Thursday, November 01, 2007

Words of Wisdom; Louie Simmons.


From this months interview with Dr. Larry Miller in PL USA magazine. Reading, listening to or speaking with Louie never fails to get me pumped up. The man is the epitome of committment and one of the best strength training minds ever.

On how he became so knowledgable about sport,physiology and mechanics:
" To be good at anything you must fully understand what you are doing.I am a full time student of strength. I learn to do things right by doing them wrong at first.After breaking my fifth lumbar vertabrae for the second time in 1983 I had to find a more sophisticated method of training.I studied the former Soviet Union methods of developing special strength. You must learn and use all methods of training to succeed.

On how he came up with the ideas behind his equipment:
" I invented the reverse hyper aftre breaking my 4th lumbar in 1973.No one was able to help me and I came up with this exericise out of desperation.
....I also have a plyo swing known as the virtual force swing that has a US patent. We can never have enough exposive power and the swing helps provide that training effect.

On why he doesnt do many strength seminars any more:
"Very few, because I prefer to train and experiment.To do that I have to stay at Westside."

On what age powerlifters peak, if they can keep themselves healthy:

" I am not sure but at least 60 years old. I am stronger in the deadlift and squat now and will be 60 in October.Not geting injured is the key as well as having training partners.If you run with the lame you will develop a limp; so choose your training partners wisely.

What are some of your injuries:

"I broke my fourth lumbar vertabrae in 1973> I completely tore off my right bicep in 1979. I tore two holes in my stomach and a partial tear of the tendon that connects to the pubic bone in 1980.refractured my fifth lumbar vertabrae in 1983. Complete rupture of the left patella tendon in 1991.I had my second knee operation in 1991.Right meniscus operation in 1998. Shoulder socket replacement in 2004.Left shoulder scoped in 2004. Left bicep reattached in 2004."

The number one problem in powerlifting:
" Jealousy would be the number one problem and because of jealousy, we will never unite and thus it will never be corrected.

7 comments:

Franz Snideman said...

Yikes! That is quite a laundry list of injuries. Can't say I would like wake up in his body every morning!

Mark Reifkind said...

no kidding. and I have a pretty good feeling what it feels like.He probably wouldnt trade places with me,lol.

Aaron Friday said...

Geez, ouch! Don't know too much about WSB, but I did spend a few hours reading Mr. Simmons' articles last week. He is indeed a smart man.

Rif, your DVD is great and gives me a lot to consider. Fawn will get us a foam roller so we can enjoy it even more.

Also, the care package is awesome. You seem to have a taste for strong things, and I may have to get started right now. Thank you so much, man. You rock!

Aaron Friday said...

I also read your articles on WSB, of course.

Mark Reifkind said...

aaron,
glad everything arrived intact. as you might guess I do like the strong flavors,although truth be told those were from the medium selection,lol.
Glad you like the dvd too. z health notwithstanding the roller is still a great tool with many applications.especially just sore muscles.
as far as smart men go Louie is right at the top. great great guy too.as generous as you are going to find.

Royce said...

"We can never have enough exposive power and the swing helps provide that training effect."

Beautiful quote.

Mark Reifkind said...

royce,

louie was referring to his plyo swing setup but I think the concept is the same.and you can never have enough explosive power. I think the one thing most powerlifters don't understand is the need for dynamic effort training;it really is the same thing as max effort training, just with submaximal weights. You must put 100% force on the bar at all times to teach the nervous system to do it when it counts.hence the bands and chains to accomodate resistance when the bar weight is light.

155 x 3 x 5, 160 x 3 x 5, 20 kg swings 5 x 8/8, floor pushups 40, 35

 Thought about going back to 5x5 for a hot second then my left shoulder  reminded me why I stopped doing them before. It doesn't seem to...