soviets did. But he did apply it in a way few others dared. Westside lifters were guinea pigs in the best and worst ways — running systems based on Soviet texts, reverse-engineered through garage gyms, chalk clouds, and trial-by-PR.
The philosophy was simple, and brutal:
Max out weekly.
Use variation to avoid accommodation.
Rotate exercises aggressively.
Strain often enough and you'll adapt — or break.
And many did break. That was part of the filtering process.
Westside was unapologetically geared-centric, yes — but that doesn’t mean it didn’t work for raw lifters or non-strength athletes. Let’s clear that up now: Westside coached NFL athletes, sprinters, fighters, and field sport athletes long before Instagram turned GPP into an aesthetic.
But the system was still built around a cultural centre: the geared powerlifter training under maximal strain, in an environment designed to produce pressure.
You didn’t just survive Westside. You had to become Westside — or you were gone.
🔁 My Approach: Outcomes First, Strain with Context, Adaptation Through Precision
I still believe in strain. I still believe in rotating max effort lifts. I still believe in the DE method, and the power of smart variation.
But I don’t coach ghosts.
I coach real athletes. Some strongman. Some powerlifting. Some hybrid. Some neurodivergent. Some coming off injury. Some training in garden gyms with three bars and no reverse hyper in sight.
So my system starts from a different question:
What do we actually need to get better — and what can we recover from?
That’s why my Conjugate programming is outcomes-first and context-driven. We’re still applying pressure — but we’re doing it with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.
🧠 Aggression vs Sustainable Aggression
The old Westside mindset was pure aggression. Break yourself. Build again. Repeat. And if your numbers didn’t improve? You weren’t cut out for it.
That mindset works in elite, insular environments. But if you try to transplant it onto a 36-year-old raw lifter with a business, a family, and a slightly janky knee? You’ll burn them out inside eight weeks.
What I use is sustainable aggression. We strain — but we pick our moments. We wave load. We track intent. We deload without losing momentum.
You don’t need to smash yourself into a wall every week to get stronger. You just need to apply pressure in the right places — and know when to pull back.
🎯 Outcomes: PRs vs Long-Term Carryover
Westside’s culture was built around PRs — every week, in something. It didn’t matter if it was a 14” cambered bar good morning to pins — it was a record.
And to be fair, that works. It’s motivating. It teaches lifters to dig deep. It gives them data and drive.
But my focus isn’t just short-term PRs. It’s long-term carryover.
If you PR your high box squat but can’t deadlift without rounding your spine — what did we really build?
If your bench goes up but your shoulder falls apart — was it worth it?
In my system, every ME lift is selected with two questions:
What weakness am I trying to fix or expose?
Will this make me better where it counts?
That’s why you’ll see:
More triples, more pauses, more concentric-only work
Carefully selected variations, not chaos
Rotation of strain type (grind, pop, tempo, instability) — not just bar choice
PRs still happen. But they’re part of a system that’s moving toward something, not just spinning its wheels.
🧬 Evolution, Not Rebellion
The original Westside system worked. It still does — for the right athlete, in the right context, under the right eyes.
But training today isn’t about recreating Columbus, Ohio circa 1998. It’s about building a system that works in 2025, for athletes with real lives, real stress, and real long-term goals.
My method respects the roots. It still rotates, still strains, still respects the barbell. But it builds lifters who don’t just survive a program — they thrive under it.
This is Conjugate with a brain — and we’re only just getting started.
IF YOU AREN'T TRAINING AT WESTSIDE - THEN YOU AREN'T TRAINING WESTSIDE
Programming — Where the Roads Split
Conjugate Isn’t Just About the Template. It’s How You Run It.
There’s a moment every coach hits in their career — usually sometime after their third or fourth attempt at copying a legendary program — where they realise:
“It’s not the method. It’s how you coach the method.”
That’s the difference between a template and a system. And it’s exactly where my version of Conjugate begins to diverge from the classical Westside approach — not out of rebellion, but from years of data, coaching, mistakes, and lifters in the trenches.
This article breaks down where our programming roads split — and why that divergence matters if you're a raw lifter, hybrid athlete, or strongman competitor.
🔴 Max Effort Work — Same Strain, Smarter Structure
Let’s be clear: I still program max effort singles the majority of the time. That’s the foundation of the method. Strain teaches. Strain reveals. Strain builds.
But while the bones of the system remain the same, the application has evolved. Where Westside often focused purely on absolute load — typically a weekly 1RM, with or without back-off work — my approach allows for more fluidity based on context, fatigue, and recovery.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Top singles, doubles, or triples, depending on how the athlete is moving — not just what the sheet says.
Back-off sets, either percentage-based or RPE-guided, to reinforce technical strain without adding unnecessary fatigue.
Concentric-only variations (e.g., pin pulls, Anderson squats, floor presses) that build power and rate of force development with less eccentric wear.
Strongman-specific ME work, like sandbag loads, log cleans, or yoke carries, rotated into ME days based on season, goals, and system fatigue.
Let’s also be fair: Westside absolutely used partials and board presses — especially to adapt to the strength curve of equipped lifting. They understood overload, and they used it often.
Where I differ is in why and how I deploy those same tools. Don't get me wrong I've worked with world champion equipped lifters. But, I’m not always programming partials to overload the shirt. I’m using them to reinforce positions, manage fatigue, or build force in weak ranges — for raw, hybrid, and sport-based lifters.
We're still chasing top-end strength. We're just doing it with more context, more awareness, and more recoverable structure.
Strain is still king. But kings don’t need to swing blindly.
🟡 Dynamic Effort — Not Just Speed Work
Here’s where the fork in the road gets wider.
Westside’s DE approach — especially in the Book of Methods era — was defined by:
Fixed bar weight (typically 50–60%)
Set band/chain tension (~25%)
Box squat or straight bar bench
Strict 3-week waves: 12x2, 10x2, 8x2
It works. But it’s rigid. And it doesn’t flex easily around:
Bar speed variations across lifters
Sport-specific adaptations
Neurological fatigue
Athletes who aren’t recovering with 8 hours of sleep, a reverse hyper, and injectable recovery tools
Here’s what I do instead:
🧠 Flexible DE Waves
I program 3-week waves that still build bar speed and force production — but vary in:
Set/rep schemes (sometimes 5x5 or 6x3)
Implements used (trap bar, log, axle, straight bar)
Tempo or pause variations (e.g. pause box squats for DE)
Wave intensity (based on bar velocity feedback or RPE)
🔁 Week 3 Work-Ups
In DE Week 3, I’ll often program a technical work-up to a crisp top triple or double — especially for strongman athletes who thrive on load exposure, or lifters preparing for a peak.
This maintains the DE intent (speed, rhythm, control) while adding a dose of specificity when it’s needed.
🛠️ Trap Bar DE Work for GPP
In off-season blocks, I use trap bar DE pulls in place of straight bar work:
Lower axial fatigue
Higher rep capacity
Excellent for reinforcing midline and grip
Builds work capacity without accumulating positional breakdown
DE isn’t just “speed reps.” It’s skill expression under load. And like any skill, it needs to be coached, progressed, and rotated — not just run blindly.
🟢 Repetition Method — Weak Points Over Volume
This is where the old school and new school Conjugate divide becomes clearest.
Westside built muscle through volume. Rows, curls, pulldowns, extensions. 4x10, 5x15, AMRAP. Rinse and repeat.
And again — that works. But it’s not how I approach the repetition method anymore.
My system — as outlined in Fix Your Weaknesses — revolves around targeted, layered accessory frameworks, tailored to each day’s primary movement, athlete’s goals, and structural limitations.
Here’s the framework I teach:
🔍 The Weak Point Matrix
For every session, we hit:
Primary Weak Point Builder → Often a variation of the day’s main lift, targeting the breakdown zone (e.g., RDLs after a missed lockout deadlift).
Opposing Muscle Group → Ensures balance and carries over to event or compound stability (e.g., rows after pressing).
Prehab / Volume Filler → High-rep, joint-friendly, or core work. Think banded TKEs, sled drags, Copenhagen planks.
Optional Athlete-Led Pick → Guided autonomy. The lifter picks one movement based on how they feel, with coach guidance.
This structure applies whether the lifter is:
A strongman competitor peaking for sandbag medleys
A raw powerlifter struggling with triceps lockout
A hybrid athlete balancing grappling and deadlifting
Volume isn’t random. It’s solving problems.
And that’s the difference. Westside chased size. I chase specificity and adaptation.
🧩Evolve the Framework, Don’t Abandon It
Everything you just read still lives within the Conjugate framework. There’s Max Effort. There’s Dynamic Effort. There’s Repetition Effort. There’s rotation. There’s intent.
The difference is application.
The template stays. The programming gets smarter.
Whether you’re running a classic 4-day split or adapting for strongman, your system should bend around your outcomes — not the other way around.
This is Conjugate for lifters who can’t afford to waste weeks. This is programming with purpose.
The Strongman-Specific Adaptations That Make Conjugate Work
Why Westside Rarely Spoke About Events — and Why That’s a Problem for Us
Westside Barbell built monsters. No question. But the system, in its heyday, rarely addressed strongman as a sport with its own logic, pacing, and physiological demands. While Louie did eventually nod to strongman in articles and interviews, there was never a full framework. And when strongman was mentioned, it was often from a powerlifting lens — not the perspective of someone who knew what it meant to move a 400kg yoke or sprint with a 120kg sandbag after three overhead medleys.
That’s where I diverge.
Over the past 15 years, I’ve adapted the Conjugate Method not just to "include" strongman — but to prioritise it. This isn’t just Conjugate with event days slapped on top. This is Conjugate engineered around the needs of the strongman competitor.
Let’s break it down.
📦 Event Work Is Integrated, Not Added
One of the most fundamental shifts I made was embedding strongman events directly into the weekly structure — especially on Dynamic Effort (DE) days.
Sandbag to Shoulder on DE Upper: Rather than finishing upper body days with triceps burnout sets, I often program sandbag shouldering work immediately after speed pressing. This blends upper-body power, positional control, and bracing endurance in a way that dumbbells and cables just can’t replicate.
Heavy Yoke as a Max Effort Variation (if your yoke desperately needs work): In traditional Westside, your ME lower days are often variations of squats or pulls. For strongmen, a max yoke for 15-20m is just as valid. It’s brutally specific. It builds eccentric tolerance, brace under load, and lower back strength — all while reinforcing mental toughness.In reality I’ve said this to cause a ruckus and I’ll actually program it as a secondary movement on ME LB days hehe.
Carry Medleys Post-DE for GPP: These aren’t random circuits. They’re timed, structured, and periodised for recovery. Light to moderate weight medleys — think farmers → sandbag → sled drag — are perfect for DE lower finishers. They build capacity without ruining the CNS.
This isn’t “train hard and hope.” It’s system load logic — placing events where they do the most good with the least interference.
🧠 System Load Logic: Placing Events Where They Belong
This is where most people go wrong. They treat event training like an “extra” — a separate day, or a bonus if there’s time.
Instead, I ask: what system is the event stressing? And then I build it into the session that aligns with that system.
Yoke, Farmers, Sleds: These are lower-body dominant with high bracing demands. They go best after DE lower, when you’re moving fast and neurologically primed — not crushed from max pulls.
Sandbag Loads, Stone Over Bar, Keg Carries: These can go on upper or lower days depending on the variation, but I often place them after pressing or DE squats — again, looking at system overlap.
Max Events: Heavy log, yoke, frame deadlift, sandbag for max reps — these can and should be rotated into ME work. Not just as accessories, but as the main lift or the secondary lift.
This is all detailed inside Barebones Conjugate for Strongman 2.0, where I provide full 3-, 4-, and 5-day layouts showing exactly how to do this. But here’s the core idea:
Don’t train events as separate entities. Train them within the system.
🏋 Weekly Adaptations That Actually Prepare You to Compete
The end goal isn’t just to hit gym PRs — it’s to win contests.
So I adapted the programming structure to peak athletes for the platform and the parking lot.
DE Waves with Carryover: I use trap bar jumps, speed yoke walks, and sandbag throws as DE substitutions — not just for variation, but because they build the rate of force development needed for real events.
Olympic Lifting for Strongman: Push presses, cleans from blocks, and high pulls show up often — especially in the off-season. These help with bag throws, axle cleans, and even sandbag pickups.
Conditioning and Medleys: Event-based conditioning is built into every week — either post-DE or in a separate GPP slot. Sleds, stairs, log clean AMRAPs — all programmed to develop work capacity without burning out the athlete.
This isn’t about killing yourself. It’s about peaking without bleeding out.
🧱 From the Ebook: Why It Works
Let’s pull from Barebones Conjugate for Strongman 2.0 directly:
“Strongman demands more than just brute strength. Conjugate builds a complete athlete—maximising power, endurance, and movement efficiency… Event training must be integrated, not just tacked on.”
That’s the heart of it. Not "Westside for Strongman." Strongman. Built with Conjugate.
🔚 Additional Thoughts on this section
Westside gave us the blueprint. But for strongman, I rewrote the architecture.
By embedding event work into Max Effort and Dynamic days, tracking system load across the week, and training qualities like speed, capacity, and positional strength with the same rigour as barbell lifts — we build athletes who aren’t just strong.
We build competitors.
Recovery — Built In vs Implied
If there’s one area where the philosophy truly splits — and not always cleanly — it’s here.
🔴 Westside: You Adapt, or You Die
On paper, recovery was part of the Westside system. You had sled drags. You had GPP circuits. You had extra workouts and low-intensity blood flow work. Louie did talk about restoration, and the sled was famously the most underused recovery tool in the gym.
But let’s be honest: a lot of the Westside recovery philosophy was implied — not structured.
You either bounced back or you broke. You were either “hard enough” or you washed out. And while some lifters were incredibly diligent with recovery protocols, many weren’t. Between broken sleep schedules, hard living, and whatever else was in the system, it was often survival of the most chemically supported.
Plenty of lifters did drag sleds daily, eat steaks at midnight, and sleep on grounding mats. Others smoked meth, lived in their cars, and still squatted 900. It worked — but the margin for error was razor-thin.
The “extra workouts” weren’t programmed. They were suggested. The recovery structure wasn’t built into the wave. It was something you earned the right to figure out after your CNS collapsed.
That’s not a criticism — it’s context.
🔵 Me: Recovery Is Coded In
Where Westside left recovery to culture, I build it into the code.
This isn’t just about doing less. It’s about planning recovery as a fundamental training variable — right alongside strain, intensity, and frequency.
Here’s what that looks like in my system:
✅ Back-Off Work That Manages Fatigue Without Guesswork
After max effort work, I often program structured back-off sets — usually percentage-based, sometimes adjusted from the day’s top set.
We’re not talking RPE charts or autoregulation spreadsheets. We’re talking repeatable, coach-led logic:
Hit your top single.
Then back it off ~80–85% and get in a clean set of 3–5.
Or reduce volume to reinforce technique without adding unnecessary strain.
You’ve already done the work. The back-off set reinforces it — it doesn’t bury you.
I’m not against RPE. I just don’t rely on it. Most lifters don’t need more subjective input — they need more structure they can actually execute.
This method keeps lifters in the fight, not just through the week, but month after month.
✅ Deload-Style Max Effort Weeks
Sometimes we wave down a week — not with a “deload” label, but by using:
Self limiting variations
Top sets of 5 instead of 1
Concentric-only lifts
High-box variations
Chain or band deload tension setups
It keeps the system stimulated without frying the lifter. This shows up heavily in Big Pecs 2.0 and Barebones Strongman as a rolling fatigue management strategy.
✅ GPP 'Blocks' and Aerobic Work
Conditioning isn’t a punishment. It’s recovery.
Sled drags
10-minute medleys
Aerobic circuits
Tempo carries
These show up on purpose — programmed for recovery, not tossed in as “extra.”
It’s especially critical for strongman and hybrid athletes. If you can’t repeat strength efforts with minimal rest, you’re not trained — you’re just temporarily strong.
✅ Cardio, Sleds, and Blood Flow Work
Borrowing from the classics — but with structure.
We use:
Sleds post-training for quads/glutes/back recovery
Zone 2 bike work on rest days
Light dumbbell circuits for shoulders and elbows
High-rep accessories for tissue tolerance
This isn’t flashy. But it’s why my lifters don’t burn out every 5 weeks.
✅ Athletes Are Tracked — Not Guessed At
Above all: I track how people recover.
RPE feedback
Notes on movement quality
Pattern recognition over weeks
Auto-regulation without excuse-making
If someone’s dropping intensity or quality? We don’t just say “get tougher.” We adjust the wave. We shift the lift. We reduce stress, not output.
Toughness is useful. Consistency is better.
🔚 Final Thoughts on this section
Westside lifters were savages. No one’s denying that. But the system asked you to survive the system — not always adapt to it.
My system does both.
You strain.
You rotate.
You recover.
And you keep building.
It’s not softer. It’s smarter. And it lets lifters actually last long enough to hit their best numbers — not just their most aggressive ones.
Coaching Culture & Accessibility
The Method Is Only As Good As the Minds It Reaches
Training systems don’t live or die by spreadsheets. They survive through the culture built around them — and the way they’re taught.
And here’s where one of the deepest splits happens between classical Westside and how I coach today.
🔴 Westside: Legendary, but Closed-Door
Westside wasn’t just a gym — it was an ecosystem. A culture. A pressure cooker. You didn’t walk in and get coached. You got absorbed — if you could hang.
You didn’t ask questions. You figured it out.
You didn’t get cue sheets. You got told to strain harder.
You weren’t handed a template. You became part of the machine that made them.
Louie wasn’t a coach in the traditional sense — and he never claimed to be. He was a philosopher of force production. A mad scientist with a gym full of experiments.
As Greg Panora once (might have) said (maybe): “Louie didn’t coach me through my lifts. He watched. And if you were lucky, he’d give you one sentence that changed everything.”
Westside eventually opened up. Seminars, videos, books — all came later. But even then, the education was more of a trickle-down, not a structured system.
You had to decipher it. You had to know the code. And you had to be ready to bleed for the answers.
🔵 Me : Educational, Anti-Dogma, Athlete-Centric
Where Westside built an iron fortress — I built a classroom. One where lifters of all levels, backgrounds, and brains can learn the method and make it their own.
This doesn’t mean softer. It means smarter. Broader. Sharper.
I teach the Conjugate Method with:
Longform articles (like this one)
Ebooks with structured logic, not guesswork
Templates with coaching notes built in
Open Q&A, mentoring, and coaching systems that meet people where they are
My athletes range from:
Raw powerlifters and strongmen
Hybrid athletes balancing running and lifting
Neurodivergent lifters who need clear systems
Injured athletes rebuilding from the ground up
Weekend warriors with kids, careers, and chaos
And the method works — not because I water it down — But because I teach it in a way people can actually apply.
🧠 Coaching Is a Skill, Not Just a Vibe
It’s not enough to be strong. It’s not enough to write hard programs.
If you can’t communicate, adapt, and translate the system for the person in front of you — you’re not coaching. You’re dictating.
And that’s not the world I want to live in.
🔚 Final Thoughts on this section
Westside gave us the fire. But not everyone needs to stand in the flames to get strong.
I’m not trying to replace the legacy — I’m trying to make it usable. For more people. In more contexts. With fewer broken lifters and more sustainable savages.
You don’t have to survive the system. You can thrive in it — if it’s built for who you actually are.
Where We Align, Where We Diverge
This table gives you the bird’s-eye view: How my Conjugate approach compares with both Old School Westside (Book of Methods era) and New School Westside.
You’ll see where we overlap — and where I’ve built something fundamentally different.
Category | Old School Westside<br>(Book of Methods) | New School Westside<br>(Structured Template) | Team Josh Hezza<br>(Applied Conjugate) |
Max Effort Philosophy | Weekly 1RM “Strain or die” | Top triples, waved intensity, optional back-offs | Strain guided by readiness Triples, overloads, back-offs |
Dynamic Effort | Rigid waves (e.g. 12×2 @ 50% + bands) Minimal variation | Structured waves with deloads Higher focus on speed intent | Flexible waves, bar speed tracked Work-ups in Week 3, trap bar DE for GPP |
Accessory Work | Volume-focused Target muscle groups | More structure but still general | Weak point-specific “Primary + Opposing + Prehab” framework |
Exercise Rotation | Constant rotation, narrow pool | Still high rotation, but with a logic tree | Rotation based on fatigue, pattern overload, and results tracking |
Recovery Strategy | Implicit — adapt or get cut | Structured deloads, clearer fatigue management | Embedded in program: GPP, aerobic work, sleds, deload-style weeks |
Athlete Fit | Geared, ultra-durable, chemically enhanced | Broader audience, still powerlifting-centric | Raw, hybrid, neurodivergent, injured, strongman, gen pop |
Strongman Integration | Rare or ad hoc | Light discussion, not core | Fully integrated: Sandbag throws, yoke waves, medley GPP, peaking logic |
Educational Lens | Closed-door, coded cues | Better clarity in blogs and seminars | Transparent, open-source, heavily instructional — ebooks, articles, templates |
Cultural Ethos | “Earn your place” Hard men only | "Train smarter but still hard” | Respect the roots — build something repeatable, adaptable, sustainable |
💬 Coaching Philosophy in One Line:
Old School Westside: Strain is king. Survive or quit.
New School Westside: Structure the strain — just don’t lose the fire.
JHEPC: Build structured chaos that lasts. No wasted weeks. No wasted lifters.
Why This Matters
The Conjugate Method doesn’t need defending. It needs proper application.
Westside changed the game — no question. But most coaches today still don’t understand what it actually was… let alone what it can become.
They think:
Strain = burnout
Dynamic Effort = “light speed reps”
Rotation = randomness
Accessories = fluff
And then they say it doesn’t work.
But here’s the truth:
Conjugate works. It works if you understand strain. It works if you track recovery. It works if you wave intelligently, rotate with intent, and adapt to the athlete in front of you.
This isn’t abandoning Westside. This is evolving it — the same way they evolved what came before them.
My approach honours the roots — but it’s been battle-tested in a world Louie never trained for:
Raw lifters with jobs and kids
Neurodivergent athletes who need structure to thrive
Strongman competitors peaking for chaos
Injured lifters rebuilding from rock bottom
Hybrids chasing endurance and strength
💡 It’s not about being right on the internet. It’s about building a system that works in the real world — consistently.
If You Want to Train This Way — I Coach It Every Day
With real lifters. In the trenches. With progress you can log — and carry over you can feel.
Bình luận