Every Way You Should Be Using Resistance Bands in Your Training
Resistance bands are one of the most versatile and underused tools in strength training. Here's every way to use them, from accommodating resistance on the main lifts to rehab, speed work, and keeping a beat-up body in the game.
Brothers or Fools: What Westside Taught Me About Cooperation
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.
Stop Optimizing Your Way Out of Getting Stronger
The planning conversation never gets you stronger. Only the bar does.
Nobody Gives You a Day Off From the Work
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.
An Excuse and a Reason Look Exactly the Same
A reason is why you can't. An excuse is why you won't. Most lifters never learn the difference because the honest answer costs something.
Your Perception of Powerlifting Is Probably Wrong
The powerlifting you argue about online is being defined by less than 1% of the people actually in it.
The Forty-Four-Pointed Buck: What a Fable About Sacrifice Taught Me About Training, Coaching, and Building Something That Lasts
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.
Torn Biceps, Strongman, and the Long Game l Josh Hendrickson Table Talk #437
Strongman competitor and gym owner Josh Hendrickson sits down with Dave Tate to talk biceps rehab, training through injury, chasing a sub-20 5K, building 580 Barbell, promoting better strongman shows, and what it takes to stay in strength sports for the long haul.
The High Stakes of Collegiate Strength and Conditioning
Former Wisconsin strength coach Brian Bott joins Dave Tate to unpack the realities of collegiate strength and conditioning—from rebuilding broken movement patterns and maintaining power deep into the season to creating a weight room culture built on accountability, resilience, and long-term athlete development.
The Shiny Object Trap and the Ultimate Free Drug
The fitness industry is obsessed with the next peptide, supplement, hormone, and recovery shortcut. But none of it matters if the foundation is weak. This article breaks down the training, nutrition, sleep, hydration, recovery, and cellular principles that drive real physical progress—and explains why exercise remains the most powerful performance tool available.
The Pain They Never Warn You About
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.
Your Leverages Are Not a Liability
The lifter who spends their career trying to look like someone else's highlight reel will never find out what they were actually built to do.
What I'd Tell the 300-Pound Version of Me (And Why He Wouldn't Listen)
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
The Strength Foundation: A Primer on Maximal Strength and Human Potential
"The human potential is limited by the human mind, and it takes a very, very, very strong, rare, special person to break the barrier."
What a Five-Year-Old Taught Me About Strength, Business, and Life
A kindergartner who lost everything in a house fire looked around at his classmates and said, "I have all I need right here," and it changed how I think about training, business, and what actually matters.
Beyond the Box Squat: 5 Hard-Won Truths on Strength, Survival, and the Science of Resilience
"I think that was a big thing, the reason why the doctor said, like you would have been dead, and several times, I probably should have died if my baseline wasn't so high going into it."
The Industry Got Loud. The Sport Never Did.
The strength industry I built my life in is unrecognizable, but the sport itself never moved.
You're Not the Only One in That Room Who Feels Like They Don't Belong
Most people misunderstand imposter syndrome. Here's the real distinction, and why the only ones certain they belong are the ones you should worry about.
What This Sport Reveals About You When Things Go Wrong
The hardest character test in powerlifting has nothing to do with the weight on the bar.
Do It Anyway
After tearing his pec and being told he would never bench 400 again, Dave Tate kept driving to the gym. Here is what happened.
Driven Doesn't Require a Destination
What if being driven has nothing to do with knowing where you're going, and everything to do with knowing what you refuse to become?
From Basement Clinics to Better Data: Mike Stratton’s Long Road to Marek Health
From teenage lifter to burned-out founder, Mike Stratton’s story is a raw look at strength culture, hormone health, entrepreneurial sacrifice, and the wake-up call that reshaped his mission with Marek Health.
5 Things People Get Wrong With the Max Effort Method
The max effort method is one of the most powerful tools in strength training. It's also one of the most misunderstood.
Don't Fight the Last War: Why Your Best Training Results Might Be Your Biggest Enemy
The method that built your best results can become the thing holding you back — here's why most lifters stay stuck and what to do about it.
























