As middle-aged lifters, we carry a decade or more of experience to draw upon, giving us a competitive edge in training. However, we must protect our health and follow Cole’s advice when we feel the stakes are too high.

 Elite powerlifter Justin Zottl details the extreme psych-up rituals that led to bleeding on the platform and the severe back injury that forced him to rethink his training approach. He explains why shifting away from a toxic "all-in" mentality toward a balanced life with his family and coaching business ultimately resulted in his strongest performances.

Limited Time - Lifetime Crew Access ends Tuesday, Dec 23rd, 2025 

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.

The truth is, every generation believes they had it tougher. The older crew will tell you, “Back in our day, it was real lifting,” and the new generation will say, “We’re stronger, faster, and more scientific than you ever were.”

Rebecca Roberts, a three-time World's Strongest Woman, currently holds the titles of UK's Strongest Woman, Europe's Strongest Woman, and World's Strongest Woman concurrently. Winning her second World's Strongest Woman title was deeply meaningful, as it occurred the day before the first anniversary of Paul's passing, proving she could overcome the hardest time of her life and emerge as the strongest woman, both physically and mentally.

Most lifters don’t stall because their program sucks—they stall because their habits do. These are the 7 “deadly sins” of training that quietly wreck your progress and what to do about each one.

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.

Master the use of floss bands to achieve pain relief and increase range of motion through compression, tack and stretch, and blood flow occlusion in joints like the shoulder, elbow, and wrist.

The Lifetime Table Talk Crew Membership is open again — and likely for the last time,  giving lifters and coaches a one-time chance to lock in all-access membership for just $299. No renewals, no monthly fees, just lifelong access to exclusive content, community, and support that fuels the future of the Table Talk Podcast.

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.

"I remember just taking that bar and exploding so fast off my chest I want to throw it right through the ceiling... it's like a drug right it's like holy fuck i just hit 405 like 45 pounds... and nobody even knows this except for me. I'm 42 years old why do I keep doing this... but it's all I know it's the greatest feeling in the world man."

In the world of powerlifting, there are many factors within your control: perfecting your technique, maintaining consistency in your training, staying fully engaged in your program, prioritizing proper nutrition, and valuing recovery as much as the time "under the bar." 

Strength coach and powerlifter Jared Maynard battled a rare, life-threatening disease (HLH) that caused total organ failure, requiring five weeks on life support. At the same time, doctors advised his family to prepare for goodbye. Despite being left legally blind, skeletal, and wrestling with profound grief, he returned to the powerlifting platform, embodying the powerful message: "You're not done yet".

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

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.

Be careful what you criticize — you may do the same thing one day.

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.

Over the past three seasons, I have served as the strength and conditioning coach for the Crusaders International Academy (CIA). The CIA is a commercial program inviting rugby players from around the world to train in the Crusaders' environment and experience the Crusaders' way of preparation

Every serious lifter has been there: the bench press stalls. You’re training consistently, eating right, and putting in the work, but the numbers on the bar refuse to budge. The frustration of hitting a plateau can lead you to think that the only solution is to work harder or build more muscle. But what if the key to a bigger bench isn't in your chest or triceps, but in your upper back?

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.

Every year, the bars, racks, and chalk stay the same—but the people under the bar change, grow, and carry each other through. This Thanksgiving letter is my thank you to the lifters, coaches, and crews who’ve turned elitefts into a shared strength community, under the bar and beyond it.

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.