Nathon Payton

The Physiology of Peak Strength: Advanced Nutritional Protocols for Elite Athletes

— Dave Tate

"Dieting is a skill set learned solely through repetition, much like identifying cues to improve a squat, and must be designed to plug and play into an individual's specific lifestyle to ensure success. Ultimately, the goal is to condition the body to hyper-respond to the stimulus of nutrients while ensuring the nutrition plan is realistic enough for the athlete to maintain consistency regardless of their daily responsibilities."

 

squats at gym

Mastering Wave Loading Techniques

— Dave Tate

Wave loading is a powerful strength training technique that involves cycling through sets with different weights and reps in the same session to challenge the body and break through plateaus. By strategically manipulating intensity and volume, this method drives genuine improvements in strength, muscle growth, and overall performance.


 

football

The Indiana QB, The White Hands, And The “Loophole”

— Dave Tate

The Indiana quarterback’s “white hands” in the national title game weren’t a scandal—they were a masterclass in how liquid chalk can legally give athletes a better grip when it matters most.


Hip work with band

The Ultimate 5-Move Banded Warm-Up to Bulletproof Your Squat

— Dave Tate

This simplistic but highly effective banded warm-up routine teaches lifters how to stabilize the pelvis and keep the rib cage grounded while moving through hip internal and external rotation. By utilizing specific drills, such as the banded deadbug and the 90/90 hip internal rotation, athletes can enhance motor control and address common mobility restrictions that limit their squat performance.

 

Tom Training Bench

Your Guide to the Strength Mastery

The Strength Mastery Event is a two-day, hands-on coaching experience designed to help participants master the squat, deadlift, bench, and overhead press while learning foundational mechanics such as breathing, bracing, and foot rooting. Attendees work in a small-group setting to receive practical feedback and clear cues, ensuring they leave with improved positions and a training plan they can use immediately.

 

webinar

2026 - The Year of RESULTS Webinar!

— Dave Tate

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

Rooting

Stop Pushing, Start Pulling: 4 Secrets to Unlocking Your True Strength and Stability

Rooting, or grounding, stabilizes the body from the hip or pelvis down to the floor, whereas bracing stabilizes the structure from the pelvis up to the shoulder. Since they are interdependent, performing both rooting and bracing correctly is essential for creating a whole, rigid structure and achieving maximum strength and stability.

 

Zercher Squat

Zerchers: Simple Evaluations of Complex Movements

— Dave Tate

Discover how Zercher movements, including the Squat and Deadlift, can be seamlessly integrated into your training program to boost muscle growth and strength. This article evaluates the biomechanics, benefits, and proper execution of these variants to help you train safely and effectively.

Brad

How a Firefighter-Powerlifter Conquered a World Championship and a Promotional Exam in the Same Sleep-Deprived Week

"If you work shift work, if you're a first responder, if you're a nurse, if you're a new parent, there are things that you can be doing to improve the amount of sleep you're getting, to improve the quality of that sleep, to reduce that overall cortisol. You don't just have to suffer through it. It's not the cost of doing business, like I chose to do this job, and I made the choice to suffer for as long as I did before I found somebody who could help me write the ship."

 

Lat Pulldown

Stop Wasting Your Reps: The Biomechanics Secrets to a Bigger Back

So first off remember just because you're doing what is a lat exercise doesn't mean it's necessarily hitting your lats very well. And then also you have the ability to take a certain exercise and bias it towards whatever your goal is very very easily by just adjusting the grip width how you put pressure on your hands and ultimately change that upper arm angle relative to your body.

 

Grip training

Why Your Grip Strength Is Limiting Every Power Lift

— Dave Tate

Consider this: your body can only apply as much force as your grip can withstand. If your hands can’t control the bar, your power leaks before it even transfers through your arms and torso.

LOADED STRETCHING

7 Surprising Ways ‘Loaded Stretching’ Unlocks More Muscle, Strength, and Mobility

The longer we're spending in that stretch position actively lengthening and relaxing those target muscles we are going to be spending more and more time in a lengthened position but also getting further into that stretch position which is going to leave us more mobile than when we started. Now these are going to be more effective for mobility than traditional static stretches as well because we have the external load helping us.


Band Hip Thrust

Your Squat Warm--Up Is Wrong. Here’s How to Fix It with 4 Simple Drills

This highly effective, two-band warm-up routine focuses on improving lumbopelvic stability, strengthening hip internal and external rotation, and addressing movement bottlenecks to enhance squat performance and reduce injury risk. Key exercises include the banded deadbug, the 90/90 banded hip internal rotation drill, and the single-leg banded hip thrust with a contralateral load.

 

ben_patrick

From 'Old Man' Knees to a Fitness Revolution: The Story of KneesOverToesGuy

— Dave Tate

Ben Patrick discusses how he overcame chronic knee issues that began at age nine by utilizing backward sled drags and eccentric loading to rebuild athletic resilience. The conversation bridges the gap between Westside Barbell principles and Patrick's "Knees Over Toes" methodology, exploring how scaling exercises like the split squat and seated good morning can facilitate longevity and pain-free movement.

 

Eugene B Bench Press

The Education Echo

Everyone starts somewhere. Early on, it’s easy to look at newcomers and forget you were once guessing too. The difference between arrogance and experience is humility. If you’ve been in the game long enough, you realize the next wave isn’t your competition — they’re your continuation.

PRM Model Tom Sheppard

5 Counter-Intuitive Lessons on Strength from a Method Born in a Backyard Hole

— Dave Tate

This approach provides several key benefits, including the desensitization of GGI tendon organs, improved recruitment of high threshold motor units, and a significant boost in confidence when handling super maximal loads, leading to direct carryover to the full main lift

5 Counter-Intuitive Strength Lessons From a Coach Forged by Injury

5 Counter-Intuitive Strength Lessons From a Coach Forged by Injury

Locke’s Kodiak Barbell method is a blend of conjugate, block, and DUP principles, built around diagnosing an athlete's failure as either structural (postural) or muscular. Structural failures are addressed by systematically using variations, tempo, and pauses, while muscular failures involve programming targeted accessory movements to strengthen specific weak links.

 

Sam Brown

You're Doing the McGill Big Three Wrong. Here's the Secret You're Missing.

— Dave Tate

The McGill Big Three exercises: the curl-up, side plank, and bird dog are designed to challenge your core from different directions, with the ultimate goal of creating stiffness in the spine and the surrounding musculature. For both strength enthusiasts and those with low back pain, prioritizing the proper intent, maintaining a neutral spine, and ensuring alignment of the rib cage and pelvis are absolutely paramount for stability and maximizing carryover.

 

Fat Bar Training

Why is it that what is OLD, is NEW, again in training?

Fat bar training has been around for decades. I am not the first to discover it. However, I don’t know of anyone who has switched over to it 100% after 20 or more years of training with the standard bar.

Dave Tate

The Lifters Who Said ‘No Excuses

In your twenties, training is the center of everything. It’s your identity, therapy, escape, and reason to get up in the morning. Everything else fits around it. You schedule life around training, not the other way around. Then, time starts to load the bar in ways you didn’t expect.

Tom Sheppard Hand Up

5 Counter-Intuitive Secrets to Unlocking Your True Power in the Gym

— Dave Tate

If your squat feels wobbly or your bench leaks power, the problem usually isn’t strength—it’s how you connect to the floor. This article breaks down five counterintuitive rooting tricks that instantly make you more stable, more powerful, and able to use the strength you already have.

Dave Tate Profile Image

Functional Movement Training and Fictional Movement

Real functionality is simple — moving well under load and being able to repeat it tomorrow. If your “function” can’t translate to sport, life, or strength, it’s just entertainment.

River Valley HS

3 Surprising Lessons From a High School Weight Room Built Without Tax Dollars

— Dave Tate

This project is not just an upgrade; it’s a total reimagining of what a high school strength and conditioning facility can be. But more than that, it's a physical manifestation of a community's belief in its children. The result is a space that rivals collegiate-level programs, meticulously crafted with incredible attention to detail and a clear, unified vision.

alex Viada and tom sheppard

5 Drills to Unlock Explosive Running Efficiency

— Dave Tate

You log more miles, follow the training plan, and push through fatigue, yet you've hit a wall. Your race times have stagnated, or worse, that same nagging injury keeps reappearing. It's a frustrating paradox for any dedicated endurance athlete: how can more work not lead to better results?