The best way I can explain this concept is to tell you a story about a pilot and his air traffic controller.

Where part of the problem lies is in the assumption that a single should always or usually be heavy or maxed. The single, the heavy single, and the 1RM should really be seen as three different terms entirely.

Do you think the top-level guys are 100% healthy? Do you know the best way to deal with critics?

As powerlifters we are, in the sense described in ‘The Egg’, reincarnated. We live and die and are reborn several times over our lifting career.

Why am I taking the time to write this? These are the things I find myself repeating over and over again with different lifters.

Even the strongest lifters in the world can’t figure everything out themselves.

A lot of lifters think you have to train over 90% week after week to get stronger. Adjusting to a program like 5thSet may challenge you mentally to trust the process, but it won’t be long before you experience the benefits.

What has changed about 5thSet over the course of its rise to popularity? And what is it like being an elite lifter that hands his training over to someone else?

Tailored for the powerlifter and bodybuilder, we revisit Dave Tate’s and Mark Dugdale’s conversation covering exercise execution, pre-workout food, recoverability, training evolution, and more.

I’m going to share my strategy and reasoning behind it here, so hopefully, you can get some inspiration for whatever meet you’ve got coming up.

Number of competitions? Severity of injury? Conditioning and size? Powerlifting total?

What do you think of the fitness community today and all the shitty gurus on social media?

Dave and JL talk about the aspects of Circa Max that many lifters overlook: the what, how, when, why, and who.

Novice and advanced lifters make this mistake all the time, in the gym and at meets. To fix this, figure out if the problem is mental, physical, or technical.

This 52-week approach begins immediately after a meet and constructs a long-term plan for tying together all parts of a training program.