By Mike Mahler

Louie Simmons is one of the best strength coaches in the business and a legend in the powerlifting community. He has produced some of the strongest men and women in the world with his innovative and unconventional methods. One the foundations for Louie’s “Westside” program is the emphasis on speed. Louie states that if you are fast he can make you strong.

While powerlifting looks like a slow sport, the intent is to move the weights as fast as possible. Your fast twitch muscle fibers are what make you strong and incorporating some speed training is very important. As a result, Louie has a few training days each week that are focused on speed training. For example, he will have an athlete take 50-60% of his one rep max on the bench press and do several sets of three as fast as possible with short breaks. The speed that is developed from such training carries over well to heavy training. The faster you can move a heavy weight, the less time you are under tension and the less likely you are to fail.

Seventy-two hours after doing some speed work, it is time to have a maximum effort day to apply your new skill set. Focus on one exercise for a few weeks and build up to a new PR (personal record). Then switch to another exercise that is similar and repeat. For example, in month one, focus on the Double Military Press. In month two, focus on the seated Military Press and in month three focus on the Alternating Military Press.

The following program is outstanding for trainees that want to get faster and more explosive for the purpose of getting stronger for training. While this program can also be beneficial to athletes, you do not have to have a sport-specific purpose in mind to benefit from this program. In other words it is a great program for the purpose of simply getting stronger for the sake of getting stronger.

Monday: (Speed Day: Upper Body Focus)

• Clean and Speed Press 8×3 (eight sets of three and take one-minute breaks in between each set)
• One-arm Hang Snatch 6×3 l,r (six sets and one-minute breaks)
• Renegade Row 2×5 l,r (two sets of five and one-minute breaks)

Tuesday (Speed Day: Lower Body Focus)

• Explosive Lunge 8×3 (eight sets of three and take one-minute breaks in between each set)
• Explosive Double Swing 6×3 l,r (six sets and one-minute breaks)
• Turkish Get-up 2×3 l,r (two sets of three and one-minute breaks)

Thursday (Strength Day: Upper Body Focus)

• A-1: Double Military Press 5×5
• A-2: Double Bent Over Row 5×5

Do A-1 and A-2 back to back. In other words do a set of A-1, rest for ninety seconds and then do a set of A-2 and rest for ninety seconds. Keep going back and forth until you have completed 5×5 for both exercises. Use heavy kettlebells. The last set should be very difficult and a maximum effort should be applied.

Rest for a minute and then do

• Double Windmill 3×5 l,r (left and right and one-minute breaks in between each exercise.

Friday (Strength Day: Lower Body Focus)

• A-1: Double Front Squat 5×5
• A-2: Double Swing 5×5

Do A-1 and A-2 back to back. In other words do a set of A-1, rest for ninety seconds and then do a set of A-2 and rest for ninety seconds. Keep going back and forth until you have completed 5×5 for both exercises. Use heavy kettlebells. The last set should be very difficult and a maximum effort should be applied.

Rest for a minute and then do.

• Slow and Controlled Sit-ups 3×5 (4 seconds up and 4 seconds down)