I found the most success when I box squatted, and I applied what I learned box squatting to my raw squat. On meet day, I felt the most dialed in, the most explosive, and the strongest that I ever have on a raw squat. Here’s how.
Powerlifting is so much more than physical strength. Yeah, that’s part of it, but only a fraction of the big picture. Are you strong mentally? Are you strong intellectually? Are you strong emotionally? Let’s find out.
While Dave’s AWOL, Jim Wendler, Matt Rhodes, and Vincent Dizenzo fill in and answer questions. This question (what lifts are you most proud of?) sparks a conversation about coaching and fond memories this trio of friends shared and are now sharing with you.
Newer lifters seem to think that they can squat 1,200 pounds in less than a year of training. I hate to burst your bubbles, but that’s not going to happen. It’s a long game, and you need to understand that if you’re going to survive in this sport.
Through the use of unconventional movements (or awkward movements), you can really force yourself to utilize better form and recruit numerous additional muscle fibers. Here are a handful of Big 3 variations you can try out.
If you’re a Marvel fan, you might know that Ant-Man and The Wasp produced an evil offspring, Red Queen. Likewise, elitefts’ heroic Rackable Cambered and SS Yoke bars came together and created the nefarious Spider Bar. What makes this bar so villainous? Read on if you dare…
Not everyone is as lucky as me when it comes to seeing some of the most amazing moments in powerlifting. Since that’s the case, I’m sharing memories from the archives starring Chuck Vogelpohl, George Halbert, Steve Goggins, Travis Rogers, and Oleksandr Kutcher.
You have to learn that 2 weeks before the competition, you aren’t going to get stronger. All you can really do is screw things up. Don’t lift 1RMs; instead, deload or train with lighter weights. You want to peak at the competition, not in training.
There are movements that I think all coaches should have a fundamental understanding in, and it’s hard to think of an exercise more worthy of a deep dive than the Bulgarian Split Squat. Go grab your dumbbell so we can figure out which side to load.
elitefts has a strong focus on the freedom of education — so strong that we’re willing to invest in all of the content we provide for you. For 20 years, the strength of this value has enabled us to earn your trust, and therefore, produce more content.
2018 was not a good year for my powerlifting career. 2019 has been better. My training’s gotten better, I’ve gotten better at caring for myself, and I competed better. I want to do better next time around, though….
Two years ago, I injured myself at a meet. The pain was so bad I nearly pulled out of the meet. After talking with some experts, I decided to hop into the APF Nationals without a weight cut and with a quick prep. Let’s just say it’s good to be back.
To call this program hard is an understatement. The volume is high, the work is heavy, and you’ll want to quit. But I can promise you, your back will never be thicker and your PRs will become something of the past.
This life we live is comprised of sheep, and it is also comprised of shepherds. Followers or leaders. The flock goes where it is directed. Shepherds set the course for the journey. Are you part of the flock? Or are you a shepherd? Are you a serious powerlifter or not?
Getting a new tattoo doesn’t mean you have to throw the bar down and not step foot in a gym for two months. What it does mean is that you need to ensure you don’t do anything reckless for the first couple of months.
My training was more organized than it was for the IPA meet. But I decided to experiment before this meet: I trained using my squat suit without the briefs. It actually improved my speed, depth, and how much weight I could handle.
Hugging a 40-pound bag of salt while doing a rear leg elevated split squat might not sound like hard or heavy work, but this is an exercise that’s helped even some of the world’s best powerlifters reach their full potential.
For Ashley Jones, being at the S5 Compound is like being a kid in a candy store, meaning he needs some moderation. Rather than use all of the equipment, Ashley shows off his top-5 pieces of equipment that should be in every strength and conditioning program for rugby.
Indoor soccer took a toll on my knee, so my training has been a bit limited. But that didn’t stop me from using Blood Flow Restriction on leg day, which I highly recommend using when working around injuries that force you to use lighter weights.
In this episode of Table Talk Podcast, Dave Tate, Joe Sullivan, and Janis Finkelman talk about a variety of powerlifting topics and answer questions, both bizarre and mundane, and more.
Self-determination theory is an approach to shift motivation from extrinsic to intrinsic. As coaches, we can make small changes to the way we already do things to cause great changes to the athlete’s performance and motivation source.
Listen: Technique is a major part of why all top lifters are top lifters. It is crucial to being a successful strength athlete. Technique before the lift is just as important as during the lift.
Not unlike with your spouse or significant other, the relationship between training partners depends on many things, but at the central core to this relationship is the quality of one’s honesty with their training partner.
It took more than 20 years of surveys for us to define what is optimal. These are some of those key items and teaching points we’ve picked up from those surveys, such as training group size considerations and training the squat from the bottom up.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you’ve got lower back issues and want to up difficulty without adding pounds like I do, then this is the Workout of the Day for you. Today, the goal was to increase time under tension.
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…
Generally speaking, if we can get an athlete stronger, that athlete will get faster. But at what point is the athlete strong enough for continued speed improvements? I hope you weren’t looking for a quantifiable answer on this one…
Do you seriously call that a squat? I’ve seen babies squat better than you! No, seriously, I have. Babies don’t know how to do the squat wrong! By the time your kids are toddling and in soccer camp, their squats start to fall apart. Here are the three things I do to correct athletes’ poor squats.
I still stand by my original Top 5 article series, but even I can admit it needed an update. So I expanded on the list I already had. The original articles were for assistance and accessory work. This series is for accessory work only. We’ll start things off this time with my 2019 accessory exercises for the squat.
Muscle chains are like dominoes: It’s enough for you to drop the first one, so the others fall from the power that is constantly transferred from one domino to another and then the weight takes over the job and pulls over the domino that falls and hit the next one into falling… and the next one… and the next one…
It’s not all that often you can say you made up a type of exercise… but that’s exactly what I did. Enter the Goblet Squat Death Drop, a Mark Dugdale Original. Or exclusive. Whichever one you prefer to call it, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that it’s brutal and will complete your leg workout.
While full range of motion reps may be more convenient for the more inexperienced lifter, partial range of movement reps may be a good tool for advanced lifters hitting a plateau. Partial reps can overcome the main limitations of full range of motion training.
In this video, Equipment Sales Director Matt Goodwin shows off the elitefts Power Bar and its specs, focusing on the bar’s gnarly knurling. It’s amazing how it easily fits into just about any gym — garage, private, or commercial. It’s no wonder it’s a favorite!
In this clip from the first Table Talk Podcast, host Dave Tate and special guest Dan Green get to the bottom of this question… as well as what Dan means when he says the word “volume.” Is it muscle thickness? The amount of space an object occupies? Listen to find out!
This was the first meet that I attended neither as participant, lifter, nor spectator; instead, I was a coach, cheerleader, and go-fer. At this meet, Flex Gym proved it is as much a family as any group I have ever seen. Everyone is there for everyone else.
Before I get into my recap of the 2019 XPC World meet, I want to say, I took second place — even with my fifth 2,200-pound total and seventh 900-pound squat — for no other reason than I wasn’t strong enough that day.
I moved back to northeastern Ohio and started training with a new group to prepare for the 2019 XPCs. For the last couple of years, I’ve only done the 21-Deadlift Salute. This year, though, I decided to come back and do the full meet, and here are the final results.
“It got to a point where I couldn’t feel my legs… I got the up call, and nothing happened.” Join Team elitefts athlete Jo Jordan as he receives his medal on-stage for the 2019 XPC Worlds competition. He recounts his lucky comeback in the squat event and shares a sneak peek at what happens behind the curtain…
In my second Specialty Bar Car Show, I’m going to teach you everything I know about the Tsunami Bar, Bandbell Bar, and — one of my all-time favorites — Safety Squat Bars. If I haven’t sold you on any of these bars, remember this…
There is a lot of information about the science behind heel elevation during a squat. For the sake of keeping this article at a digestible length and in a language that’s easy for just about every reader to understand, let’s highlight a few of the key benefits of incorporating squat wedges into your training.
If you think you’re getting a solid upper back that’ll improve your bench press, deadlifts, and squats by using hard, forceful rowing exercises and lat pulldowns, think again. When you realize that, you’ve figured out that you need to change the way you train. Not sure what you should do? Let me explain.
It’s inevitable that a lifter will hit a plateau at some point or another. It’s frustrating, I know. Trust me, I’ve been there. But after 10 years of powerlifting and 14 years of strength training before that, I think I’ve unlocked some of the secrets to making gains. Here are five things that helped me increase my lifts.
Most intermediates that have come to me without ever working with a qualified coach before are lacking a few qualities in their technique, especially on big lifts. Lacking these qualities can potentially lead to injury at one point or another. These two qualities are tension and torque.
In an effort to accomplish the goals of both athlete preparedness and strength, power, and speed development, the Belt Squat Overcoming Isometric can be utilized effectively and specifically to an athlete’s sport.
“If the bar ain’t bending, then you’re just pretending.” What that saying doesn’t account for is the danger of a bar bending over you mid-squat. Joe Sullivan’s no pretender, and luckily he’s here to tell the tale of surviving a bar-bending incident that could’ve been deadly.
Are you always on the go? Not sure when you’re going to get your next box squat in? We have the perfect solution for you, and it’s called the elitefts Squat Box. Not only is it lightweight, but it’s incredibly versatile, with three heights in one box!
Even though squatting is rare in the lower levels of strong(wo)man competitions, I believe it’s something we still need to work on as an accessory movement. Grab some of your elitefts specialty bars, and I’ll show you the ropes.
I’d bet a Derek Lewis chin shot that the majority of lifters are out pulling their squats. Ugh, writing this is tough; this is the catalyst for the total not being shit anymore, either.
Focusing on this concept of carry-over helps powerlifters train in a more intentional and strategic way, ultimately bolstering overall performance come meet day.