Old School Westside Flashback Stories

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Westside Barbell keeps posting these old school flashback pics and each one brings back memories. Here are some of the ones they posted that I reposted to my Instragram Page.

A post shared by Dave Tate - Elitefts.com (@underthebar) on Nov 3, 2017 at 12:28pm PDT

The day my wife called me out

This was the first time I squatted 900. It was at the IPA Nationals. I strained my pec three weeks out from this meet and didn't bench at all (outside of rehab stuff). In the warm up room, I stopped at 225 and told my helpers that I was good there and to help get my bench shirt on. I told them that I had a greater chance of tearing my pec with 275 raw than with 520 in a shirt and if it was going to go I wanted it to go on the platform. I killed my 520 opener and jumped to 540 for my second. At this point my wife comes out of the crowd calling me a pussy for making such a coward jump. So I went to 560. This story STILL comes up when I am around the guys I lifted with at that meet.

A post shared by Dave Tate - Elitefts.com (@underthebar) on Nov 9, 2017 at 2:21pm PST

 

The Bench

The bench we are standing in front of is the same one I saw big Mike fall asleep on while putting on his shoe. Where Jimmy told Shawn that if he didn’t stop taking big jumps he would tear his triceps off... and then he tore his triceps off. Where we benched with the tendo and Louie got so pissed he took it away from us. Where I had a reverse intervention and where @bobyoungsjr tore my pec.

#goodtimes

#elitefts

#wsbb

#westsidebarbell  

A post shared by Dave Tate - Elitefts.com (@underthebar) on Nov 14, 2017 at 6:29pm PST

Old School Belt Squats

underthebar Another flashback pic from WSBB. This is how we used to do belt squats (and in this pic handle squats) before Louie made the belt squat machine.   This sucked!   Not in a good way.   Walking that shit back with the handle or belt sucked and getting back was worse. If you dropped the weight it dropped into the hole. See the stairs to the right.   See the push press to the left. Ya, only one way to fetch the plates out of that hole. If you dropped it, you got it out. . .   Louie had me do a ton of these when I first got to westside (hence the hair and porn stash). I would swing the weight back so it was almost knocking me backwards, putting more stress on my glutes and hamstrings.   Coming into westside my quads were an issue because, as Louie put it, “your quads are too damn big you walk like a duck”. He wanted two inches off my quads in the first two years. At the time of this pic I was one year into this process.   The result was very close to 200 pounds on my squat after I had stagnated for the three years prior and thought I was tapped out.  

A post shared by Dave Tate - Elitefts.com (@underthebar) on Dec 5, 2017 at 8:18am PS

 

Close Grip Incline Press

This was our close grip incline press (thumb away from smooth).   We didn’t have a zero to 90 bench and didn’t need it.   We just piled up box squat boxes and pulling boxes and wedged a board press board behind the bench so it wouldn’t slide.   As for the seat - that’s what leg drive is for.   Floor press = no leg drive but keep lats in.   Incline Press = takes lats out and keeps legs in.   Thus the reason for both.   This was a low incline. We also used a steep incline where we would add a 4 board under the top part of the bench. We didn’t “find a way” we “made a way”.   I also have no idea how they are finding these pics. Louie didn't allow cameras in the gym so I’m kinda confused. That’s me with hair. #rarefind