Sam1911, thank you for several things.
For starters, my friend and I discussed this a few hours ago, and he showed me he could (eventually) do it his way. He's got a Dan Wesson PM-9. He left it for me to practice with, and I found I could also do it - trying both ways as described in the article you linked to. His gun has been shot a lot, and is very smooth and easy to operate. Racking the slide is actually easy.
What amazed me even more on his gun, was to try to rack the slide without pulling back the hammer. On the PM-9 this was easy.
After doing this for ten minutes or so on the PM-9, I tried on my LesBaer. Doing it your way, for the first time with the Les Baer, not only could I easily rack the slide, but I could do it repeatably,
both with my body turned 90 degrees as before, but
also the other way with my body facing the target. What I can't do yet, is actuate the slide lock as I push the gun away from me, while facing the target. I think as the gun wears in a little more, I'll be able to do that. In the meantime, now that I know "what" to do, I can start keep trying until I get it sorted out. (I assume that the Les Baer will continue to loosen up as I use it more.)
The single most important thing I learned from the article, was to NOT try to pull the slide back, but to just grip the slide and push the gun forward with my right hand, giving it a fast push.
Sheesh, it's amazing how much easier things are to do, when you know how to do them correctly!!!