6 Don'ts for New Lifters Going Into a Meet
As a coach and competitor these are the recurring mistakes I witness many first-timers make.
Physical Preparation Guidelines Every Firefighter Should Follow
Your job is your playing field and you need to prepare your body for game situations through proper training, nutrition and hydration, along with preventative maintenance and recovery.
Do You Believe?
Was I able to do these things and reach the level that I did simply because I believed?
Social Skill Integration Through Movement and Strength — Off-Site Training
½ Gym, ½ Off-Site Training leads us here: a full session away from gym grounds. Fit your programming needs within these structures to differentiate skill, meet new people, and have fun.
WATCH: Periodization Differences Between Small and Large Groups
In a question-and-answer session, Dave Tate and Mark Watts talk training with a group of strength and conditioning students.
Logistics of Coaching — Working With What You Have
You can have an amazing battle plan but if you can’t support it with beans and bullets, it’s worthless.
Finding Strength: Cold Front CrossFit
Merging with Traverse City and Bulky Boys Barbell clubs, this Northern Michigan facility has welcomed strongman into their doors.
Big Squat, Big Bench, Big Deadlift — Big Air
So, you want a big squat, bench and pull? You better learn how to breathe.
What's Old?
Instead of thinking of age as a disability or a disadvantage, recognize your experience for what it is: an advantage in achieving physical and mental greatness.
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed…Someone’s Blue
There’s a difference between using someone’s ideas or concepts and flat-out stealing them. It’s very simple to figure out, even though a lot of you blow it.
Understanding the Strategy of Periodization
Knowing how to implement proper periodization will set you free from being slave to rigid programs and pre-written training plans.
WATCH: Table Talk — How to Maintain a Healthy Spine
Screw up your back and being unable to squat or deadlift won’t be your only concern.
WATCH: Chris Duffin Interviews Kettlebell Expert Joe Daniels
In this first interview within a 3-part series, we discuss the commonalities in our training philosophies and address methods for staying in touch with your body.
Know Your Bars
Nobody wants to waste hard earned money on equipment they’re not sure about. Use this overview of the SS Yoke Bar and the Rackable Cambered Bar to make your next purchasing decision is an educated one.
4 Big Errors of Beginner Strength Programs
These four things can make or break your program. Do you know of them?
Post-Meet Training — What to Do the First 9 Weeks After Competition
This 9-week program is designed to allow recovery, build muscle, improve conditioning, and prepare you mentally and physically for another heavy training cycle.
Jeff Magruder: Powerlifter and Bench Press Champion
A multi-world record holder in the bench press, a successful gym owner, and a successful all-around lifter, Magruder has certainly made his mark.
How Good Is Your Huddle?
The huddle has everything to do with your team’s success. What might surprise you is that it also has everything to do with your success in life.
My Weekend of Strength
With a clinic and meet scheduled on back to back days, I was surrounded by influential members of the strength community and made a few discoveries.
Three More Guidelines for Injury-Free Progress
The primary question you should ask for your training is this: How can I get stronger while staying injury free? Maximize your results with these general rules.
WATCH: Reno Hardcore With Guests Dan and Sparkle Green
Chad interviews world-record holding powerlifter Dan Green and his wife Sparkle after a seminar at American Iron gym.
Building the Biggest Hood in the Hood — Unchained Chest Mass
Chains change the game — and not just for powerlifters. I’m going to show you an unconventional fly that is fit for the bro to the top pro.
The Training Ego — Are You Letting It Win?
I had a training ego. It drove everything I did — every weight I put on the bar, every lift I took, and the design of every workout. And then one day, my training ego gave up.
Tapering for a Powerlifting Meet
Let’s evaluate how to train in the final four weeks leading to a competition. Most importantly, what does it mean to taper and how should you do it?
WATCH: Table Talk — Peaking for A Meet with Circa Max Training
Dave and JL talk about the aspects of Circa Max that many lifters overlook: the what, how, when, why, and who.
Are You MapQuesting Your Training?
This is the difference between running a system or following a program. It’s the difference between getting lost or arriving at your destination.
WATCH: Dumbbell Rows vs Barbell Rows for Back Development
These two back exercises are a staple of every bodybuilder’s program but there are many ways to screw them up. Are you performing them correctly?
How To Train Around Old
Please don’t believe the clichés that age is only a number or you’re only as old as you feel. If it were only a state of mind, we all could stay 21 forever.
Three Powerlifting Fads That Are Hurting Your Total
Training isn’t meant to be flashy — it’s meant to be effective. Resist the temptation of these “hip” techniques and stay on track to bigger PRs on meet day.
Confidence — What Separates the Elite from the Novice
Where is your confidence and what are you willing to do to strengthen it?
Glute Gains: My Top Exercises and Build-A-Booty Program Design
Engaging your glutes is half the battle. Structuring a program with the right exercises is the other.
Communication in Strength and Conditioning — The Heartbeat of a Successf...
With your athletes and with your staff, communication is all you have for keeping everyone on the same page. If you won’t talk to them, you won’t understand them, and your program will fail.
Unraveling Insulin Resistance
IR sufferers need to replace their carb intake with proteins and fats…or do they?
Finding Strength: Area 56
Owned and operated by Tyler Petro and his wife Sarah Connors-Petro, this gym started in a storage unit and has grown to a premier facility in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Powerlifting as a Team Sport — The Professional Mindset of Tank's T...
Any successful team needs all of its athletes to be on the same page and shooting for the same goal.
Seminar Lessons from Kettlebell Workshop at Elite Training Systems
Even at the highest levels of coaching and training, there is a need and desire to continuously learn from different people to consistently improve your ability to help your clients get better and improve.
WATCH: How To Properly Use the SS Yoke Bar
This bar brings endless potential to your weight room — but only if used properly. Don't forget these two cues.
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
If I left work and went to the bar instead of the gym, would it really make a difference?
WATCH: Table Talk — What Is the Most Disgusting Thing You've Seen i...
If visions of vomit, blood, cysts, and puss make you queasy, find another video to watch.
How to Fix Your Bench Press: Programming Issues and Assistance Work
Knowing now how to set up and execute the lift, there is one final process to perfect your bench press.
REGISTER NOW: April 30th Training Camp with JL Holdsworth, Swede Burns, ...
You will have the opportunity to learn about any topic in strength training you choose, from execution of the main lifts all the way down to minute details of accessory work.
Building Aerobic Capacity with Barbell Conditioning
The concept is simple but undergoing this challenge will feel anything but easy.
Your First Summer of Planning — Schedule and Program Setup as a New Coach
Young coaches often find a spot late in the summer leaving little time to prepare for the year ahead. Here are the planning and scheduling factors to consider as you construct your program.
Navigating the Singles Scene
Although the singles dating scene seems exciting, especially to a married old codger like me, my experiment with singles is of a completely different variety.
Armour Plating the Upper Body and Power Training the Lower Body
Trial and error over time has led me to where my programming is today. This has produced a philosophy that includes a different approach to upper and lower body training.
No Longer Chasing the Bench — Leaving the Platform After 30 Years
I am not leaving the sport. I love this sport and even more so, the people in it, but the juice is no longer worth the squeeze.
WATCH: Weightlifting, Baby Formula, and Wild Cats
In some way all these things come together before, during, or after a House of Biceps training session.
Women and Imposter Syndrome
The more I reflect, I realize how much I have permitted this fear to dictate to the extent to which I engage in certain opportunities or cultivate a niche for myself as an educated, strong ass woman who wants to get you healthy.
Don't Romanticize Self-Destruction
What must competitors put themselves through to attain championship notoriety? Being confined to a wheelchair? Torn relationships? Shortened lifespan?
A Call to Arms Series: Building Billy Club Forearms and Perfect Peaks
You won't win the arms race with puny forearms and flat peaks. Enter the Fat Bar Reverse Curl.
Calves to Cows — 5 Methods to Improve Your Calf Development
You can't easily change the shape or insertion of the lateral or medial head of the gastrocnemius muscles. But you can develop impressive calves with these techniques.
Internship Perspective: Don't Forget the Act of Kindness
It's not all smiles and pep talks. There will be broom duty, but kindness should always be somewhere in the mix.
Table Talk — What Is the Biggest Lesson You Learned From Westside?
JL Holdsworth joins Dave for a look back at the years they spent training at Westside and everything they learned there.
Squat and Deadlift Coaching Lessons from the XPC Training Cycle
With a limited time frame and many issues to fix for these three lifters, I had to target their specific weaknesses with training adjustments. This is how we did it.
New Product: elitefts Brain Torch
After months of research, development, and testing, we're finally releasing an ammonia product unlike any other.
Are You Willing to Be Wrong?
I was unwilling, to my core, to be corrected. I would rather get hurt than admit I was wrong. And I did, many times. Once that character defect changed, so did everything else.
8 Beginner Bodyweight Exercises You Suck At (But Will Make You A Better ...
This is the goal: not only opening your eyes to bodyweight resistance, and progressing towards some extremely impressive feats of strength, but making you a better all-around lifter.
WATCH: Coaching Session with Brandon Smitley and Purdue Barbell Club
Smitley discusses each cue and technical advice given to the young lifters, explaining how and why it is important for them to make the changes in their training while preparing for competition.