Intro When I was recently asked about potentially doing a podcast about the original Westside Barbell crew,

I thought it would be a great opportunity and agreed afte r learning a few details. I did a bit of research on these guys and wrote about them in my most recent book, King Squat, Rise to Power. I thought it would be a go od idea to bone up and learn everything I could find about Bill West and his ass ociates, and how they influenced the strength game in their time and are still a n influence on the power game right to this very day.

All of us in the game are deeply indebted to the original Westside crew for all of the foundations that they laid in paving the way for what has become powerlif ting and strength training doctrine.

My most recent Old-School based book King Squat, Rise to Power (Shown on last photo)

While Bill West is a name that is familiar to many, even most lifters these days , not many know many details about the original Culver City California version o f Westside Barbell or the many tremendous lifters and even bodybuilders that wer e associated with this crew in some way. A cursory search via any of the standar d internet search tools will turn up a few tidbits, but a lot more work was requ ired to gather all the information which I will present here. My initial efforts left me somewhat frustrated, and if you have been wondering w hy there is not much stuff out there, or at least why it is so hard to dig up; *Here is an excerpt from the Bill West section:

The tremendous success of Bill and his friends and their revolutionary technique s did not go unnoticed.

The famous bodybuilding entrepreneur, Joe Weider, realized Bills genius and from 1965 to approximately 1971, Bill wrote a series of articles in Joes magazine outl ining the techniques that he popularized and that would later be used by virtual ly every powerlifter from then until the present day. Here is the impressive lis t of articles which revolutionized powerlifting: 1.) Dec. 1965 Muscle Builder magazine The Touch System Bill told of how the touchi ng of the hands on the lifter in all three powerlifts helps him psychologically and physically get used to heavier weights. In 1966 Bill wrote the following articles in Muscle Builder Magazine: 2.) The Bench Squat How to make attempts feel lighter by squatting on a high bench or box. 3.) Triceps Power Cheats

How to cheat on the triceps extension to produce higher poundage. 4.) Powerlifting Aids This was the first written account on wrist wraps, elbow wraps, knee wraps, flat shoes for the squat an deadlift, wide part of the belt in front for the squat a nd sponge rubber pads on the chest for benching. 5.) Incline Power Rack Presses How to properly use the power rack and incline press to isolate middle sticking points in the bench press. 6.) The Extended Deadlift How to provide a greater range of motion in the deadlift by placing blocks under the feet. 7.) The Touch System in Bench Pressing How to place the hands on the bench press bar which ones partner is using to assi st in a sticking point. This is now called forced reps. 8.) Using the Touch System in the Deadlift How to make ones deadlift feel lighter by using a physical assist from ones partne r. 9.) Lockout Prones for Power How to increase ones bench press using the power rack. 10.) Build Power with These Rack Deadlifts How to increase ones deadlifting using the rack. 11.) 775-lb. Deadlift: How I Did It The deadlift training philosophy of Bill West and George Frenn.

**Authors Note** Note that most of these articles were actually written by others, most often Arm and Tanny, though the concepts were strictly those of Mr. West & crew

Bill Deadlifting from Blocks *Joe DiMarco told me that these blocks were solid planks, 9 inches thick, 12 inc hes wide and 3 feet long, with a 5/8 inch rubber mat on top, and that these serv ed their purpose for about 20 years or more! He said most of the crew had the ba r just around the bottom of the Kneecap at the bottom, and these were often done

along with stiff legged deadlifts.* This author defies any powerlifter to say he has never used at least one of thes e techniques at one time during his career. Practically all powerlifters today u se a routine or power aid that was popularized by the great Bill West, *Joe DiMa rco and George Frenn. The Original Westside crews genuine and unselfish interest in helping others has created a science that has lasted and prevailed even unto the present day, and a lengthy list of records by male and female lifters who have used his techniques . On behalf of every powerlifter who has ever broken record, personal or otherwise , using techniques whose origins were unknown until now, this author would like to extend thanks to Bill Peanuts West.

Bill in his bodybuilding phase

*Authors Note* It is unfortunate that the author of the above article seems to have completely overlooked one of the key guys in the Culver City equation; Joe DiMarco, but his input will not go on unrecognized if I can help it. Bill was a great Personal Trainer, and was thrilled when anyone made a gain, as if it was his own gain. Wh ile Bill was a great motivator and was the sparkplug that fired up as many as a do zen other lifters during a training session, he was not big on writing down prog rams or any sort of deep analysis of a program, which was more Joes role early on , and then as Frenn became more educated he began to analyze why their system wa s working as well as it did (this was around 1965, according to DiMarco). *A bit of the section on George Frenn:

It was then, almost as an afterthought that he held out his hand. "I m George Fr enn," he said, still very quiet and polite, with no hint of expectation that I d even remotely recognize the name. I later told some friends that I had done a s quat workout with George Frenn, but I neglected to mention that I took 3 plates a side and then bowed out. Deadlifting Theories of George Frenn By Ron Fernando (1981) As older followers of Powerlifting will recall, PL in the early 60s was populariz ed by George Frenn of North Hollywood, Ca. Frenn has always been outspoken regar ding his theories and their application. Indeed, he has every reason to be, sinc e his 2100 lb total (853 [actual weight] 520 740) was years ahead of his time. T here are some who may argue that there were excessive wraps even bed sheet techno logy, used in the squat and that the depth was not what it should have been, and in the bench press the use of elbow wraps (a legality in those days) might give a rather distorted view of his total. Regardless of these arguments, few can voi

ce any doubt as to the authenticity of Frenns deadlifting and back power. The 775 he pulled was a record, and in addition, Frenn exhibited awesome displays of ba ck power in Olympic lifting movements which enabled him to be a success in that field as well. Oh, and lets not forget that he was a bonafide Olympian, who for a time was the ranking hammer thrower in the United States and one of the tops in the world. Reliable sources indicate to me that he still has the ability to thr ow better than 225 feet in the hammer and 42 plus in the weight throw (an event in which he still holds the world record!). His powerful back has enabled him to successfully bridge the three rather diverse worlds of powerlifting, Olympic lifting and weight throwing. I had a chance to speak with George at length about back training and here are some of the pertinent points of the interview. PLUSA (Powerlifting USA magazine): George, from the years of experience that you have described, would you give your views on the deadlift. FRENN: Basically, there should be one main philosophy behind deadlifting, someth ing that I have shown countless times and that many of the other great lifters h ave shown. That is, the willingness to continually lift heavy weights. You have to mentally, emotionally train yourself to pull those big numbers, regardless of the time of year it is. A good analogy would be that you cannot train yourself to throw a 16-lb ball 230 feet until you can throw a 14 lb 230 feet. Peter Karpovich was very succinct in his theories in order to get stronger, you have to lift progressively heavier w eights. PLUSA: Well, what about cycling that seems to be the most logical approach towar ds peaking out and avoiding overtraining. FRENN: From what I know about cycling, I personally dont believe in it per se. Ye s, of course, I realize that one cannot (especially in the beginning stages of h is career) lift max 100% weights every session however, even a beginner can resp ond well to utilizing 85% of max for a certain number of reps. Cycling is fallac ious to me because it seems that the environment controls the lifter you have to control the environment. By building up a physical bank of strength and emotion b y simply doing the lift with heavier and heavier weights, one can always peak for any given meet. For example, I entered (and won) the YMCA Nationals in 1976. Prior to the meet the very best that I had pulled in the deadlift was 585x5 reps. Yet by drawing on these reserves in my bank I was able t o pull a 765 that day. *Some of the chapter on Joe DiMarco: Joe DiMarco The picture on the last page is one of Joe DiMarco at the tender age of 18, circ a 1948. As of this writing, Joe is alive and well and currently 80 years of age. He is still training and, believe it or not, still competing, and still in the A.A.U. Joe hold World Records for the A.A.U. in the 75-79 and now 80-84 year old Masters classes, across the 198, 220 and 242 pound classes, with the 220 class b eing Joes normal class. Joe trains at Dave Fishers Powerhouse gym, in Torrance , Cal ifornia. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dave-Fishers-Powerhouse-Gym/146395738722903?sk=wal l&filter=2 Joe met Bill West at the famous Vic Tannys gym, A.K.A The Dungeon Here is a brief excerpt from the Oldtimestrongman website about the gym;

Just a stone s throw from the original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California, was Vic Tanny s Gym. Shortly after World War II, Tanny converted a 7,000-squar e-foot USO center, which was located in a basement on 4th Street, into the bestequipped gym in the United States. It was huge, with 15 foot ceilings and, as yo u can see all kinds of training equipment. Vic Tanny s was affectionately known as "The Dungeon" and was the place to train during the 1940 s and 1950 s -- regular members included Steve Reeves, George E iferman, Joe Gold (of Gold s Gym fame) and Arthur Jones, Bill McArdle (movie ac tor and bodybuilder), Irvin Zabo Kozewski, Spellman, Olympic greats Tommy Kono and Dave Shephard , one of the movie actors from Wagon Train (James Arness?)along w ith a whole host of others. It was where Bob Hoffman and the York gang trained on West Coast trips. The following Magazine had an article about Joe with a couple of pictures:

September,67 issue As it happens, my new friend and fellow Iron historian/author Reuben Weaver was able to locate and send me this very article, so without further adieu;

(The entire article above, with pictures & text is in the book)

Joe told me that he saw a former Mr. America, Alan Stephan doing bench squats ba ck in Minnesota, where he lived before moving to California in the 50s. He then introduced them to the Culver City Westside crew, where it was tweaked & refined to become the box squat/bench squat which the 60s Muscle Builder articles descr ibed. The Muscle Builder article above did mention that Joe trained at Stephans g ym when he lived in Minnesota, but did not mention the bench squat thing. Alan Stephan

Killer Kowalski Joe had a couple of stories about Killer, who Joe met at Stephans gym around 1948-1 950.Killer had been a lineman for the GB Packers, but teamed up with another guy known as Hard-Boiled Haggerty when he became a pro wrestler. Hard-Boiled became a character actor and had a number of roles in the movies back in those days. Joe shared the squat rack with K.K, who was very tall, according to Joe. As Joe rec alls, Killer once wrestled a guy who went by the name of Bronco Nagurski who had a lso played football, but as a fullback. Bronco got his nickname from 2 football scouts that were passing by his parents farm when they witnessed his mother plowi ng a field using him as the horse! They could not afford the real thing, apparen tly. Once when he was running, two guys from the opposing team hit him and tried to stop him, one hitting high and one low. Not only did they not stop him, they both got broken collar bones. Anyway, getting back to the wrestling match, Kil ler threw Nagurski out of the ring, where an elderly lady spectator reportedly p

icked up a folding chair and clobbered him with it. Bronco, at the gym later pro udly displayed the big lump on his head and said this had been the worst injury of his wrestling career. It actually knocked him out briefly, in fact. Joe said he was pretty sure that it had been Killer that fought the famous Primo Carnera sometime between 1948 & 1950, and had told Joe that his hands were so big that when he grabbed his face, he could feel his fingers on the back of his head. Thi s was fascinating to DiMarco as he recalls the 2 wrestlers to be similar in size otherwise. Somewhere in that same time frame, Joe was a personal trainer for 2 of King Kong Kasheys nephews, Sayed (12) & Eddy Simon (14), and recalls these 2 as extremely st rong for their age. Both could do unassisted 1 arm chin-ups for 2-3 reps, and th ey both squatted with Killer Kowalski. When the younger of the 2 turned 13, he w as squatting with 315 at a bodyweight of 145 or so. He was not allowed to play f ootball in high school because he was seen as a danger to the other students. At 15, his older brother started on the high school wrestling team. He would shave before school in the morning, but by the time he was scheduled to wrestle in th e afternoon, they would require him to shave again! After Joe married in 1953, H e and his wife moved to California, and learned that Sayed had been killed in a car accident about a year later. (The above section is just a sprinkle of Joes memoirs that are contained in the b ook) A little of the section on Pat Casey: Im Going to Bench Press 600 Pounds! by Pat Casey, as told to Bill Pearl (1964)

Strength is something that has fascinated me ever since I was old enough to real ize that some people are stronger than others. Even as a young boy I can remembe r trying to pick up heavy objects just to see if I could do it. This is probably a normal thing to do because most youngsters admire strength. Yet, this is some thing that I have never seemed to outgrow. I still admire strong men and have al ways trained with the intention of becoming stronger than anyone right from my first workout, which was over eight years ago. I started training when I was 15 years old and weighed around 180 pounds at the time. While in high schoo l my goal was to do a bench press of 400 pounds or more before I graduated. Duri ng my senior year at Washington High School in Los Angeles, at the age of 17, I was approximately 40 pounds heavier in bodyweight and was able to do a strict be nch press with 420 pounds and this with a two-second pause at the chest. Previou sly I felt that if I could do a 400 pound bench press I would be well satisfied. But now I find myself changing my goals and striving for higher poundage. I wanted to bench press 500 pounds before I was 20 years old. Again I reached t his goal. In my mind I hoped that someday I could become the worlds champion benc h presser, and this is the goal Im working towards now. During my career I have c ollected much material on the exceptionally strong men in the weight field and h ave studied and pondered their training programs in an effort to extract anythin g that I felt would benefit me. In this category were: Marvin Eder, John Grimek, Buster McShane, Doug Hepburn and Paul Anderson, just t o name a few, all of whom have been a great deal of help to me in reaching my go al. Personally I feel that Marvin Eder was one of the strongest men, pound for p ound, I had ever heard about for overall strength. In fact I tried to fashion my early training after his. Also, I always admired Doug Hepburn, who actually was not a big man at the beginning of his weight lifting career (weighing approxim ately 160 pounds), nor was he any stronger than the average person. But because of his tremendous drive he was able to add well over 100 pounds of bodyweight to his frame and became one of the strongest men in the world. Anyone who can take 500 pounds off the rack and press it overhead has to be strong! Buster McShane, a lifter from Belfast, Ireland, has been the British Empire 165 pound weightlif ting champion a number of times. He also has done an official bench press of 450

pounds at this bodyweight. We corresponded for several years; passing information back and forth that we fe lt would benefit one another in improving our bench press. Little has to be said as to why I admire John Grimek. I dont know of any bodybuilder who has not had G rimek as his idol. Here is a man who has held numerous weightlifting titles and a physique that is ideal. He not only has the physique that is Herculean in appe arance but has the basic power to back it. I have talked to many of the top phys ique stars and they all seem to agree that John has done more for bodybuilding t han any other person, and has set many of the standards that we follow today. Pa ul Anderson has always been admired by me because of his exceptional strength an d the way he can toy with such tremendous weights. This always amazed me. I find it hard to believe that anyone can do a full squat with 1100 pounds, when my ba ck nearly breaks under 600 pounds. He has given all of us power lifters many goa ls to shoot towards. Last July I set an unofficial worlds record in the bench pre ss with 541 pounds at San Pedro, California. My official world record was 530 po unds. This was made in Pasadena, California during 1963. My goals have changed a gain, however. I am now shooting for a 600 pound bench press and I am confident that I can do it with the training program I am following. In the past few years I have changed my training program many times with the idea of finding ways to increase my power in this lift. Lately I have confined most of my training to fo ur different exercises, and these four seem to help me more than all the others I used to employ in the past. These exercises are: (1) the incline press with du mbbells, (2) parallel bar dips, (3) triceps press on a flat bench, and (4) the r egular bench press. I have achieved maximum gains in the bench press while using these exercises. In my own case I use very heavy weights, low repetitions and r epeat each exercise in several sets

Pat Casey

There is a ton more in the book including:

Dave Ashman

Steve Merjanian

Chuck Ahrens Wayne (Superstar Billy Graham) Coleman Roger Estep

Harold Connolly

Just to scratch the surface!!! To order securely: Go here, please. https://www.createspace.com/3682081 To watch the book trailer; Check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHVcXfMrJvs&feature=player_profilepage#t=0s To see Daves other books: http://christianiron.com/suggestedreading.aspx