I wonder if anyone has ever heard of russian west side training, i dont no if it is the same as our west side training but some guy said he does it and he is stong as shit.
Westside Barbell uses the method of Conjugate Periodization which was started and developed in Russia (I believe). So, yes, they should be one and the same.
-MAtt
[quote]mrl179 wrote:
I wonder if anyone has ever heard of russian west side training, i dont no if it is the same as our west side training but some guy said he does it and he is stong as shit.[/quote]
Sounds sketchy to me, like he made it up because it sounds cool.
Russian powerlifting really only began to develop in the 1980s. Initially, due to the difficulty in acquiring information and materials from the West, Russian powerlifters used (olympic) weightlifting programs, and so they did things like squat four times a week.
Gradually, they learned through their own experience, through material published in the West, and of course through international competitions, and over time their style of training has come to resemble by and large that practiced elsewhere. At least compared to what it was in the 1980s.
As Matgic points out, Westside incorporated a number of ideas developed by Soviet weightlifting coaches (whether or not that was deliberate borrowing from Soviet sources or the Westside guys discovered these ideas on their own I don’t know, but the ideas are there).
So the idea of “Russian Westside” sounds, to me, a bit incoherent; i.e. since Westside already incorporates some fundamental “Russian” ideas, and today’s Russian powerlifters use most if not all the same methods as powerlifters elsehwere, what else could be taken from the Russians now to differentiate “Russian Westside” from “comventional Westside”?
I am not a powerlifter, but I get the impression that a lot of people out there like to throw around the Westside label because it sounds tough and cool, when in fact they could not tell Louie Simmons from Tupac Shakur.
I could be wrong in this instance. I am no longer as well informed as to how Russian powerlifters are training. Next time you see this guy ask for some more information. Maybe there are some new ideas being developed in Russia, and maybe this guy is on to something. But don’t bet the house.
In the “Conjugate Method” article by Louie Simmons on the Westside site, it talks about the Dynamo Club in the former Soviet Union in the 70s.
They used special exercises, which when poundages increased, caused the olympic lifts to go up as well; “When asked about the system, only one lifter was satisfied with the number of special lifts; the rest wanted more to choose from. And so the conjugate system was originated.”
Needless to say, the Westside system evolved over time to use more than just the Russian principles. So, I suppose one could say the “Russian Westside Method,” but it’d just be a bit redundant, I think.
-MAtt