Drag Those Gym Closure Blues Away
I see lots of bands, bodyweight exercises, and lightweight information, which is all great, but in my opinion, sleds are right up there. I can train every body part with one sled.
Constraints: How to Use Them
I challenge you to think of this economic shutdown as a forced deload. Is it something that you want? No. Will it completely crush you? Probably not.
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — Swede Burns Talks About His 9000-Calor...
Need a little bit of bulking inspiration? Swede Burns and Dave Tate trade tips. Swede lays out the entirety of his diet he used to maintain a 330-pound bodyweight as a powerlifter.
Ricardo Garcia and The Posterior Chainsaw
Ricardo Garcia had a problem. He had agreed to kill someone. Garcia accepted the money. He promised to do the job and took the money – an advance payment, from Jimmy Luciano of all people, “Chainsaw” Jimmy Luciano.
Lee Zimmerman's Home Gym Stays Open!
Lee Zimmerman’s home gym is his personal escape and fully fleshed out strength training powerhouse.
Bare Bones Bodybuilding
This article is not about the bands or weights but HOW you use the bands or weights. You can use these 12 techniques to keep your workouts fresh and keep your sanity without going to the gym.
Building The Executive Meathead’s Home Office
I wasn’t ready to settle for pick-up golf or calf roping. A busy professional and personal life didn’t keep me from making my most important training decision.
Smart Fat Loss During a Pandemic
For the sake of this article, I am going to explain the smartest moves and what I have done personally with my clients with regard to fat-loss goals. We will go over two categories – general fat-loss and bodybuilding competitor.
Squat Habits for Success
If you’re attempting to teach a squat and you’re having to constantly cue “knees out” or “chest up,” that lifter isn’t ready for a squat. Period.
Endless Sled Dragging Variations That Will Dramatically Improve Your Per...
Get your ass out there and start dragging some sleds! It’s not as much of a drag as you think it is. With 22 variations to get you started, the possibilities are truly endless.
How to Safely Train Every Day During Quarantine
For those who currently aren’t working and also have limited gym equipment, I wanted to provide a potential gameplan that you can use to bring some routine and mental/physical stability to your day-to-day.
Online Trainers Going Broke: Don't Blame COVID-19 or the Government
The next few months are going to be incredibly difficult for the vast majority of online trainers. Consider me Dr. Phil for a minute as I provide four things that you can do to not find your dumbass in an anxiety-riddled situation when or if something like this happens in the future.
WATCH: Equipment Feature: The elitefts 5 Rings Bar
More precise bar positioning, simpler coaching cues, and easier chain and band placement are just a few of the many benefits of this innovative bar design.
The Squat Epiphany
If I was that young woman in the picture with my present old mind, I would do it all differently. Unfortunately, I can’t rewind that tape but if you’re reading this and you are or know of a young couple expecting a baby or handling their first one, this read may change your child-raising perspective.
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — Dave Tate Reminisces About His Early D...
Dave Tate knows it all right? Not always… Here’s a major blunder and how he bounced back.
Editor's Letter for April
I hope this letter lifts your sanity as we at elitefts continue to live, learn, and pass on – educating and outfitting the strongest athletes around the world. You’ll find new content inside!
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast #50 with Vincent Dizenzo, Matt Rhodes, and Ji...
The three amigos are back! Need a laugh? You’ll want to watch and listen to this home edition of Table Talk.
3 Workout Mainstays in Every Home Gym
It’s in these moments, we wish we would’ve put a little more energy and cash into our home gym. Here’s how to start small yet smart.
COVID-19 and S&C
Albert Einstein says it best, “Out of clutter, find simplicity. Out of discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
How to Coach a Successful Seminar
For my wife Julia and me, strength for the general population is the area that we felt we could help and influence the most. The following is a list of helpful points that has aided us in providing successful seminars to our attendees.
Is Your Winning Culture Broken?
Without a culture, we are just hamsters on a wheel. Working hard and going nowhere. Our teams may train hard and get after it, but year after year, they will fall short on the playing field.
Train Your Closet Bodybuilder This Off-Season
Why not have a dedicated cycle to focus on while transitioning out of some downtime after a meet? No machines at your gym? No problem. This was written for a hardcore powerlifting-friendly gym with limited access to machines.
Explosive Strength and Plyometric Options for Upper Body: How and When t...
Speed is king, right? Then you’d better train it. I have some medicine ball throws to get your athletes up to speed. Make sure those movements are crisp and fast! Go, go, go!
Serious Training Considerations for COVID-19
So here is the decision you need to consider: should you adapt your training in favor of less dangerous styles of exercise and workload, or continue as planned on your strength journey?
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — Dave Tate and JM Blakley Discuss Their...
The idea that powerlifting might not be an option one day is terrifying, but at least Dave Tate and JM Blakley can share some wisdom for you to be prepared.
Seven Rules of Customer Engagement for Personal Training
I wanted to know the similarities between college coaching and private sector training, so I asked our director of customer engagement to write out his rules of personal training. Here they are.
Emergency Home Gym 101
We are on a budget and in a hurry and we don’t have the space, we just need stuff to press, hoist, lift with and not break the bank.
Dropping Weight as a Powerlifter
This isn’t an article outlining how to drop the bodyweight. What I do want to talk about is the mindset and dealing with all of the change that is to come when dropping a lot of weight.
Home Gym Essentials on a Budget
Here are my top budget-conscious choices for an extremely effective home workout.
Social Skill Integration Through Movement and Strength: Home Training
Now at home, this is a great opportunity to get the family involved by creating new healthy habits using indoor and outdoor space.
Sick of Your Gym? — How to Start a Private or Home Gym
In this part, you’ll understand how you can start a private or home gym of your own — on a budget. It’s not as expensive as you might think.
3 Major Principles of Weight Loss
Don’t start at 60 minutes a day on the stair stepper. It’s not about losing as much weight as soon as possible. Remember, it is very hard to gain muscle so we don’t want to be too aggressive with our weight loss and sacrifice the hard-earned muscle we have.
Six Reasons Athletes Need to Use Sandbags
Yes, sandbags. Nothing new for many coaches but always used as a tool when “better” training implements weren’t available.
Rising to the Challenge
A crisis does not make the person, a crisis exposes the type of person one actually is. What type of person are you in these unsettling and uncertain times?
Bodyweight Training for Upper-Body Strength and Power
This split is customizable, flexible, and effective in helping to build and maintain lean muscle mass. Not to mention, you don’t have to have a pricey gym membership in order to see results.
Supersets for Hypertrophy Training
The trick is to get the right combination for the muscle or the area of the muscle you are working. Inside I have the best supersets for each muscle group and some crazy options — just in case you want to go psycho and do something that everyone else doesn’t have the balls to do.
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — Training Economy for the Washed-Up Mea...
If you can count on one hand the number of joints that don’t hurt right now, you might want to heed some of Dave’s training tidbits.
WATCH: 17 Band Exercises Powerlifters Can Do at Home
Life gets hectic with viruses, gym closings and holidays, work, and travel, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get some training in.
6 Conditioning Finishers for New Personal Training Clients
Here are six conditioning finishers that I’ve used to help clients to end tremendous sessions but also give them swift kicks in the asses, coming back for more.
Epidemic Survival Strategies for Fitness Enthusiasts and Professionals
For starters, if you have access to equipment during this time, it is recommended that restraint be employed pertaining to exercise intensity and volume as both have been implicated in temporarily suppressing immune system function.
230 Max Effort Variations You Can Do With 1 Bar
If you think having one bar means you can’t do max effort variations, you’re wrong. It’s time to think outside of the box. If you can’t, no worries! I already have, and I came up with 230 variations you can use with a straight bar. No specialty bars required!
Add Online Training in 24 Hours: The Step-by-Step Plan
In its simplest form, online coaching can be provided via email and text. It is not done in group form but is personalized and unique based on the client—just as if he or she were in your gym.
4 Ways to Get Stronger Without Adding Weight to the Bar
Too many people focus on hitting the big 1RM and forget the little stuff that gets them there.
Kettlebell Compounds for Conditioning
These multiple-movement sequences link a variety of kettlebell exercises for a full-body, more brutal and effective workout that can be done anywhere.
The Slipperiest Slope in Fitness
If you are a strength coach, personal trainer, or whatever other random fitness guru label and you’re diagnosing someone’s pain or prescribing rehab for an injury, you may want to watch your step – because you are on quite a slippery slope.
12 Upper-Body Blast Strap Variations
Anchor this suspension system and you instantly have at the very minimum, twelve exercises to train back and shoulders.
Best Training Methods for Biceps Growth
In this 5-week program, I include training modalities that your biceps respond to by growing. We’ll cover peak contraction, isotension, giant sets, extended sets, plus a great bonus finisher to encourage a biceps stretch!
Excuses are the Language of Quitters and Non-Starters
I have seen way too many lifters lose before they even really get started because they fall back on excuses. Be more than an excuse.
One Diet Size Fits One
There is no universal healthy diet or macronutrient composition. You must identify what is healthy for you. Read on to understand why we are so diverse to discover your best diet options.
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — How to Build Upper-Back Strength For a...
Looking to beef up your upper back or increase your bench and squat numbers? Of course you are. Check out Dave Tate's best advice on how to structure your routine to best gain upper back strength.
The Merits of Patience
If you are a “millennial” or, like me, a person from another generation who has become beguiled by the power and comfort of the internet and the society that it has engendered, I want to revisit the value of “the long haul.” World = Fast, Gym=Slow.
1300 at the WPO Semi-Finals
I’m glad that I got the total I wanted and hit a bench and deadlift PR. I JUST WANT TO MAKE MY GEAR DADDIES PROUD.
From Meathead to Streethead
I quizzed Mitch to uncover some of the keys to his transition from a resistance training focus to a largely conditioning focus – from a max bodyweight of 235 to a lean bodyweight of 165.
What To Do When Your Thyroid Fails You
Slowly each week, I was getting bigger and bigger — and not the good kind. I exploded from a 130-pound fitness chick to a 200-pound walrus. After a solid three years of impeccable blood lab results, it's time to dabble in my sob story and ultimately share the phases I undertook to regain my health and life.
My Sh*tty-@ss Thyroid
Why is it important to get thyroid testing done? What thyroid markers should be tested? What causes thyroid dysfunction? As I dive into thyroid health and function, these are the questions I'm discovering. I'm still trying to get a better understanding of it all, but here's what I know so far.
It's as Easy as 1, 2, 3…4, 5, 6, 7
The path to becoming a strength and conditioning coach at the collegiate level is unique to everyone. However, there are some similarities and tips that this strength and conditioning coach wants you to know.
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast #49 with Mark Bell
Dave Tate sits down for an episode of the Table Talk with Mark Bell and his co-hosts of the Mark Bell's Power Project, Nsima Inyang and Andrew Zaragoza. Dave and Mark talk about their past time training together, and life and business lessons they've learned since then.
2-Day In-Season Conjugate Options for Athletes
The great thing about this system is that it's flexible. Here are four different methods you can choose from this in-season so your athletes feel good and get stronger.