Autoregulation is fundamentally about managing your neurological fatigue by strategically adjusting training volume, intensity, and load to prevent overtaxing your central nervous system.

Conjugate training is fundamentally the coupling of different methods of muscle tension, combining the max effort method, the repetition method, and the dynamic effort method. The training week is typically divided into Max Effort Lower/Upper Body and Dynamic Lower/Upper Body days, with the critical requirement that the max effort exercise must be changed every week to provide a necessary varied stimulus.

Why the rackable cambered squat bar belongs in your training and how to use it to build a squat that doesn't fall apart under real weight.

Most lifters spend their time obsessing over sleep, supplements, and nutrition while the two variables that actually drive progress sit untouched. Here's why volume and intensity are still the volume controls on your training board.

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

Elite coaches Jon Heck, Joey Szatmary, Dave Tate, and Sam Brown share their most critical advice for upcoming fitness professionals, emphasizing deep client empathy, effective communication, and purposeful social media use.

Ashley Jones' comprehensive in-season strength and conditioning program focuses on force-velocity development, unilateral balance, modified French-Contrast training, and a three-week loading cycle to keep athletes powerful, prepared, and game-ready.

"When moving heavy weight on the bench press, holding your breath through the entire repetition maximizes full-body stability, leading to the lifting mantra that 'blindness is anabolic' because staying tight and safe is more important than having perfect vision."

The GHR has been the most neglected piece of equipment in most gyms for decades, and this is the machine that fixes that.

Justin Zottl explains that common bench press mistakes, such as improper forearm angles and flaring elbows off the chest, cause lifters to waste energy and increase the risk of shoulder injury. To fix these issues, he recommends specific cues like squeezing the pinkies to maintain a vertical forearm and driving the knees out to keep the glutes glued to the bench for proper leg drive,.

Loaded carries are one of the most underutilized training modalities for building unbreakable postural strength, core stability, and muscle mass with minimal soreness.

When social media showed up, lifters swore it would destroy everything authentic about training. Now, those same lifters are fighting algorithms instead of PRs. The problem isn’t the platform,  it’s how you use it.

Matt Mills (AOS, PN1, CSCS) is a strength coach and owner of Lightning Fitness, helping athletes and lifters build strength, resilience, and performance that carries over outside the gym. A long-time elitefts columnist, he shares practical coaching lessons from the trenches. Learn more at Lightning-Fitness.com.

The Glute Ham Raise (GHR) is an exceptional tool for building hamstring resiliency and strength in a lengthened position without the spinal loading associated with movements like stiff-leg deadlifts. By maintaining a neutral pelvic tilt and using the quads to initiate the descent like a leg extension, lifters can ensure the hamstrings take the full load while avoiding common compensation patterns from the lower back and glutes.

Most gyms won't let a metal sled touch the floor. This one goes anywhere inside, loads fast, and gives you everything sled training is supposed to deliver 

Going backward with the sled, which places the knee over the toes, allowed the speaker to stop using painkillers for their knees and represents a significant congruency between the training systems of Louis Simmons and Charles Polloquin. This backward dragging technique is beneficial for recovery from knee injuries because it involves concentric movements while removing the eccentric load,.

Take a unique tour of the EliteFTS S5 compound to discover the 30-year history and untold stories behind the gym's most iconic pieces of strength equipment.

Applications for the 2026 Train Your Ass Off events close March 15th. Here's what past attendees said about it, in their own words.

The challenge is knowing when to pass that on and when to let someone else learn the hard way. Because sometimes the best lesson isn’t what you tell someone; it’s what you let them experience.

A 50-year training recap from Ashley Jones—what works, what doesn’t, and why “program promiscuity” stalls progress—followed by a structured off-season plan using 3-week cycles and progressive intensification.

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.

John Meadows knew how to take care of a body that had been through the wringer. Watch him demonstrate one of the best shoulder activation drills you're probably not doing.

We installed a custom multi-station cable tower in 2025 and it became one of the most-used pieces in the gym. Here's what we built, how we actually use it, and how it scales for training centers and high school programs.