Every strength athlete eventually faces the question: Can I come back, or should I? Tyler Desplenter, PhD, reflects on 14 years of strongman, serious injuries, lessons in rehabilitation, and the moment when the pursuit of strength becomes bigger than the platform.

What does it take to hit PRs for 10 straight years without burning out? Marcellus “The Swolefessor” Williams breaks down competing often, building work capacity, treating powerlifting as a skill, protecting your mental battery, and using strength to build a better life—not just a bigger total.

Motivation is not something you wait for. It is something you build. This article breaks down how action, progress, and better goal-setting create the kind of long-term drive that keeps lifters training when the weight gets heavy, life gets messy, and excuses start talking.

"The void" is described as a transformative mental state of freedom and peace where an athlete sheds their daily stressors to become a different, often more aggressive, version of themselves, pushing past physical limits into a space of absolute nothingness.

A neurologist draws a map to purpose, balance, and fulfillment using Homer's Odyssey. Turns out, powerlifting drew the same map decades ago.

Most lifters focus on what to add. The ones who get strong figure out what to cut.

"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.

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

Most of us start out thinking strength is everything—until the bill comes due in the form of pain, surgery, or burnout. Here’s how to chase big numbers without letting them take everything from you.

Travel back to April 1980, a year of political drama and legendary strength in the powerlifting world. This deep dive into the Powerlifting USA archives features an exclusive look at Bill Kazmaier’s scientific training blueprint at Auburn University and Jan Todd’s historic barrier-breaking 501.25 lb squat

 "If we cover all these bases all year round... you will make faster progress because you don't spend time correcting weaknesses because nothing gets particularly weak in the first place".

Many trainees are consistent with their physical presence in the gym but fail to maintain consistency in the mental discipline and specific habits, such as sleep and stress management, required for genuine growth. This disconnect often leads to the "training sins" of ego lifting and program hopping, where short-term gratification is prioritized over long-term, sustainable progress.

Start your year off right with this free webinar on January 14th at 6:30 p.m. EST. 

If I had to put a number on it, I've spent more than 50,000 hours inside a gym training, coaching, managing, or teaching. If you stack the time end to end, that's over six straight years. 

For some time, my husband had been saying that I needed a “reverse hyperextension machine”. After a particularly painful flare-up, I finally gave in and looked it up: it was time to learn more about the machine I never managed to use at any gym because I was too short for them. Luckily, YouTube taught me several ways to improvise alternatives.