Dave Tate: Looking Back On Nearly 20 Years, Some Things Never Change
With the exponential growth of the fitness industry over the past 20 years, the roots of elitefts still hold strong: a foundational trunk of knowledge sprouting enough branches to accommodate nearly every training discipline imaginable.
WATCH: Sharing Love and Leaving Scars
In this piece I reflect on my stepfather and his impact on me, trying to understand how a person who loved his children so much could also inadvertently created a great deal of difficulty and strife in their lives.
Circa Max Phase for Throwers
Each time I use this method myself I feel like I could run through a wall come meet day. Now after six years of using this cycle, we have proof that it works for our athletes.
Staying the Vigilant Lifter
The vigilant lifter wants to be a student of strength. They do not just want to be told what to do to get stronger. They want to learn and understand how to get stronger.
WATCH: How the Bite of the Iron Nurtured My Growth
Sometimes we get so caught up in the physical nature of training we forget about the other impacts it has.
Building the Yoke
A big yoke equals instant respect. No one wants to screw with a guy that has a big neck and a thick yoke.
14 Things About Bodybuilding and Building Muscle That I Know to Be True
These underlying training principles contribute to keeping your body healthy, growing, recovering, and building muscle over the long-term. You simply need to follow them.
WATCH: Nate Harvey — Training and Coaching with the Conjugate Method
There are a lot of insights to gain from being both a powerlifter and a collegiate head strength coach.
Are You a Leader or a Follower?
Too often I see lifters doing the strangest stuff in the gym, and sometimes I get irritated enough to actually ask them about it. Their answers usually tells me everything I need to know: they’re followers, not leaders.
Social Skill Integration Through Movement and Strength: Play Date with a...
Make this your chance to verify how training (all our hard work) gives us lots of opportunities to enjoy life.
Finding Your Niche in S&C as a Female Coach
Professionals who succeed in the field career athletics are few and far between. Look to the ranks of women and the numbers drop even further.
Off-Season Case Study #1 — Examining Weakness And Implementing Correctiv...
In this case, we examine a young competitive athlete who has limited experience and is facing several serious issues in his squat, bench press, and deadlift.
Practical Application for Developing Rotational Power
All sports are rotational to some degree. Here are some effective ways to develop and assess rotational power within a team setting.
WATCH: Strength Training — Simple or Complicated?
Training programs, nutrition plans, supplement protocols — sorting through all this information to find really works may seem difficult. It doesn’t have to be.
What Do I Have to Work With?
This is the first question you should ask yourself when training a team. To get this point across, I’ve attached my entire fall football training program.
The Absurd Effectiveness of Simplicity
Young strength coaches, go back to the basics to improve your athletes’ performance.
The Yearly Training Plan of the Strength Athlete — Adapting Evaluations ...
Evaluating your training protocol is only the first step. The real differences are made by enacting them into the practicals of training.
The Aging Rebels: An Exercise in Rehab and Friendship
Being stalked by the orthopedic reaper (not to mention the internal reaper) has been a challenge for Jack and I, but we have found ways to overcome every obstacle.
Social Skill Integration Through Movement and Strength: Off-Site Team Tr...
As we relocate a group of connected individuals outside of the gym, the mindset attached to training evolves.
WATCH: The Story Behind the Logo — TRAIN
The TRAIN logo emphasizes what we stand for. It’s what we do.
WATCH: Jim Wendler Speaks at Open Underground Strength Session
As elitefts team members, we’ve seen the impact that this community and time training together has had on our lives and lifting careers — we’re bringing more people into that fold.
Finding Strength: The Strength Depot
The owners of this Livonia, Michigan facility have made a commitment to bettering the world of strength sports, providing a home to many lifters and raising money for Relentless Detroit.
WATCH: Dave's Squat Tips for NBS Lifters
What began as a heavy squat session in the S4 Compound became an impromptu coaching session with Dave. Here are the five things he told these lifters to fix.
Underground Strength Session with Jim Wendler — Training Highlights
Mini recap before Jim Wendler takes center on the platform.
Stop the Madness! #SMEP Single Minute Exercise Prep
You don’t need 45 minutes of mobility work for a 30-minute work out. Here are some general guidelines and an approach to effectively employing preventative and corrective work.
Programming 201: The Realistic Strength Program
You can have the holy grail of training programs, but if it doesn’t fit your job, it isn’t any good.
Is There Really A Difference Between Raw and Geared Lifting?
No matter which of the many training programs out there you choose to use, or whether you train raw or equipped, one thing will always remain the same.
WATCH: Table Talk — Flaws of Percentage-Based Programming and Training
In this video, Maliek and Dave discuss the problems with percentage-based training and share alternative methods for strength programming.
Access Knowledge to Be Your Own Coach
Always being told what to do is not how one becomes great and it is most definitely not how one becomes a great lifter.
Social Skill Integration Through Movement and Strength: Team Training at...
In this type of training, we’re taking things one step further — we share the entire training experience with at least one partner at the gym.
WATCH: Off Topic with Dave and Jim — Box Squatting
Box squats have been around for years but the debate still hasn’t been settled.
Programming for the Loose Forwards in Rugby
A loose forward must be one of the fittest players on the field. This requires a specialized approach to the strength and conditioning program.
Strength Training for Young Athletes — Safety, 1RM Testing, Growth Plate...
In this second part, we are going to look at more research regarding 1RM testing and break down multiple falsehoods about why young athletes should not strength train.
WATCH: Off Topic with Dave Tate and Jim Wendler — Training for All-Aroun...
If you want to build total fitness, you need to know about something Jim Wendler calls The Push-Pull Concept — and it has nothing to do with benching or deadlifting.
Putting Pen to Paper — When Old School Is Better Than New Technology
Now is the time to assess the technology that’s at our fingertips. It’s also the time to become picky with what type of and when to use technology with regard to our powerlifting success.
Strength Training for Young Athletes — Benefits, Appropriate Starting Ag...
Telling a kid not to lift but then turning around and having him sprint, cut, and jump in those terms really does sound stupid, doesn’t it?
Using Velocity-Based Training Dynamically
With dynamic effort work, we use the guidelines that Bryan Mann has written about extensively. I’ve tweaked his approach to fit our small budget and large team setting.
Build the Back, Spare the Spine
The healthier you can keep your spine, the longer you can train heavy and grow muscle. Here are my top-10, spine-friendly exercises.
What Is Elite in Powerlifting?
It takes a long time to be elite—truly elite—in this sport. Don’t try to change the standards. Change the way you work.
You’ll Be An Old Bastard One Day Too
If you had asked me when I was 20 if I was going to still be training at almost 50, I would have said absolutely. I just didn’t know these five things would change.
Three Training Methods to Strengthen Your Weak Points
As simple and extremely important as this principle is, I continue to see so many lifters overlook or misunderstand it year after year.
A Young Athlete's Redemption
When the tall, piper-cleaner thin baseball player showed up, I didn’t think he’d last long. I was wrong.
Contest Prep Aftermath: Reverse Dieting and Training
In this first installment of the three-part series, let’s dig into the rationale behind reverse dieting and why it is so important for not only your growth as a competitor but your long-term health.
Finding Strength: Colosseum Strongman
During my trip to this Columbia, Maryland gym, I witnessed first-hand the hospitality of Jon Ward and his strongman crew.
144 Things I Love and Hate About Powerlifting
Every lifter has their own reasons to love or hate this sport. Here are mine.
elitefts Classic: How to Set Up A Program — A New Look at Weak Points
I don’t know how many questions we’ve gotten about how to train certain weak points. Of course, almost every question is in regard to a weak muscle group or a certain portion of a lift.
WATCH: Off Topic with Dave and Jim — PEDs and Training Frequency
Kicking off the new series, Dave Tate and Jim Wendler take on a topic of heated debate.
When to Build Strength, When to Display It
Think about it. How do you prioritize these aspects of your training?
Intra-Workout Nutrition Q&A: BCAAs, HBCD, and Supplements on a Budget
You have questions, team elitefts has answers. Today’s topic: intra-workout supplementation.
Tweaking the APRE Cluster Method
I had used the APRE Method with great results in the past. After trying some new things in the summer, we decided to implement these changes in the fall.
5 Key Lessons From Contest Prep
Stepping on stage is reserved for a special breed of lifter, but the lessons you learn from competing apply to all training goals. Here are the things my rookie bodybuilding season taught me.
Reset Your PR's
In a perfect world, you’re always getting stronger and your PR’s are always moving higher. Well, this world isn’t perfect, and you need to remember that if you want to get stronger.
Finding Strength: East Coast / West Coast Strength
This New Jersey gym brings together the best training methods to spread the Strongman culture.
Finding Strength: The Mission
The purpose is simple: bridging the gap between Strongman and the public.
We Are Just Cavemen With Smart Phones
Technology moves forward, but we are the same. Physically, we are all made of the same DNA as the humans who came before us. Let’s train like it.
Which Way Should S&C Go?
As I see it, there are three directions that this profession can go. I know I favor one and I’ll explain why.
Relentless Hypertrophy Protocol: How Sequencing and Repetition Stimulate...
The goal was to create a training model that would maximize hypertrophy in minimal time and that would be “low tech, high effect” in its design.
Acumobility — A Game Changer in Mobility
Once the orange ones lose their painful effect, you need to get yourself blue balls. Yeah, I said it. Blue balls.