More recently, as a result of various social media platforms, some things seem to have gained popularity because one or two highly esteemed lifters or coaches with powerful spheres of influence begin to do them.

I decided to poll lifters at a meet to get their opinion. Their answers may surprise you.

Even though I didn’t make all of the goals I set for this year, I did have some good results. And if results are the measure of a year, then it was a good year.

It seems that lifters do not understand the importance of the upper back or how to use it in the three main lifts. The lifters I judged at a recent meet and just about all of my clients prove that to me, so let’s fix that.

Check out how some of your favorite lifters did this past weekend at Great Lakes Raw, IPA Buckeye Brawl, and APF Raw Power Challenge.

“Our human potential is much higher than we recognize.” elitefts coach and columnist JM Blakley might be the namesake of the JM Press, but he hopes his impact in the strength sports world will go far beyond that and the weights he’s lifted.

With no weight class or aesthetic events to worry about around the holiday season, it’s a perfect opportunity to pack on some extra mass… and to pick up some gifts for your favorite powerbuilder.

The harder you work and push yourself in your off-season, the better and more productive your competitive season will be.

Geared lifters who want to do a raw meet or transition to raw need to relearn or unlearn certain things, which is why this program can be manipulated for different weaknesses.

I’m going to share a program with you that someone asked for my advice and input on. I know very little about this lifter. I got a little bit of information from them through Instagram, but other than that, what I’m writing are my initial thoughts and an improved program based on this information.

Here’s an idea: If your team is losing a game, how about instead of celebrating one good play, try focusing on how you and your team can muster a win.

This little old man’s secret to recovery lies in one word: bands.

John Meadows was interested in the things Jordan Shallow discussed in podcasts and IG posts, so he reached out to him with the intention to “steal” some of Jordan’s ideas. Well, that didn’t go as planned. Don’t waste an opportunity to steal this workout from elitefts. Not that it’s stealing; you have our permission.

Believe it or not, sometimes max effort work is not the best option. Here are a few scenarios where that may be the case as well as what you can do to fill in the gaps where the max effort method would be.

My fiancée has helped me grow as a person emotionally, mentally, and of note here, physically — I’ve put on about 100 pounds in the last four years, so I need to become the man she sees me as. The items on this list will help me accomplish just that.

“…I’m using powerlifting lifts in a bodybuilding style…” Dan Green shares the secrets to building muscle as a powerlifter and as a bodybuilder.

The wear and tear of the sport doesn’t end when the lifter stops competing. The price of the platform may be one that they will pay for throughout the rest of their lives.

Even after 47 years of life, I continue to realize there are crossover lessons between powerlifting and life. Case in point: modifying a new Jeep for desert driving.

Save your back from disc compressions by shifting from heavy squats to belt squats. It’ll help you recover faster, which will give you results faster and with fewer injuries.

Want to smoke your old PRs? Try applying daily undulating periodization, or DUP, to your programming. Rather than changing sets, reps, and intensity every 6 to 12 weeks, DUP changes those variables on a daily basis.

With this training-while-traveling program, keep in mind I’ve been in 6 cities in 5 different states in the last 5 weekends and on the road for 20 of the last 35 days. My needs and resources in terms of time, help, equipment, recovery, and a host of other factors may vary from yours.

The debate between raw versus gear has died down, more or less, but the debate of how to train one versus the other is still on-going. This might be controversial, but for the most part, I don’t think you need to train differently raw or geared with a few exceptions.

I was very fortunate at this meet to have had excellent help at this meet. Dear friends helped manage the meet, wrapped my knees, called my depth, and gave me coaching advice and lifting cues.

Don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain; instead, keep your eye on the goal through your training journey.

I read about the loss of bodybuilding legend, powerlifter, and two-time Mr. Olympia, Dr. Franco Columbu. I hardly need to go into the impact he had on bodybuilding. His life was a life well-lived, one with a deeply personal and meaningful purpose.

You don’t have to be an expert lifter to make your training partners better. You just have to always be actively watching and engaged in training. Here is how you can be an asset to your group — even as a newer lifter.

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.

Ohio is the mecca of powerlifting, and elitefts is just one stop on the journey. Doug Heath, one of the Ohio powerlifters who inspired Louie Simmons to develop the Westside Method, joins Dave Tate on this Table Talk Podcast episode.

Even the smartest, strongest, and best of us can learn and improve on what we do or how we do it. The journey for strength is all about education and learning, and this is how we continue to get stronger. All of this takes dedication.

This 12-week cycle is very effective when followed to a T. If picked apart, it won’t work as well, so listen closely.

There are a ton of questions on how to work up to a 1RM on max effort day. While many lifters don’t use percentages, it certainly makes it easier on coaches and novices on how to pick attempts. Since many people who are new to doing these movements are not familiar with their maxes, use the following to help guide you.

RPE training is great at helping you learn about your body on a daily level and what you can and cannot handle. Plus, you don’t have to worry about percentages, which is a bonus if you’re a powerlifter who isn’t all about doing extra math.

It’s hard to argue that triphasic training produces results. But what happens when you combine triphasic and conjugate training methods? I decided to find out with an experiment and apply it to my squat. The result: I added more than 50 pounds to my squat in 4 months.

Wrapping someone else’s knees might seem easy, but when it comes to being a self-wrapper, that’s another story. Luckily Joe Sullivan’s familiar with being a self-wrapper, so he’ll show you the ropes — and how to better wrap your training partner’s knees.

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.

It is tough to look back with a clear open mind to see from a different perspective. It is with a clear open mind that I was able to see I did it wrong — and it’s not just in terms of my powerlifting career, but my life as whole.

I think that sometimes-spontaneous people, those that fly by the seat of their pants, are better off than those who plan everything. It is my considered opinion that those who can alter or adopt a new one in the face of adversity or changed circumstances are the ones who succeed in anything.

Think about all of the things you would never miss a training session for, and then think of all of the things you missed with your family due to those sessions. Those memories you missed out on are only a fraction of the pitfalls you’ll face in powerlifting.

It’s said a person is only one injury away from ending your sports career. When dealing with that kind of injury, we often neglect how it affects our minds, which are almost just as easy to break as our bodies.

I’m a little behind for writing about my thoughts on Westside Vs. The World, but I have a lot of thoughts to add. Better late than never, right? Maybe I’m too old for this social media stuff, but I’m not too old to write about my powerlifting exploits.

When performed properly, deadlifts can be a powerful exercise movement for strengthening your lats. Emphasis on “when performed properly.”

How many of these things do you think about when you’re training? What could you be doing to make yourself and your training partners better?

The legendary Frantz Gym was the place where the top powerlifters trained, where the collective whole was greater than the sum of its parts. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” can often be tossed around, but that was a large part of the magic that was Frantz Gym.

After an ugly incident with a Smith Machine, Lily Starobin decided maybe she needed an actual powerlifting coach. She didn’t anticipate, however, to find a coach in Dave Tate.

Quick fixes: They’re usually bandages on a leaky pipe. But in some cases, a quick fix might be more like the duct tape that fixed the Apollo 13 module. These 3 technique fixes are like duct tape for your deadlift, so wrap up and strengthen that lift.

The more advanced you are, the longer the stretches between records become. If you’re in that position (trust me, I’ve been there before), consider doing some supplemental exercises. The ones listed here will help boost your sumo deadlift.

Ed Coan and Dave Tate explain their rationales and favorite accessory movements and variation lifts for training weak points.

Try to keep an open mind when trying a new, proactive approach to anything, even if it doesn’t quite feel right at first — whether it be your job, social media, or a new program. Just because it doesn’t feel good right away doesn’t mean it won’t later on.

I recently turned 78, and that certainly hasn’t stopped me from training. After the responses from last month’s article, I decided to delve a bit deeper into my little old man conjugate training program. Enjoy!

Remember Cody, my client I talked about in my last article about benching? He absolutely destroyed at the Iron City Open and got a 10-pound deadlift PR total. The secret to his success? It’s in this program… because it IS this program.

The cue “push into your belt” has lifters focusing on the front of their bodies. But this operates under the assumption that the torso will expand in 360 degrees, not just out toward the front. In order to have the best brace, we need to rework our understanding of doing so in the first place.

“To be able to give back is a much bigger legacy than anything you’ll leave on a platform.” elitefts coach Vincent Dizenzo finds his calling in helping others by passing on knowledge, especially when it comes to dieting and weight loss.

As strength athletes, we care only about lifting the weight from Point A to Point B, but from a bodybuilding perspective, that is dead wrong, but how does that translate to powerlifting? The idea is to challenge the muscle — not just focus on completing reps and sets.

One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was train less. But thanks to a little advice from Dave Tate, I started looking at training in a whole new light. Strength comes from so much more than lifting heavy weights in the gym.

Over the last few years, I’ve had more time to visit some major universities and professional teams and talk shop with some very good strength and conditioning coaches, and these are some of the trends we’ve noticed in the weight room and think powerlifters should start implementing.

As with anything in training, the answer always is “it depends.” With the max effort method, I can do one of these things for two hours just on advanced principles that deal with the max effort method, or I can do one very that’s simple. I choose simple.

The doctor is in! Specifically, Doctor Deadlift (whose real name is Cailer Woolam) is here to teach you why you should switch over from your alternating grip to a hook grip and show you how it’s done.

Joe and Janis are returning for another episode of Table Talk Podcast with host Dave Tate. Expect all sorts of thoughts, questions, and answers for all things powerlifting-related.

When it comes to selecting meet attempts, there are a lot of things to take into account. The big one is your goal, but the strategy for getting that goal varies depending on lots of factors. You wouldn’t use the same process for selecting your opener and for winning — at least, I hope you don’t.