Strength Training Articles and Programs

Compression Floss Bands: What Lifters Should Know

Compression Floss Bands and What Lifters Should Know

— Dave Tate
Tagged: Bands Strength & Coaching Training
What compression floss bands do, what the research supports, and how lifters can approach mobility work with realistic expectations and appropriate precautions.
Programming Bands and Chains: band-resisted squat, bench press, and deadlift.

How to Program Bands and Chains

— elitefts
Tagged: Bands Powerlifting Strength & Coaching Training
Learn how to program bands and chains, track bar weight and added resistance, and progress dynamic effort, max effort, and accessory work.
Long and short bands: Choose the right tool. Stylized photograph of bands in a storage rack.

How to Choose and Use Long and Short Resistance Bands

— elitefts
Tagged: Bands Powerlifting Strength & Coaching Training Video

Choose the right band length and resistance for pressing, pulling, leg work, and accessories. Includes six elitefts demonstrations, real setup photos, and correctly labeled two-band calibration charts.

Band Setup: Squat, Bench, Deadlift. Stylized bench press photo with bands anchored to low pegs.

How to Set Up Bands for the Squat, Bench, and Deadlift

— elitefts
Tagged: Bands Powerlifting Strength & Coaching Training Video

Start with the setup, not the load. Matt Wenning’s video and elitefts manuals explain low anchors, doubled bands, reverse bands, and checks for the squat, bench, and deadlift.

Editorial illustration of an American flag behind a power rack in a garage gym; The Flag Went Up the Same Day as the Rack

The Flag Went Up the Same Day as the Rack

— Dave Tate
Tagged: Coaching Dave Tate Military Powerlifting Strength Training Strongman Table Talk Veterans Day
A flag in a garage gym, and some of the veterans who have sat at my table on Table Talk. Dave Tate on service, strength, and what it means to show up after Veterans Day.
Lifter under a safety squat bar in a gym with a red-and-white wall.

Protect Your Momentum. You May Not Get It Back.

— Dave Tate
Tagged: Dave Tate Motivation Success/Business Training

Momentum is hard to build and easy to waste. Dave Tate looks back at the training decisions that shortened his career and the business lessons that brought elitefts back to its culture.

brad bench

The Full Impact of Online Coaches in Powerlifting

— Dave Tate
Tagged: Bench Press Dave Tate Powerlifting Program Design Strength & Coaching Training

Online coaching gave lifters access to great programming from anywhere, and it quietly pulled the crew out of the room.

Dave Tate and Dr. Daniel Fosselman discussing testosterone and impulsive decision-making on Table Talk episode 454

The Impulsive TRT Trap: Daniel Fosselman on Testosterone and Better Decisions

— elitefts
Tagged: Coaching Powerlifting Rehab & Recovery Strength & Coaching Table Talk Training Video
Dr. Dan Fosselman explains how high testosterone can amplify impulsive decisions—and why sleep, stress control, sound training, and fundamentals still win.
Building the Lock by Ashley Jones

Building the Lock by Ashley Jones

— Casilyn Meadows
Tagged: Bench Press Bodybuilding Powerlifting Powerlifting or strength and conditioning Program Design Sports Performance Strength & Coaching Strength Equipment Technique Workouts & Programs

Ashley Jones breaks down how he develops strength, power, size, and durability in rugby locks—and how the same methods can help tight ends and linebackers. From French contrast training and sled work to upper-body size, CARE work, and in-season programming, this is a practical blueprint for building big men who can move, hit, and keep going.

Row of elitefts racks and adjustable benches at NOVA of Virginia Aquatics

Outside the Lanes: NOVA Aquatics Makes Room for Strength

— Team elitefts
Tagged: Equipment Featured Gyms Gym Stories NOVA Aquatics Team Training
At a swim organization built over decades, a ten-rack dryland room gives the work outside the water a space of its own.
Olly Clark pressing a strongman log overhead in the elitefts gym

Stop Pressing the Log Away From You: Olly Clark's Log Press Fix

— elitefts
Tagged: Coaching Strength & Coaching Strongman Training Video
Fix your log press by keeping the implement close, cleaning to a high rack, dipping out, finishing the leg drive, and delaying the head-through for lockout.
Trade or Profession? Where Does the Strength Coach Actually Stand? By Ashley Jones

Trade or Profession? Where Does the Strength Coach Actually Stand? By Ashley Jones

— Casilyn Meadows
Tagged: Bodybuilding Coaching Culture education Powerlifting Powerlifting or strength and conditioning Sports Performance Strength & Coaching Training

Is strength coaching a trade, a profession, or something in between? Ashley Jones explores the divide between hands-on coaching experience and formal education, and explains why the best strength coaches need both craft and professional standards.

Dave Tate and Jon Heck discussing rapid post-diet fluid gain and controlled rebound nutrition

Control the Rebound: Why 20 Pounds in Three Days Is Not Growth

— elitefts
Tagged: Bodybuilding Nutrition Strength & Conditioning Training Video
Jon Heck explains why rapid post-diet weight gain is mostly fluid, when calorie surplus becomes dangerous, and how to manage the rebound with control.
Black and red elitefts Shoulder Saver Pads shown together

Shoulder Saver Pads: Black vs. Red and How to Use Them

— elitefts
Tagged: Bench Press Product Guide Shoulder Saver
Compare the black and red Shoulder Saver Pads, learn how their ranges differ, and see practical ways to add them to your bench training.
The Roots of Table Talk: 450+ episodes, decades of passing it on, with Dave Tate and the elitefts podcast table

The Roots of Table Talk: From the Mill to 450-Plus Episodes

— Dave Tate
Tagged: Dave Tate elitefts History Podcast Powerlifting Table Talk
Dave Tate looks back at the website Q&A, From the Mill, Mark Watts’ Sports Performance podcast, the weight-room table and more than 450 numbered episodes of Table Talk.
Leather lifting belt draped over the black pads of an elitefts SS Yoke Bar.

Same Percentages, Different Bar: Dynamic Effort Squat Waves

— Dave Tate
Tagged: Bands Dave Tate dynamic effort Powerlifting Program Design Squat Training
The bar you choose can change squat workload by thousands of pounds. Dave Tate breaks down three dynamic effort waves, the math behind them, and how to use your own records.
Neural Contrast Complexes

Neural Contrast Complexes

— Casilyn Meadows
Tagged: Bands Bodybuilding Coaching education Powerlifting or strength and conditioning Sports Performance

Ashley Jones breaks down the Neural Contrast Complex, a training method that combines heavy strength work, progressive plyometrics, explosive lifting, and reactive movement. Discover how this three-week system develops strength, power, and speed without sacrificing movement quality.

Conjugate For the collision white background and rugby football

Conjugate for the Collision Sport

— Casilyn Meadows
Tagged: Bands Bodybuilding Powerlifting Powerlifting or strength and conditioning Program Design Sports Performance Strength & Coaching Success/Business Technique Training Westside Barbell Workouts & Programs

Rugby demands strength, speed, conditioning, and the ability to do it all again next week. Ashley Jones shows how to adapt the Westside Barbell conjugate system across the off-season, pre-season, and competitive season, with practical programming built around performance on the pitch.

Jon Heck discussing post-diet rebound mistakes, strength, and nutrition on elitefts Table Talk 453

Stop Treating the Rebound Like a Reward: Jon Heck on Dieting Without Losing Strength

— elitefts
Tagged: Bodybuilding Nutrition Strength & Conditioning Table Talk Training Video
Jon Heck explains why aggressive post-diet rebounds fail, how to protect strength during a cut, and how to build a metabolism that supports harder training.
dave squat ipa

Your Abs Can't Squat 860: Why Core Training Decides Your Lifts

— Dave Tate
Tagged: Coaching Dave Tate Powerlifting Training

It was the IPA Worlds at the York Barbell Hall of Fame. My first meet after nine months off. I had taken the time to heal up, regroup, and push my bodyweight higher, and training had gone better than it had in years

Jon Heck explaining peri-workout carbohydrate timing for strength, muscle, and recovery

Fuel the Work, Keep the Muscle: Jon Heck's Carb-Timing System

— elitefts
Tagged: Bodybuilding Nutrition Strength & Conditioning Training Video
Jon Heck explains how to time carbs around training, protect strength during a cut, and match training volume to fat-loss, growth, and maintenance phases.
Olive green rack and cable equipment at Professional Integrative Care in Columbus

Inside Dr. Dan Fosselman’s Practice, Strength Has a Place

— Team elitefts
Tagged: Dan Fosselman Equipment Featured Gyms Gym Stories Professional Integrative Care
Long before he opened Professional Integrative Care, Daniel Fosselman was learning to coach athletes. His Columbus training space brings that background into view.
Jared Martin featured in the official Table Talk #452 thumbnail for Why I Pulled for 2nd on a Torn Hamstring

Composure Wins the Platform: Jared Martin’s 385-Kilo Decision

— elitefts
Tagged: Coaching Powerlifting Strength & Coaching Table Talk Training Video
Jared Martin's 385-kilo World Games decision shows lifters how composure, attempt selection, and clear priorities protect the total under pressure—and win.
SS Yoke Bar JM Press: Stronger Pressing, Bigger Triceps

SS Yoke Bar JM Press: Stronger Pressing, Bigger Triceps

— Dave Tate
Tagged: Bench Press Dave Tate elitefts equipment Powerlifting Strength Equipment Training Video
Your SS Yoke Bar can do more than squat. Learn how its removable handles and padded design support a controlled JM press for supplemental bench work and focused triceps training.