I've followed X-Marks for quite a while and bought a few things here - but never bothered to check for an HG Athletics thread. Good stuff!

I started throwing just a little less than three years ago here in the midwest (Ohio) in hopes that competition would keep me focused on staying in shape.

A large number of us here in the GLSAA (Great Lakes Scottish Athletic Association) have gotten hooked on Westside - after a clinic with Kerry Overfelt and Mark Valenti. The combination of acceleration/speed (dynamic effort) and strength (max effort) really works well for Heavy Athletics. Given that Westside was developed by Lou Simmons primarly for the powerlifting game, a lot of us have our own "hybrid" forms. I've started blending in odd lifts (beer kegs and sand bags) mainly to help my caber and to keep my in some kind of form if someone runs a blended game of highland athletics and strongman.

At 43 years old - and never having been successful as any kind of athlete from the time I was 12 years old - following Westside has gotten me to just short of a 500 lb deadlift, 400 lb squat and 250 lb bench (best I ever benched in my life was 165 lbs when I was like 18 years old). And - I added 18 feet to my light hammer and almost 3 feet to my open stone this past year (hammer was helped by form, stone was all strength as I used to T&F shot put).

Richard

Throw hard and aim for the parking lot!