In more than a decade at Westside Barbell there were very few who I trained with whose full names I knew. If I did learn them, it was well over a year later.
I remember training with Big Mike, Big Bill, Tilt, Chester, Gritter, Kiana, Ted Dancer, Fuzz Dog, KP, Chuck, Gonzo, Borda, Chicken Hawk, Jimmy, Neutron, Doc Dave, JM, George, Hawkins, Awol, Eskil, and MANY others whose names I honestly had no idea of. I suppose if they lasted more than a few months, I would care enough to learn their nicknames. We were not there to make friends. I still don’t know whether or not most of them were married, had girlfriends, where they worked, or whether they worked at all. I knew their verbal cues - ALL of them!
I am not saying we didn’t have fun, fuck off, and try our best to piss each other off. To me, that was one of the best parts. We tested everyone there, and they tested us right back. When meet time came, we were ready for anything and nobody was ever scared of a weight - if so, they wouldn’t last long. They would get run out just from the pressure we put on them to overcome their bullshit because we couldn’t let their bullshit become “ours”. This is also why the drama was left at the fucking door.
Simply put (and I do feel comfortable speaking for those I knew best), we didn’t care about your fucking job, family, problems, drama or any other issues that weren't related to lifting more weight.
I have never seen a training environment like this before my time at Westside and have never seen anything close to it after I left. I am sure there are many factors that played into this, but it was day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, year out.
What I will say, after being in this world for as long as I have, is it’s not the strength of the lifters that kills the gym or the powerlifting team. It’s all of the bullshit that gets pulled into it. I have seen it over and over, and it will continue to happen.
I do not know the answers to this, but I do know that there is a line that can’t be crossed, and when it is crossed, changes must be made or everyone in the gym will be negatively impacted.
Not that many more sections to post, I promise I am getting there.
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