Louie Simmons, legendary powerlifter, coach, founding father of Westside Barbell, inventor, and the person credited because the mastermind behind conjugate coaching has reportedly died on the age of 74. On the time of this text’s publication, it’s not clear precisely when Simmons handed or what his reason behind demise was.
Westside Barbell introduced Simmons’ passing on their official Instagram web page on Mar. 24, 2022.
“It’s with a heavy coronary heart that we announce the passing of Louie Simmons,” the put up reads. “We are going to make a proper announcement after we course of the loss.” The put up additionally accommodates an excerpt from Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ well-known poem “Do Not Go Light Into That Good Evening”;
“Don’t go light into that good evening. Rage, rage towards the dying of the sunshine.”
The Legacy of Louie Simmons
Louie Simmons was born on Oct. 12, 1947. He fell in love with weight coaching early on and entered the world of powerlifting in his early 20s. He would spend the following 50 years of his life teaching a few of the sport’s most notable and elite opponents — together with Chuck Vogelphol, EliteFTS founder Dave Tate, Jim Wendler, and J.M. Blakely.
Simmons is the founding father of the famed Westside Barbell health club, situated in Columbus, OH, and invented each the reverse hyper and belt squat machines. He additionally developed the conjugate coaching methodology, typically known as the Westside Barbell Conjugate Technique, which helped popularize the usage of chains and resistance bands as a manner of including accommodating resistance to particular lifts.
Simmons was additionally an completed athlete himself. In accordance with Open Powerlifting, he competed from 1979 till his ultimate meet in 2012. Simmons principally competed in outfitted powerlifting, which permits the usage of bench shirts and squat fits.
His greatest lifts in competitors, having competed within the 100 and 110-kilogram courses, are as follows:
- Squat (Single-Ply) — 821 kilos
- Squat (Multi-Ply) — 920 kilos
- Bench Press (Uncooked) — 496 kilos
- Bench Press (Single-Ply) — 530 kilos
- Bench Press (Multi-Ply) — 600 kilos
- Deadlift (Single-Ply) — 705 kilos
- Deadlift (Multi-Ply) — 715 kilos
In 2019, the documentary Westside vs. The World was launched. The movie, which chronicled Simmons’ myriad contributions to power sport and his provocative and controversial powerlifting membership, served to introduce Simmons and Westside Barbell to a brand new technology of followers. The documentary is obtainable to lease and buy on Amazon Prime.
Shortly after information of Simmons’ passing broke, a handful of notable powerlifters reached out to BarBend and posted on social media to react to the information of his demise.
Ed Coan
“There’ll by no means be a person so obsessive about powerlifting and power. He lived and cherished all of it.”
Dan Bell
“I’m truthfully nonetheless in shock. I actually by no means believed the man would go. I pray at some point to have a legacy that can equal a fraction of what his [legacy] is and all the time can be.”
C.T. Fletcher
“I realized lots from Louie Simmons. RIP Legend.”
Matt Wenning
“Relaxation straightforward, brother, you’ve modified many people for the higher, and that’s all we will actually obtain on this life.”
Julius Maddox
“Relaxation in peace, Legend. Me and Lou had a seminar final 12 months at Power Past Health, and I’m ceaselessly grateful for that have.”
BarBend will replace this text with extra particulars of Simmons’ passing as they turn out to be public.
Featured Picture: @westsidebarbellofficial on Instagram
