Ever wondered about the benefits of more sets? Maybe you’ve tried and got quickly fatigued? Dave explains the impact in his latest Table Talk.
Nearly a decade of training combined, and what have Jim Wendler, Matt Rhodes, and Vincent Dizenzo learned about the perfect warm-up?
Nothing like getting together with pals and talking old powerlifting stories. From Louie Simmons trying to break your fingers after beating you in the stomach, to having rules made specifically about you.
JM Blakley and Dave Tate have had their fair share of tendon problems. From tears to tweaks, they’ve learned how to strengthen their tendons to help lengthen their careers and put up bigger numbers. From ultra-heavy reps to ultra-light ones, here’s a variety of tendon tools at your disposal.
Everyone likes putting their own tweak on popular programming. Louie Simmons was not very receptive when he learned Mark Bell had changed his, however. You’d think a 180-pound squat PR would speak for itself, but apparently it was still no good.
Stop screwing up your deloads and you’ll see less back pain and significantly increased performance. Then stop screwing up how you tie your shoes! Done incorrectly, small movements can add up to exacerbate back pain.
What does the fitness landscape look like for beginners, and what can we do as trainers to help them best? It’s oversaturated with con artists, and we need to understand the beginner’s perspective to be able to help them best.
If you’re struggling to make your workouts fit a new and tighter schedule, Dave Tate shares his pro tips for making 3-day and 2-day week splits work with great results.
Dave Tate and Brian Alsruhe both know you can’t do the same thing forever and expect results. In the pursuit of maximal performance, you have to find your way to step ahead of the crowd. How do you identify what your own edge is?
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room…” — Socrates
Every action has a reaction. If you remain indifferent to the negative reactions while only focusing on the positive reactions, you’re likely going to experience a major wake up call sooner or later.
In hindsight, what was Yessica Martinez’s biggest takeaway from working with the bench press wizard JM Blakley?
Great coaching, brawls and talking trash all go hand in hand at elite powerlifting gyms. When Dave Tate has a story to tell about Westside Barbell, it’s a good idea to stop and listen.
Being jacked as hell got your shoulders a little tight? Here’s how you fix your squat bar position for better performance, less pain, and a bigger total.
Did you miss out on your peak potential by picking up powerlifting too late? Or would you be nowhere near where you are by starting too early?
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.
Dave Tate knows it all right? Not always… Here’s a major blunder and how he bounced back.
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.
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.
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.
Vincent Dizenzo, Jim Wendler, and Matt Rhodes come together to deliver a classic tale of body odor, sketchy needles, and a whole lot of that sweet power bloat. Complete with quite a few verbal jabs at each other in between, like does losing weight even count as a challenge as a super heavyweight powerlifter?
Debating switching stances? How can you know which one is better for you? Dave Tate drops some wisdom on how you’ll know when it’s time to switch, and how to best train the deadlift.
Listen to JM Blakley talk about the reasons behind his supplemental exercise choices when aiming to increase his already massive numbers. Apply these to any of your lifts and you might find what you’re missing in your current program!
Whether you’re trying to avoid a heart attack or a stint of diarrhea you might want to heed the words of Dave and Brian about how you shouldn’t play around with your heart health.
“How much better could I have been if I had full support?”
Dave tells us his only regret after a long powerlifting career. At the end of the day, none of the training mattered if he wasn’t doing right by the people he loved.
There are universal traits that unite what elevates a powerlifter to the top regardless of what era you competed in. Rather than try to pick apart the differences of each we should focus on the things that the best still do today.
Is speed work really doing anything for your progress? JM Blakley is willing to bet that it isn’t. Powerlifting is about force, not speed.
Hate to break it to you, but you can’t out-correct a corrective exercise.
If you’ve dreamed of training the same way Dave Tate’s athletes do, today’s your lucky day… well, not exactly. Maybe you can’t train like them, but you can sure warm up like them!
“It’s going to feel heavy as fuck, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
What do Dave Tate, Nick Showman, Louie Simmons, and high school athletes have in common? A love-hate relationship with the trap bar… and a few other movements.
NEVERsate started off as a band name and became the name of Brian Alruhe’s gym — but there’s more to the name than that.
Training through chemotherapy took everything Clint Darden had. All in all, he believes it was important that he did. There was nothing else he’d rather do and no place he’d rather be.
Don’t do drugs. Negative side effects and addiction concerns aside, PEDs can really harm athletes’ long-term development and careers. They’re not worth losing the future gains over, we promise.
“…I’m using powerlifting lifts in a bodybuilding style…” Dan Green shares the secrets to building muscle as a powerlifter and as a bodybuilder.
“I do feel the back is the engine of the powerlifter. You could almost not train anything else but just pound the shit out of your back four times a week and still be strong.”
The conjugate method isn’t simple for everyone, which is why Dave decided to write down an explanation on the Table Talk table.
There are so many movements you can do when it comes to strengthening the back for the bench press — so which ones SHOULD you do?
Don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain; instead, keep your eye on the goal through your training journey.
For someone who says he doesn’t like the competition aspect of powerlifting, it comes off as a surprise that Dave Tate’s favorite part about powerlifting is a moment that happens at meets.
Ideally, the kids should be learning from the coaches’ example. So what does that say about coaches who are calling kids lazy?
There are two kinds of athletes: the ones that love to win and the ones that hate to lose. The athletes who hate losing are the ones you should be afraid of. Dave Tate learned that the hard way when challenging Chuck Vogelpohl at Westside.
What does it mean to go all in? Is there a point where you’ve gone too far down the rabbit hole of all in? Clint Darden and Dave Tate attempt to answer these questions with their different perspectives.
Dave Tate and Justin Harris reflect on how they first met and a handful of the adventures they shared during Dave’s post-powerlifting retirement diet.
Joe Sullivan says the movements he uses to keep his adductors health are “the bomb.” Want to find out what those explosive movements are? Read on to find out.
In this snippet from a Table Talk Podcast episode, Dave Tate and Justin Harris discuss Janae Kroc’s return to the bodybuilding circuit and how hormones may (or may not) affect her return to the sport.
Carb cycling: A fancy phrase for rotating calories. Nutritionist Justin Harris breaks down why you should be carb cycling and why it works in simple terms.
It’s better to have one cheat meal a week than to go off of the program and eat on a day that you’ve burned off a lot of calories and now have taken in more calories than lost. Don’t turn a fat-burning day into a fat-gaining day.
It was in the year of 1993 and he weighed somewhere between 218 to 220 pounds. Who does that narrow it down to?
Even Doctor Deadlift has bombed out, and for him, it was at his first meet as a 15-year-old in high school. Cailer Woolam was ready to quit, but he kept on pushing, and look at him now: one of the youngest people to make the deadlift world record.
While Dave’s AWOL, Jim Wendler, Matt Rhodes, and Vincent Dizenzo fill in and answer questions. This question (what lifts are you most proud of?) sparks a conversation about coaching and fond memories this trio of friends shared and are now sharing with you.
When I started adjusting patients, I liked the sound of popping. I was really attached to it. But if you’re just trying to hear that “pop,” you might end up hurting someone for something that might not have been necessary in the first place.
Believe it or not, Cailer Woolam gets a lot of questions about why he’s not gaining weight to break more records. But at age 24, he’s got plenty of time and work ahead of him.
It’s not really a controversy unless we talk about that particular controversy, right? Well, if you wanted some hot takes on Robert Oberst’s deadlift criticism, you’re in the right place!
If “what you’re saying you’re doing and what you’re doing to the athlete doesn’t match up… I’m calling BS on your integrity.” Phil Matusz, OSU’s associate director of strength and conditioning, shares a powerful message for high school strength coaches.
Cortisol. It strikes fear into the hearts of most men. But cortisol is nothing to be afraid of. It serves a good purpose, and John Meadows is here to explain its benefits.
I don’t care if it’s a physical therapist, a chiropractor, or a medical doctor. You need someone who looks at the overall picture, not just the area that’s giving you trouble.
We tend to go into things with fitness coach or trainer eyes. We need to start seeing through the clients’ eyes and thinking like they do. We need to relate to them. Once you do that, you can take them on a journey.
Matt Rhodes’ takeaway lessons for strength coaches in this clip: Put your best foot forward. Stop screaming and start communicating. Hold yourself accountable. Do better and be better.