WATCH: Road Trip Rants — Rounded Upper Back Deadlift, The Best Part of P...
Still on the road and still answering your questions, this episode focuses on deadlift cues and exercise selection with limited equipment.
The Coach's Guide to Programming and Periodization: Surfing The For...
Understanding this tool for manipulating training intensities is key for athlete programming at every part of pre-season, in-season, post-season and off-season phases.
Is Your Competition Outworking You?
I love the ideals of hard work, being hardcore, and oozing intensity, but over the years I have learned there are many ways to perceive these things.
MEET REPORT: IPA North Carolina State Powerlifting Championships
Two meets in less than a month? I know I’m 76—not 26— but when Joey Smith told me to get in the meet, I got in the meet.
Your Circle of Trust: Don't Be the Captain of a Ship of Fools
There are moments in life that shape your mind and determine the way you choose to think and live. I have experienced two such moments that have shaped my coaching and life philosophies.
The Top 5 Guidelines for Fat Loss
I hate to speak in absolute terms but there are certain rules that simply can’t be broken.
Full 9-Week High-Mileage Conjugate Meathead Program
If you’re looking for a way to keep your strength up without destroying your body day in and day out, this is the program for you.
WATCH: How to Set Up Bands Correctly for the Squat, Bench, and Deadlift
Your setup will vary depending on the equipment you’re using and the lift you’re performing. This article includes a step-by-step video guide to ensure you’re getting the most out of your bands.
WATCH: Fixing Dave Tate — Adjustments to Upper Body Training for Phase 3
With two phases of training complete, the upper body training days must now be adjusted to continue Dave’s progress. This is the new plan.
Every Training Method Is Useful
…and every training method is useless. Let’s look at 1×20, APRE, and VBT to understand what this means.
Stay the Course
Think about all the things you sucked at the first time you tried them: walking, talking, reading, writing. What if you’d given up on them after a failure or two?
Maximize Effective Volume and Minimize Junk Volume (with Program Sample)
There is a muscle protein synthesis threshold, and adding sets over and above this threshold will not help you gain additional muscle. A simple way to ensure you aren’t wasting your time and energy on junk volume is greater frequency.
Rethinking Discipline: How I Stay 'Motivated'
It seems to me that if a lifter has questions about motivation or discipline, maybe they need to consider another pursuit or reevaluate how they look at training.
The Five Best New Strength Training Items from elitefts
New equipment means new ways to help you get strong — and a lot more fun.
Sled Walking: The Mindless Exercise That Shouldn't Be So Mindless
If all you’re doing is strapping on a sled and walking until you can’t walk any longer, you’re giving up tremendous potential for this movement.
Strength Training for Youth Athletes — The Youth Physical Development Mo...
Neuromuscular training can be implemented early in the youth physical development process, but age-appropriate speed and strength training must account for the process of growth and maturation, motor learning, and physical development.
WATCH: Why the elitefts SS Yoke Bar Stands Out Among Other Squat Bars
The SS Yoke Bar is the only bar that Dave can use week after week and be able to continue squatting. Here’s why.
RANT: Stick with the Program
You paid a coach for a program and don’t like what they gave you? There’s a right way to handle this situation — and it’s not by deviating from the plan just because you want to.
Antioxidants and Adaptations: Do You Need Free Radicals to Get Hulky?
The idea behind antioxidant supplementation is that antioxidants reduce free radical damage and subsequent muscle soreness, thereby improving recovery. But what if those pesky free radicals are necessary for hypertrophic training adaptations?
LISTEN: Just Fly Performance Podcast Episode 16 with Guest Mark Watts
Most athletes will forget the win-loss records of their teams, but they won’t forget the way the coach treated them. This podcast episode focuses on the impact coaches can have on young athletes outside of sets and reps.
Dos and Don’ts of Dieting While Traveling or on Vacation
Being outside of your normal routine and away from home can make it challenging not to wreck your diet, but there are a few ways to manage the damage.
WATCH: Road Trip Rants — Elaborate Setups, Being Too Bloated, and Minimu...
No table, no problem. This first on-the-road video Q&A covers five questions from five different elitefts readers.
Where Most Box Athletes Miss the Mark
Many coaches still believe it is heresy to say that athletes can build absolute strength and endurance simultaneously, but athletes all over the world are doing so and making great progress. Here are a few ways to do so even more successfully.
Flip the Script: What Is Your Internship Really Teaching You?
Making 200 protein shakes per day and cleaning up the weight room isn’t going to make anyone a better coach, so you’d better hope there’s more than grunt work for you to do.
WATCH: Victoria Felkar's 2018 elitefts Sports Performance Summit Pr...
When athletes are pushed too far for too long, they become ill, injured, or simply lose interest in training and their sport. The proper approach to athlete development will solve this.
2018 Zoo Run Run: Team Not Team Old Man vs. Team Old Man
This was more than a 10-week prep geared to beat our previously recorded race time of 52 minutes and 32 seconds while flying past a self-proclaimed mashed-up meathead.
Sodium Intake: Why Be So Salty About It?
If you are eating a healthy balanced diet and are pretty active, adding some salt to your meals may actually aid you rather than hinder you.
So You Want to Be A Collegiate Strength Coach: Steps to Earning Your Fir...
This is where you need to start if you want to get one of the strength coaching jobs you’re dreaming about. It’s simple but not easy, so swallow your pride and ego before you move forward.
WATCH: Fixing Dave Tate — Implementing the Lower Body Training Adjustmen...
Dr. Rusin already explained the alterations to Dave’s program after the first two phases. Now it’s time to see them in action.
Getting in the Zone Just Got Easier
Featuring TAO (a revolutionary nootropic masterpiece), making unbreakable mind-muscle connections is no longer an impossible task.
Optimizing Your Pre-Training Routine: The Five Stages of PTR
The sequencing and staging of your PTR is key. The exercises work synergistically, and their individual effectiveness is secondary to their combined effect.
WATCH: Equipment Feature — Mike Bartos' Big Top Circus Dumbbell
This product was designed to pay homage to old-time strongmen and make training much easier for strength athletes today. It is easily customizable for your size and weight needs.
Dusting Off the Past to Answer Questions for the Present
There is often hope that the future is the timeframe where many problems and questions of humanity will be solved. But sometimes the questions have already been asked, pondered, explored, researched and answered.
Overcoming Blind Spots
It requires humility—real humility—to admit that you have blind spots in life and training. But merely recognizing them isn’t enough to get past them.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Why Dan Started Boss of Bosses
There are certain things all meets need, such as consistent judging, quality equipment, and safe spotting. But if you want your meet to stand out, you need to offer more than that.
Consequences of Disrespect: Don't Disregard the Bureaucrat
One of the most important lessons of my 15-year leadership career came from a man capable of responding to disrespect and condescension with calmness and grace.
The Coach's Guide to Programming and Periodization: Variable Manipu...
In the first article of this series we covered the basic principles of programming and periodization. Now let’s discuss strategies to manipulate volume and intensity, and start examining the training units used to structure training.
Learning from Those Around You: 10 S&C Lessons from Friends, Mentors...
If you aren't open to the knowledge and expertise of those around you, you're only holding yourself back. These are some of the most influential things I've learned from others in this industry.
How Student-Athletes Can Support Teammate Mental Health
More student-athletes are beginning to recognize mental health as simply another part of the training and self-care process, and not a sign of weakness or lack of mental toughness. Here are three ways to help.
Strength Coach Ego Check: Rediscover Who You Are
I had a conversation with Coach Jeff Ward that not only humbled me, but shook me to my core. I thought I had been focused on convictions, but ego had slipped into the driver's seat.
Five People You Need in Your Training Life
I have looked at my personal success and observed who in my life has helped me move toward my goals. These are the types of people who can bend my ear, grab my attention, and then push or pull me toward the place I need to be.
Meet Report: Winning the 198s But Falling Short on Best Overall at the K...
This is the first meet I’ve done in three years that I didn’t win best overall lifter, and it was a huge—and much needed—kick in the ass.
4 Rules of Training Professional Athletes (with Off-Season Program Sample)
Four years ago I got a phone call about training a local kid who had just been cut by the Atlanta Falcons and wanted to make his move back to the NFL. Here are my four rules of training professional athletes and what I did with Roosevelt Nix.
WATCH: From Collegiate Defensive Lineman to NFL Fullback — Brian Saunder...
Making it to the NFL isn't easy. It's even harder when you're changing positions from the one that made you so successful in college.
10-Week Rest Pause Method Progression for Strength
Small jumps each week alter the focus of this progression from hypertrophy to strength, first building the muscle, tendon, and ligament strength needed to handle heavier weights, and then hitting PRs.
The Acute Phase of Injury: What Just Happened?
Once you’ve started the waiting game and it has sunk in you’re out of training for a while, there are definite ways to set yourself up for success. This is something I'm currently experiencing myself after tearing the adductor longus tendon from my pelvis.
FML: I Have A Vegan Under My Roof
This turd doesn’t stray: She asks if things are cooked in animal fat. She will not eat a burger, opting for the non-meat version every time. She won’t eat a snack or anything that the other girls eat, even if there is a group of them together hanging out.
WATCH: Custom Equipment for Destination Dallas
After a visit to the S4 Compound, Greg McCoy and his Gasp affiliates found a piece of equipment for their Plano, Texas facility.
Supermen: Cross-Athleticism, Who These Guys Are, and How They Ended Up T...
Certain sports are based on cross-athleticism and the mastery of more than one set of skills, such as the triathlon, the decathlon, strongman, Highland games, and now Crossfit Games. But do you get better at one by being better at another?
WATCH: Fixing Dave Tate — Adjustments to Lower Body Training Days for Ph...
Now that Dr. Rusin and Dave checked in and reviewed the previous progress, it's time to make some changes to both the max effort and dynamic effort lower body training days.
The 5thSet Black Meet and Women's Pro Am Weekend: Back-to-Back Wins
After the inaugural 5th Set Black Meet on Saturday, I drove all night to Cincinnati for the Women's Pro Am. My motivation for a weekend short on rest and long on PRs can be summed up in a single sentence: I love powerlifting.
Have You Heard the Secret to Strength Yet?
I'm here to spread the true secret of strength, if you think you can handle it.
Stronger Necks, Fewer Concussions
Neck training can be done with isometric or range of motion exercises, performed self-administered, working with a partner, or with equipment. I've recently begun to trial a new device to take this training even further.
Dave Tate's Free Squat Manual
You can build a powerful looking body without ever entering a power rack. But you'll never really be strong. Stronger than the average guy, sure, but not the type of strong you dreamed of when you first set foot in a gym. For that kind of strength, you need a heavy bar on your back.
Transforming Strength and Conditioning at Livonia High School
In three years, Chad Smith has revamped an old practice gymnasium into one of the best training facilities in the country. It’s amazing what you can do with some drive and showing your administrators some initiative.
WATCH: elitefts Core Values — Strength
What is true in the gym is true in life. Everything is about strength and overcoming adversity.
My First Meet in My New Gear
I am, as I am after every meet, hurting in places I didn’t even know I had — this time in my head as well as my body, as I shall explain.
Athletes and Strength Training Technique
Because an athlete's focus is sports performance, they may be less concerned with consistency in strength training, or they may harbor a false belief that having great technique during weight training is relatively unimportant. Change this.
