The Joy of Programming
Discover why understanding the “why” behind workouts matters, how to blend classic and modern techniques, and what it takes to tailor programs for athletes, especially rugby players.
5 Equipment Must-Haves to Train Anywhere
As a novice or pro, these pieces of equipment should always be at your disposal.
How To Train for Selection
Train for selection with this how-to guide with strategies ranging from aerobic capacity to calisthenics.
Cluster Training for Strength and Hypertrophy
Cluster training methods, like many
of the less “traditional” methods, don’t get utilized enough in people’s training programs. Try them now!
Successful Box Squat Cycles
Rather than just writing one cycle, I’ve decided to make an easy to follow quasi-article that contains all the different cycles for the squat that I’ve used with success. YES to chains and bands.
Why the Safety Squat Bar is Superior for Athletes
The Safety Squat Bar deserves a permanent place in your gym equipment arsenal.
4-Day Outlaw Program
The 4-Day Outlaw Program is a combination of conjugate and bodybuilding style training, setup for the multiply lifter yet modified for raw lifters.
Create a Whole-Body Training Program
In this final part of these series, let’s create a full-body training program. Rule 1…
Scale the Summit 6 Weeks Out
Peaking for your meet day should happen around six weeks out. Here’s a thorough plan to make sure you get the most out of your lifts when the time comes to step on the platform.
You Are Not a Genetic Outlier
Most people train like the athletes and Olympians they admire, but that’s poor practice. Train for YOU, and watch your progress skyrocket.
Training Considerations for the Aging Powerlifter
Your biological age is different than your training age. If you’ve racked up years of training in the gym, you should learn the difference between the two.
Single-Leg Conjugate Training for Athletes
Want to get more out of your training programs? Include single-leg training.
Fix Your Walkout
A rack squat and a monolift squat are two different beasts. I totally underestimated the brutality of the walkout…
#137 AJ Roberts ⎸ 1,200 Pound Squat, WSBB, and Entrepreneur
AJ Roberts takes a seat in this 137th podcast episode of Dave Tate’s Table Talk.
Pro Squat Tip: Perform Eccentrics
If you’re new to the squat or lose technique once it gets heavy, train the eccentric to become one with the bar.
#110 - BONUS: Jim Wendler's Strength Training for High School Footb...
Jim Wendler’s seminar Strength Training High School Football Players is compiled for you to implement as a coach or an athlete.
#105 - Training YOUR Ass Off with Dave Tate and Coming Full Circle
Sam talks about what it was like going from “Training HIS Ass Off” to “Training YOUR Ass Off” and going from a participant to an assistant.
#77 - Injuries, Perceived Maxes, & Squid Game
Dave Tate and Sam Brown discuss how injuries can make you better, perceived maxes, and Squid Game? What’s going on?
6 Foundational Movements to Move, Feel, and Look Good
Being lean, strong, and healthy are byproducts of moving right. Are you squatting, hip hinging, lunging, pressing, pulling, and carrying?
Sub-Maximal Training, Maximal Results: A 6 Week Beginner / Intermediate ...
This is a basic six-week training cycle for an intermediate or beginner lifter who has reached a plateau in their training. Beginner/intermediate, in this case, refers to someone who has been lifting and following a training routine for 6-12 months. For this article, “squat” refers to the barbell back squat. This is not a […]
How Much Money Would It Take To Get ALL The Best Squatters To Compete Ag...
Our sources say that Blaine Sumner and Dan Bell are in (assuming they can peak for it). We have also been told this will be Multi-Ply. From Brian Carroll's Post SQUAT ONLY run what you brung. Tag your boys. Id need big money to unretire. What would it take the others like @optimusprime_334 and @thevanillagorilla92 […]
6 Foundational Movement Pattern Variations
If you’re not spending time with each of these patterns weekly, you’re leaving gains on the table.
The Best of the Best Content From July
Sifting through Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, coaching logs, and articles, here’s the best!
Tendinopathy Edition: Programming Variables to Consider When Returning t...
When it comes to returning an intermediate-advanced lifter to a heavy compound, there are often more factors at play than we initially think. Perfect mechanics probably aren’t enough to get you back to where you need to be.
How to Tell If Your Squat is Too Wide or Too Narrow
Are your glutes activated? Are you hinging? Is it hard to reach depth? Falling forward? Answers to these questions may reveal that the stance you’re favoring is doing nothing for your squat.
3 Tweaks Your Squat Needs
Without a doubt, there are some things you need to pay attention to when performing and coaching squats across the board. I will list them here.
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — Mark Bell Recalls Telling Louie Simmon...
Everyone likes putting their own tweak on popular programming. Louie Simmons was not very receptive when he learned Mark Bell had changed his, however. You’d think a 180-pound squat PR would speak for itself, but apparently it was still no good.
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — Swede Burns & Dave Tate Discuss Ba...
Being jacked as hell got your shoulders a little tight? Here’s how you fix your squat bar position for better performance, less pain, and a bigger total.
Seminar Squats
Do yourself a favor and focus on technique; don’t get too wrapped up in band tension, percents, etc. Get your technique down and worry about the other things later.
Squat Habits for Success
If you’re attempting to teach a squat and you’re having to constantly cue “knees out” or “chest up,” that lifter isn’t ready for a squat. Period.
The Squat Epiphany
If I was that young woman in the picture with my present old mind, I would do it all differently. Unfortunately, I can’t rewind that tape but if you’re reading this and you are or know of a young couple expecting a baby or handling their first one, this read may change your child-raising perspective.
Editor's Letter for April
I hope this letter lifts your sanity as we at elitefts continue to live, learn, and pass on – educating and outfitting the strongest athletes around the world. You’ll find new content inside!
230 Max Effort Variations You Can Do With 1 Bar
If you think having one bar means you can’t do max effort variations, you’re wrong. It’s time to think outside of the box. If you can’t, no worries! I already have, and I came up with 230 variations you can use with a straight bar. No specialty bars required!
Glute Training for Meatheads
Training to get Instagram-worthy glutes is just as much for the guys as it is the girls. Not only will your backside look better, but working on your glutes might help out with knee and back pain, too.
The Post-Surgical Knee: The Stability and Proprioception Rebuild
The initial stages of the balance, stability, and proprioception phase will be performed through the slow rebuilding of ROM through single-leg movements and will eventually use more advanced dynamic movements, such as jumping and landing mechanics drills.
The Post-Surgical Knee: The Range of Motion Rebuild
The focus of this article will put on the importance of the phase following the rehab phase in terms of the rebuilding of stability, strength, and proprioception in knee injuries, such as patellar fractures and ACL tears.
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — Common Causes of Hip Shift
Hate to break it to you, but you can’t out-correct a corrective exercise.
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — Are Hex Bars, High Squats, and Box Squ...
What do Dave Tate, Nick Showman, Louie Simmons, and high school athletes have in common? A love-hate relationship with the trap bar… and a few other movements.
Got Upper Back?
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.
Alternate Your Heavy Squats with Belt Squats
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.
Daily Undulating Periodization Programming for Your Next Powerlifting Meet
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.
Is Technique the Same for Raw and Geared Lifters?
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.
5 Weeks to Goblet Squat Dominance
Think goblet squats are wimpy exercises? Follow this program for five weeks, and you’ll change your mind. You’ll likely improve your squat mechanics, too.
The Dogg Shitt Method™ 12-Week Powerlifting Program
This 12-week cycle is very effective when followed to a T. If picked apart, it won’t work as well, so listen closely.
A Conjugate-Triphasic Program for a PR Squat
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.
WATCH: Joe Sullivan's Knee Wrap Tutorial for Raw Lifters
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.
WATCH: DIY Sissy Squats
Want to mix up your home gym training session with the equipment you already own? Grab your rack, a pair of elitefts Pro Light Bands, and a pipe, and we’ll get you all set up in no time to do some sissy squats.
4 Habits of an Intermediate Lifter
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?
WATCH: Ed Coan and Dave Tate Discuss Weak Point Training
Ed Coan and Dave Tate explain their rationales and favorite accessory movements and variation lifts for training weak points.
Newton's Third Law (of Gains)
You’ve probably heard Newton’s third law: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Turns out Newton DIDN’T tell you that he specifically wrote this law in anticipation of gym bros only training the muscles they see in the mirror. Let me explain.
Why You Should Never Box Squat Your Athletes
You know, we hear coaches complain about their athletes’ excuses… but let me tell you, coaches can be just as bad. Case in point: The excuses coaches make for not making their kids do box squats.
Stirring the Pot, Volume 1
I’ve been told I do a good job of being a heretic of the strength and conditioning coach profession, so I might as well keep it up and stir the pot with some of my hot takes on sumo deadlifts, box squatting, and more.
WATCH: Dave Tate's Definitive Guide for Wrapping Wrists
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.
WATCH: I am Vincent Dizenzo
“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.
What A Powerlifter Can Learn From An IFBB Pro
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.
