You're listening to Power Athlete Radio, a podcast dedicated to empowering your performance every

damn day. Join former NFL Pro and Power Athlete founder John Wellborn as he dissects the

greatest minds in strength, conditioning, and more. So whether your goal is to be the hammer,

destroy mediocrity, or simply move the dirt, you've come to the right place.

Now with the warm up done, let the gains begin.

Welcome to a very special episode of Power Athlete Radio.

This episode is important because we got to interview with legend and pillar in the strength game, Louis Simmons from Westside Barbell.

This episode is important to me personally, as I knew Louis as a friend and mentor, having first heard his name and Simmons from West Side Barbell. This episode is important to me personally, as a new Louis as a friend and mentor,

having first heard his name in the infamous West Side Barbell,

as a 14-year-old kid reading powerlifting USA magazines in Zangis's garage.

What makes his podcast extremely impactful is the recent passing of Louis Simmons on March 24th

at the tender age of 74.

Anyone that knew Lou knows he lived his life with his foot firmly smashed on the skinny

pedal.

We have honored to have done this last interview with him in Columbus, Ohio.

Thanks to Tom and the crew at Westside Barbell for making it happen.

Without their help and stewardship, we would never have gotten this opportunity.

So my only advice, strap in.

Hey, welcome to another episode of Power Athlete Radio.

We are on location in the beautiful Columbus, Ohio, with our good friend Louis Simmons here at Westside Barbell.

So, Mr. Simmons, how are you doing? Good seeing again., good seeing. How are you? It has. Way too long. Yeah. I did definitely enjoy a lot of my time here and a lot of the stuff that I learned from you. I still put into practice daily. So, yeah, thanks for coming up at the radio. Yeah. Louis, thank you. We had a couple trips. I was with John 2015, but there was a first trip. I think that's an excellent way for us to start out when John first came out to Westside. Yeah, no, it was great. At the time, I remember you called me on the phone because you were interested in putting a certification together. And you asked me if I wanted to sit on the board, you know, for your certification. And I was, of course.

And then you said, hey, once you come out and I came out for a couple weeks and got to hang out. And it was, it was eye-opening, to say the least. Yeah, it was fun. You know, you walk into that environment. I remember walking in the first day and it was like gangster rap at 10. I mean, dude, there was probably about 2,300 pound dudes that were probably not over 5-5.

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