I had a visitor yesterday and wanted to punch him in the face the entire visit! Eskil trained with us at Westside for close to 10 years and I have several stories to tell about him.

First of all, he moved from Sweden to train at Westside. Think about that for a minute. There are people who won’t drive 20 minutes to train with people who can help them to get better.

Secondly, everyone there still remembers what happened. After Dynamic Effort Squats, a group of lifters, Eskil was one, began to work up in weight. At his top set he gets psyched up, gets under the bar, starts to un-rack, and then steps out. We are all looking at each other like… WTF just happened? and WTF! Someone asked him what the fuck was that? He told us that he lost his confidence. That is when the shit began and continued for YEARS to come. YEARS! He should have just lied and said he tore something, but to admit to us a lack of confidence was not a smart move regardless if English is your second or third language.

I forget the meet, but it was in Chicago. Eskil was wrapped and on deck for his first 800 pound squat. Chuck Vogelpohl was one of the guys helping him. On his way to the platform, Chuck hauls off and smacks Eskil on the back of the neck and sends him flying to the floor face first. All this in full multiply and wrapped up. Eskil is on the floor yelling “I can’t get up” while we are laughing our asses off. Then Chuck bolts the fuck out of the room. He was like an upside-down turtle flopping around on the floor. Someone gets him up. He proceeded to squat 800 pounds.

I don’t know what started it but one day in the gym, Eskil was standing by the doorway and Louie was sitting about 10 feet away. They were going at it about something and Eskil said some shit about high squats. Louie got mad as fuck and hit HIMSELF on the head with a ten pound plate so hard his forehead started bleeding. Of course, we did all we could to try to escalate the situation, but it wasn’t going to happen. To this day, I do not know why he didn’t throw the plate at Eskil.

That’s enough for now as I could write much more. I normally won’t use names with these stories but the dumbass Eskil asked me to. So, I did my part. Now, he can get on a plane and fly his ass back to where he came from.

All joking aside it was great to see him. Like many of us from that era of WSBB, he also has many scars. So I guess we all share a bond of tearing the shit out of each other.  Thankfully, we all learned from it and more importantly, Louie learned from it so those lifters who came after haven’t suffered the same injuries.

#elitefts #westsidebarbell

 

 

 

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