The DarkSide

Brown

The Beginning

A few years ago I started doing CrossFit while still in the Marines. I loved it and immediately started seeing improvements in my performance, both in PT and in the field (where it actually matters). CrossFit gets knocked quite a bit but I have to be honest and say that I love it for an infantry Marine. I loved that I could take a squad and thrash the shi* outta them in a half hour, the pain and misery builds camaraderie as much as work capacity.

It also jump started me on the path that I am on now.

 

The Middle

In September of 2009, I got out of  the Marines and enrolled in University of Louisville for Exercise Science. A couple of days after Me and Waylon partied across America and shotgunned beer on the side of the Grand Canyon (Waylon puked into it), and I was living back in Kentucky, I went into Derby City CrossFit. I started training there and immediately began benefiting from Ben’s experience and coaching. CrossFit gave me an outlet for competition as well as I had the opportunity to compete in the sectional and the regional last year. But most importantly, I traveled to West Side Barbell for a Powerlifting Certification. I immediately loved the atmosphere, the attitude, and the overall amazingness of the weight being thrown around.

Since then I have been soaking up as much knowledge as I could, dedicating as much time as possible to figure out how to get strong. We have traveled around to train and ask questions to some of the strongest people in the world. We read all the information we can by the people who have been there and done it; Dave Tate, Jim Wendler, anybody who is strong as shi*… and of course our lord and savior Louie Simmons.

The Vision

The DarkSide is intended to chronicle my journey from an average strength athlete into an elite athlete and coach. As I grow as an athlete and coach, so too will the site, our programming, and our athletes. The DarkSide is seeking to create the atmosphere that is conducive to training intensely and subsequently making steady gains. It is about the long hard road.

Darnie

“When people ask me what book to buy to get stronger or more fit I say a basic physics book because Newton’s laws of motion apply to everything…….I don’t bring a person in to show me how to lift weights, I bring physics professors, mathematics professors, calculus professors, and so forth, and engineers because that’s what I think is missing in this sport.” -Louie Simmons

 

Well I’ve always been into lifting weights but throughout college managed to get pretty fat and weak.  I finished my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at 6’0″ 283lbs of booze and pizza.  When Brown got home from the marines he like everyone else noticed I had been steadily packing on the poundage over the last year of school and took it upon himself to get me to join up at DCCF with him.  I’m glad I did as it probably has without a doubt added several years to my life as in my first 9 months of training CrossFit I was able to drop 80lbs and gain more lean mass than I had had since high school playing football.  I enjoyed CF and owe my dedication to health, fitness and strength to it but quickly got bored “wodding” the shit out of myself every day.  I liked that I was getting stronger doing CrossFit workouts alone I had established a solid strength base.  At the time CrossFit had done a couple interviews about powerlifting with Dave Tate and his demeanor and attitude towards being strong had me hooked.  This coupled with Ryan attending a CF Powerlifting certification with Louie at Westside redirected our training from CF wods to strength training.

I started reading (and still do) everything I could about getting stronger and powerlifting.  Dave’s website Elitefts.com has tons of information on the sport of strength and I have taken it upon myself to learn everything I can from guys like Dave, Louie Simmons, Jim Wendler, Matt Kroc, Mark Bell and the miracle baby Max Mormont. I try to take the information thats out there and view it from an engineering prespective as far as the mechanical system of the human body and how the best leverages can be placed on the bar according to anthopometric measurements.

As we started experimenting with the Westside method and strongman training people from the gym started to join in on the fun and the DarkSide was born.  The DarkSide is constantly evolving as we try to meet our training goals not only for ourselves but for the solid group of guys who come in every afternoon and kill it with us.  Basically we are trying to get strong as sh*t and have a good time doing it.

 

How it works

Programming:  We will all do MT-RF schedule with push/pull rotation.  This base program will then be customized to fit your goals/aspirations as a strength athlete.  ie.. if you are wanting to gain lean body mass we will program reps and sets to increase hypertrophy.  If you are wanting to increase absolute strength your program will consist more of 1RM and 3RM’s.
 
Assesments:  Each DarkSider will be assesed upon joining/if not already by DCCF to establish baseline BF%, body measurements and short term as well as long term goals.  This is esential for progress as each member of the DarkSide is expected to be working towards specific goals rather than just working out for the f#ck sake of working out.
 
General Training/Nutrition/Life:  At the DarkSide the coaches will do their best to answer any and all questions members have…in regards to training, nutrition or whatever it be…IF we do not know the answer to the question we will work to find the best answer based on books/articles/journals/research on the topic.  IF someone is having trouble losing some bodyfat and their current diet plan isn’t working we can sit down and try to figure out what changes can be made to accomodate the best response.
 
Atmosphere/Camaraderie: At the DarkSide we know that the best part about training in the DarkSide is the intense atmosphere that pushes it’s athletes to take their training to the next level.  This attitude towards training builds a strong sense of camaraderie between it’s members as we are all back there sweating it out trying to get the last 10-15#’s on the bar to break that previous PR.  We push our training limits together and when one of us succeeds we all succeed, as we all know that being able to push that limit would not be feasible without the other DarkSiders beside you making you get under the bar when go for it when you normally would have called it quits.
 
 
For info on training email us and we will set up a time to meet and discuss your current training level and goals, then decide if we will go forward from there.

One Response to The DarkSide

  1. JEREMY WETHINGTON says:
    July 13, 2012 at 8:54 am

    Looking at doing something different with my training. Been training the same way for a long time and bored with it. I focus on strength training but kinda train like a bodybuilder in terms of sets/reps/splits. My squat and deadlift are weak for my size (275lbs) and my bench is only decent. I was wondering if I could come in and check your place out, see if it’s for me.

    Reply