Every Hip Replacement Has a Silver Lining
If life is a juggling act, some balls are rubber and some are glass. You can get another job, buy a new car, or pay someone to fix your house, but if you drop the ball with your family, it is broken forever.
Why You Need to Return to Powerlifting
This article is for those of you who are on the fence. For those of you who have considered a return to the sport but are having difficulty pulling the trigger. For those of you who need to feel at home again.
Mirage Chasing
We seek enough, for what? To prove we did something? That we’re good “enough” at something? I’m fighting every day to overcome this and you should too.
The Science of Winning According to Vasili Alexeyev
This is a repost of what Dave feels is one of the most educational articles we have ever posted.
Can I Catch a Break? — My Harrowing Situation with Lisinopril and Angioe...
At 9:30 my right lip was swollen, by 12:30 the skin on the entire right side of my face was pulled tight, and by 1:30 I was in the emergency room.
WATCH: Table Talk — Feeder and Recovery Workouts
You can’t just throw in extra workouts or recovery protocols and expect to get the most out of them. Like everything else in training, they need to be programmed strategically and used at the right times.
Mental Visualization to a Better Total
The body is limited but the mind is unbelievably more powerful. With positive mental imagery, you can take successful rep after successful rep with a weight you have never even touched.
WATCH: Q&A with Coach Kav — Marketing and Branding in the Fitness In...
Whether you’re starting your business or have been around for years, one of the most important parts of your success is understanding and controlling consumer perception of your brand.
Put the Phone Down!
I have never witnessed a singular item more capable of disrupting a training session than the cell phone. There’s a better alternative that gives all the benefits of technology with none of the downside.
Build Your Deadlift with the Snatch Grip Deadlift
The snatch grip deadlift is an outstanding assistance lift if you have a weak upper back or erectors, but it’s not a traditional deadlift. Many cues for it are contrary to the traditional pull.
How to Heal Any Injury Overnight
When recovering from a recent hamstring tear, I started using a simple practice that can not only make training more intense, productive, and satisfying, but can also help you handle anything in training — including injury.
Using Continuous Positional Feedback: Three Exercises You Can Improve by...
The continuous feedback of the wall can provide the athlete with a sense of position, tension, and compensation, resulting in improved performance and benefit of the exercises.
5 Simple Ways to Increase Grip Strength
Building a better grip doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming, and can have a big impact on your performance for both powerlifting and strongman.
WATCH: How to Perform Strongman Axle Clean Pulls
By breaking the movement up into several segments, you can avoid overuse of your biceps and reduce risk of injury.
Current State of the Injury Rehabilitation and Pre-habilitation Field
How do people begin to decipher what constitutes good injury rehabilitation or pre-habilitation? In this article, I’m going to describe in detail many different factors that will help you sniff out the bullshit.
What to Expect When Hosting A Powerlifting Meet
For this article I’m going to go through some of the things you need to plan for when hosting a powerlifting event and give you examples of how we did it for our most recent competition.
Ego Is the Enemy
Let me introduce you to a young gentleman from my gym. Like a lot of inexperienced lifters, he didn’t understand what it really means to keep your nose to the grindstone.
Why You Should Hire an Online Coach
Not all online trainers are bad. Many members of team elitefts have been in this line of work for decades, training people long before social media even existed. Here’s what to look for.
WATCH: Table Talk — How Should a 15-Year-Old Begin Training for Powerlif...
What’s the difference between a teenager who is an absolute beginner and an older lifter coming back from a decade-long layoff?
WATCH: Strong(er) Business: elitefts Fitness Professional Summit Speaker...
Listen to Dave, in his own words, explain why he chose each presenter for the summit and how he believes their knowledge can help any professional in this industry.
WATCH: Q&A with Coach Kav — The Reason for Motivational Quotes and S...
What’s the deal with all of Coach Kav’s quotes and slogans? Do they actually make a difference?
Who's to Judge?
Judging is not my favorite job at a meet, but it is growing on me. In fact, I think all lifters at some point should try judging. Here’s my experience at Boss of Bosses IV as a judge.
The Do's and Don'ts of Leadership
Since college, I’ve worked at seven different universities and a few Globo gyms. I’ve run clinics, I’ve trained privately, and I’ve even worked construction. From all this, I’ve learned from some great leaders and some less than great leaders.
WATCH: Blast from the Past — Dave Tate's Presentation at the 2006 S...
There are four components of a weight room atmosphere: coaching, equipment, training, and athletes.
The Swing Block Method for High School Coaches
After publication of the Swing Block Method, emails came non-stop from coaches asking how to implement the program in their schools. Here is the answer. The program within will give your team the greatest strength results it has ever seen.
Explosive Power or True Plyometric: Is There a Difference Between Types ...
Coaches need to be careful about how often and at what intensities they play their ace cards. You cannot draw on all training methods year round, so know when and why to use these variations.
A Guide to Buying the Perfect Barbell
Recently I was in the market for another barbell for my home setup, and at the start of this journey I thought all barbells were equal. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
To Compete or Not to Compete
Some people only have a small window to compete in powerlifting or play sports, and then they might never compete again. Avoiding this opportunity with weak-ass excuses is the worst thing you can do.
A Meathead’s Guide to Reading Scientific Papers
The more people calling out incorrect uses of references and sharing well-compiled articles, the better shot we have at preventing the growth of new fitness and nutrition myths.
Pausing to Remember 20 Years
Our 20th wedding anniversary coincided with the end of a 13-month stretch of time that included eight bodybuilding competitions. It’s no surprise that Christina was experiencing angst for vacation.
What Inspires You?
The world records, the surgeries, the comebacks, the nights alone in motels, the tears, the blood, and everything in between needs to have a purpose. This is what I want to leave.
WATCH: Table Talk — When to Add Gear During A Training Cycle
This doesn’t only apply to multi-ply lifters. How you add equipment in training should have a sequence to it, even if you compete raw.
Band Tension for the Pull-Up and Push-Up
Band tension adds tremendous metabolic (muscle) and nervous system (brain) challenges, making them perfect for shorter training sessions. Imagine what happens when you return to bodyweight pulls and presses.
Top Training Tips For Advanced Lifters — The Last Two Weeks, Coaching, a...
You would think this is all common sense, right?
Motivation Found in the Gains of Others
I have trained with three classes of people in the last few months, including young college men, 50-year-old women, and two very strong powerlifters. Each group has encouraged me in its own way.
Training the Attacker
My thirteen-year-old daughter recently started a single weekly session, supplemented with interval running and sports specific training exercises. This is how she’s training for lacrosse.
10 Exercises to Strengthen Your Spinal Erectors
The spinal erectors are often overlooked when it comes to building the physique AND deadlift. Try these 10 to add slabs of meat back there.
Programs to Stimulate Size and Strength Gains
I have collated a few of my most result-producing programs for you to try, from both a sports performance perspective and also general training for size and strength for the non-sports person.
WATCH: The Type of Training Programs I Have Used
With all of the different kinds of training programs that exist today, which ones have produced the most success?
Olympic Weightlifting for Strongman Athletes
You can't be a good strongman without being a good athlete, and that means building power, mobility, and technique. These movements can help build all three.
Intrapreneurship
For a good staff member, a salary can just get in the way of a great career. Coaches need an unending opportunity with some limitations, and this is where you come in.
Why You Should Raise Your Prices
While it may seem like a simple, quick way to gain more clients, competing on price is usually recipe for failure.
WATCH: Interview with Powerlifting and Strongman Legend Bill Kazmaier
The greatest strength athlete of all time sat down with me to talk about his success in the iron game.
The Benefits of Concurrent Training
It must be noted that this article is specifically looking at intracellular signaling pathways leading to increased muscle size.
WATCH: Table Talk — Run the Monolift or Walk Out?
This really shouldn't be a debate. Mimic how you compete.
The Path to Anti-Fragility
This must-listen episode features clinician, author, and speaker Dr. Craig Liebenson, who first turned me on to the concept of anti-fragility.
My Position on Sex
I posted on Facebook last week asking for input on what topics I should write about for my column. The clear champion was the issue of sex within close proximity to competition and how it should be handled. Let's start at the beginning.
Meet Report: USPA Pikes Peak Open 2017
I was setup better from this training cycle than any other. I easily made weight, had a coach with complete confidence in me, and a training partner that celebrated every step. But the meet had a different plan for me.
Hack Your Internal Clock for Improved Sleep Quality and Sport Performance
Getting stuck in the routine of a disrupted sleep-wake cycle can turn a top-tier athlete into a complete mess. Understanding circadian rhythms is the first step to avoiding this.
Are You Using Your Lats?
Many lifters believe they use their lats on the squat, bench, and deadlift, but I have found that they’re often wrong. Here’s how to know.
Are You a Leader or Do You Lead?
I have found there are two main types of leaders in the industry of strength and conditioning. There are those who inspire others and there are those who dictate.
The Rebirth of our Society — It's Time
We need to get our mojo back. It starts with our children. We can't go through life simply coasting through the motions, never pushing ourselves, and setting a poor example.
Meet Report: UPA Summer Showdown 2017 at Old School Iron
At the beginning of this year I lost 60 pounds in less than eight weeks. I couldn’t stand longer than a few minutes because I was so tired. I couldn’t go up or down stairs without losing my breath. It was humbling, to say the least.
LISTEN: Just Fly Performance Podcast — Episode 42 with Dr. Bryan Mann
This discussion focuses on further applications of velocity based training, including the topic of fast-twitch muscular hypertrophy, ensuring athletes don't cheat the system, and choosing between average and peak velocity.
Conjugate Bodybuilding
How does this system translate to someone that just wants a bigger set of guns? Incredibly well, actually, due to the fact you will spend the bulk of your training sessions performing hypertrophy work to bring up primary movers.
WATCH: How to Perform the Hook Grip
There is an astronomical amount of misinformation floating around right now about the hook grip, and, in my opinion, that’s the result of a lot of people (mostly beginners) using the hook grip inappropriately.
Alternatives to Squat Training After Overuse Injuries
When looking at how to continue to train through overuse injuries, there are five main regressions and changes I have found able to lead to pain-free movement in the squat.
Top Training Tips For Advanced Lifters — Stay Healthy and Be Your Own Wo...
Do you think the top-level guys are 100% healthy? Do you know the best way to deal with critics?