Scott Paltos is a man wearing many hats. He is a middle school physical education teacher, a high school football coach, a gym owner, and is a lifelong elitefts customer. For the past 15 years and counting, he runs Foundation Training Systems, a gym where he trains both athletes and general population adults. He has been involved in strength and conditioning for 20 years. He got his start working under speed and agility legend Bill Parisi— the birthplace of many other high caliber strength and conditioning professionals, like Joe DeFranco and Martin Rooney.
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His personal weightlifting journey began in his parents’ basement with a simple bench press and squat stand combo, complete with the sand-filled weights to load on a straight barbell, an EZ curl barbell, and spinlock plate-loaded dumbbells. This humble beginning projected him into competing in a variety of strength sports, with a long history in powerlifting and strongman, even dipping his toes in high-level CrossFit competitions.
Scott first was introduced to Dave Tate (not yet elitefts) through a close friend of his and a likely familiar name to most of you, Jim Wendler. Dave started putting out great free content online and Scott was quick to take notice, and become a supporter. This long-standing relationship eventually spun into a lifelong mentorship and helped Scott expand to where he is today.
Given he’s living a hectic lifestyle, he slowly built a gym in his basement a few years ago. A third child on the way, it became paramount to have the gym on the other side of a door so he could get his iron fix in where he could. It also never hurts to work out in a place that no one else has the keys to. The essentials, of course, begin with a
power rack, an ever-growing expansion of
specialty bars, a
glute-ham raise, a
back extension,
strongman implements like an
axle bar and
farmers walk handles, and a catalog of different
cable attachments (he especially loves the
grenades). The list of “essentials” grew so long he has a posterior-chain room where his equipment spills into the inside of his house rather than the garage.
On his wish list, and considering he's taking up more rooms than he should, he’d love a
new swiss bar (after giving his old one to someone who needed it to press), the
rackable spider bar, and maybe if he ever opens up an anterior chain training room, the
Monster Mondo Leg Press.
