When I first started hearing about Westside Barbell, I wasn’t interested in secondhand information.
That’s never been how I’ve operated.
If I want to understand something, I go to the source.
At the time, I had a unique opportunity. I was hosting a radio show, before podcasting was really even a thing, and that gave me direct access to the people who were actually doing the work.
So instead of guessing how the system worked, I brought the people on who were using it.
- Powerlifters
- Strength coaches
- Athletes applying it to other sports
And eventually, I had Louie Simmons himself on.
Before Content Was Polished
This was a different time.
There was no polished content strategy. No filters. No scripting.
It was raw.
We talked about:
- How we were training
- What was working
- What wasn’t
- How these systems actually applied in real life
It wasn’t theory.
It was application.
And that’s where the real value came from.
What I Saw With Westside
One thing became clear very quickly:
Nobody successful was blindly copying Westside.
They were adapting it.
- Westside for football
- Westside for strongman
- Westside for general athletes
That was the real takeaway.
Not the exact program.
The principles behind it.
My Goal Wasn’t Powerlifting
At the time, I wasn’t trying to become a powerlifter.
I wanted to build muscle.
I wanted to rebuild what I had lost.
And then go beyond it.
So I didn’t take the Westside system and run it as-is.
I pulled from it.
What I Took From Westside
There were a few key things that changed how I trained:
- Max effort work to build neural drive
- Dynamic effort work to develop speed and intent
- Variation to prevent stagnation
- Accessory work to bring up weak points
But here’s what mattered most:
I didn’t separate that from hypertrophy.
I integrated it.
Where Most People Get It Wrong
Most people look at a system like Westside and think:
“This is a strength system.”
And they leave it at that.
But if you actually look at how it’s structured, you’ll see something different.
There’s a massive amount of:
- Accessory work
- Repeated effort
- Volume accumulation
That’s not just strength work.
That’s structural development.
That’s hypertrophy.
Structure Before Expression
This is where everything started to come together for me.
Strength isn’t just about lifting heavy.
There are two sides to it:
- Neural (expression of strength)
- Structural (the ability to support that strength)
Westside gave me a clearer understanding of the neural side.
But it reinforced something I was already doing:
Building the structure first.
How I Applied It to Hypertrophy
Most of my training still lived in:
- 4 to 6 repetitions
- 4 to 6 working sets
- Roughly 70 to 75 percent effort
- High intention and strain
That’s where the foundation was built.
What Westside allowed me to do was layer on top of that:
- Strategic heavy work
- Explosive intent
- Smarter variation
Not instead of hypertrophy.
On top of it.
From Rebuilding to Surpassing
At that stage of my life, I wasn’t just trying to get back to where I was.
I wanted more.
- More muscle
- More strength
- More capability
And integrating those principles allowed me to do exactly that.
I rebuilt what I had lost, and then pushed beyond it.
The Real Lesson
The biggest lesson I took from Westside wasn’t a program.
It was this:
You don’t adopt systems. You extract from them.
You take:
- What applies
- What works
- What aligns with your goal
And you build your own approach.
Why This Still Matters Today
Today, we’re seeing the same pattern again with:
- HYROX
- Machine-based hypertrophy
- Functional training trends
People want to pick a side.
Pick a system.
Follow it exactly.
But that’s not how the best results are built.
The Takeaway
The strongest athletes.
The most developed physiques.
The most successful coaches.
They don’t follow one system.
They understand multiple systems, and apply them with purpose.
Final Thought
If you’re always chasing the next method, you’ll never master anything.
If you understand the principles, you can make anything work.