band deads

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.

Dave at wsbb

Brothers or Fools: What Westside Taught Me About Cooperation

Dave Tate

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.

tom dl

Stop Optimizing Your Way Out of Getting Stronger

Dave Tate

The planning conversation never gets you stronger. Only the bar does.

gym empty

Nobody Gives You a Day Off From the Work

Dave Tate

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.

efs squat pic

An Excuse and a Reason Look Exactly the Same

Dave Tate

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.

gym pic 2

Your Perception of Powerlifting Is Probably Wrong

Dave Tate

The powerlifting you argue about online is being defined by less than 1% of the people actually in it.

Crew Squat mike

The Forty-Four-Pointed Buck: What a Fable About Sacrifice Taught Me About Training, Coaching, and Building Something That Lasts

Dave Tate

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

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

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 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.

Dave Tate Crew

The Pain They Never Warn You About

Dave Tate

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.

TYAO

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.

dave and kid

What I'd Tell the 300-Pound Version of Me (And Why He Wouldn't Listen)

Dave Tate

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 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."

 

Gym Talk Kindergarden

What a Five-Year-Old Taught Me About Strength, Business, and Life

Dave Tate

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.

combine

Beyond the Box Squat: 5 Hard-Won Truths on Strength, Survival, and the Science of Resilience

Dave Tate

 "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."

 

deadlift

The Industry Got Loud. The Sport Never Did.

Dave Tate

The strength industry I built my life in is unrecognizable, but the sport itself never moved.

Dave and Eric

You're Not the Only One in That Room Who Feels Like They Don't Belong

Dave Tate

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.

Dave Old Pic

What This Sport Reveals About You When Things Go Wrong

Dave Tate

The hardest character test in powerlifting has nothing to do with the weight on the bar.

Do It Anyway

Do It Anyway

Dave Tate

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

Driven Doesn't Require a Destination

Dave Tate

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?

Mike Stratton

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.

deadlift

5 Things People Get Wrong With the Max Effort Method

Dave Tate

The max effort method is one of the most powerful tools in strength training. It's also one of the most misunderstood.

THE LAST WAR

Don't Fight the Last War: Why Your Best Training Results Might Be Your Biggest Enemy

Dave Tate

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.