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.

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?

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.

If your lifts are stagnating, it’s time to think and look outside of the box.

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

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.

Keep in mind the training frequencies listed here can still vary a lot depending on the person. These are just numbers to keep in mind as you figure out the best frequency for you!

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.

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.

It’s back to the drawing board for Dave Tate — specifically the drawing board for explaining how to set up a conjugate method training program.

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.

I am seeing that the specific injuries that are inherent in rugby need a modified program that’s not using traditional training equipment to get results, so here are 7 of my non-traditional tools of the trade.

“Dumbbell rows are bodybuilding burpees.” For more wisdom and the full post-Table Talk Podcast workout with Justin Harris, read on. This back workout is complete with pull-overs, pull-downs, deadlifts, and multiple row variations (one by which Justin deems as the best lat exercise there is).

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

It’s great you can point out each origin and insertion of every muscle, but your client doesn’t care. Your end goal is to get your client results and to make them feel better about themselves — not getting them to the point where they’re limping out of your gym.

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.

Dave Tate’s bringing yet another amazing athlete to the table… Talk Podcast! (See what we did there?) This time, it’s elitefts athlete Casey Williams.

Learn the secret that we’ve kept under wraps until now: How to properly wrap your wrists for the Big Three: bench, squat, and deadlift.

It’s one thing to read about elitefts equipment, but it’s something altogether different to see it being used in the hands of competitive powerlifters at Monster Garage Gym.

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.

Clint Darden is taking some time to travel out of Cyprus and to the U.S., where he’s finally made his way to the elitefts S5 Compound as a Table Talk Podcast guest.

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.