Q&A with Tom Barry of Westside Barbell
For decades, Westside Barbell has been known as one of the best strength training gyms in the country. Founded by Louie Simmons, many high-level athletes have trained with Westside, achieving greatness in powerlifting thanks to Simmons’ Conjugate Method training system. But now, the renowned weightlifting gym is adding none other than combat sports to their repertoire. In what has been a long, extraordinarily detailed plan developed over the course of many years, the Westside Barbell team is looking to make their mark in martial arts with a perspective and history unlike anyone else’s. Check out our Q&A with Westside Barbell CEO Tom Barry as we dive deeper into how moving heavy metal with purpose and precision can translate to dominating on the mats.
What first made you interested in expanding Westside Barbell’s reach into the combat sports world?
I think Westside Barbell has been both directly and indirectly in the combat sports world for a long time. When I first came here, one of the first athletes I ever worked with was Matt Brown, who was a UFC fighter, as well as Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, John Saylor, and a series of different fighters were coming through. There’s always been fighters and grapplers around Westside. And Louie was a humongous fight fan. I would say his analysis of boxing and combat sports was second to powerlifting. So, it’s always been in our DNA and we were there really at the start when the UFC started to explode with Matt, and we got a good understanding of how to interpret our system and how it fits greatly within combat sports.
I think we’re just now showing people the lineage and the types of strength training we have. We just didn’t put it out. And one of the biggest reasons for that is Louie believed you should spend 10 years in your sport before you start writing and putting it out there. Long story short, we want to make it more and put it out there more with 15 years of experience directly with combat athletes. For some it’s new, but for us, we’ve been in this for a long, long time.
What has the process been like to dive into this new endeavor? Any surprises along the way?
Yeah, there was. For us, the system of training we use is the Conjugate Method, pioneered and popularized from Louie. We took the same foundations and from about 2011-14, we started to refine it more for combat sports. Some of the biggest changes that we made was that his system is based on four main days. We reduced it down to three main days and a day for martial arts training. It surprised us how effective it was – but it all stemmed from conversations from Louie. It’s been pretty rewarding, and due to the feedback we’re getting from combat athletes, has been huge. We’re learning from the pros and are constantly adapting. Over a period of 4-5 years, we refined it and got a baseline of what works, what doesn’t work.
Do you believe there are particular advantages Westside Barbell has in the combat sports world compared to other strength training programs? If so, what?
There’s many advantages, but I would say one of the biggest advantages is that we have a system based on practical results. A big part of our training is about absolute strength development – which a lot of people really are trending away from. Absolute strength is the rising tide that raises all ships. This also pushes strength endurance and maximum effort – a core of our philosophy. That’s how we have grapplers who weigh 150-170 pounds come to absolute divisions (weightless division class) and hold their own because they have a high level of maximum strength throughout the whole range.
Then the other one is adaptability. Every week we know how strong and fast our athletes are and their weaknesses that need to be addressed. We put something in place that will actually correct that weakness and turn it into a strength. Our weekly feedback loop helps us adapt on the fly whenever is needed. We know how to break this all down and to make sure it transfers into combat sports and Jiu-Jitsu.
Westside Barbell has a storied history of developing powerlifters. What kind of overlaps do you see with weightlifting for strength and for combat sports? Where do they differ?
You can learn a heck of a lot from powerlifting because powerlifters are experts on bench, squat, and deadlift. Virtually every program that you train in is going to be involved around some sort of benching, squatting, and deadlifting. We took all the knowledge and the setups of how to execute these exercises correctly with technical proficiency to maximize returns. It differs from the strength endurance aspect of powerlifters or strength sports. Their job is to be as strong as possible. And when they go to a powerlifting meet, they know objectively how strong they are.
We had to alter that a little bit in that we tell our athletes to be strong as necessary – and there’s a big difference. To be as strong as necessary is pretty ambiguous, but we use a term called diminishing returns. We want to raise your level of absolute strength and strength endurance to the highest levels without hurting your martial arts skills. How do we know if we’re going too far? Well, if we’re getting any negative feedback such as, ‘Hey, my training is not going as good. I’m feeling tired. I’m feeling run down.’ Okay, we’ll scale back and we’ll work up the weaknesses to develop that level of strength again.
It’s about finding the perfect balance. For example, one of our athletes competed 57 times last year. So, we altered the training system to keep the strength up, but it didn’t diminish the actual Jiu-Jitsu competition aspect.
The Kicksite team had the honor of visiting Westside Barbell facilities in late 2024, when you were in the midst of some renovations and additions to specifically accommodate combat sports athletes. Tell us more about what you’ve created and how athletes will be utilizing it.
It all started when ADCC and CJI (Craig Jones Invitational) were going on at the same time. We saw what Craig Jones was doing with the pit and knew it was very unique. So, we ended up building out around a full 21×21 foot pit. It was easier said than done. But as soon as we put that in, it was game-changing in the sense that we can do strength conditioning while they can go roll and get immediate feedback of which exercises are carrying over to the mat, and which aren’t.
We just knew if we wanted to get real-time feedback and to show people we’re heavily invested into giving you the best strength training advice, we had to have a method for athletes to train in-house. Because without it, we’re relying on subjective feedback and we can’t see it. But as soon as they finish strength training, they’re in the pit rolling, grappling, and it’s been phenomenal for our feedback to further refine the strength conditioning systems.
You’ve also already been working directly with a number of Jiu Jitsu/combat sports athletes. Tell us about those athletes and how they’ve helped you carve out your plans for this expansion.
The turning point for Jiu-Jitsu was Dante Leon. When Dante came in, it gave us this inside look into what competitive professional Jiu-Jitsu was. He basically started everything and created a feedback loop about competitions and how everyone approaches training. Dante then brought Max Hanson as a training partner. We started refining the system for Jiu-Jitsu and we found that it’s the perfect marriage. I give Dante so much credit because we couldn’t refine it without him. He was the nucleus. But then others, including Vitor Oliveira, came to train here as well and gave even more feedback. Now we’re getting all these pro level competitors coming in and the feedback loop is getting better and better. Dante led this but we were also able to see Max’s process through MMA which helped us learn more and more.
What are your early expectations for your success in the combat sports venture?
Our early expectations are to establish ourselves as a trusted resource for strength conditioning. I would say we represent the blue-collar aspect of working hard during training and that it’s not supposed to be easy. If you’re a professional athlete, you are trying to be your best in the world. We want to share that education just like Louie did with powerlifting, to the combat sports and Jiu-Jitsu community. People can read our blogs, where we give out a lot of free information and explain what we’re doing with athletes and showing this is not just a training system that you can go do based on nothing. The whole idea of a good strength training program is to give the athlete more of themselves.
Are there any other long-term plans or ideas for continuing to grow this effort?
Our goal is to keep educating people on weightlifting and combat sports. We’re planning on launching a combat sports specific podcast that’s going into everything we’re doing for the athletes. As well as that, we’ll be releasing books, training guides, and online platform materials so people can follow along for workouts. But we’ve been working on this for three years specifically with Jiu-Jitsu combat sports. The hope is to to create something new and continue to improve for our athletes through productive feedback.
If athletes are interested in finding out more about your strength training programs, how can they stay up to date or get more information?
You can reach out via our blog at westsidebarbell.com, check out our social media accounts (Instagram, Youtube). You can also reach out to my email, tom@westside-barbell.com. And we try to get back to everyone who wants any strength training advice. And come visit. We don’t charge for visitors. People are more than welcome to come visit, see the gym, get a workout in, and pick our brains!