Available 01/16/26
In this special 50 Year Legacy Series episode of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, Doug Briggs shares decades of perspective on the evolution of strength and conditioning. Doug breaks down how training philosophies have shifted, the growing focus on injury prevention, and the cultural changes within gyms. Drawing from personal experience, he explains why returning to basic training principles may be essential for developing stronger, more resilient athletes—while honoring the role Samson Equipment has played in shaping training environments over the last 50 years.
Key Takeaways
- Strength and conditioning has evolved significantly over the past five decades.
- Injury prevention has become overemphasized at the expense of performance.
- Training has shifted away from large, compound movements.
- The late 80s and early 90s marked a turning point in coaching philosophy.
- Balance-focused training is not universally beneficial.
- Foundational training methods are regaining importance.
- Training intensity was higher in previous generations.
- Gym culture and etiquette have changed dramatically.
- Anecdotal coaching experience still provides valuable insight.
- Samson Equipment has played a meaningful role in the 50-year evolution of training spaces.
Quote
“We train too much to prevent injuries.”
— Doug Briggs
Samson:
What’s going on Sampson Strength Coach Collective listeners on today’s episode, we have another special edition of our Sampson Legacy series where we’re celebrating 50 years of Sampson equipment. Today’s episode, we have a very special guest to Sampson equipment who is Doug Briggs, who’s got some pretty impressive academic feats that I would like to mention here PhD.
CSCS star D and RSCC star E. Doug, thank you so much for coming on the show. Well, can you just start off and give us some background of your career? You know, what your journey has been through strength and conditioning and then what you’re currently up to.
Doug Briggs:
My pleasure.
My career, it’s a fairly long career. I’ve been involved in the NSCA and strength and conditioning since back when Boyd Eppley first started the NSCA and strength and conditioning was something totally new to colleges and universities. So I’ve been around a while. I’ve owned numerous clubs, powerhouse gym for 13 years, Olympic weightlifting gym, different private ones like that in addition to having worked for the army for 24 years now.
Samson:
Wow, that’s incredible. What are some ways that you’ve seen the field change over the years? You mentioned being there with Boyd Epley, one of the first ever strength coaches, right? How have you seen the field change?
Doug Briggs:
Tremendously, because I think there wasn’t a lot of science behind it in the past, whereas there’s a lot of science involved in everything we do anymore from force plates to time force distance things. I mean, it’s just changed tremendously since the 70s. And sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. Currently, what I see with a lot of strength coaches right now is we train too much to prevent injuries and we don’t push enough for potential. So you never really utilize the potential of the individual because you’re so worried about injuries.
And then I see so much training with what I do in the army with we’re worried about training small muscles rather than training the large muscle groups that in essence train the small muscle groups. So a lot of things have really changed. used to be primarily you do a lot of stuff to be power cleans, bench, dead lifts, squats, those kinds of things like that. Now we’ve got to do so many things that hoops, hurdles, bands, all these other things. And a lot of times I think we really miss the point of actually maximizing potential.
Samson:
When did you see that shift start to happen and why do you believe it’s happened? Because I agree, I think in my field, there’s a lot of talk of injury prevention. It’s one of the main things that I have to talk about in recruiting speeches. I have no choice because every other strength coach seems to speak about it a lot. However, I agree with you. I’m a big believer in our general lifts, squats, presses, cleans, Olympic lifts. I think those things are very valuable. How did you see that transition come about and when did it really start?
Doug Briggs:
I think you started to see that late eighties and early nineties where you really started to see the shift. You know, if you look at injuries in the NFL, the seventies and eighties and things like that, generally you would have fractures and concussions. And you look what we have now, you have a lot of ACLs and concussions. So there’s been a lot of change and it seems like there’s a lot more injuries now than what you had in the past. I’ve been looking at data from the past and like a friend of mine was Bob Ward, a strength coach for Dallas Cowboys and I know how he trained. And you look at what they did back then, it was very simple.
compared to what we do now. And we waste more time training small muscles and injury prevention than we do actually training the human body for the performance. And I think the detriment to that is you see more injuries and it just kind of goes hand in hand. We need to train like we used to train and just get back to basics.
Samson:
Do you think that people have ultimately used technology a little bit as a crutch and that started to become what drives that smaller work, right? I think of things like, you know, force plates or force frames where they get really concerned with asymmetries. And so they say, well, we only can do single leg exercises or rehab type exercises versus just trying to hammer that asymmetry out through a double leg squat.
Doug Briggs:
Exactly, I totally agree with that. And I think there’s just too much emphasis placed on those kinds of things versus, know, okay, you’ve got to place an emphasis on balance. Sometimes I think they go overboard on placing an emphasis on balance in the body. If you look at pictures of the major league baseball stuff, you’ve got a right-handed pitcher. Generally they’re out of balance, a little bit of left-hand side of the body. There’s an out of balance, but it works for them. It’s finding what works for them and what works for the sport. It’s not just being in balance on everything.
Samson:
Exactly. Okay, would you like a break, Doug? Okay.
Doug Briggs:
And, no, I’m good. And,
you know, of course, I read a lot of research and research journals and things too. And I look at a lot of studies and look at a of people going for a PhDs things like that. And the whole point of being a PhD is to be a subject matter expert in whatever area. And you look at, they’ve broken it down into such minutiae now that it doesn’t really relate to the big picture. It’s gotten to such a point where we’re research on the small things that it really doesn’t carry over or relate to the big picture.
Samson:
Hmm. I see a lot of things in life follow the homeostatic curve, right? Where, you know, we see a very large ⁓ swing on the pendulum from one side to the other. Do you feel like strength and conditioning will slowly swing back to the way of focusing on the basics again?
Doug Briggs:
Mm-hmm.
I do, I absolutely do. I think you’re starting to see some of that now. We’re starting to see people get more back to the basic stuff. Football team I know and I was doing some of that stuff where they get back more to the basics and have really great results from it and seeing fewer injuries. And I mean, there’s nothing wrong with injury prevention, but at the point that it stops your potential development, then it’s kind of, it is problematic.
Samson:
Yeah, I had the pleasure of going down and doing the starting strength seminar with Mark Ripito where we went over kind of the ⁓ the main exercises and there was a lot of detail in those and ⁓ it’s a very, very simplified program and there’s certain things that we’ve had to fix or not fix that’s the incorrect term but ⁓ change to fit the collegiate athletic world right but running a basis of that program has been really successful for our team especially with
Doug Briggs:
Right.
Samson:
even basketball players, so people get terrified to back squat them. think it’s gonna, you know, they’re gonna watch their patella shoot across the room and everybody’s gonna, you know, pass out because they can’t possibly do these large exercises. But when we started doing these things, I feel like it really helped our team and it helped them grow a lot.
Doug Briggs:
I agree. like Mark Ripatow and I know him and compete against him in Olympic weightlifting and everything. So I’ve known him for a long time. I think he does a great job. I think he’s on point.
Samson:
Excellent. Well, you know, a lot of this podcast is to celebrate Dave and Linda and really celebrate, you know, an amazing work that they’ve done with Samson Equipment and celebrating 50 years. When did you first encounter Samson Equipment?
Doug Briggs:
My first encounter with Samsung Quint was in 1978 and Dave and Linda were just at the beginning of the company in the business and they opened a gym in Los Cristos, New Mexico and it was on Montana, it was like directly behind the Sonic on El Paseo. And it was probably a modest gym by today’s standards, probably 2,500 square feet. And like most gyms in the day, you kind of, walk in the front door, there’s a single wide door and there’s a small front entry area with a desk. And this particular setup had one bathroom with a shower on the right.
And then you go through a wall, a doorway and a wall, and you get into a larger training area where all the weights and all the equipment was. And it was very interesting because gyms in those days, equipment was very basic. You know, you had bars, plates, dumbbells, racks, platforms, those kinds of things. Very little selectorized. If you had selectorized, you might have a leg curl, leg extension, a lat pull down machine, maybe a low row. But everything was done with the bars, plates, dumbbells, those kinds of things. And you know, you go into that kind of environment.
And the intensity was there that I don’t see a lot of intensity in gyms anymore. You don’t see the intensity of people training now like you did back then. It was much more intense. And you look at now, I mean, I deal with things like the Rabdo and things like that come up. And I remember back in those days, you could train two to three hours a day and you do six days a week and no one ever got Rabdo. And so it’s kind of interesting how the whole training philosophy has changed. you know, people train very intense, but
They didn’t have a lot of the modern day problems we have now.
Samson:
What drove that training culture specifically for Dave and Linda’s gym? What would allow that culture to be fostered?
Doug Briggs:
For their gym and stuff, think primarily there weren’t gyms like that. So it was very innovative in the fact that it was a gym and then they were very good at innovation because of the equipment they were manufacturing and putting out. You’d go to, I used to a pumping iron gym in Tempe, Arizona. And most of the gym equipment there was basically homemade. So you went from like the homemade kind of equipment to the equipment manufactured by someone really trying to figure out what to do and the angles and how everything worked. And it really changed the whole gym environment.
And just the people in the gym were great because like I say, they’re very intense, but people were very friendly too. And you didn’t have to put up with all the social influences, their camera, interrupting them, walking in front of them, know, whatever. And people would do a bench press and you you want to work in, they’d let you work in. Nowadays they’re sitting on the bench doing social influencing. They don’t even want to let you work in. The gym etiquette isn’t there for one. And there used to be great gym etiquette. So a lot of those things have kind of changed, not for necessarily a good manner, not a good way. And
That’s where you see just a lot of the differences.
Samson:
Yeah, you know, I mentioned this all the time. One of my favorite movies is Pumping Iron is what I watched growing up. And just so you can see the intensity in that movie. And I think you bring up a really good point about the influencer aspect of it, the recognition of what you’re trying to do. Like, I remember the first time I ever squatted 405, I was a junior in high school. It was at the YMCA. I barely got it. And then I racked it. And then I went home. There was no celebration. There was no posting this. It was just like I told my dad.
Doug Briggs:
Right.
Yeah.
Samson:
And I said, please don’t tell mom because she’s going to think that was too heavy and freak out. Right.
Doug Briggs:
Right. Exactly. You’re going get injured. It’s like, I’m going to break
your back. I can do something. Right. I agree with you a hundred percent. And that was a great movie. Sergio Bray was a personal friend of mine. used to live and train with him and he came to Los Cruz on number of occasions and trained in my gym and stuff. And you know, how he trained was very different. Like when we trained, say for bench press, we do 20 reps to start 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, and a final set of 40. you know, squatting would be.
You’d start at 20 reps, you’d go 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, same kind of thing with deadlift. And the thing that made it all work because you’re getting a high rep range and you always hear about endurance and everything, but what made it work was the amount of weight on the bar. I mean, even though he would do like 225, 250, but he can max out at like 450 pounds in the bench. You know, and you don’t, just don’t see stuff like that. People think, oh, that’s crazy. You can’t do those kinds of reps and stuff, put on sides. You look at his physique and stuff, it obviously worked.
Samson:
That’s my favorite piece about this, right? As people get so caught up in the sets and reps and then, I mean, what about the anecdotal evidence? Like there’s, this is the person who did this style of training and he’s massive. Like there’s no way to debate this.
Doug Briggs:
Right.
Oh
absolutely, even nowadays with dietitians, all the rich with dietitians, oh don’t need that much protein, oh you’re just wasting it. Protein doesn’t build muscle, whatever they get into and stuff, it’s like, I don’t know, it’s worked for generations of bodybuilders and liptards and stuff, so something’s working there, maybe your science isn’t finding it, but something is working.
Samson:
That is probably the main disagreement with my wife. She’s a registered dietician and we ⁓ consistently disagree on protein intake. So that’s the only thing ever that I will go behind her back and tell our athletes they need to eat more than what she’s recommending for them.
Doug Briggs:
Right.
Exactly,
100%. 100%.
Samson:
What do you
remember about meeting Dave and Linda for the first time?
Doug Briggs:
Um, I remember Dave, he was just a big man with a large voice and a lot of ideas. And, know, and he was just great. He was always, um, he was always happy. And then I remember Linda and she was more polished and polite and gentle. And, know, they’re kind of the perfect combination. He has all the energy and she keeps everything running smoothly. They were the perfect combination together.
Samson:
I think that’s certainly how I want people to describe me, which is a big man with a large voice and a lot of ideas. That’s a pretty good description.
Doug Briggs:
Right? That’s true of him. ⁓
Samson:
You know, you mentioned meeting Dave and Linda for the first time and being able to actually train in their gym. What was your experience with Samson on the equipment side?
Doug Briggs:
The very first experience I as far as purchasing the equipment was with the Army back in 2006. And we had a physical fitness center that my office was in. So we took out the weight training room and we added platforms in. And the whole idea behind the platforms versus what they had in there previously was the versatility. So by using the platforms and the bars and everything, we could do squats, deadlifts, power cleans, bench press, inclines. We could do pretty much anything with platforms. We could put 10 platforms in and introduce it to soldiers.
And the soldiers absolutely loved it. This is the only place in the army where you could actually do power cleans. We had people coming in, TDY, from different bases in the army. They’re like, wow, man, you can do power cleans. I did that at West Point at the Academy and all these different things. So it was a versatility of what we put in and we ordered the equipment. It came in on time. We got it set up. They came down. They set everything up. Everything was perfect. Like so, say the soldiers loved it. So that was the introduction of SAMPS equipment to the army. I think we were probably the first ones that ever have in the army.
And it just worked out fantastic as far as soldiers were concerned. And we ran our strong strength and conditioning camps off that equipment where we would train 13 to 18 year old elite high school athletes of dependents of soldiers. did civilian employee fitness program in the equipment. We did so many things on equipment and it was just absolutely versatile and dependable.
Samson:
You know, I’ve been part of a couple of weight room installs. I’m not the one who’s ordered the equipment, just maybe an intern or a GA who’s helped install things. You know, I feel like those things never run smoothly. what made the install, you said it worked very well and everything went, you know, very well. What made it stand out to you? What made the install go so well?
Doug Briggs:
Right?
You know, for us and everything, we did the prep as far as getting the facility ready for the equipment to come in. And then they came in with the trucks and all the equipment and everything. They did the setup on it and it was absolutely flawless. Everything went smooth. Everything worked well. Everything was there when it was supposed to be. And we just had a great experience with it. It no problems at all.
Samson:
That’s excellent. What set Samson apart back then, know, especially from other equipment companies in the industry.
Doug Briggs:
Well, you know, when you go back to the first gym things I worked out at, set them apart, they did innovation is what they were really doing. Because like said, a lot of the gyms were using homemade equipment and then Dave and Linda, they were manufacturing equipment. And originally on all their selectors equipment, had gears and chains, sprockets and chains. And so, you know, now we have cables and Kevlar and all those kinds of things, but it was always something innovative. They were always trying new things as far as equipment, new angles, new this, new that.
So that gym kind of was like a test market for the equipment they were going to develop or push out. So you got to see a lot of new things in there and it was really, really cool.
Samson:
What, you know, I mean, this is one consistent theme that I’ve heard over and over again about Samson is that they’re innovative and they try new things. What’s the favorite innovation that you’ve seen from them over the years?
Doug Briggs:
Favorite innovation? Well, you know, I would have to say from a perspective of someone that purchases and owns equipment would be the durability because they were the first ones that came in. Most equipment was made by two by two tubing. And then they came in with the three by three tubing and the thick walls, which the other equipment didn’t have. And then they did things like on a rack, a rack would go up to maybe seven feet tall. So you could put an NBA player on it. So they could customize the equipment as well as innovate like wall thickness and.
different things like that, the size of the tubing, which their tubing’s very heavy compared to any other equipment manufacturer. And you can see that a lot of times you can go and pick up a bench from another manufacturer with one hand or two hands, pick it up and carry it. You if you pick up a Samson flat bench, it’s generally going to take two people if you’re not rolling it somewhere, because they’re heavy. And that’s part of the durability. I mean, the equipment is very durable and can take a beating.
Samson:
Yup.
Yeah, one of my favorite things was being able to go to CSCCA two years ago ⁓ because I got to meet everybody. I’ve hosted the podcast remotely. I live over in North Carolina. So there was a lot of online discourse between myself and Andy and those over at Samson. So one, I got to meet everybody and realize how amazing this company truly is. I kind of got the vibe just from speaking with them online, but actually meeting them in person was incredible. ⁓ But then two, getting to see
the actual three by three, right? And getting to see the actual ⁓ durability and quality of their builds was incredible, especially in comparison to other racks. ⁓ I mean, they literally had a physical cutout of their ⁓ rack material versus another rack material. And just looking at the biggest difference, to me, kind of matches the training mentality, right? Like bigger is better. Ultimately, it’s something that lasts longer and is a better product overall.
Doug Briggs:
Absolutely.
And I remember when they were making the equipment basically out of the garage of their home. And then they went to a small warehouse in downtown Las Cruces before they finally ended up out here by the airport where they have the big manufacturing facility. seeing the growth over all those years has been pretty amazing also.
Samson:
What have you seen in the growth of the company? Because I’m curious, just like you said, you see them go from the garage to now having a large factory. I guess how has that experience been being able to see them grow too?
Doug Briggs:
It’s been phenomenal just watching the growth and actually being able to go to the factory and see how they produce things because people don’t really get to how equipment is produced. They just think it comes out of a warehouse and they painted it sent it out. But there’s a lot to that because from the time you bring the steel in and obviously prices on steel vary by what’s going on in the world and those kinds of things to actually the cutting, the drilling, the welding, the painting, the powder coating. Back in the day when they first started there wasn’t any powder coating.
All of sudden they’re doing powder coating. So just the changes and innovations that they brought about has been amazing. Like I say, they’ve been very innovative. They’re here from the very first on all the strength conditioning and much older than many of other companies. And you see the innovation from when it was like two by two and basically spray painted to three by three with powder coating and just all the different colors. And gym equipment used to be very basic in color, frame size same, color same, everything. Now it’s like, sky’s the limit on.
color or pretty much anything you want.
Samson:
Yeah, I’ve seen some neon green racks, which I don’t know if I can get behind quite yet.
Doug Briggs:
Yeah,
I’m pretty much basic on stuff. Old school is like, you know, it’s good school for me.
Samson:
Yeah,
absolutely. I guess I’m curious about this too. After training at their gym, how many times would you stop by the Sonic afterwards?
Doug Briggs:
Oh, all the time. Just
walked by the building and it was right there. 100%. Kind of like carnivore back in the day because, if you look at what the guys like Serge Braille and a lot of those guys ate and stuff, like they basically were on a carnivore diet most of the most part. You know, they’d have pizza once a week and everything else outside of that was pretty much protein in form or another.
Samson:
Feels rather anabolic to me. Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah, know, I again, I love the classic bodybuilding videos. Ronnie Coleman was my favorite to grow up and watch. ⁓ I could probably speak, you know, on that the lift video that he has of, you know, his greatest lifts. I can tell you every number on every one and reps and everything. ⁓ But one of the things that astounded me was the amount of chicken that he ate. I mean, just disgusting levels. And he’s like, I hate chicken. Like, I hate it. You know, and you hear Jay Cutler speak about those things, too. People get sick of eating the same thing over and over again.
Doug Briggs:
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
100%. You know, I look at some of the guys like Fred Halfield was a personal friend and he came in and worked out at my gym a few times and stuff. And I remember one time he stayed at the Holiday Inn and I went down the night before and everything like that. He was drinking a Crown Royal, smoking cigar. And the next morning at eight o’clock was working out and first set was 315 pounds in the squat. You know, it’s like, there’s just some great stories to some of these guys behind the scenes of what really went on.
Samson:
absolutely. I’m sure. I mean, again, it’s one of those things where I do appreciate the old school style of training where there’s not this fear about what my whoop score is or what the or it ring says, right? It’s I’ve got to get up and I’ve got to get this done no matter what.
Doug Briggs:
You’re right. Right.
100%.
Samson:
You you speak about these memories. What’s a favorite memory that you have with Dave and Linda?
Doug Briggs:
Uh, Dave and Linda favorite memory. There’s probably, we probably don’t have enough time to go over all of them. But some of my favorite memories are, know, back in, um, the late seventies or late eighties, bodybuilding was huge. And you could find a bodybuilding show in a town close to you almost every weekend because it was just such a big sport at the time. And they used to put on bodybuilding shows and it was always fun because there was a, know, you had mixed couples, pairs. had all the different bodybuilding people were new to it, getting into it things like that.
Samson:
Yeah.
Doug Briggs:
So they used to those bodybuilding shows on and they’d bring in people like Pete Grimkowski from Gold’s of Venice to guest pose. So you got to meet people you normally wouldn’t meet or see. then Linda used to compete in the mixed pairs with one of the employees of the gym. Actually, he signed me up at their first gym, his name was Gerald Clay. And so Linda and Gerald Clay used to do the posing and stuff and the mixed couples and things like that. you know, it was just a really cool camaraderie of people and events and everyone there for the same thing. And, know, people used to really get into bodybuilding. was like,
Wow, that was really cool. know, it was pre the excessive, you know, the pharmaceutical age that we have now, stuff like that, where we’ve got claymation going now versus back then it was a lot more natural.
Samson:
What was it about those events that really drove the camaraderie? You know, because I have my own ideas, but I’m curious to see what you would say.
Doug Briggs:
But you know, a lot of it had to do with the training aspect in the gym. And you see the guys that come in, they wear the baggy pants because they didn’t want anyone to see their legs or they didn’t want this. So lot of it they did undercover and stuff like that. And there were always secrets. And they are always goofing around with each other too. They’d say, know, some guy might say, you know, how’d you get so big? And the other guy would be like, you know, hey, it was yard fertilizer, man. I took some yard fertilizer and that’s what’s working. mean, you know, they just messed with each other. They had a good sense of humor about things. messed with me, but they didn’t divulge their…
I kind of kept them to themselves, but they would push each other too at the same time. You know, they’d push each other to succeed and be better than what they were. And so it was really kind of a neat combination of things that were going on.
Samson:
Yeah, I feel like that’s the breaking bread of strength and conditioning, right? Is going and lifting together, seeing what the other person’s got, seeing if they can take being pushed a little bit. I don’t really like going to other schools and meeting with strength coaches for coffee, right? I’d rather get a lift in and ⁓ see what you’ve got. I think it’s a lot more fun.
Doug Briggs:
Absolutely.
Absolutely. And that’s like I right now, originally I had 14 strength coaches and what I currently do and stuff. what I did with all of them is I made them design a program and I worked out with each one individually. And I wanted to see what they knew. That was part of the, why I worked out with them, but I also wanted to get to know them and their family. So I used it for two different methods to get to know them and also to get a good workout and just really gauge what they.
Samson:
Hmm.
Doug Briggs:
what they know because you know, with the Army and H2F and the other services bringing all the strength coaches in, just, aren’t enough strength coaches to bring in. And so you get a lot of young guys coming out of college that have never really done anything other than be a graduate assistant or whatever. And so it’s like, what do you know? Let’s see, let’s see what you know. And it was a lot of fun.
Samson:
Yeah, I think back to one of my main mentors, Dan Worth, at the University of Tennessee. We were doing the BearCat machine shrugs, right? And then all of a he said, no, you need to show your teeth. It activates your sternocleidomastoid more, right? And it’s like one of those things where, technically true, but he was just messing with me at the end of the day, just so I look stupid. ⁓ But it’s something that I never forget. And it’s something that, again, like you said, really builds that camaraderie and ⁓ makes it very fun.
Doug Briggs:
Right?
You’re right. Exactly.
Samson:
to be a part of a team or make it very fun to be a part of a staff. How did those interviews go? Did you ever find out anything you ⁓ were regretful to find out?
Doug Briggs:
sometimes, you know, they tell you to do something you tried and you figured it out after it was like, man, I’m dumb. I can’t believe I bought into that. You you pass on to some other guy and get him, you know, it was kind of like, you know, almost like a form of strength coach hazing, know, was like her competitive hazing. Absolutely. That’s where all the stories come from and everything, you know, you really remember about what you do.
Samson:
Yeah
Absolutely, but those are the most fun times for sure.
What was it like to work with Dave and Linda, you know, as business people and as individuals?
Doug Briggs:
Dave and Linda were very easy to work with and everything. And like I say, he was great because he was always had an idea, always had an idea to do something, how to arrange a facility, how to do whatever with equipment, stuff like that. And Linda was always the calm person behind the scenes, keeping everything moving. So they worked really, really well together. I mean, they were quite a team.
Samson:
That’s excellent. I’m so happy to hear that because, you know, ultimately those are the best couples are the ones who help complete each other and help keep everything on track. ⁓
Doug Briggs:
Exactly. They
balanced each other out really well.
Samson:
Excellent. You mentioned the training aspect of the gym and the culture of how it really formed a gym where people trained hard, they pushed each other, and it was about training at the end of the day. How do you feel like they helped influence the company culture as well?
Doug Briggs:
Well, absolutely. think the innovation influenced all these other companies because of the time you had Body Master, you had Flex, you had a lot of other equipment companies they were competing against, which most of them aren’t even here anymore. And a lot of those other companies looked at what they were doing because they were supplying equipment to the NFL, the NBA, those kinds of things like that that the other equipment companies weren’t, you know, supplying equipment to. So I think they really raised the bar in just how they manufactured equipment, the quality they manufactured, and the degree that they would go to to design something for someone.
particular needs. And I know when I had my Olympic lifting gym, I designed a couple of pieces of equipment and they built those pieces of equipment from our Olympic lifting gym. So, you know, they’re very open to ideas and if they like them, they’ve incorporated into what they did. So they were very open and forward thinking.
Samson:
So you really feel like what they were doing helped influence the field of equipment as well.
Doug Briggs:
100 % because you know when this all started back in the 70s, avoid epally and metabolic conditioning and all the different things. mean, you know, high school coaches, college coaches, they didn’t at that point, they didn’t even know that they didn’t know what they needed even, you know, and then all the stuff started coming around and they started seeing the equipment. Well, man, we could use that. We could use this. We could do that. So I mean, it’s an onset of this. No one really even knew what the need was for them. They didn’t even had identified what their need was. And you look at so many programs and high schools and
You know, it was a universal machine, a bench press, some dumbbells. That’s all it was for training. And I mean, my day, that’s all we had. We had a universal machine, dumbbells and a bench press. And then you look at that. And then you look at high school strength conditioning centers now. I mean, there are a lot of them where it’s good or better than a lot of D1 programs are. And that was one of the ways that I actually sold strength conditioning centers to the army was when I was coming up, when I came up with the idea, I actually went out and got pictures of different strength conditioning centers at high schools.
And one of them was Lake Travis in Austin, Texas. And they had just a phenomenal weight room. And I put together a PowerPoint presentation for the Army and said, you know, look, we’re the United States Army. And this high school has better equipment and facilities and trains better than we do. You know, what’s wrong with this picture? And that’s where I initially got the funding to start the strength conditioning Army. had a, for this, we had the very first actual strength conditioning center in the Army. was 13,000 square feet in a clamshell. We had 20 platforms.
And we ran meth training, was like, ran agility, weights, agility, speed, everything in one 52 minute session. And we could train up to 300 soldiers at a time. And so, you know, that’s what really kicked the whole thing off. I used to talk to one of the Lieutenant Colonel’s at back and forth brag. It was a special operations. And he was like, man, I wish I had the facilities you have. And was like, I wish I had the people yet. Cause he had the coaches, but he didn’t have the facilities. And I had the facilities, but I didn’t have the coaches. So we’re kind of on the opposite ends. But.
That’s what started the whole strength condition group in the Army.
Samson:
It would have been nice to be able to team up, I’m sure. But you literally showed a picture of Samson Equipment and said that we need this and you were able to get that done for the Army.
Doug Briggs:
absolutely.
Absolutely. That’s exactly what happened. I mean, basically it’s kind of shaming into it. If a high school’s got it, why don’t we have it? I mean, we’re the army, but a high school’s got better conditions than what we have.
Samson:
Yeah.
That’s incredible. I love that. You know, I really appreciate you bringing up the customized racks too, because I got to speak with Bill Ferran with the Miami Heat and he spoke about having racks for seven footers. Like those things did not exist back in the day. But if you want to train the basic way, and if you want to train in my opinion, the right way, you need to have the equipment for it. So I’m glad you bring those up because to me, that’s very innovative because
Doug Briggs:
Right.
Samson:
We’ve got some tall guys and we only recruit taller and taller. They’re not going to get shorter for basketball players.
Doug Briggs:
Exactly.
No, they’re not. You know, another thing that SAMHSA did was innovative was back in the day, everyone was using like the bronze bushings. And so your legging touch machine had bronze bushing on the pivot point and over time they wear. And they went to like a pillow block bearing and everything for the support points and you know, things like that made it smooth and lasted longer. So it was innovative in the sense that the equipment lasts longer, much smoother too. Even bars, you think about bars.
Samson:
That’s incredible.
Doug Briggs:
weightlifting bars used to all, they probably as a lot of them still do, still have the bronze bushings them versus like, you know, the roller bearings, the ball bearings, those kinds of things like that. And it’s like, it made a lot of difference in the equipment.
Samson:
And so you still see that today. Wow. So there’s a lot of things that Samson did that really have last and left a legacy within the equipment world.
Doug Briggs:
Absolutely, 100%. ⁓
Oh, 100%. And then, know, like, even like Olympic bars like what I’m used to, you got needle bearings in them and stuff because the bar has to rotate so fast. And you can’t do that with a bronze bushing.
Samson:
Yeah, wow. Ultimately, what does Samson mean to you? When you think about their legacy, you think about the company, what does Samson mean to you?
Doug Briggs:
integrity, durability, innovation, and just that’s pretty much it’s going to last forever.
Samson:
Yeah, yeah. You know, and I mentioned this on the last podcast with Bill, but I feel like it’s something I always have to mention is ⁓ when people ask me, you know, do you believe in Samson equipment, right? Because as the podcast host, you know, sometimes people get concerned that I’m just doing this for publicity or whatever, just like every other podcast host for an equipment company or representatives of other companies. ⁓ And the only reason I continue to do this podcast, I think I’ve been doing it for more than two years now is because
The company is so amazing to work with and the product is so high quality that I would, you know, if my mom, for some reason, I don’t think she would ever said she needed to build the weight room, I would send her directly to Samson because it’s such high quality equipment and it lasts so long.
Doug Briggs:
100%.
100%. And I’ve got the same in my home gym. I’ve got about 800 square foot home gym. I’ve got a pillar system in there, racks, same tank dumbbells, know, whole nine yards. I’ve got one. It’s a platform. Yeah, I was actually using the 96 Olympics when I was with USA Weightlifting and all that. was a, it was given to me after the 96 Olympics.
Samson:
How many racks you have in there? Have you got one?
That’s incredible, wow. I started doing the math in my head. You said 800 square feet, you said a pillar system, dumbbells, and then you said a rack, and I was like, these racks, and I said, oh my goodness, I don’t know how many is gonna be able to fit in there.
Doug Briggs:
Yeah, I’ve got one in there. could probably fit quite a few in there because I mean, I’ve got glute ham raise, treadmill, know, what else, elliptical, rower in there. mean, all kinds of stuff.
Samson:
Whatever it is to help you train. And so what year is that with USA weightlifting?
Doug Briggs:
I coached with USA Weightlifting from probably back about 94, 95 somewhere in there up until probably 2002, 2004 somewhere in there. I coached the world championships for university college students in, let’s see, were we? Canada in 2000.
Samson:
Wow.
How was that experience? How did you like coaching?
Doug Briggs:
I coached lot of years of the USA weightlifting and stuff and did numerous international events and it was just an absolutely outstanding experience. The coaches and everything. You had Dragon Mayor, had Lynn Jones. You just had a really phenomenal group of people at the time that were coaching. I was coaching assistant coach for the men’s and women’s team with Richard Borden and Mike Cady. And on the men’s side, that was the first time we won a team trophy since 1968. So it’d been quite a few years since we won a team trophy and did really well in Montreal.
Samson:
Wow.
Well, you know, the USA weightlifting is on the rise a little bit again. There’s been some new records said. It’s exciting to see.
Doug Briggs:
They are.
It is they’re doing a great job.
Samson:
Wow. Well, I mean, I can tell you as a power lifter, my Olympic lifts are embarrassing. So I might need to get with you separately after this podcast to help coach me up a little bit. ⁓ thank you. I appreciate it. You you mentioned that Samson equipment has influenced the field a lot in the equipment field specifically. How has Samson influenced your career?
Doug Briggs:
I’d be glad to, no problem.
Well, that’s what influenced my career. It provided me the ability to carry out the strength and conditioning knowledge I have to train soldiers and train other individuals and teams. You know, without that equipment, there’s only so much you can do. So having the great equipment we have and all that has just made it wonderful as far as will push that knowledge out and teach other people proper form, all the different things, technique that goes with it.
Samson:
Yeah. Did you ever have any ⁓ of those in the military who really were interested in Olympic lifting?
Doug Briggs:
Yes, and we’ve actually done some, we’ve had some competitions at Fort Bliss we had, and I forget the exact date, 2007, let’s see, was the Pan American Championships for Masters, and then we had the National Championships for Masters on two different occasions, like 2009, 2000, might even have been seven, but we’ve had like four different events there with the Olympic lifting and stuff, and you know, incorporated people into it.
Samson:
And I’m sure those things further drive the camaraderie you see as well.
Doug Briggs:
100%. 100%.
Samson:
How long did you compete in Olympic weightlifting yourself?
Doug Briggs:
for about, let’s see, probably about 14 years, roughly. Better cleaner, better cleaner. I didn’t clean more than I snatched, obviously more than I snatched, but I won the Masters National Championship twice, the Pan American Championships twice, and was gonna go to the World Championships, that was in 2001 when you had 9-11, so I kinda shut that all down, because the World Championships were like three weeks after that, so that kind of ended that, but yeah, I had a great run.
Samson:
Wow, were you better snatcher or cleaner?
Yeah.
Hope.
Oh, that’s incredible. You know, I can tell you my very lame story with Mark Ripito. When we went down there for a seminar, you know, I had to demo, you know, I’m sure you’re familiar with it, but for the listeners, they go around and they watch every single person lift. And so they will watch your clean and tell you, and he will tell you very blatantly if it’s good or not. And so luckily I had a good clean.
Doug Briggs:
Right.
Samson:
And I pulled and for some reason I just could not shoot my left elbow up as much as I can typically can and it landed straight on my collarbone. And so, you know, I’ve got everybody watching me and I’m like, you know, I can’t, I can’t complain. I can’t do anything. So I put it back down. And so he goes, all right, second rep. And I go pull again and immediately lands on my collarbone again. And so I put it down third rep that we traditionally have to do slams on the collarbone again. And I was like, I’ve got to get this figured out. And we’re supposed to only do three reps. And he goes, let me see one more.
Doug Briggs:
Right?
No.
you
Samson:
So I have to go pull again slams on the collarbone again And I mean it was raised a good two inches Then I had a bruise all the way down to the bottom of my peck after that So like I said, I certainly need your help with some technique
Doug Briggs:
You’re right. Yeah.
Olympic lifting produces some interesting injuries. mean, almost everyone’s got the bloody shins and at some point in your career, you’ll have neural marks up your forehead from where the timing’s off on the snatch or whatever. mean, it produces a very interesting, you know, injuries.
Samson:
Yup.
Yeah, my wife was rather concerned when I came home. She thought I was abused. She thought I got mauled by somebody. I said, no, I simply abused myself. That’s all it was. As we wrap this up, what would you like to say directly to Dave and Linda as they celebrate 50 years of Samson?
Doug Briggs:
Right
Absolutely.
Well, it’s just a congratulations on making 50 years in this industry with where there’s been so many companies that have come and gone. And, you know, thank you very much for letting me be part of the Sampson family.
Samson:
That’s incredible. know, if let’s say they were listening right now, what message would you want to leave them with?
Doug Briggs:
I tell them to enjoy their retirement and everything and don’t climb on any roofs. That’s what they have sons for.
Samson:
That sounds like a slightly inside joke. don’t know. Well, I’ll have to follow up and hear about the story afterwards. Well, Doug, thank you so much for coming on the show. It’s been really great to speak with you. I really appreciate your time and I know Dave and Linda appreciate your words as well. Thank you.
Doug Briggs:
It is.
Right.
You’re more than welcome.
Samson:
Have a great rest of your day.
Doug Briggs:
Definitely you too.
