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.
Dr. Rusin already explained the alterations to Dave’s program after the first two phases. Now it’s time to see them in action.
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.
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.
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.
After a visit to the S4 Compound, Greg McCoy and his Gasp affiliates found a piece of equipment for their Plano, Texas facility.
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.
What is true in the gym is true in life. Everything is about strength and overcoming adversity.
Maggie Kuhn, owner of CBUS Lifting Co., walks through the importance of meet directors and shares the impact she wants to have on the future generation of powerlifters.
Dr. Rusin returns to the elitefts headquarters to get an update on Dave’s progress through two training phases.
Taking on a young athlete that didn’t fit was a big mistake, but how DeFranco handled the situation led to an explosion in his business. This is the story of how kicking a kid out of his gym was one of the three best decisions he ever made.
In the world of strength training, you often see trust: between training partners, between lifters and their equipment, and between competitors and judges. But not all trust is created equal.
Dr. Rusin has covered the purpose of the six-phase dynamic warm-up sequence. Now it’s time to dig into the specific movements in each sequence and learn proper execution.
The elitefts relationship with Marc Bartley and Spud Inc. stretches far back into his incredible competitive days as a powerlifter. Today, the business relationship is one valued by both parties.
Without focus, you won’t make it far in training, business, or life.
As Associate Director of Strength and Conditioning for The Ohio State University football team, Matusz knows what it’s like to be in a high-pressure environment. And that’s when your leadership really counts.
This system really comes in handy for performing movements that would otherwise require large, expensive pieces of equipment. With a little creativity, you can even add a few new unique exercises.
The goal is to rebuild Dave’s foundational movement patterns, and the first step is to begin each training session with one of two 15-minute sequences. Here’s the method behind the madness.
How many times per week should you train the main lifts?
To close his presentation, Wendler discusses exercise selection, indicators of athlete readiness, and the importance of knowing the trapdoors of your training program.
No longer do you need to go through the daunting, messy process of measuring, mixing, and pouring concrete into molds to make stones. There’s now a better way.
These are the three best exercises you can do with a harness to build a stronger, thicker, more muscular neck.
The plan for the training session was to squat but the bodybuilding group had a lot more in mind.
This documentary is the culmination of years of intimate interaction with a child with autism. Interaction as a father, a mother, an educator, a trainer, and a friend.
To gain a greater understanding of Dave’s current capabilities, Dr. Rusin watches a full training session of six movements.
Using a planned deload is one effective way to manage fatigue during a training cycle, but strategic exercise selection can help reduce the need for “off” weeks.
In the previous videos, Wendler discussed his general mindset and approach to strength and conditioning for a high school football team. In this segment, he goes into detail about how he has designed the training sessions.
Getting into the right position for the sumo deadlift can be a challenge. Is focusing on “sitting back” the right approach?
When Jim took over the training, the team had no identity and had no idea what they were going to be as they entered the 2017 season. What they became was the strongest team on the field every night they played.
With the discovery phase nearly complete, Dr. Rusin has identified three key areas that will be imperative for Dave moving forward — hip stability, posterior chain upper quadrant stability/thoracic spine cage mobility, and program formation.
Through years of mistakes and experimentation, Dan has refined his approach and found a setup that works for him.
The starting point with youth athletes today is drastically different than it was 30 years ago. This means the training plan needs to be different too.
Not only does this bar help avoid the wear and tear a straight bar can have on your shoulders, but it also enables you to build strength while using less weight and perform several very useful exercise variations.
When I began strongman I was terrible at the yoke, even though it was in almost every competition I had competed in. With it being so common, I had no choice but to improve. Here’s what I learned along the way.
There are a lot of ways to use the SS Yoke Bar and good mornings. Here’s what Dan is doing with both in his current program.
After a long, miserable drive to Ohio, we stuck a camera in Steve’s face and forced him to talk about his life. The results are about what you’d expect.
Whereas the previous screen was intended to identify red flags, this assessment will consist of clinically-based testing to produce both a medical diagnosis and a functional movement capacity diagnosis.
Continuing their conversation, Shoop and Dave talk about the past and what brought them back together.
If you’ve read Under the Bar you know who Bill Shoop is — he’s the high school football coach Dave credits with changing his life forever.
Back for his second series of videos with Dave, Dan shares how he’s currently eating and explains the approach he uses under the guidance of Stan Efferding.
Dr. Eric Serrano created this unique exercise and series of specialized executions to reduce joint stress while engaging the hamstrings, glutes, core, lower back, and posterior shoulder muscles with functional training strategies.
You can make this system as complicated as you want it to be, but you can also make it a simple as you want it to be. Understand the basics first.
As you keep working on the technique, you will fully understand the potential bracing has. You will see how important it is in your lifting and how it helps you lift more weight while keeping your back healthy and safe.
The newest elitefts Executive Equipment Specialist started in small town Ohio, made it all the way to the NFL, and is now back to put his knowledge of strength training to work.
This machine enables hamstring training in multiple positions, at any intensity level desired, for both strength and sport athletes.
Following these guidelines and using isometrics in multiple positions, you can increase strength not only at a weak point but throughout the entire movement.
Whether you’re using a log or a weightlifting bar, you need to follow these rules to make sure you aren’t wasting the strongest half of your body.
The initial assessment is complete and it’s time for some hands-on evaluation of Dave’s movement, using these seven key movements. The compensation patterns and pain indicators observed in this step will be used in the next phase of the process.
If you’re looking for a serious answer to a question about building a bloat, you’ve come to the right place.
Many lifters will be tempted to reduce their squat intensity to preserve energy for the deadlift, but that might not be the best idea.
Years of pushing his body to the limit has left Dave with two hip replacements, numerous shoulder surgeries, more injuries than he can recall, constant daily pain, and restricted movement. It’s time for a change.
If you’re a beginner or intermediate lifter, this probably doesn’t apply to you. But for advanced lifters, knowing how to alter workload without changing volume might be a big help.
Neck training is vital for athletes of contact sports. Without requiring the use of large, expensive pieces of equipment, these five exercises with the Iron Neck will prepare your athletes through many planes of motions.
When your body is under load, minor mistakes can lead to major problems. Whether you’re an explosive lifter or more of a grinder, learning these techniques will greatly improve your squat.
Since retiring from powerlifting in 2005, Dave has tried a lot of different approaches to his training. There’s one clear winner.
Marc Megna’s vision for the future of fitness isn’t founded on the equipment, the layout design, or even the location of the gym. This is the story of how he opened his facility and built its success.
A lot of lifters want to use these deadlift variations interchangeably, but Clint has a strong preference for one — and good reasoning to back it up.
Steve may be one of the strongest squatters of all time, but it hasn’t stopped him from receiving criticism for his squat style. Are the concerns warranted?
Can you alternate specialty bars for different dynamic effort waves? What about for different weeks within the same wave?