"I really started to lean into like let's be as healthy as we can while we wreck our bodies... and then as I've gotten older and my priorities have shifted, my avatar has shifted with me."

J.L. details the evolution of The Spot Athletics from a humble 2,000 square-foot start to two 20,000 square-foot facilities, emphasizing how custom EliteFTS equipment, a client-first "family" culture, and salaried coaching positions are pushing the strength and conditioning industry forward.

The right weight for speed bench isn't found in a book — it's found under the bar, using a simple method that tells you exactly what to use based on your own strength and skill level.

In "In Pursuit of the Perfect Program," Ashley Jones shares his decades-long journey through strength and conditioning, outlining practical programming strategies that blend powerlifting, Olympic lifting, conjugate methods, and French Contrast training to develop strength, speed, and performance.

Before a recent podcast recording, a guest connected Louie Simmons' sled work to Charles Poliquin's knee rehab protocol, and the conversation filled in a gap I had lived for decades without fully explaining.

To manage a torn hand mid-competition, a brutal "Russian" trick involves violently grinding a wire brush into the open wound seconds before the attempt to overload the brain's pain receptors. This extreme stimulation reportedly shuts off sensation just long enough to execute a heavy pull before the pain inevitably returns.

The elitefts Shoulder Saver Pad lets you bench press through shoulder problems by replicating a board press without needing a board, a training partner, or a prayer.

Grip failure doesn't announce itself until the bar is already moving — here's the complete system to fix it before it costs you another pull.

 Professional strongman Adam Roszkowski reveals how his 11-year career in international ballroom dancing built the foundation of balance, discipline, and deep muscle control that propelled him to success in heavy lifting and American football.

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