training

The ACSM just updated their resistance training guidelines for the first time in over 15 years, and what the headlines say and what the document actually says are two different things.

The bar doesn't care about your program. It cares about what's between your ears. Dave Tate breaks down 10 mental skills he learned over 20+ years of competition, from identity and visualization to the composure that saved his career at the 1999 IPA Worlds.

Dave Tate revisits a 2004 classic and asks the question all over again: why do we do this to ourselves?

The noise never stops unless you make it stop, and the conversations you've been avoiding are the ones that matter most.

Beginners speak in absolutes; veterans talk in probabilities, because the deeper you go, the more you realize how little you know.

I didn't get here by having more than everyone else. I got here by understanding what less actually looks like.

The right weight for speed bench isn't found in a book — it's found under the bar, using a simple method that tells you exactly what to use based on your own strength and skill level.

The lifters and coaches who truly understand the phrase realize that competition doesn't kill community, it sharpens it.

The EliteFTS gym evolved from a simple backyard shed used for sled work in 1998 into a world-class strength facility over the course of two decades of growth and warehouse relocations.

"Back then, you weren't training hard unless you crawled out of the gym. You thought you were wasting your time if you didn't see stars, puke in the trash can, or question your life choices on the drive home.

Conjugate training is fundamentally the coupling of different methods of muscle tension, combining the max effort method, the repetition method, and the dynamic effort method. The training week is typically divided into Max Effort Lower/Upper Body and Dynamic Lower/Upper Body days, with the critical requirement that the max effort exercise must be changed every week to provide a necessary varied stimulus.

Most lifters spend their time obsessing over sleep, supplements, and nutrition while the two variables that actually drive progress sit untouched. Here's why volume and intensity are still the volume controls on your training board.

A 760-pound squat, a meet in Toledo, and the moment I learned that fear doesn't wait for the bar to come down.

Eric Bugenhagen and the Szatstrength host take on an absurdly intense, Tom Platz-inspired leg workout at EliteFTS, relying on Dave Tate's expertise to push through extreme pain and train safely despite recent severe muscle tears.

When social media showed up, lifters swore it would destroy everything authentic about training. Now, those same lifters are fighting algorithms instead of PRs. The problem isn’t the platform,  it’s how you use it.

The elitefts Arnold Classic Bingo card has been a tradition since 2010, and we're walking through every version to celebrate the 2026 card dropping today.

Take a unique tour of the EliteFTS S5 compound to discover the 30-year history and untold stories behind the gym's most iconic pieces of strength equipment.

Applications for the 2026 Train Your Ass Off events close March 15th. Here's what past attendees said about it, in their own words.

The challenge is knowing when to pass that on and when to let someone else learn the hard way. Because sometimes the best lesson isn’t what you tell someone; it’s what you let them experience.

The elitefts WarGrip Training Knee Sleeves are a dual-ply training sleeve built for daily use, with enough compression to keep you protected session after session, without the fight of getting them on.

Auto-regulation isn't a cheat code for lazy lifters. It's the hardest skill in strength sports to develop, and most people never get there.

I made a promise to John Meadows at his grave site that I would never walk away from the business, meaning I had to show up every single day with integrity and the highest work ethic possible to uphold his legacy. This ongoing commitment involves using a hybrid training approach, rotating between low- and high-volume exercises based on the body's response, and guiding clients through strategic fat loss and rebound phases to maximize progress.

For years, bodybuilding work was treated like fluff, something “real” lifters didn’t waste time on. Powerlifters mocked curls, lateral raises, and cable work as meaningless vanity exercises. If it didn’t build the squat, bench, or deadlift directly, it didn’t matter. But time has a funny way of proving you wrong.

"The mission behind the whole company, Elite FTS, is to educate and outfit those with a strong desire for strength to become better".