“Life’s battles don't always go to the strongest or fastest man, But sooner or later the man who wins is the fellow who thinks he can.”


- Steve “Pre” Prefontaine




This Under The Bar column will focus on several areas – all random of course, but I would like to take this time to update the readers on some of the things happening around elitefts™ and toss in some other ramblings.


What’s going on?


Here are just a few touch points… The staff here is AWESOME! As I’m sure you can guess, this is a very busy time of the year for us and there is NO DOUBT that this is the smoothest and best Holiday Season we've ever had. This isn't to say that it didn’t take a lot of hard work (with more to come), but we have a core group of people that have been with us for MANY years now and they know exactly what needs to be done at what time to make sure everything runs smoothly. In these types of cases, experience makes a huge difference. Job Opportunities  After the first of the year we will be adding to our internal and external team. We will be posting exact work profiles on out Join Our Staff Page. Some of the positions we will be working to fill include:


    

      

        

      1. Editing
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    • Procurement (5 yrs. Minimum experience)
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    • Sr. Content Editor (5 yrs. Minimum management experience)
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We are looking for energetic professionals who are looking to help us take Elitefts to the next level…entry level with high potential for advancement. Regardless of your profession if this fits you please submit resume to resume@elitefts.com


 


New Products  New products are being loaded on a weekly basis. If you haven’t been keeping up-to-date, check them out here. There are some very cool new items to check out like… elitefts™ Super Shoulder Saver Bar 




This bar was designed by someone who has shoulders that are trashed beyond repair (me), but still wants to use bench pressing movements in his program. After years of dealing with pain and using board presses, floor presses, carpet presses and about 50 other modifications, a solution was discovered.  The days of sticking pads under your shirt and finding someone to hold a 2-board are now over!


Welcome to PAIN FREE PRESSING!


The best part of this bar is that you're getting a double bang for your buck: * Your shoulders will thank you. * Your lockout will go through the roof! This isn't just a tin can welded in the middle of a bar. This clear-coated bar is built as hardcore as we could make it. The 6-inch barrel is balanced, the bar is 1.5 inches with extra sharp knurling and it will hold whatever you can load on it. This is made using the same process as our BEST Fat Bars. 3" Cable Grenade Ball




 


This is EXCEPTIONAL, EXTRAORDINARY AND EXTREME!


Attach this to a chain clip or cable and you will know right away this is one awesome training device. You have never worked your grip like this or lit up you arms and shoulders anywhere close to this. This is great for...


    

      

        

      • Pinch Holds
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    • Chain Curls
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    • Chain Reverse Curls
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    • Chain Extensions
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    • Chain Side Raises
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    • Chain Flies
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    • Cable Cross Overs
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    • Cable Side Raises
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    • Cable Front Raises
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    • One Arm Pull Downs
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Are You Ready!? 


While I wish everyone the happiest holiday’s and a great new year, there is one thing I CAN’T STAND that comes right after the holidays… All the emails asking…Did you reach your goals? Then, they start with you now have 365 days to reach your new goal? You know what? NO, I didn’t reach all my goals. I was WAY off on some, exceeded others and by the way, they do not begin and end with the first of the year. They begin when they need to and are met when they have to be met. A much better question would be, "Are your strong(er) now than last year at this time?" This should be asked at any time in regards to any of the roles you fill.


    

      

        

      • Are you a better father now than you were last year at this time?
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    • Are you a better husband now than you were last year at this time?
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    • Are you a better brother, sister, son or daughter than you were last year at this time?
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    • Are you a better leader then you were last year at this time?
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    • Have you become better at your craft than you were last year at this time?
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    • Are you in better shape, condition, stronger, etc.  physically than last year at this time? 
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You can flat-out miss your mark and still become better…strong(er). Winning and achieving your goals isn’t always what moves us forward, such as the rewards collected along the way. What moves us forward is getting kicked in the balls time and time again and keeping your focus on what’s most important. Many people can obtain their goals EASILY, but completely lose focus as to why or what the purpose was in the first place. The point is, it’s not the goal that determines if you are better or not. The question is simply, "Are you strong(er)?" If the answer is yes, then you are moving forward. If you are not strong(er), then get ready for the shit to hit the fan or be ready to get steamrolled. Some examples:


    

      

        

      1. If you are not a better in your roles as husband, father, son, and daughter, your relationships will slowly begin to slip apart. Relationships take work, we all know this. If you are not working on it, then what do you think will happen?
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    • If you do not become better, stronger, or smarter in training, your lifts will slip, you will get hurt and you will get out of shape. In all sports it is not necessarily the stronger person who wins, but the one who thinks they can. Why do they think so? Because they have become strong(er)!
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    • If you are a team player on any sport's team and/or business, are your skills better today than one year ago? In professional sports, as soon as your skills drop below replacement value, you get cut. Business was once explained to me as a hand of poker. You have your cards in hand but are always looking on the table to trade up if a better cards turns. Another way this was explained to me was that most business hire for essentially two reasons and one goal. The goal is to increase value (profits) the reasons are to replace an existing position, or create a new one. If it is to replace an existing position, the position's value is already known. If it is a new position, the value must be guessed. In either case, if the positions are doing a good job, they should make more over the years. At the same time, the company learns how to absorb these costs. This is why it is easier to burden the cost of a replaced employee than a new hire. The question becomes after the employee has been with the company for three years and accumulated a higher wage and benefits, "Are they actually worth more than they were first hired in at? Are their skills better? Have they made themselves indispensable (see the Angry Coaches article today about this)?" If they have not, the company can now replace the position at the current cost of the employee. This could be 20-50 percent more than what they paid when the position was first created. Could the company hire someone much better than they have at the same wage or lower? Could the position just be eliminated with little to no effect to the company? As owners and mangers, these are questions we need to be consistently asking. As employees, these are also question you should be asking, such as, "What could your value be to someone else?" If you work for company X and since being hired have learned new skills, gotten more education and generally are worth more than you are paid, it would serve you well to market these skills out to see what the real world value is. In all cases, you never want to assume, BUT the one thing that rings true is you have to strive to get better.
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    • If you are the owner, manager, leader or CEO, the same rules apply. We already know what the value is, but if you are not getting better each year, your entire company will get worse each year. Part of your job description should be “never ending and continuing education.”
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You need to LIVE, take chances, don’t take for granted what you have, take time out each day to reflect on the good, don’t be scared of adversity and know when and what to focus on.


You need to LEARN, to become more educated and experienced at your trade and all the roles you serve in your life.


You need to PASS ON, and give back for all the experiences you have had and will have. The more you pass on, the more you learn and become strong(er) and the more you can help mankind, the world, or maybe, just the kid down the street to become strong(er).


Great MBA Program


On the Q&A this week Luke asked… Hi Dave!   I am an undergraduate student of economics and management in Croatia. I am really interested in sports management and I'm searching for great MBA programs in USA. Can you recommend me some top schools that have programs such as business in sport, sport management?   Best Regards, Luke I really didn't have a good answer for him, so I posted his question on the Q&A to see if anyone else could help. Charles replied with a great answer that I felt was worth posting in this column: Dave,  Regarding the MBA question from Luke: I could be wrong, but I think he’s best off building his own path. My advice would be to list the top business schools that fit his value proposition (cost vs reputation vs placement vs whatever) and then list the schools with best sports programs in both theory (respected kinesiology) and practice (champs in practice). Then, find the few that intersect and go in with the plan to build an enhanced major there. Business is a craft like any other. A great businessperson can run ANY business as long as he/she understands the craft and has the ability to shorten learning curves when it comes to industry technicals (example: be secure enough to say “I don’t know” and listen actively). It's more important that he "build" and own his education given his unique objective. Go in with that plan..and how he did it also becomes his elevator speech into an internship and first job. I'm a UW - Madison grad, so I'm partial to the badgers. It's a great business school and has great athletics, but he needs to figure this one out on his own. Since it’s his first business project to execute and position himself versus the competition. If you can’t do that, then the school is irrelevant. If he can do that, then the school is also irrelevant. - Charles 


The Finisher 


This is a new section I will be adding to my column where I will pick one finishing movement and describe how to use it to destroy whatever body part you're training. While this is not related to the topic of the column, I think you all will enjoy these. PLEASE let me know if you would like to see these added to the column. *NOTE: This video is taken from our elitefts™ Mobile channel, so the quality isn’t the best. This channel is being used to capture random training footage and whatever else we think of filming with our phones.  Tricep Assassination  This is a very simple movement to perform and is best done at the end of your triceps training. Stick a medicine ball on the pad of an Assisted Dip Chin – Dip Machine. Begin with pressing the ball down as you would a JM Press or a combo between an extension and press. When your triceps give out, change your grip. Every time you go to failure, change up your grip with the goal of 100 reps.