The Westside Barbell Squat and Deadlift Manual

by Louie Simmons

Unlike many manuals this is not a crash course to get started. This manual is document of how this was all possible.

Genres: Fitness

173 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Nicole Meister]

No character development

[Anthony]

For people who are dead set on being as strong as humanly possible, this book could be a bible, but I mean that both in a “follow religiously” and also “need to interpret what is meant” sense as some examples are not given enough context to be sure what Louie means. There’s a few editing mistakes, where someone missed changing squat to deadlift when copying and pasting a paragraph from one chapter to another.

A book aimed above my level, as I am “only” interested in getting my deadlift PR from my current 5x315lbs to, let’s say, 3x405, but a fast and fascinating read nonetheless, despite the repetition and (justified) bragging about results.

A section on basics that explains the difference between conventional, sumo, and stiff leg deadlift would make this book more approachable, but I also don’t think anyone’s reaching for this volume if they haven’t already spent some time learning barbell form elsewhere.

Will likely revisit and implement some ideas found here when I eventually plateau in my training, but for now I’m gonna stick with 5/3/1.

[Ray Dorl]

Abysmal writing; innovative methods. A must-read for any thoughtful meathead.

[Jeff]

Nothing groundbreaking if you've followed WSBB for awhile but a good refresher and I picked up some new ideas to experiment with in my training.