The strength sports community suffered a great loss on March 24, 2022. Legendary powerlifter and coach Louie Simmons dies at the age of 74.. Few can claim to have a candle in Simmons’ effects on both sport and fitness, whether alive or dead. The entire generation of recreational and professional lifters has somehow benefited from his efforts, ingenuity, and dedication to physical culture.
From inventing some of the most widely used equipment in gyms around the world to personally creating training and performance for hundreds of world-class athletes, Simmons is the foundation of the coaching and lifting community. ..
It takes hours to list all of his career achievements and praise from front to back. However, summarizing some of the more sympathetic achievements of the Westside Barbell mogul by strength, these feats are out of order and superior to other feats.
Louie Simmons Legacy
Conjugate method
Louie Simmons suffered several injuries early in his athletic career and found that many of his contemporaries were similarly debilitated. In his mind, he had to do something to deal with his common denominator — an approach that lifts itself.
Simmons continued to study the Soviet Olympic weightlifting program and methodology as the Russians took the weightlifting podium in the second half of the 20th century. Inspired by Soviet training principles (mass, many motor variability, and emphasis on “building the foundation”), Simmons combined his work with his own experience, leading to the development of the conjugate method.
By training various physical qualities such as power, speed and endurance throughout the training cycle, he maintains a higher degree of overall fitness and is more resilient to potential injuries. I decided that there was. Alternating high-intensity, maximum-effort training in light sessions focused on explosive power or rate of power development has become the norm.
Beyond that, Simmons also emphasized what he called the “law of adaptation.” This means that your body gets used to doing the same movements in the same way. So he began training to increase the variety of squats, bench presses and deadlifts and communicated these principles to athletes. The evolution of the conjugate method has established Simmons’ name in exercise training, and much of the ideology is still widely used in strength sports gyms to this day.
Corresponds to resistance
Simmons helped guide the implementation of adaptive resistance in strength training. Specifically, the use of resistance bands or heavy chains as part of exercise. He determined that these tools could help athletes improve their rate of development by changing their exercise load profile.
Bands and chains make certain movements easier or more difficult in certain parts of a particular range of exercise, providing some assistance or forcing additional stimuli when the athlete is weak at certain stages of the lift. increase. Responding to resistance is very popular and normalized by fitness and athletics, but Simmons was far ahead of his time in practice.
Reverse hyper extension
In the mid-1970s, Simmons suffered a back injury and was unable to compete. While he was recovering, he was trying to find a way to speed up the rehabilitation process. He found that running traditional back extensions didn’t work and influenced the development of reverse hypermachines.
Simmons kept his invention on his own for almost a decade, but eventually released it to the market after realizing that the NBA’s legendary Larry Bird career had been shortened for similar reasons. Reverse Hyper is found in most specialized gyms around the world and allows athletes to safely and effectively train their hips when traditional back extensions cause pain and discomfort.
Belt squat
Like the Reverse Hyper, Simmons is also allowed a surge in belt squats. This is an exercise that allows athletes to train their legs if they cannot squat with a barbell due to injury or immobility.
Simmons secures resistance to the hips and pulls down instead of axially loading the body so that both him and his athlete can safely do heavy squats without undue fatigue on the spine. He said he could carry out training. He didn’t just use belt squats for powerlifting. Belt squats were a staple of the training regime for mixed martial arts athletes with whom he worked.
According to the Westside Barbell website, inventions of other devices include inverse curls, hip / quad machines, static / dynamic developers, and virtual force swings.
Non-powerlifting athletics
Simmons not only applied his coaching skills to powerlifting and martial arts. He worked with athletes from various disciplines. In particular, Simmons will spend time training and coaching NFL Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers, prominent baseball pitchers, track and field athletes such as Olympic gold medalist Butch Reynolds, and MMA fighters such as “immortal” Matt Brown. Spent.
Although they do not strictly adhere to some of the niche principles found in Westside barbells, professional athletics has relied on Simmons in some way for decades.
General physical preparation
He may not have been the first creator of General Physical Preparation (GPP) as a guide to weightlifting, but Simmons relies heavily on GPP in his gym and somehow affects all athletes. I advised you to practice GPP. He believed that balancing training and recovery was essential for athletes who wanted to achieve the highest possible total.
“I’ve found that when I don’t do small GPP training, I struggle to untrain,” Simmons wrote in one of his blogs. “Ignoring hypertrophied GPP will reduce strength, endurance, and speed for any athlete.”
He emphasized that the higher the athlete, the more GPP associated with performance in the gym. Many of his athletes participated in sled-pulling exercises prior to lower-body training, and used ultra-high repetitions to flush blood into tissues in isolation exercises.
As a powerlifting coach
Simmons was a great lifter in itself, but it has become a legend in powerlifting to coach other elite players.
Closely related to him are Chuck Vogelpole, Dave Tate, Matt Wenning, JM Brakley, and his first world record holder, the late Matt Dimel. That said, the athlete most likely to be related to Simmons and the West Side in recent years is Dave Hoff. Davehoff now has a total of 1,407 kilograms (3,103 pounds) of the highest multi-ply equipment ever.
according to Open powerlifting, He set the record at the WPO Super Final in 2019.
- Squat — 577.5 kilograms (1,273.1 pounds)
- Bench press — 460 kilograms (1,014.1 pounds)
- Deadlift — 370 kilograms (815.7 pounds)
Powerlifting woman
Today, names such as Hunter Henderson, Heather Connor, Briany Terry, and Amanda Kohatsu come to mind as part of the dominant woman who leads the head of powerlifting. But Louie Simmons promoted women’s powerlifting in his gym long before it became the norm.
His first major female athlete was Maria Rigget, who won multiple international competitions and held a world record throughout her career. Other names include Laura Dodd, Terry Byland, and Simmons’ own wife Doris.
From one perspective, powerlifter Amy Weissberger entered the 2000 Westside Invitational and set a world record in the 56 kilogram (123 lb) weight category.
- Squat — 204.1 kilograms (450 pounds)
- Bench press — 127 kilograms (280 pounds)
- Deadlift — 204.1 kilograms (450 pounds)
- total — 535.2 kilograms (1,180 pounds)
The record in question was actually £ 34 ahead Man Elite total with the same weight. Simmons attributed Weissberger’s humorous strength to her use for resistance and equipment like the Reverse Hyper.
Westside barbell
Westside Barbell is arguably the most famous professional strength training facility in the world. Men, women, veterans, and newcomers all crossed the Westside threshold and shed blood, sweat, and tears under Simmons’ careful eyes. The Westside spirit is simple enough — to be as strong as possible at any cost.
Simmons actually came up with this name when he was in the US Army while stationed in California. After he left, he founded the facility and its now iconic Pitbull logo. Westside membership is invitation-only, and its exclusive rights have allowed Simmons to develop and develop the right environment for developing world-class athletes.
People training at Westside are invited to put their name on the “board”, a blackboard detailing the personal records of patrons for each weight class. Engraving your name on the board with Simmons Watching is one of the highest honors of powerlifting.
Memorable citations and contributions
What many lifters and supporters may remember most about Simmons is his quote, which provided a combination of attitude and honesty. He had his own way of making a statement, always wanting to see the athlete succeed. Here are some of his most famous phrases:
“There are two types of people in this world: predators and prey.”
“Weak things will break.”
“Don’t have $ 100 shoes and a dime squat.”
“Big is not strong. Strong is strong.”
“People who criticize strong or elite are usually weaker or less successful than those who make decisions, and those who are strong or elite in their respective sports blame those who are not so strong or successful. They rarely do. “
In memory
When the news that Simmons died was reported, the lifting community rebelled in pain. From content creators to career powerlifters, the community has stepped off with the passage of giants. But while Louis leaves, his offerings, teachings, lessons, and meditation remain.
Featured image: Instagram @westsidebarbellofficial
