Strength in the weight room is only part of the equation. Former NFL offensive lineman Rees Odhiambo explains how offset loading, carries, sandbags, and reactive resistance can build strength that holds up under unpredictable force.

University of Toledo Director of Football Strength & Conditioning Evan Barr joins Dave Tate to discuss Olympic lifting for football, movement development, programming, deloading, competition, and what it takes to build stronger athletes and a better strength staff.

Training a young rugby player is about more than getting them stronger for next season. Ashley Jones lays out a long-term approach to youth development, from maturation and movement skills to strength training, recovery, testing, and building the habits that can support a player for years to come.

Noah found an old elitefts camcorder in the back office, so we shot a week at S5 on it, and it reminded me what training harder really looks like.

After nearly 30 years of giving to the elitefts community, C.J. "Murph" Murphy and the Total Performance Sports crew need us to show up for them.

Most of the weight you carry is for bridges you haven't reached yet, and half of them you'll never cross.

What made Westside Barbell the strongest gym in the world was not the methodology. It was the people in the room and what they demanded from each other.

The perfect program means nothing without the standards to execute it. Drawing on more than three decades in professional sport, Ashley Jones explains why discipline, intent, professionalism, recovery, and personal responsibility matter more than any set-and-rep scheme.

Individualizing training inside a team environment is one of the hardest jobs in strength and conditioning. Ashley Jones explains how his four-stage Quadrant Management System shifts decision-making from coach to player without sacrificing structure, readiness, or care.

Labor Day is the one holiday that actually understands what training is, because both come down to the same thing: work nobody applauds you for.

A chance re-read of Ethan Hawke's Rules for a Knight uncovered a fable that maps directly to everything elitefts was built on, and everything the training process asks of you.

After years away from writing, Chad Faria realized he never ran out of things to say—he just stopped believing they were worth saying. From family challenges and coaching growth to an 1,800-pound total and lessons learned under pressure, he reflects on consistency, self-doubt, mentorship, and why sharing experience is simply another form of coaching.

The lifters who last are not the ones who felt nothing; they are the ones who learned to read the difference between the pain that builds them and the pain that ends them.

Programming complexity should be earned, not forced. Ashley Jones explains how training age should guide exercise methods, weekly frequency, block length, and progression—from beginner straight sets to advanced conjugate programming.

Dave revisits the article he wrote over 20 years ago and gives his honest assessment of what he got right, what he got wrong, and what he would have actually done differently if he could go back

Elite performance is not built on one perfect program, exercise, or recovery method. It is built through daily choices. Ashley Jones explains what it means to live above the line, take ownership, master the basics, and build the character required for long-term success.

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.

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.

I picked up a book about organizational strategy and ended up reading a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of every training mistake I made for the first decade of my career.

The gym teaches you more than how to get strong. If you pay attention, it teaches you how to lead, how to think, and who you actually are.