Original Westside template

The Touch System in Bench Pressing
by Bill “Peanuts” West

In a previous article I described the Touch System in power squat training. Largely psychological in nature this bright new method proved you could improve your squatting ability by up to 10% in a few workouts. Essentially the method amounts to a spotter touching the hips of the lifter while he is coming out of the deep squat position. The whole idea was to give the lifter a sense of security and thereby free his mind to aim its attention at making the lift uncluttered by doubts and fears.

The success of this method is a matter of record: Middleweight Leonard Ingro’s squat of 500, my mid-heavyweight 600 and Pat Casey’s official 775 lbs.

For the past few months we have been practicing the Touch System on the bench press. It seemed only natural that what could work for the squat could also work for the bench press. We thought about it for a while, and tried different things like touching the elbows or the triceps, or spotting the ends of the bar, but nothing worked quite as effectively, gave the mind such overwhelming confidence, as the presence of a muscular hand visibly working its sorcery on the bar by barely touching it.

The first thing we learned was that the Touch System was ineffective on the bench press when the lifter used a weight he could not start from his chest by himself. A sense of defeat is promptly established when the weight is too heavy to budge. The positive approach must prevail. The bar must be off the chest at a point where the mind is firing a massive volley of impulses to the muscles in the attempt to pass the sticking point. There is a moment of truth where the bar is about five inches off the chest, where the simple touch of a finger under the middle of the bar acts in some magic way to keep the bar raising to arms’ length. Of course, there is a good deal more to it than that. For one thing, it doesn’t work for two strangers. The people using this system must know each other – their strong points, weak points, sticking points and idiosyncrasies. An almost symbiotic relationship exists. It gets to where a simple command, “Go, Baby!” in the middle of a lift means everything in the world. A nod, a word a touch – they all mean something. How do they get that way? By training together, by having a common purpose. They depend on each other. And more, they’ve got to have that feel of a heavy weight oozing out to arms’ length, regularly, a compulsive effort that by another expression means they are “hooked.”

How and when do you use this Touch System? Okay, let’s start out with an arbitrary bench press routine:

135 x 10 warmup
225 x 10
315 x 5
355 x 3
385 x 2
405 x 6 singles – Touch System

In this routine the touch is used only for the six heavy singles. As the weight rises and reaches a point about five inches from the chest, the spotter places a finger under the bar and guides the bar to arms’ length. While the man pressing is still fresh, the mere presence of the finger under the bar psyches him into making the lift, but as the singles add up, he normally weakens, and toward he end of the series the finger may actually be exerting an upward force on the bar, barely enough to prevent a failure. In this way the lifter doesn’t get the feeling, unconsciously, that he must conserve on the first three singles in order to make the last three. This permits him to use 405 for singles instead of five or ten pounds less. I like to give the lifter the impression that he is really being helped, and grasp the bar with a full overhand grip, but my touch is deliberate as my hand rides the bar up. More likely, the calluses of my palms are barely grazing the bar.

The Touch System has side effects, too. That is, if the bench presser has the tendency to lift unevenly, a finger placed under the bar on the lagging side acts as a sort of corrective therapy. Where lag is excessive, however, better to use less weight.

A recently developed training procedure, immediately following the six Touch System singles, is one where 100 lbs. are shaved from the bar, and a set of 10 strict bench presses are done without any assistance of any kind. The object is to build up to 3 sets of 10 with that weight. With 100 lbs. less than the heavy singles the first set of 10 would usually be within one’s capability. If you are really putting out, you will probably make only 5 or 6 reps on the second set. Stop there. Don’t try a third set. That ends the flat bench presses for the day. Try it again the next bench workout. When you finally make 3 sets of 10, advance the weight and start over again. In this way you are setting up a continual contest with yourself. Remember to take a full rest between sets, 5 to 7 minutes, so that you are producing maximum effort on each set. Between this and the Touch System you will have two contests going on the bench press right along. Obviously these high reps make for good bodybuilding as well. When you stop to think about it, the three power lifts are the three most basic bodybuilding exercises.

By the time you are making 3 sets of 10, let’s say with 295 following the six Tough System singles, you would probably be able to do 10 reps with 50 lbs. more, 345, with dead stops, from a fresh start. Try it on occasion. It makes a nice personal record, 10 reps with a maximum weight, fresh, and it gives you something further to shoot for.

The bench press as modern day powerlifters do it demands more than what meets the eye. The movement of the bar from the chest to arms’ length is filled with power exchanges. Can you imagine how pokey it would be to air mail a letter if it was carried from the mail box to the airport by pony express? The speed of the airplane would be nullified by the lag of the nag. The same with the bench press. The initial thrust is carried by the triceps. The delts and pecs cannot exert full power on their own at the start. The solution – sectional development. Build the triceps. Therefore, following regular bench press movements, which ended in this case with 295, drop the weight to about 225 and do 3 sets of 10 reps of close grip bench presses. This exercise will give initial thrust, exactly what you need to get the bar high enough so that the Touch System can be used. Jim Hamilton, 250, did close grip bench presses almost exclusively for months to favor a pec injury, and when he returned to the regular grip found that his bench had shot up near 500, better than ever. Casey and Frenn practice also use this movement regularly.

*******************************************************************

Diverting briefly here, the tremendous possibilities in using the Touch System on the Squat should be mentioned as well. The following is an arbitrary schedule to show this system can be incorporated into a weekly squat training program:

TUESDAY
Regular Squat – 395 – 3 sets of 10.
Bench Squat – 475 – 2 sets of 15.

SATURDAY
Squat – Touch System
Warmup
With Partner Assist – 475 – 3 sets of 10.

You will notice the difference in the amount of weight between Tuesday’s full regular squat and Saturday’s Touch System full squat. The 475 is beyond the lifter’s ability to do free squats, but with assistance on each rep he can do 3 sets of 10 reps. This demands a close alliance between the two men. The assistant stands directly behind the squatter and grasps the bar with both hands. As the squatter begins to come out of the bottom position, the assistant applies the aid. His hands never leave the bar till the squatter is again erect. With perfect timing the assistant learns to give a slight tug at the perfect moment in coming out of the bottom position, allowing the lifter to build momentum and pass the sticking point.

The Touch System for the Deadlift
by Armand Tanny (1967)

As power lift training continues to progress, the individual is becoming less subject to his own devices, less a victim of his physical weaknesses, and now enjoys the steady hand, the moral support and the standby intelligence of a partner, who himself is actively physically involved in a joint effort at making a lift. Some years ago when the great heavyweight lifter, Dave Ashman, was getting perilously close to a 500 pound squat clean, he had a training partner, a kind of muscular elf, who used to squeeze himself under the hunched-over hulk of the big lifter to give the bar an initial boost with his hand. The mischievous sprite’s name was Bill West, Ashman was his idol. Together they had doped out a touch system for getting Ashman’s heavy cleans off the floor. By and by the elf himself grew, and today towers as the national middle heavyweight power lift champion. “If I had used the touch system then as we have developed it now,” Bill surmises, “I think we could have put Ashman over the five hundred mark.”

The touch system as Bill West’s power lift group now practices it is strictly a “hands on” policy. When Bill was tinkering with Ashman, he never thought of touching anything but the bar. As time went by, he thought why be so conservative --- get in there and really help the guy trying to make the lift. Get hold of him bodily when necessary, apply the pressure. The closer the contact, the more realistic the assistance. The idea started getting clearer when Bill used the heavy touch on the power rack bench squat. How was a man going to get that first squat started from a sitting position on the bench with the bar resting on the shoulder level on the cross pins, loaded to two or three hundred pounds more than his best regular squat? A helper on each end usually results in an uneven spot. A steadier and more practical way proved to be method of getting directly behind the lifter, bear hugging him under the arms, and simply boosting him to a standing position. Once started, the continuing action of repetitions became possible.

A different situation presented itself on the deadlift. He could have used the method he once practiced with Ashman. But cleans are one thing and dead lifts another. Furthermore he was beginning to see the effectiveness of spotting the body rather than the weight. The full squat touch system, where the hips were given a spank upwards, worked to a questionable degree on the dead lift. How could you bet by that common sticking point just above the knee? If you touched the bar at that stage, the timing was usually off and it might scatter the effort. Again, a position directly behind the lifter offered the best possibility for control. Attempting to use the bear hug method as in the bench squat proved awkward. But there it was, the whole engine, exposed, and he was the mechanic to do with it what he could. The problem was to apply pressure and at the same time preserve the lifter’s balance. Then in the manner of a bouncer giving a recalcitrant the old heave-ho with the collar and the seat of the pants, he found the way to bring the lifter to the erect position.

Actually more than exerting an upward force to bring the lifter erect, the spotter applies, rather, a fort of leverage. He grasps the trapezius of the shoulder with one hand, and the other hand he places flat on the butt. By exerting a forward thrust on the butt and a backward pull against the trap the resultant action is an upward movement of the body. With this touch system the spotter himself gets the feel of the lift. He doesn’t have to apply pressure until he feels the lift reach a sticking point. This point may vary according to the individual lifter and the kind of deadlift he is doing- extended, regular, or high.

The method of putting one hand on the trap and one hand on the butt works for both the extended dead lift and the regular deadlift. The high deadlift requires a different approach. Since the upper body is nearly erect at the start of the high deadlift, a pressure on the butt seems to push the lifter off balance. Therefore, a method was devised to grip both traps with both hands and exert a backward pull. The resultant action is also an upward movement of the body.

The method may prove awkward at first, but after a bit of practice, the spotter gets to know the lifter’s particular sticking points and the amount of help he really needs. The whole idea of the touch system is to transfer power past sticking points. Complete movements can be made with heavier than regular limit lifts. The lifter gets the opportunity to use very heavy weights. His strong areas are not limited by his weak ones. The strong areas get the chance to work at nearer full capacity, and when the sticking point is reached, auxiliary power is used. In effect, the touch system belabors a point, keeps hammering into the mind the muscles the need to exert greater and greater effort. Eventually the point gets across. The lifter no longer faces the hopelessness of sticking points. He can now get across the points.

Where does this touch system begin? How much of it do you use? First of all it is used in an area that transcends your regular best. It starts in where you limit lift leaves off. The extent of its use is limited by the precariously heavy weights involved. Take the case of a man who can do a regular limit dead lift with 575. How many dead lifts training sessions go by where he may never handle any poundage near that figure? Too often it is too many. Now with the aid of the touch system his schedule goes like this:

225 1
315 1
385 1
435 1
490 1
525 1
555 1
580 1 Touch system
605 1 Touch system

He was assisted on only the last two dead lifts, both of which were in excess of his regular limit. That’s all he needed. He has broken a barrier. He might have had the capability of lifting the 605 off the ground maybe eight inches unassisted. The rest of the lift remained in the dark. With assistance the picture changes. He completes the lift, he activates new muscles, and additionally, he makes a mental hurdle that, by its positive nature, remains as a new and willing force.

Middleweight Leonard Ingro, with an official 580 deadlift, had been trying 600 unsuccessfully for months. In a very few workouts with Bill West behind him applying the touch system on single high deadlifts with poundage ranging from 615 to 630, he made a regular full deadlift with 600. Regardless of the lifter’s caliber or experience he should allow for a breaking period. The lift is new, the weight is heavy, and there are unforeseen strains. He would wisely practice repetitions for at least thirty days. Let’s say a man whose best deadlift is 500 wishes to start using the touch system. A starting schedule would go like this:

135 10
205 10
305 4
355 4
385 4
415 4 Touch system
430 4 Touch system
450 4 Touch system

On this kind of a schedule he would also tend to preserve his maximum regular deadlift by training his limit twice a month. Take note of the fact that where repetition touch lifts are practiced, the sets leading up to them compare in number of reps. The lighter reps burn a groove for the heavier reps to follow. It makes better lifting sense to practice this way. Sudden changes, from high to low reps, or vice versa, break a continuity that disturbs intensity and coordination of effort. A glaring aspect of power schedules is the single heavy rep for many sets. Effort remains essentially constant.

Bill West, himself, was averaging 575 from the deck in every deadlift workout. But for some reason- and it went on for a whole year- he could not make 600 high deadlift. The secret eluded him. He knew if he could high deadlift heavy, his regular deadlift would go up. In a very brief period, using the touch system, it happened exactly that way. His high deadlift program went like this:

405 5
505 5
555 1
575 1
605 1
615 1 Touch system
630 1 Touch system
655 1 Touch system
670 1 Touch system

His regular deadlift shot up to 630. Now he is aiming for 740 high deadlift which will have him orbiting close to 700 regular deadlift form the deck. Joe DeMarco, another heavyweight training mate of West’s with the touch system, brought his deadlift from a hopeless 425 to a hopeful 575 in 60 days.

For all its basic power building quality the touch system offers a side feature that might be half the answer to better deadlifting- stronger forearms and a tighter grip. The next time you see a deadlift observe the length of pulling time and the arch in the bar before the plates ever start to leave the deck. It is often long. What at first seems a failure, somehow turns into a triumphant success- with Oscars for the grip and forearm at that.

Power Rack Box Squats
by Armand Tanny

The chrome steel bar drooping threateningly across the squat rack in Bill "Peanuts" West's Westside Barbell Club was loaded to 900 pounds. Bill himself had always subscribed to the belief that in order to lift heavy weights you had to get used to the feel of heavy weights. 900 pounds at the time was about 400 over his best official squat. All he wanted to do was take it off the rack and do a few partial movements. He was alone. But taking the bar off the rack on his shoulders and moving forward a few inches had never been difficult for him. As he stepped forward this time, his balance was off slightly and a wobble went through him which he easily corrected. Okay. But only okay for a brief moment before a strange thing happened. Another wave of imbalance went through him, coming from nowhere, stronger this time, and he fought it hard. Then the third one engulfed him, like giant ocean waves, made him stagger, and he went down, out of control, as iron plates cascaded all over the place.

It was an embarrassing day for Bill as they hoisted him into the glittering ambulance, rigid as a stick, his back out of whack, conscious mainly of what they were thinking, the neighbors (heh, heh). They had always expected this. He knew they were right. That's what made living in suburbia so much fun. The bizarre tragedies. Not the simple ones like alcoholism, infidelity, or embezzlement.

But the insurmountable Bill had developed a lot of toughness from his years of lifting and he came out of it with nothing more than a badly strained back. That was four years ago. Since then he has created not only a new National Squat Record of 582 in the 198-pound class but also a safe and convenient method of doing partial squats with a heavy weight through the use of his privately designed power rack.

From this mishap he learned one everlasting lesson, and that was never to take any more steps than necessary with a really heavy weight on the shoulders. A squat is simply what it means: feet flat on the floor, lowering to a position slightly below parallel, coming erect, then off with the weight. The body has too many moving parts to tolerate walking with a heavy weight. Bill recalled the way Paul Anderson trained. The big safes on each end of a two-and-a-half inch thick bar, the trench he stood in, the slight knee bends at first, later progressing to full squats, but never, never walking around with the big weight on his shoulders. If mighty Anderson could be careful, why couldn't he.

The body is like a big tuning fork when standing there with 900 pounds on the shoulders. The slightest tap will start it to vibrating, slow of course, like waves, and once that starts no amount of struggle can stop it. Down you go.

The weeks that Bill lay on his back recuperating, all kinds of iron bars cart-wheeled through his brain. He thought of the power rack used in training for the Olympic lifts, but it was incorrect for the heavy partial squats he wanted to do. The uprights were too close together, correct for weightlifters who pulled in a more straight up and down line. The bar didn't need much clearance. But the way Bill pictured it in his mind he wanted to do a box squat with the help of the power rack. The box squat required a lot of horizontal movement so he decided to widen the fore-and-aft distance between the two crossbars to 16 inches and lengthen by several inches the three-quarter inch steel bars that served as elevation pins. In this way he could take the bar from a sitting position on the bench and come erect with plenty of clearance. With this in mind Bill built the power rack you see in the accompanying photos. The holes in the uprights are spaced 1¼ inches between the circumferences. The uprights stand eight feet high.

His box is a milk crate beefed up with two-by-fours making it perfectly rigid and still fairly light. It is virtually indestructible. It stands 18-and-a-half inches high which puts Bill himself (5'8") in a sitting position about 1½ to 2 inches above a parallel squat. This position seemed reasonable for a good bench squat. HIe could use a lot of weight now, much more than his limit squat. There is a great difference between this position and a position below parallel. Any point lower too nearly approaches the regular squat with a drastic weight reduction.

How could he do a bench squat without the crosspins interfering after the first rep? If he took it out of the rack by himself on the first rep, he had to start with the crosspins about seated shoulder height. On the second rep the bar would clang the pins before he had fully settled in the sitting position. The pins had to be placed below seated shoulder height. In this hunched starting position it was impossible to get started with an effective poundage. A spotter was necessary. Just one. Since his 900-pound fiasco Bill has taken 800 off the squat rack, walked backwards four feet, and made a partial squat on an 18-inch bench. He warily had three spotters standing by. But that was a waste of manpower. Using the power rack he needed only one man to assist since assistants are a necessary part of power training. Thus he developed what he calls the Assistant Box Squat Movement. From the sitting position the squatter hunches under the bar. An assistant standing behind bearhugs him under the arms and lifts him to an erect sitting position or even to a full standing position to get him started. The lifter is now on his own. He can assume a full sitting position without the bar touching the crosspins. When he completes the exercise, the spotter can help him lower the bar to the pins.

The whole point of the exercise is to start the lift from a full sitting position. Let the buttocks roll back, and in a continuous movement start forward and up again. You lose the effect if you don't settle into it all the way. If you only sit on the leg biceps, you get too much rebound from the muscle when it contracts. The spotter, as an added advantage, can help the lifter do forced reps by just touching the bar. Even where only a regular squat rack is available an assistant can help the lifter get started on box squats, but extremely heavy weights would not be recommended.

A lifting belt and a towel offers additional support. Tuck the towel under the belt for a more even support through the lower back and around the abdominals.

George Frenn, one of the nation's top hammer throwers and part of the group that trains at the Westside Barbell club, managed to do 5 forced reps on the box squat with 770 pounds with Bill West spotting. Bill said it was pure psychology, that he barely touched the bar. The feeling of security was there, and Frenn gave it everything he had.

Bill has observed that shrug squats, barely dipping with enormous weights, have little to do with developing a good full squat. He notes that Anderson, in one of his experiments, did half-squats for two months with high poundages and did not improve his full squat. In fact, by not doing full squats he lost not only the position but also the power. Partial squats will never replace full squats. They act as a supplement only. Anderson was doing 3,000 pound lockouts with his huge bar and the mattress across his shoulders. Surely he gained something from it, but not necessarily squatting technique and power.

Hiw own box squat as Bill sees it is a three-quarter squat in proportion to the range of the accepted official full squat. This gives the advantage of being a secondary squat workout, actually the alternate squat workout in his two squat workouts per week. He has come to believe that two full-squat workouts in a weekly program of training can be excessive. Too often one of the workouts was not up to par. Bench squats offer relief from this and enable the lifter to use top poundages both days.

In his weekly training program Bill will box squat on Tuesday and full squat on Saturday. He is consistent in this. Despite the greater poundages he considers the box squat his lighter day. This gives him four full days of rest before his full-squat program. If he advanced the box squat a day, giving him only three days rest before the full-squat, he might be short of power on his main day.



Box Squat Schedule in Power Rack

Tuesday:
5 warmup sets - 2 sets x 7 reps, 2x5, 1x3.
Now Heavy - 7 singles.
Drop 100 pounds - 10 reps.
Drop 100 more - 10 reps.

That completes the workout for the day. This two times weekly full-squat/box squat program can be used by a semi-advanced squatter, one who does 400 or better. Perhaps twice a month, on Saturdays, limit attempts may be made on all three power lifts, squat, deadlift, and bench press. Calf work may also be done on the bench squat day. Though not wholly relevant to power lifting, a powerful calf does assist in the final lockout phase, and its meatiness gives the thighs support in the low position.

The box squat, ideal for the bodybuilder, fully develops the quadriceps. The muscle will take shape according to its normal inclination. Because it is lessens knee strain, the man desiring size only can do it three times a week as the main part of his thigh work.

At one point in his training Bill felt he should add leg extensions to his box squat program. The additional effort resulted in overtraining quickly. His muscles ached, and he did not recuperate. Intelligent training is a matter of restraint as well as hard work. Peak condition can be deceptive. You want to do more. But soon you learn there is no shortcut. Rest in necessary, but to a man in peak condition rest becomes almost a necessary evil.

Bill's big pleasure is developing new power lifters. Leonard Ingro, 161, at the recent Los Angeles Power Lift meet made a 475 squat. Many of Bill's pupils are beginning to surpass him, a secret satisfaction to him since he identifies with all of them.

The force of these big lifts is transferred to the feet, of course. Support of the feet becomes important. Bill finds simple sneakers the best. They give, are flexible and permit circulation. Heavy leather boots tire the feet after a couple of hours of training on power lifts. Lee Philips, a mighty power lifter, himself weighing in excess of 300 pounds, uses soft deerskin shoes and puts straps around the main stress points. Many Russian weightlifters use sneakers also.

The squat now exceeds the deadlift. It used to be the other way around. Modern training has perfected squatting techniques and repetition systems. Many power lifters now squat with more than they deadlift. Take Paul Anderson as the criterion. His best dead lift is 770; he squats with 1250, three reps.

Although the uprights on his own power rack is round stock, Bill suggest half-inch channel iron be used by anyone wishing to build his own. There are less holes to drill. two holes opposing each other in the U-shaped channel iron are easier to line up than the four holes in the round stock.

The power rack was built for safety, to support the great poundages used for partial movements. Take a lesson from Bill West and the members of the Westside Barbell Club in Culver City, whose deep respect for heavy weight has become their sure way of conquering it.

Bill West, Pioneer of Powerlifting
by Peter Vuono (1983)


The readers of Powerlifting USA who have used lifting aids such as knee wraps, wrist wraps, elbow wraps, or a wide lifting belt owe a great deal of thanks to the man who popularized these training aids – Bill “Peanuts” West. So too, if any of the readers have employed in their programs such aids as the bench or box squat, the cheating bench press, extended deadlifts, deadlifts off blocks or the touch method on any of the three lifts, then they also owe a great deal of thanks to the man who popularized these techniques – BILL WEST.

It was Bill West who, through a plethora of articles on the abovementioned techniques, his army of successful gym partners, and his famed Westside Barbell Club, made these techniques popular and basic necessities of power routines and part of almost every modern-day powerlifter’s program. Bill can truly be called the Godfather of Powerlifting.

Bill became interested in gaining size and strength in 1952 when he was 15½ years old. He became associated with Gene Wells who was then current Mr. Pennsylvania and lived near the young West. At the time Bill weighed only 87 pounds. He started training with Wells at John Fritshe’s Gym. Bill and Gene both dreamed about the famous Muscle Beach and Joy’s Muscle House by the Sea in Santa Monica, California.

So strong was this urge to migrate that Bill, with his friend, left for Santa Monica. West arrived in Los Angeles with $1.65 to his name. He purchases a bag of peanuts and a bus ticket for Santa Monica. Upon arriving he was given lodging by Fleurette Crettaz, also known as ‘Joy’ who ran a famous boarding house Called the Muscle House by the Sea. It was here that such greats as Steve Reeves, Jack Delinger and others stayed from time to time.

Bill’s training resumed as did his consumption of peanuts. He ate one pound of raw peanuts, ½ cup of peanut butter and six spoonfuls of peanut oil every day. His bodyweight rose from 87 to 102 pounds. In 60 more days his weight was up to 132; and at the end of the first year his weight had risen to 155. It was during this period that Joy stamped the name “Peanuts” onto Bill’s locker, giving him the nickname which he has carried to this day.

After his third year of weightlifting, Bill had risen to a bodyweight of 180. It the year 1955 and Bill started to compete in various lifting meets. He eventually posted Olympic lifts of a 260 press, 230 snatch and 315 clean & jerk; however, Bill felt that he didn’t have the proper physique nor the skills required for Olympic lifting and on the advice of Isaac Berger, he increased his bodyweight to 198 and pursued the three powerlifts.

Early in his powerlifting career Bill achieved a 355 incline press, a double dumbbell clean & press with 127 pounders, and seven reps with 130 pound dumbbells on the incline dumbbell press. He could also strict curl 175 pounds. Bill later rented a garage to be used as a training headquarters for himself and his friends. This garage had no electricity and was illuminated via candlelight. One evening when an auto accident drove all the members to the street, the Pacific sea breeze toppled over a candle and the garage was utterly consumed in the fire. It was then that Bill converted the garage behind his house at 4227 Neisho St. in Culver City, California to the legendary Westside Barbell Club.

Strong men from all over came to receive Bill’s expert knowledge and training advice. Among them were Pat Casey, the first man to bench press 600; Bill Thurber, American record holder in the bench press and total in the 148 lb. class; Leonard Ingro, the first middleweight to squat 500; hammer thrower Harold Connolly; shot-putter Dallas Long; and the immortal George Frenn, the first man to total 2100.

Under Bill West’s tutelage these strength stars made startling progress. Bill Thurber held American records in the squat, bench press and total in two weight classes; Leonard Ingro broke American records in the squat and total. George Frenn won the 1967 Senior Nationals and later broke myriads of records. Dallas Long won the 1960 Olympics in the shot put. Pat Casey went on to become the first man to squat 800 and total 2000. Another frequent visitor, Steve Merjanian, incline presses 500 lbs. on a 60-degree incline. The list goes on and on and the techniques used by the Westside Barbell Club did well for the master himself, Bill West. At about the same time of the great success of his gym mates, Bill was on a record breaking rampage himself.

On July 4, 1964, Bill bench pressed 430, squatted 555 and deadlifted 615 for a 1600 total. This total was 85 pounds heavier than the winning total at the 1965 Senior Nationals of the following year in the 198 lb. class. One year later Bill entered Leo Stern’s Los Angeles Invitational and squatted a record 585½ in the 198 class. That same year he won the Senior Nationals with a total of 15555 which included a record 587½ squat.

In 1968 Bill squatted 600 in the Senior National championships for another record and became the first middle-heavyweight to squat 600. In 1970 Bill made his best official total ever with a 430 bench press, 6365 squat, and 615 deadlift for 1680. This total still ranks in the top 40 lifetime totals according to Powerlifting USA magazine. In personal correspondence with this author, Bill stated that he made unofficial totals at exhibitions of between 1775 and 1825 on various occasions. This total would rank 8th according to Powerlifting USA’s lifetime totals of the Feb. 1979 issue, and 13th of the top 100 of the more recent April 1981 issue.

The tremendous success of Bill and his friends and their revolutionary techniques did not go unnoticed. The famous bodybuilding entrepreneur, Joe Weider, realized Bill’s genius and from 1965 to approximately 1971, Bill wrote a series of articles in Joe’s magazine outlining the techniques that he popularized and that would later be used by virtually every powerlifter from then until the present day. Here is the impressive list of articles which revolutionized powerlifting:


1.) Dec. 1965 – Muscle Builder magazine – “The Touch System”
Bill told of how the touching 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 poundages.

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 and 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 one’s partner is using to assist in a sticking point. This is now called forced reps.

8.) “Using the Touch System in the Deadlift”
How to make one’s deadlift feel lighter by using a physical assist from one’s partner.

9.) “Lockout Prones for Power”
How to increase one’s bench press using the power rack.

10.) “Build Power With These Rack Deadlifts”
How to increase one’s deadlifting using the rack.

11.) “775-lb. Deadlift: How I Did It”
The deadlift training philosophy of Bill West and George Frenn.


This author defies any powerlifter to say he has never used at least one of these techniques at one time during his career. Practically all powerlifters today use a routine of power aid that was popularized by the great Bill West, the Godfather of Powerlifting. Bill’s 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 a record, personal or otherwise, using techniques whose origins were unknown until now, t his author would like to extend thanks to Bill “Peanuts” West.

Incline Power Rack Presses
by Armand Tanny


For sheer power, for undiluted form, for an immensity of poundage hardly conceivable, 300-pound power lifter Pat Casey’s high incline press of 380 stands alone as the greatest overhead Press performance of all time. What makes it unique is the fact that he pressed it out of a power rack from a dead start, with the bar at chin level, seated on an incline bench angled to a steep 85 degrees. Unlike the questionable Military Press there was no body english, no shoulder heave, no back bend, only the movement of the arms, explosions in the deltoids and triceps with all the contained power of an underground H-bomb test. That’s the kind of dead-stop power the power lifting requires.

Power lifters themselves speak apologetically of the lack of technique in the Bench Press, Squat and Deadlift. They will say that the Olympic lifts take more coordination, more practice, more speed. Some of them say they went into power lifting because they didn’t have the time that the highly technical Olympic lifting takes. Power lifters needn’t be so meek. Every movement on this earth abides by an eternal math. The fact that the bar travels further vertically on the Olympic lifts than it does on the power lifts does not mean that it takes more strength. Would you say it took greater strength to Snatch 350 pounds a vertical distance of six feet than to Squat with 700 pounds, a vertical rise of three feet? Not really. In fact, an error of the mind, the group firing of nerve impulses to the muscles, can be absorbed and dissolved in in the liquid of technique of Olympic lifting. But not so with power lifting. If the mind sends out insufficient impulses, the weight comes down, and the effort is a total loss. The power lifter must pay for that short vertical distance, he must lift that weight. He must pay with his mind; he must focus his efforts like a burning glass. A subtle mentality controls power lifting. If there is anything meek about this mentality, and if there is anything to the rapid proliferation of power lifting, then rejoice, because soon power lifters will inherit the world of strength.

The rules governing power lifting virtually eliminate cheating: the dead stop at the chest before pressing and the 32-inch maximum grip; the bar resting on the shoulder, not part way down the back when squatting; and the non-stop pull on the deadlift. There are physical aids like knee wraps and the lifting belt. But largely technique lies with the ultimate of all devices – the human brain. In that sense, technique is the major part of power lifting.

Incline Power Rack Pressing, then, is another way of intensifying effort. On the weekly basis of training where the Bench Press flat is done on Tuesday and Saturday a reserve power can be tapped in a different, and secondary, area by using the incline. Since heavy flat Bench Pressing two days in a row would only lead to exhaustion, the idea of attacking the muscles on another quarter proved to be correct. Intermediate areas in the pressing range of motion are weak. The power rack acts as a sort of a booster station. The initial impulse to boost the bar off the chest was suspected of weakening as the barbell went up. Why should the bar rise, say five inches from the chest, from an initial maximum explosion to come toppling back. If it went up five inches, why couldn’t it have gone up all the way? Over at the West Side Barbell Club in Culver City, California, not too long ago they began to suspect this common condition. They were losing too many presses after getting the bar halfway up. Down it come, a total loss. A flaw existed in the machine. To repeat the process meant only to be practicing their mistakes. There was no margin for error. They could raise their butt off the bench and complete the lift, but that meant practicing another mistake. What then? How unlike Olympic lifting this was, where technique could overcome weakness. Olympic lifters depend on momentum, the big second pull, then the technique of keeping the bar in the slot. A power lifter’s brain must fire impulses to the muscle in a steady barrage through the entire range of motion with little if no benefit from momentum. You could hardly say that a power lifter slowing inching up a heavy Deadlift was depending at all on momentum.

Therefore, on the odd, light workout days, Wednesday and Sunday, immediately following the heavy Tuesday and Saturday, the booster stations may be given some attention. Working from three different positions the procedure is this:

1) Incline bench at 50 degrees. Bar at chin level in the power rack (about 5 inches off the chest). Regular grip (about 22 inches).
Arbitrary Schedule:
135 x 10
185 x 5
225 x 3
270 x 4
295 x 1
315 x 5 singles

2) Incline bench still at 50 degrees. Bar at EYE level (about 7½ inches off the chest). Regular grip (22”).
Without further warmup proceed:
300 x 1
310 x 1
320 x 1
330 x 1
350 x 1

3) Incline bench at 80 degrees. Bar at chin level. Regular grip (22”).
Without further warmup proceed:
220 x 1
235 x 1
245 x 1
255 x 1
270 x 1
270 x 1

Occasionally the procedure can be reversed, starting with the steep incline position. Then it would be necessary to take about four warmup sets. After that, no warmup sets are necessary for the positions following.

The number of heavy singles never exceed 18. This rule is fairly general for all the power lifts. In other words, on no particular day will the number of heavy single attempts on either the Bench Press, Squat, or Deadlift be in excess of 18. This applies not only to the three regular power lifts but also to their variations such as Incline Presses, Bench or Box Squats, and High Deadlifts from the blocks. All the necessary effort can be packed into a capsuled 18 single, heavy attempts.

The procedure on these exercises is not necessarily rigid. Remember, these are supplemental exercises to be varied to suit your private stamina. If you happened to work extremely hard on positions 1 and 2, nothing says you can’t ease up on the third position by simply doing a light 4 sets of 10 reps. Also, you may prefer to limit this routine to once a week. A lot depends on your time and energy.

The arms will assume a natural position that rides in the same vertical plane as the bar. That means the elbows are wide, and it may be necessary to turn the head to keep from hitting the chin.

Incline power rack presses are done in the strictest style. Keeping the butt glued to the seat of the bench eliminates the possibility of cheating. A sponge pad may be used to prevent sliding off the seat. The emphasis on strictness makes the conventional standing Press a vulgarity of a sort. In the first place it forces the lower spine into a position not required for power lifting. The support from the incline bench eliminates this possible aggravation. With the back braced against the inclined bench, and with the bar free of the body, elevated on the pins of the power rack, the power lifter is virtually straight-jacketed, locked in by his own design, and forced to depend on the pure power of the nerve impulses to charge the waiting deltoids and triceps. The movement is locked on course in the same way the inertial guidance system steer an atomic submarine.

The whole idea of assist movements is to search out weaknesses and destroy them. The power lifters of the West Side Barbell Club conduct a constant search to learn more about building power. They are ready to try any innovation, and always seem to find time and energy for a new experiment. They are dedicated to making ever greater lifts. Power rack training is a cultural necessity. You will be left behind without it. The greats all employ it at one time or another. It has helped make champs like Bill West. Leonard Ingro and George Frenn. The power rack is what helped give Pat Casey the ability to take 590 pounds from the flat bench rack, unassisted, and make a perfect Bench Press with it.

Power rack training for power lifters is the low-reps version of the bodybuilder’s high-reps priority system – low reps for size and strength, high reps for contour and definition.

So get with it. Your muscles may be dozing. Alarm them, drill them with a high intensity program of Incline Power Rack Presses, and watch your strength take off.

Change of Pace Power Training
by Armand Tanny (1966)


Power lifters have now established the fact that two days of training a week fully satisfy the work requirement for ultimate gains. Daily training doesn’t work. Not yet, at least, not at this stage of the game. They certainly tried daily training, but where the mind willing, the flesh was usually weak. Desire became an overrated virtue. What they wanted and what they got were two different things. In daily training, either the mind was out of focus or the strength was off. They found it took time, several days of rest between workouts, to generate enthusiasm and strength in a way that they would converge, both of them fully developed and ready.

Furthermore, full movements on the power lifts comprise one of these workouts; whereas the second workout of the week consists in a large part of assist movements and supplemental exercises. Partial movements with heavy weights is now a growing choice among power lifters who find that a reserve of energy exists in an area that formerly was of only marginal interest. The developmental of the power rack followed. It opened the gate of a whole new reservoir of strength. The fearsome grind of full movements is not easy on the joints of power lifters who mush work in that “no man’s land” of heavy weights and single reps. A change of pace is necessary. Let the deeper areas recover while you occupy the muscles with short movements. The incline bench press off the power rack not only flanks the bench press itself, but offers a nice diversionary tactic as well. A brief recap of a weekly power lifting program goes like this:

Saturday- all the lifts in regular style starting each lift with about four sets of low repetition warmups followed by five heavy singles and concluded with one flush set of ten reps.
Tuesday- Change of pace training. Bench press and/or incline bench press. Bench squat. High dead lifts – off blocks
The same system of reps is used in power rack training as on the regular day.+

First of all you must have a moveable incline bench to place under the power rack. Set the incline at 45 degrees. There are three positions, or sticking points if you will, to work from. In the first position the bar is at chin level, in the second position at nose level, and in their position at the level of the hair line. The workout follows (the weight designated weight is arbitrary):

Position 1. Chin level
135 10 reps
175 10
225 3
255 2
270 singles – 2

Position 2. Nose level
270 1
285 1
300 1
310 1

Position 3. Hairline level.
310 1
320 1
330 1
340 1

Back to position 1 with the bench adjusted to 80 degrees.
225 10
205 10
170 10 – *elbows forward

*Notice that on this last set the elbows are brought forward placing all the resistance on the front deltoid.

This offers an additional change of pace and will give the delts a nice pump. Also notice the regression of weight in the last exercise. The high reps are muscle builders and they act as a digestive aid for the heavy low reps of the previous positions.In all the other sets the elbows are in the same vertical plane as the bar. They are wide out away from the body. This is the most advantageous position for them, where the arms can exert the greatest power, where both the delts and the pecs are in action, a necessity at the 45 degree incline.

The pins that support the bar should not be used to bounce the bar during repetitions. Each rep must be done from a dead stop, which is the whole purpose of power rack lifting. The power rack gives muscles a chance to fully exert themselves in positions that the full movements never get. Very heavy weights can be used. These short movements lend the priority principle to power lifting. Muscles are extremely strong in the partially extended position. Partial movements from this point to the fully extended position can contain a heavier than normal weight even though momentum is lacking. Sticking points usually develop from fast starts in full regular movements. The muscle becomes dependent on momentum, and its real potential is forgotten. The power rack makes a muscle a dynamic force through an entire range of motion.

The power rack has established this fact: Partial power movements have trapped hidden sources of energy in muscle groups. That is why a power rack program once a week fills in an energy vacancy that formerly didn’t seem to exist. Although you may be too tired for full movements, you will find the power rack and shorter movements brining you back to life. It is the reason why heavyweight Pat Casey bench presses 570, and 198-pound Bill West Squats with 600.

Weightlifter Bill March and bodybuilder Vern Weaver use the power rack extensively in their respective training. Heavy full movements, they reason, done continuously soon become impossible. March at 210, can press 375. At the West Side Barbell Club in Venice, California incline bench pressing is a highly developed lift practiced by some of the mightiest weight tossers in sports. Dave Davis does 390, Dallas Long 430, and Perry O’Brien, 345. The unpassable power lifter Pat Casey has done three reps with 220 pound dumbbells on a 40 degree incline. He has also done seven reps with a pair of 200’s.

On a steep incline at about 80 degrees, Casey has done 385. John Gourgott, primarily a bodybuilder, has pressed 325 from the No. 1 position off the power rack on the 80 degree incline. Gourgott also practiced an extremely heavy tri-sets system which includes inclines. He did 10 repetition curls with 80 pound dumbbells, followed by 10 reps double dumbbell presses standing with the 100s. This high quality training accounts for his great strength and development. He can also clean and press a pair of 135s.

When Zabo Koszweski resumed training after a shoulder operation, he went directly to power rack incline presses. It offered limited, safe movements, the only ones he could have done. These movements hastened his rehabilitation, and what might have taken a year or two for someone else, took only a few months for him to fully recover.

It is fully apparent now that short movements have become an indispensable part of training for power. The power rack has made short movements possible for every exercise. Also it facilitates solo training. You can handle big poundages without assistance. Above all, the rack offers a change of pace in training that gives joints and tendons a chance to recover while the muscle itself is occupied with overcoming the very sticky sticking points. Use the power rack once a week for your incline presses and watch your poundages increase.

More to come. Also several articles written on Pat Casey (first to officially bench 600 lbs raw). If you don't know who he is, shame on you lol. This was done before bench shirts!

Maxing out every day

To PTC
Louie Simmons says that maxing out every week is impossible for more than 3 weeks. Then how did the original Westsiders do it?

1) PTC hasn't posted here in 2-3 years lol

2) he doesn't say you can't do it. more that his experiences from the time of opening Westside is that their performance has gone backwards if they maxed out on the same exercise for more than 3 weeks. this has now changed (for max effort) to a weekly rotation ie the guys that won't progress on the same exercise if they do it a week later. dynamic effort squats are done in 3 week waves, speed pulls and bench rotated weekly