Walking Through The Doors Of WSBB Was Like Walking In To HELL — Here Are Some Reasons Why

On the 16th of this month, I posted

List Of Westside Rules I Remember From The '90s

One of my most recent posts referred to some of the Westside Rules. I was surprised by many of the replies. Mostly, noting, "HELL YES! That is how it should be!"

I can’t begin to count the number of times I left that place wanting to tear the steering wheel of the dashboard and beat fucking Louie (or many of the others) over the head with it. I'm not talking mad — full pissed off!

I also knew every single exit from my house to the gym (a 30-minute drive). I knew them because many days, I wanted to turn around and go back home and not have to deal with the shit anymore. Not just the mental shit but the physical as well. It took me years to learn to deal with the mental game, learn to play it and then master it, but it wasn’t easy. The physical part was also on me, as in my mind, I was already on “borrowed” meathead time before I got to WSBB, due to accumulated injuries. I had to learn and master the culture because I wanted to become the best I could and not leave the sport asking, "What if?"

The professional side of me wanted to learn all I could from Louie Simmons. He earned my respect as a kid for taking the time to help me. Later, when I got to see his knowledge and wisdom first-hand, I was amazed and wanted to know all he did. I had breakfast with him when I could afford it and work allowed it. If we traveled to a meet, seminar, consult, or anywhere that allowed me to ride with him, I did. I am willing to bet that, after his wife, I have spent more time in the car with him than anyone else, ever.

Do you know what he talked about? Training! Always training! Regardless, as I can dive deeper into this later.

Here are some of the “cool rules” I got to see and be a part of. I think many will see that the image and bravado of these rules are not the same as reality.

Keep in mind none of these rules were ever explained to you or posted on the wall. You had to figure them out on your own.

Here are a few (of the many) situations I saw and was a part of. These demonstrate the reality of Westside.

5 MINUTES

Watching a top-5 ranked training partner that might have been on the board at the time. A person with the most explosive squatting strength and potential I had ever seen in my life, someone I liked training with and had fun joking around with and had been training with us well over two years — got tossed out of the gym for being five minutes late — ONE TIME.

"Hey, you know what time it is?"

— Yes.

"You know we start training at 8:00."

— I'm five fucking minutes late.

"Get the fuck out."

— Are you serious? I am five minutes late.

"The rest of us are here 30 minutes early, get the fuck out"

— Fuck you and this gym.

TRAINING DIFFERENT

Being part of a vote to kick out someone out that had more than 10 years training there (long before me) because he wanted to train his deadlift differently and was going to be traveling out of town to do so one weekend day a week (a day we didn’t train) and was still there on all main training days. The vote count was: he was gone. You were either Westside or not Westside. There was no "almost Westside" or "kind of Westside."  It was all in or nothing.

BAD DAY

One of the B Crew Lifters (an 800-pound deadlifter). I say B Crew because he didn’t have his elitefts total yet, but was close. During max effort work, one day we could see his effort was not 100 percent and was not on point (to our standard). He got called out for it and didn’t back it up with the rest of his sets or training that day. I was, again, part of another vote, and another lifter with two or more years was told to never come back. All it took was one bad session, and this vote was 100 percent because we all knew that shit could spread like wildfire.

This is the thing here. If it's an A  or B  lifter, and if the effort isn’t there, and they are not present enough to give their maximal effort on Max Effort day, it was seen as they didn’t want to be there — they were on the edge of being out. It’s six to ten seconds of their life to do the lift — make it or not. If they can’t get their shit together for 10 seconds tops, they are not helping us. We didn’t train in a vacuum, so others saw this. What did those ranked under him think? Those who looked up to him? Those who were busting their ass that day to beat him? What did those listed over him believe? What did this do to the standard two decades of lifters set before us? IMO, FUCK THAT! There is no reason not to be able to pull your shit together for 10 fucking seconds.

This stuff happens to all of us; HIS REACTION was the problem. Some dumbass excuse! If he was pissed off (I've had lousy Max Effort days that pissed me off until that same day next week, I made it right. By "pissed off," I mean bothered me every day ). We once had one that flat out said he lost his confidence. Who says that? In those cases, we busted their ass verbally — fiercely — and that's one of the many reasons I wanted to tear my car apart and destroy them all as I was on the receiving end of this several times. We all were.

The issue here is the lifter didn’t care, so why should we invest any more time in someone who doesn’t give a shit when it’s one of our top priorities?

HELPING AT MEETS

Many lifters who couldn’t make it to meets to help, for whatever reason, came in the gym that following Monday and were told never to come back. Atlanta, Georgia, Texas, Florida. I was assigned to positions that I wasn’t qualified or to those meets were not on the list that Louie wanted me to do. I was broke AF and found a way to get there and back. It wasn’t easy. Once it was a Greyhound bus, but there was no way I wasn't going to be there to help or risk being tossed out.

Unless it was a meet Louie didn’t approve of, then you could do it. You would be on his shit list, but NOBODY FROM THE GYM would come to help. You were on your own! I did this once and had to find a third party to help me lift in a friend's bench meet. I never did it again. It wasn't worth the bullshit.

DISRESPECT

Louie can be an asshole, and he will piss you off. He WILL get into your head, but one of the fastest ways to get your ass kicked out of his gym is to disrespect him. Talking shit and busting balls is one thing, but disrespect is another. If you don't like anything about him, you take it up with him or keep it in the gym. If you take that shit outside of the gym and think you are going to stay, you are wrong.

He wouldn't toss you out; we would. If you did this in front of others in the gym, there was a good chance you would not only be asked to leave, but you'd end up being physically tossed out the door.

I could write more examples — a book of examples, to be honest. The rules look good on paper, but it's another thing to live by them.  I saw Westside was selling a poster some time ago of Louie's rules — many of the ones I covered were on there, many there were others I forgot. All I thought about when I saw that was the number of gyms that were going to buy it and hang it up because "it's real," "cool," or "the way it should be." Yet I would bet not a single one will enforce any of them. It will just be a cool poster on the wall.

We didn't have a cool poster on the wall. We had these rules you had to figure out on your own that had consequences. Very few lifters who ever trained in those four walls while I was there were never asked to leave or kicked out. VERY few. I am one of a very small number, and I KNOW for a fact several votes were taken about me. Some of the biggest names of the club were kicked out at one time or another. Fortunately, most of them made their way back. I am not sure if they were better or worse for it, but the numbers kept going up

A lot of the time it sucked, but in a fucked up way I liked it, I liked the challenge of it. I spent my entire gym life working to be top dog in a gym and then find a stronger one and do the same there. I knew when I ended up at WSBB, I was never going to be the top dog. Too many years, too many injuries, and maybe it's because I didn't believe I could. I DID know I could outlast everyone. While I did fall short on that one, it was not because of my will or effort. My body couldn't take anymore, and I was no longer able to give the gym want it was built on — NUMBERS.

If I couldn't put up the numbers (my best or better), I was doing nothing to help that gym within those four walls. I did last well over a decade and that is FAR more than most, and while I wasn't done on my own terms, I was not kicked out. Only those who have trained there for more than a few years know how rare that is. Then again, maybe I am looking at this wrong because far better lifters than I were asked to leave.

BIG TAKEAWAY — NOT TO BE MISSED

Don’t get me wrong. I do not think anyone who trained there looks back with ill will. There was far more good than bad, but I have never pretended it was easy, and I think it would be a disservice to paint a picture of all blue skies when it was cloudy, raining, or storming hell much of the time.

We just learned to dance in the rain and live in hell if we had to.

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