AMY WEISBERGER
Amy started training full time at Westside in 1988, after college at Ohio University. She drove 75 miles, three times a week from June of ’88 until the time she moved to be near Westside in December of ’88. Amy came with a 716 pound total and her former trainer said that that was all she had.
That was not only an insult to her, but also to me. Amy went on to total 1,440 lbs. She became a physical therapist full time in 1990. She won her first world title in the 123 pound bodyweight, in November of 1992 in Vegas. In November of 1992 she also set her first world record total at 123 lbs. of 1,180 lbs.
Amy would take a call from Matt Dimel every day while he was on county vacation, yes I mean prison, to keep his spirits up. Matt was like a son to me. A bad son, but a son. Matt got out in 1992, and in 1993 won the APE senior nationals.
Dave Tate moved to Westside to train and later started Elite Fitness, but that is a different story. 1992 was a crazy year. Amy gets her first world record, Dave Tate moves to Westside, Matt gets out of the big house, and Chuck Vogelpohl gets his neck broken by Matt while wrestling in the gym. I say gym, but it is the club, where we spend lots of time together outside of the gym.
Amy is at it again and breaks the world record with a bench press of 292 lbs. at 123 lbs. In ’02 she was the only woman to qualify for the WPO. In ’03 she totaled 1,300, 505 – 330 – 465, at 132 lbs. Then, in ’07, she totaled 10x her bodyweight at the Arnold Classic, on March 2nd, 2007. Her bodyweight was at 59.4 kg and she did 240 kg, 152 kg, and 212 kg, for a 605 kg total.
In January ’07, she made 1,330 at 131 bodyweight. Again in ’07, she made 1,440 at 147.4 with a 590 WR squat, 350 lb. bench press, and 500 lb. deadlift. Now she held the world record in two different weight classes, in one year. Her 123 total was eventually broken. She had great training partners. Gritter Adams, Todd Brock, Gabe Reitter, all training together. Also, Eskil Thomasson moved from Sweden to train at Westside for 10 years before injuries sent him home.
Special note: On a trip back home to Sweden, Eskil went to Finland to find out why the Finn’s were such great pullers and found that many were lumberjacks. They said they would pull the logs down the trail by hand, in all types of manners, over the shoulder, between the legs, walking both forwards and backwards. When Eskil came back to his real home at Westside, after the telling the story, we began pulling weight sleds. Now everybody does it. So when you see a football player on TV doing it, you know where it came from.
Also while back home, Eskil went to Poland and visited a weight lifting gym. There was a lifting manual that had weight lifters doing box squats. The manual was printed in 1950. I always felt that when track & field athletes came to the Culver City Westside from overseas, they showed box squatting and board pressing from the throwers, who knew George Frenn. George was the world record holder in the 56 lb. throw as well as the power lifts.
Now, back to Amy. She has had some serious injuries that have slowed her down, but she still trains every single day while sporting a Westside tattoo, like all true Westsiders. Long live Westside, and long live Amy Weisberger.
