isn’t that just powerlifting though? Seems every powerlifter I know has fucked themselves up in some way. Is Westside really to blame or isn’t it just the nature of the sport?
1. Nature of wanting to be the Best.
2. Nature of the Attitude of the people you train with.
3. Ego
I have worked with Olympians, and 95+% of them at one time or another has had
a debilitating injury.
Probably the nature of it, as I consider powerlifting to be inherently dangerous. Maybe I have it wrong, but it seemed over the years of observing and reading, that the WSB guys were some of the most busted around.
I’d be interested in discussing this further if you are. Like, are you comparing unlimited ply folks to single ply and raw, or maybe you’ve heard more stories about it than I have.
Among multi-ply competitors, I can’t honestly say I’ve seen more injuries come out of Westside compared to other camps. I will say though that, in Multiply in general, I’ve seen some really horrible injuries.
as I suspected - he’s a wank.
I’m glad I didn’t give his videos another view
I think in any arena, BBing, Oly lifting, PLing, if you’re pushing yourself to the very limits in your training, it’s just a matter of time before most people suffer some sort of physical set back. I’ve heard many a DPT say that the human body isn’t designed to do what we gym warriors ask of it at the higher levels of the sport.
S
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I’m interested in discussing it.
I’ve heard that about multi-ply powerlifters too, that they have more injuries.
However, I am not a powerlifter, so much of the information I have is from reading. And yes, perhaps WSB was not was caused Dave Tate’s injuries and problems, and more like Dave Tate giving himself those injuries, not by choice of course. But he admitted to dumb shit like doing hardly any assistance work (that right there can lead to problems with the body), duct taping this, wrapping that, taking painkillers to work through pain, not doing enough stretching or mobility drills, and eating his way into obesity with abysmal food choices. Couple that with drugs and I am not surprised the body breaks down.
Unfortunately Andrew Bolton is now receiving dialysis.
If such people are fine with the lives they would up with, then more power to them, seriously! Of course I can one day get hurt doing my bodybuilding hobby, and I will never be world class, but even if I had great abilities, I really don’t think I would take such consequences, for fame, money, whatever. But that’s just me. If Ronnie Coleman is happy with what he did, even being a semi-cripple now, and he pays for his own self-imposed medical expenses (which I am sure he does), then hats off to him!
holy fuck I didn’t know that
One of my friends is a professional athlete who is moderately successful. When he bought his home, he only considered single level homes as he didn’t think he’d be able to walk up stairs after his career was over.
Injuries are a reality of competitve athletes. That said, most athletes injure themselves in competition - pretty silly hurting yourself in training, though it happens.
I think it’s less that multi-ply get more injuries, and more that, the injuries they get are more significant. Gear that strong can get you moving weights way above you body’s limits, and if you slip out of the groove, you can get yourself in a bad way. You get to a point where the muscles can move weights that the joints, ligaments and tendons really can’t support. I got into a bit of this myself on a yoke walk that I really shouldn’t have been doing at my weight class.
The other things to look at is how many of these athletes end up with injuries from living that affect their sports, yet people want to chalk it up to training. Chuck V. tore both of his hamstrings playing a game of pick-up football, and then got into 2 car wrecks, haha. Everyone likes to rag on Steve Pulcinella for being injured and blame it on his training, but most of his injuries were freak accidents, like the time a 16lb highland games hammerhead flew off the hammer and crashed into his tibia and shattered it.
And even the singleply and raw folks aren’t really safe. Ed Coan tore his groin so bad that he had to switch how he deadlifted because he couldn’t do it his old way anymore…and then was still a crazy bastard, haha.
In regards to the lack of assistance work, I’d have to imagine that was pre-Westside, just because Westside is like nothing BUT assistance work. There is an ME and a DE movement, but after that it’s all assistance work. Dave actually says he ate himself to obesity with clean stuff first (getting up to 275 on chicken and rice), just that he ate himself into even FURTHER obesity to break the 300s. I think the other stuff you mention is pretty accurate though. It’s the sorta stuff you see in an athlete. Crazy.
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@ Perky little Tracy Anderson. She’s scary scientific about her training advice.
“The stronger one muscle gets, the more it shuts up all the other things. As you age, the stronger you make your bicep, the worse your skin [under your arm] is going to sag. You can’t ever get to it because the [bicep] is too overbearing. It’s like your muscles get in an abusive relationship with themselves. The strong ones say “go to sleep” to the smaller ones” - Tracy Anderson.
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Face Palm … sigh
uuuuugh !
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Stu,
There are frauds everywhere. In the insurance industry I run into it a lot. People claim to be way better than they are and generally under preform at best or pull unethical shit at worst. Human nature.
V
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I have to say that anything that involves coaching should be local/in person. My wife actually helps women with auto-immune disorders clean up their diet and navigate the medical system. My wife is not a fitness athlete or anything, just a normal woman that cured herself. When her clients meet her it is a huge relief to them see that she isnt really any different than they are.
She has tried a little on-line marketing but has found the best way to engage clients is simply a meet-up group. It makes the shit local.
If I recall correctly, he spoke of doing hardly any assistance work when he showed up to Awlyn Cosgrove for work on his “gluteal amnesia”, which was long after he became a Westside man. So I assume he was likely just doing ME and DE stuff while doing little else. But who the heck knows what exactly people do and what they say for articles, interviews, and videos.
I am not saying I distrust Dave Tate, but, speaking of social media and fitness celebs, I have become so thoroughly tuned out from much of what most of them say and write because I believe that a lot of what is said or written is for shock value and for image building. In the case of Dave, he was for a time branded as some rebellious, slovenly, battle-scarred and blood-sworn powerlifter willing to die or cripple himself for his sport who went on unbridled eating binges, bummed around in sweatpants for whatever occasion, took roids and had a variety of self-destructive practices. But who knows what he is really like in real life?
There are other fitness celebs in all the various sub-niches who I’ve seen change and brand themselves through the years. A few people, who I actually follow a bit still, and who put out good information for lifting and fitness, I think have changed through the years as their popularity grew. One can see this is in their pompous attitude and verbose opinion on damn near everything: child-raising, self-defense, political and sociological matters, gender, relationships, employment, finance, you name it. Some even seem to have a need to constantly remind us all about their daily adult responsibilities, what a great dad they are, what a great partner or husband or wife they are. What seems to be at the top of the list is telling everyone how “alpha” they are and how they “take no shit”. If, IF, my You Tube channel were to grow (it only has 166 subscribers as I write this, and it’s relatively new) I don’t think I’d feel comfortable delving into those areas or mixing my family and social life into the mix, though the podcasts I am doing are actually with two close friends.
In one video my friend and I watched in which JL Holdsworth and Dave Tate were talking about lessons learned in Westside Barbell Club (some which are worthy), JL said that he switched from training with the morning crew to training with the night crew because someone from the morning crew turned away from a physical fight with JL and that he refused to train with men who won’t fight him. The first question that came to my mind while watching was, “Are you kidding me with this shit?” First of all, it’s reasonable to turn down a fight with a powerful 280-pound powerlifter and former athlete if one has the option to. And second, some guy speaking casually about physical violence as it relates to lifting fucking weights strikes me as bizarre! But again, in my cynical mind, I think a lot of this persona building.
Then another powerlifter on here stated he squatted 900 naturally!
I can go on, but the Cliff Notes version of this text can be shortened to a simple question, “Who the hell knows what is true that comes out of You Tube and internet fitness celebrities’ mouths?!”
Disclaimer: I don’t dislike anyone I spoke of, seriously (!), but as I get older I have grow tired of people’s image-related shenanigans.
Wasn’t that when he had retired? I get the timeline mixed up sometimes.
I think so, but I believe at the time he told Alwyn and Jason Ferrugia that he hardly did any assistance stuff for a long time, hence why he had so-called “gluteal amnesia”.
Ah. Weird. I gotta wonder what he was doing for 3 hours at Westside, haha.
Just out of interest, could you please PM me which individuals this is particularly about? I must have missed some late developments…
Well, it is hard to keep up with what these people do, and who knows, perhaps I am wrong. But I do remember clearly that he said he had that problem because of lack of assistance work.
I am unsurprised by the three hour workouts. I remember Mike Miller of Metal Militia lifting club said that his Saturday morning workouts with the crew would last three or four hours. Went I worked out at Iron Island for some time, several squat racks were hogged for hours by powerlifters (some of whom you probably know) who would wait long between sets and do all sorts of silly shit to get into their squat suits and wrap knees. Many of them did little assistance work after squatting an deadlifting.
Dave Tate also said he showed up to Westside Barbell seven days per week, even when not training. I guess that was to help out and push people through the workouts. That’s dedication.