Valerie Smith’s path through powerlifting proves that the platform is only one part of the education. From bombing out at her first meet to becoming a lifter, coach, referee, and meet director, she learned that better lifting comes from better decisions, sharper standards, and a broader view of the sport.

A stripped-down, no-BS guide to conjugate training structure: how to organize max effort, dynamic effort, secondary work, accessories, bands, chains, and auto-regulation without overcomplicating the system.

The 2026 systematic review on long muscle-length training is real research with real limitations, and the internet is applying single-joint findings to powerlifting in ways that can get people hurt.

Build a bigger chest and back by learning how elbow path, grip angle, wrist freedom, and joint position determine where tension actually goes. This article breaks down smarter pressing, dips, pulldowns, rows, and EliteFTS gear choices for more precise hypertrophy training.

Most missed benches are not just strength problems—they are position problems. This guide breaks down how to use elitefts bands to create controlled “chaos,” build a tighter unrack, strengthen the upper back, improve lat engagement, and develop the bracing capacity needed to stay locked in under heavy weight.

Build a stronger, faster, more explosive lower body with a sport-focused training model that blends maximal strength, contrast training, plyometrics, sled work, unilateral development, and force–velocity profiling for better transfer to the field.

Four traps will end most training careers before they start — here's how to recognize them and what to do instead

If your squat falls apart before you hit depth, your walkout may be the problem. This guide breaks down how to build a tighter squat setup from the rack out: grip, upper back tension, stacking, bracing, foot pressure, and the common walkout mistakes that make heavy squats feel harder than they should.

"I'm a poly athlete, I do everything, not all year round. Usually, I layer things seasonally, in the right time period, and I periodize them correctly in blocks."

Elite strength is built in the margins. This article breaks down how elite powerlifters evolve over time through smarter programming, better fatigue management, refined technique, harder accessory work, stronger training environments, and strategic weight-class decisions.

"I didn't think I would ever get there, but I committed to it, and if you really go all in and you just commit to something and you really believe in yourself, you can absolutely do it."

"If you want to achieve your ultimate physical goals, you must become 'every type of jacked' by mastering autoregulation and truly understanding the biological systems that drive your performance and recovery."

Paul Carter and I sat down for Table Talk #303 and spent two-plus hours cutting through the noise around hypertrophy training. Here's what you need to hear.

Paul Carter argues that because every set accumulates fatigue, which can hinder performance, lifters must mitigate this fatigue by utilizing more extended rest periods to ensure high-threshold motor units are recruited in subsequent sets. He challenges the traditional belief that fatigue is a stimulus for growth, suggesting that straight sets with adequate rest are mechanically superior to intensity techniques, such as drop sets, for maximizing effective reps.

Drew Donaldson brings 20 years of coaching experience to the S5 and lays out a glycolytic upper body session that merges research with what's been working in gyms for decades.

Dr. Pat Davidson breaks down the billionaire myth of accidental muscle growth, the meathead bell curve, and how high-ground training choices change everything for hypertrophy.

Dr. Dwayne Jackson returns to Table Talk with six science-backed lessons on RPE calibration, auto-regulation, the gym as medicine, and what actually separates lifters who keep progressing from those who plateau and break down.

I've been competing in powerlifting long enough to know what the tricep actually does in this sport. It locks out the bench. It finishes the press. So when every strap on the market kept failing me at both ends of the pushdown, I stopped looking for a solution and started building one. This is the origin of the elitefts 3-Loop Tricep Strap, why I designed it the way I did, and why it has never left my cable machine.

Dr. Pat Davidson breaks down the three mechanical variables that determine whether an exercise builds muscle, inoculates against injury, or gets you hurt.

"While a calorie deficit is typically necessary to lose fat, rapid body recomposition—gaining muscle while losing fat—is primarily achievable for beginners, individuals with obesity, those using steroids, or athletes recovering from an injury."

You're thirty years old, you track everything, and your labs look like a disaster. Before your doctor puts you on a protocol you don't need, read this.

The bench press is a sagittal plane grind. The Belden Bar trains the rotational capacity your shoulder girdle needs to survive it.