The Westside Barbell Blog

A resource for serious lifters and athletes seeking proven strength training methods. The Westside Barbell blog breaks down programming, exercise selection, recovery, and performance strategies built on decades of elite coaching experience of founder Louie Simmons and his dedicated team.

We’ve undertaken a project to organize our 1,400+ articles — start with the curated guides below
Burley Hawk
Author

Burley Hawk

Burley Hawk is the Lead Powerlifting Coach at Westside Barbell and a Conjugate Method strength coach with over a decade of direct training and study under Louie Simmons. As a longtime member of the Westside team and a loyal student of Louie's, Burley has developed a deep, working mastery of the Conjugate Method and how it is applied to competitive powerlifting.

Burley runs Conjugate Club, the home of our powerlifting community. Conjugate Club is where lifters from around the world train under monthly programming written by our coaching staff, access Louie's archived material that has never been released anywhere else, and get direct communication with real coaches. It is the closest thing to training at Westside without being in Columbus.

Per Louie's plan, Westside no longer fields an in-house powerlifting team. But the work with lifters continues. Burley coaches competitive powerlifters online through Conjugate Club, works one-on-one with visiting lifters who come to Columbus to train, and also coaches athletes in the gym at Westside HQ. His experience spans beginner lifters building their first meet total to advanced competitors chasing elite numbers.

Burley is also the primary voice behind the written content at Westside-Barbell.com. If you have read our programming breakdowns, methodology articles, or athlete spotlights in recent years, there is a good chance Burley wrote them.

Articles by Burley Hawk

235 articles · page 1 of 20
Burley Hawk · · 6 minute read

The Conjugate Club

For over 8 years, the Westside Barbell Conjugate Club has provided access to monthly Conjugate Method programming, as well as the Westside Barbell library of books, VHS tapes,...

Burley Hawk · · 8 minute read

Why Dynamic Effort Training Works

The dynamic effort method is one of the three primary strength training methods used in the Conjugate Training System. This training method calls for using submaximal weights lifted...