A flag in a garage gym, and some of the veterans who have sat at my table on Table Talk.
By Dave Tate
Years ago I put a power rack, a glute ham raise, and a reverse hyper in my garage so I could get in extra workouts.
The same day they were put together, the flag went up.
I've moved the gym several times since then. The flag came with it every time, and more flags got added along the way.
There are a lot of reasons I keep a flag in my gym. The most important one is simple. Other people sacrificed, fought, and died so I could have the freedom to have a gym to train in.
I talk all the time about great coaches, mentors, and support systems. So does everybody else in this business. All of that sits on top of something that was paid for by people most of us will never meet.
I sat in on a kindergarten class once. Every day started the same way. Chapel, announcements, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Every kid put a hand over their heart, and nobody was allowed to start until every hand was on every heart.
One kid asked why they had to do this.
He was told it was to honor all those who give us the freedom and liberty we have today.
I've heard grown men take a lot longer to say it and do a worse job.
When I heard that, I thought of something President Woodrow Wilson said about the flag in his 1917 Flag Day address. "It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours."
The flag doesn't mean anything by itself. People give it that, and every generation has to do it again.
Nobody starts until every hand is on every heart.
Veterans Day Honors Everyone Who Served
Memorial Day is for those who died in service.
Veterans Day honors everyone who served in the U.S. military, in war or in peace. It is especially a chance to thank the veterans who are still here.
It started as Armistice Day, for the moment the fighting stopped in World War I on November 11, 1918. Congress changed the name in 1954 so it would cover veterans of every war.
The people we're thanking aren't only names in a history book. They're at the next rack. They're on the job site. They're in line behind you at the gas station. More often than you'd think, they're sitting across the table from me.
For some veterans, coming home is where the story gets hard. The uniform comes off. The structure changes. The people who had your back may be scattered all over the country. That isn't every veteran's experience, and it isn't our job to decide somebody's story before they've told it.
The holiday lasts one day. The rest of it doesn't.
Military service doesn't have to include combat to count. A veteran doesn't owe us a deployment story or a dramatic comeback to deserve respect. Some people want to talk about their service. Some would rather talk about the squat they missed last week. Let them choose.
We've had a lot of people on Table Talk who served. I want you to know who some of them are.
They Sat at My Table
Aaron Williamson (#371)
Most people know Aaron as the guy who trained The Rock, Stallone, and Zac Efron. That's the part that sells the episode.
Before any of that, Aaron was a Marine. He did two tours and led the Body Bearer section at Arlington. That job is what it sounds like. You carry the casket, and you carry it right.
Think about that the next time somebody tells you what a heavy carry is.
Then he came home from Iraq to New Orleans. A job opportunity fell through. PTSD showed up. He went all the way to the bottom, and for a while he lived out of his car.
The career everybody knows him for came after that.
It started with a poster. Zac Efron walked into a gym, looked up, and saw a military-style fitness poster of Aaron on the wall. Efron was doing a movie called The Lucky One, about a Marine coming home from Iraq. Aaron taught him how a Marine walks, how a Marine talks, and how a Marine approaches a situation.
He'd lived that homecoming. Now he was teaching it.
Watch Aaron on Table Talk #371
Brad Bechel (#353)
Brad served in the Army from 2005 to 2009. That's where a lot of the discipline and leadership he coaches with got built.
When Brad came on Table Talk, he was the head powerlifting coach at McKendree University. He took over in 2021 after two years as the assistant, and since then the team has put together multiple top-five national finishes, two collegiate national champions, and two IPL world champions. He also discussed his role as USAPL Illinois State Chair.
What I like about Brad's story is where the service went. It went to young lifters. He spends his time building foundations in youth and junior athletes and using the barbell to teach discipline and confidence.
He left the Army in 2009 and kept serving anyway, one lifter at a time.
Bruss Hamilton (#394)
Bruss is a Marine Corps veteran who took the work ethic he built in the service into strongman and professional wrestling.
When he came on Table Talk, he was the 2025 America's Strongest Veteran and a World Strength Games U265 champion. He had also trained at the Black & Brave Wrestling Academy under Seth Rollins and Marek Brave.
The wrestling part matters because he was willing to start over. Being strong didn't mean he already knew how to work in a ring. It gave him something to bring to the job, but there was still a new craft to learn.
That's a lesson lifters should understand. You can be experienced in one room and a beginner in the next. The work you did before doesn't disappear. It also doesn't excuse you from doing the work in front of you.
Our conversation covered the transition from military service to civilian life, competing in strongman, and pursuing professional wrestling. Hear that story from him, in his own words.
Watch Bruss on Table Talk #394
Jason Brown (#438)
Jason is a combat veteran. When he came on Table Talk, he was introduced as a Westside Barbell Special Strengths Coach, the author of Lower-Body Training, and a PhD candidate in kinesiology who has programmed for tens of thousands of athletes.
He has coached in high-volume CrossFit settings and talked with me about adapting conjugate training to people whose lives and recovery don't revolve around lifting. Full-body rotations, low-intensity conditioning, and a minimum effective dose were part of that conversation.
Our episode was about why powerlifters die young and what work capacity has to do with it.
A combat veteran telling you how to last. I'd listen.
Watch Jason on Table Talk #438
More Who Have Pulled Up a Chair
Nancy Johnson (#320) is a Marine Corps veteran who found powerlifting during her service. That led her to strongman, and when she came on the show she was the reigning U73 World's Strongest Woman. Watch
Dr. Dave Osborn (#288) is a Marine Corps veteran, an elite powerlifter, and the owner of Osborn Performance Systems in Wenatchee, Washington. Watch
Chad Penson (#277) was a Flight Chief of IT in the Air Force when he came on, and a 4x all-time world record holder with a 2,199 total at 198. Watch
Chris McGrail (#266) went from West Point to the Iraq invasion in 2003 and earned the Bronze Star. He came home with PTSD and later had a surgeon tell him he'd never lift again. He kept lifting, and he's become an advocate for using powerlifting to overcome PTSD. Watch on YouTube
Travis McKinney (#255) spent 12 years in the Army Reserves as a Staff Sergeant and Drill Sergeant, and coaches a high school powerlifting team of 50 athletes. Watch on YouTube
Danny Grigsby (#187) was an active duty Marine when he sat down with me, after pulling the 1,074.5 raw deadlift that was the heaviest in powerlifting history at the time. Watch
Amber Hansen (#159) was 11 years into her Air Force career when she came on, with an 800-pound multi-ply squat and a spot on the training floor at elitefts. Watch
Steve Goggins (#143) served in the Army from 1983 to 1990, including the 82nd Airborne and the Armed Forces Powerlifting Team. He was also the first powerlifter to squat 1,100 pounds. Watch
Jason "Big J" English (#142) served ten years in the Army as an E-6 and has trained on and off with Ronnie Coleman for more than 20 years. Watch
If I Missed You
We've had a lot of people at this table who served. A lot more than are on this list, and I know it.
If I forgot you, I'm sorry. That's on me, not you. The same goes for everyone on Team elitefts who served. That's a long list, and it deserves more than a line in this article.
Tell me. This should be a starting point, not a claim that we've named everybody.
If I forgot you, I'm sorry. That's on me, not you.
A Missed Squat Is Not a War
We love borrowing the language. Battle. War. Warrior. In the trenches.
"Trench Built" is on our own website, so I'm not throwing rocks from anywhere clean.
But a bad training day isn't combat. Neither is a bad meet.
You know that. I know that.
Look at the different lives these people built after the service. Aaron described living in his car before his coaching career took off. Bruss took on strongman and wrestling. Chris talked about returning to lifting after being told he wouldn't. Their situations weren't identical, and their stories shouldn't be flattened into the same comeback speech.
The barbell was part of it. Why? I can't speak for them. They can, and they did, and the links are right up there.
Here's what I can tell you. The bar doesn't care what happened to you. It weighs the same every day.
There's something to that.
But don't turn that into a claim that lifting fixes everything. A training partner can give somebody a place to show up and people who expect to see them. A program can give the week some structure. A small improvement can give somebody a next step.
That matters. It still doesn't make a coach a therapist, and it doesn't make a personal record a treatment plan. Good training and professional help can exist in the same life. Nobody should have to choose between them.
There's another thing in these stories worth paying attention to. Service didn't end when a uniform came off. Brad coaches young lifters. Other guests teach, mentor, spot, and pass on what they learned. You don't need a world record to do that. You need to notice who's standing next to you and have something useful to give.
A bad training day isn't combat. You know that. I know that.
What to Do This Veterans Day, and After
"Thank you for your service" is fine. It's also the minimum. Say it, then keep going.
Give Them a Place in the Group
Know who in your gym served, if they choose to share it. A lot of them won't announce it. Ask them to train with you. Give them a spot. Treat them like a lifter, because that's why they walked in.
Make the invitation specific. "We squat Saturday at nine. Want to train with us?" gives somebody a time, a place, and a way in. "You should come by sometime" leaves them to figure out the rest.
Introduce them to the group. Show them where things are. Ask what they're working toward. Then listen. They may be a beginner, an experienced competitor, or somebody returning after a long break. A service record doesn't answer those questions for you.
Keep the humor that makes a training group a training group, but learn the person before assuming every joke lands. Belonging shouldn't require somebody to tolerate disrespect.
Coach the Person in Front of You
If you're a coach, ask about goals, training history, current capacity, and any relevant restrictions, the same way you would with any other lifter. Some veterans have injuries or limitations. Some don't. Don't make the uniform a diagnosis.
Start with what the person can do safely and build from there. Ask before changing an exercise or using hands-on cues. If there are medical restrictions, work within them and refer questions outside your scope to the right professional.
Don't confuse an ability to endure discomfort with a need for more punishment. The session has to fit the goal and the recovery available. Getting somebody so beaten up that they can't come back is a lousy way to build consistency.
Listen Without Demanding a Story
Don't ask the questions you have no right to ask. If you're not sure which ones those are, "Did you ever kill anybody?" is at the top of the list. If they want to tell you something, they'll tell you.
Pick up the phone and call the one you know. If a call isn't how the two of you communicate, send a real message and make time to follow up. The point is contact, not checking a box with a flag emoji.
Know Where to Turn
And if you served and you're in a bad place right now, contact the Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. It's free, it's confidential, it's open around the clock, and you don't have to be enrolled in VA benefits. Same number if you're worried about a buddy.
You don't need to wait until things are at their worst to reach out. A lifting session can be part of somebody's support, but it should never be the only place they're allowed to ask for help.
Keep the Flag Up After the Holiday
The flag went up the same day as the rack. It has moved every time the gym has moved, and it'll keep moving as long as there's a gym.
It isn't there for decoration. It's there so I remember who paid for the floor it hangs over.
To everyone who served, thank you.
Hear it from them. All 13 episodes linked here are available to watch on YouTube. Start at the Table Talk page.
Live, Learn, Pass On.
Dave Tate / elitefts
