Now that I had the trip paid for thanks to a seminar event, I could focus on helping my lifters at the US Kern Open: the reason I’d flown all the way from the East Coast to begin with.

I can’t get over how versatile the American Cambered Grip Bar is. You can use it forward and backward, giving you a total of 8 grip options. Flip it over, you’ve got a total of 16. I’ve found 250 options, and I’m sure there are more to find.

In this episode of Table Talk Podcast, Dave Tate, Matt Rhodes, and Jim Wendler re-watch some old training videos, talk about near-death experiences, being a strength coach, and more.

Part of my journey to getting that IFBB pro card includes getting more active in the online bodybuilding community… which also gets me into situations where I answer questions like this one: Are deadlifts overrated?

Remember how I said the first part of my story wasn’t the worst part? Well, this is it. But here’s the thing: after those shitty events happened to me, I became pulled by purpose instead of pain.

Click for a sneak peek of what’s to come in the month of May, including the updated Team elitefts roster of new athletes, coaches, and columnists. We’ll also recap April’s top-5 coaching blogs, training logs, and articles.

A lot of people use this bench press due to shoulder issues and its carryover to competition lift — and Janis Finkelman’s numbers support that claim.

If you’re new to strength sports, don’t be afraid to go into a gym and try to figure shit out. You don’t need to hire a coach immediately — in fact, Dave Tate and Hypertrophy Coach Joe Bennett recommend going into the gym with a friend and have some fun.

When a friend invited me to a bench press-only APF meet that also raised money for Autism and Autism Awareness, there was no way I could say no — even though I haven’t competed in quite some time.

The newest Team elitefts athlete Anne Sheehan learned while she was getting sober that she needed someone else’s help — and she did it. And that’s exactly what her athlete logs will do: help other powerlifters in their journeys.

My son sent a text last week — just a video of him deadlifting in our garage gyms. We discussed one of the mistakes we discovered he was making at the start of the pull. It was our discussion that influenced this article.

In this episode of Table Talk Podcast, Dave Tate announces a new member of Team elitefts: Tony Montgomery. They talk about training for the U.S. Marines, running gyms, furthering education, and more.

Powerlifting is bigger and better than it was when I started in 2004. But there’s is one major exception to the positives regarding the sport’s growth: The death of the powerlifting crew.

In this episode of Table Talk Podcast, Dave Tate and Joe Bennett (aka the Hypertrophy Coach) discuss pursuing knowledge, balancing family and work, online coaching, Dave Bautista, and more.

Plan, execute, evaluate, readjust, and repeat. Those are the steps I take when developing a program for a client — and coincidentally, the same ones I cover in this article.

Unless you just have some crazy genetics or happen to be the perfect person for a strength program, the majority of these programs are not a valid long-term plan. But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater…

The lifting world is small — if I’m being generous, there are a couple hundred thousand of us. There are over 7 billion people on this planet. You are no one. How’s that for some perspective? If you haven’t noticed, I’m going to rant about the crap that annoys me.

Nobody wants to watch their favorite athletes practice what they do best. But if you want to be the Michael Jordan or Reggie Jackson of powerlifting, you’ve got to work on the eccentric.

In this episode of Table Talk Podcast, you might want to grab your headphones because Dave Tate has some choice words on a variety of topics.

I told Dave to listen carefully because this is the only time I’ll ever say it, but this was a pretty good meet. I’ll take a 50 lb meet PR.

Keep in mind that Dave’s bodyweight here was before Westside and was around the time when he tried out bodybuilding for a little bit… ’cause why not?

Look before you leap into training right back after your last meet because the next four to six weeks can (and will) set up your next cycle for success… or for failure. Take time to reflect on that. Success or failure… which one will you choose?

My goal for this meet was a 400-pound squat until Dave asked, “What’s the Pro total for your weight class?” In that moment, I knew that was no longer the goal — it became a Pro total.

It is crucial to delineate these training and competition as separate but mutually impactful things. I’d wager that the majority of lifters who had a bad meet were doing a whole bunch of competition in training, leading up to the actual competition.

I learned a large portion of my knowledge of supplemental training from many mistakes I made in the gym. I am hoping to help all of you readers avoid at least a few of the mistakes I made and get more out of your supplemental training.

I’ve realized I’ve never told my story, save for a couple of people. Those who’ve heard it were surprised because, against all odds, I didn’t end up completely fucked up because of everything that happened. Instead, I became strong and independent. So here it is. My story.

Murphy’s Law: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. That’s pretty much a solid description for how the Tennessee State Championships went for me. But hey, good job to the victors. Now it’s time to prepare for my next meet…

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and training with Heidi, and I can say with absolute certainty that she is the real deal, an ATWR-holding meathead who’s willing to do what it takes to become, and in her case, stay the best.

Dave answers this question barely even a second after hearing it aloud: “Marc Bartley.” This one isn’t for those with weak constitutions… or stomachs…

Take a look at what we can expect to read from Matt Mills, JP Carroll, Chris Cooper, Mark Dugdale, Swede Burns, Matt Ladewski, and Dave Tate this month. Inside we’ll also rewind to March to see the most popular content from your favorite guest writers, columnists, coaches, and athletes.

As the title states, Dave Tate talks about his worst meet. It happened not long after he’d joined Westside in the mid-1990s at the Junior Nationals in Aurora, Illinois…

I think a lot of people who’ve never used anything like these in training have a negative perception of people who use gear. It’s easy to think it’s cheating since you can lift a bunch more with gear or that it makes the lifts easier. But these are misconceptions, and they’re gravely wrong.

In this episode of Table Talk Podcast, Dave Tate puts on a one-man show and answers listeners’ questions about his worst powerlifting meet, his high school football and wrestling career, and more.

My heroes were strength athletes I admired and wanted to be like. They give us a base for the kind of person we want to become. But as we grow up, we eventually realize that our heroes are no different than us. That moment is the time to kill the heroes and rise above them.

I’ve noticed a lack of variety in how people deadlift — conventional or sumo — as well as the fact that they rarely change pulls. As someone who does both, I wondered why that was. I set out to solve that mystery with a survey and found some answers from a variety of respondents…

I wanted to know the best movement to improve a lifter’s 1RM bench press, so I asked my powerlifting pals from all over the country for their two cents. I ended up with a lot of awesome movement suggestions, so hopefully one of these will work for you.