Anyone who has a passion for sport knows that it can be a journey. The thing about falling in love with a sport, or better yet a lifestyle, is that you often end up on a journey you never expected, but absolutely needed. Putting your whole self into something and grinding day in and day out is bound to change a person and almost always for the best.
Craig Bongelli had a passion for martial arts and boxing in his teens and knew what it meant to work hard in the gym. It wasn’t until he attended a Highland games event and met Scotland’s strongest man that his focus turned elsewhere. He wanted to be big and strong and went on a mission to become just that. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury while deadlifting at age 21. While searching for ways to navigate this injury and prevent future injuries he discovered Louie Simmons, the owner of Westside. A book read turned into a phone call and eventually turned into an invite to Westside and ultimately a lasting mentorship.
Craig fell in love with powerlifting and Westside helped him get there. Since then, Louie has passed away and the gym has been passed on to a new and well-trusted owner taking on a new direction for training. Change can often be hard but Craig was excited to see where Westside was going. Wanting to see how the gym had changed, Craig headed back to see what he could accomplish in 4 weeks and decided to share his experience with everyone.
Episode 1
In episode 1 of the Westside docuseries, Craig heads back to Westside to check out their new training philosophy and program. After being away for several years he wanted to see what Westide has been up to since Louie, the previous owner and his mentor, passed away and Tom took on ownership. Craig was ready to see what Westside gymgoers were up to as well as what he could accomplish by implementing their new training system and tracking specific metrics over 4 weeks.
Episode 2
Week one was a real doozy for Craig. Episode 2 dives into Craig’s first week back and training and how it was totally soul-crushing. As a long-time athlete, he was ready for a challenge but was not expecting to be totally obliterated. You get to see what a rough start he had being back at the gym and how this challenge motivated him to get serious and persevere.
This episode also explains more information about the specific program that Craig followed, even getting into what nutrition and recovery looked like while living and breathing the Westside lifestyle.
Episode 3
Having knocked out two weeks, Craig started to catch some momentum and get into the groove of things which is captured in episode 3. Aside from the excitement he felt about being back at Westside again and getting ingrained into the group he also shared insight into the emotional challenges he experienced with being away from home and his family. This episode really gets into discussions about working hard and pushing yourself even when things get tough.
Episode 4
Heading into the 4th week, and 4th episode, it was time to find out if Craig accomplished all he wanted to and what he learned about himself and fitness during the experience. It’s time to find out if his hard work paid off by diving into his end results. The docuseries is rounded out with discussions between Craig and Tom about the experience and the gym.
Where It’s Going
With this docuseries, Craig hopes to expose athletes from all backgrounds to what he believes to be the best training system in the world. He wants to show people that if you truly give something your all you can accomplish more than you ever expected of yourself, especially when applying the right methodologies. He hopes that by sharing where he started with Louie and Westside and where he believes it can take others today, he will pay back even just a small portion of the debt he feels he owes to them.
If you have been looking for something to light a fire inside of you and get you motivated to pursue your goals then you won’t want to miss out on the story Craig tells throughout this docuseries. If you weren’t excited about transforming your life through fitness before watching this then there is a good chance that you will be after.