Most upper-body programs fail because they focus on exercises—not on systems. This structured approach organizes training around force, velocity, and movement planes to build real strength, explosive power, and long-term durability.

Dr. John Rusin redefines functional training not as a specific exercise, but as a complete human movement system that ensures you maintain physical capacities for life. He argues that adopting a "movement mastery mindset"—prioritizing foundational skills like breathing and bracing—is essential to avoid orthopedic breakdown and break through performance plateaus.

Dr. Dwayne Jackson returns to Table Talk with six science-backed lessons on RPE calibration, auto-regulation, the gym as medicine, and what actually separates lifters who keep progressing from those who plateau and break down.

Ashley Jones explores the evolution of his rugby strength and conditioning system from 2005 to 2025, detailing advancements in Conjugate training, CARE programming, and athlete-centered performance development.

Gen X didn't have YouTube, apps, or on-demand coaches. We had a bar, a rack, and the stubborn refusal to quit, and that built something most lifters today never find.

The all-in mentality of elite powerlifting demands a high price, often including personal health, marriages, and the complete absorption of one’s identity. Looking back after decades in the sport, veterans must reconcile the brutal physical toll of multiple surgeries and prosthetics against the initial drive to prove others wrong for the sake of a plastic or sculpture trophy.

I've been competing in powerlifting long enough to know what the tricep actually does in this sport. It locks out the bench. It finishes the press. So when every strap on the market kept failing me at both ends of the pushdown, I stopped looking for a solution and started building one. This is the origin of the elitefts 3-Loop Tricep Strap, why I designed it the way I did, and why it has never left my cable machine.

The Belden Bar is a highly unique training tool that adds rotational torque to traditional closed-chain movements like push-ups and glute bridges, exposing muscular weaknesses and demanding intense full-body coordination.

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Most lifters spend all their energy chasing nuance when the real problem is they've abandoned the basics that actually move the needle.

Dave Tate and a current multi-ply competitor, Bob Merkh, go deep on fractured federations, band shirts, judging inconsistency, and the hidden cost of putting the bar before everything else.

Strongman champion and professional wrestler Bruss Hamilton details his transformation from a Marine Corps veteran to a title-holding athlete, discussing the "Gallon of Milk a Day" (GOMAD) diet for mass gain, the development of his "Gentleman Barbarian" persona, and the extreme sacrifices he made to secure a WWE tryout.

Dr. Pat Davidson breaks down the three mechanical variables that determine whether an exercise builds muscle, inoculates against injury, or gets you hurt.

The Rackable Cambered Spider Bar combines the shoulder-friendly design of the SS Yoke Bar with the brutal instability of the cambered bar into one piece of equipment that will expose every weakness you have.

Most lifters focus on what to add. The ones who get strong figure out what to cut.

"The overhead press is probably the single best exercise for ingraining your ability to root into the floor and maintain a neutral posture compared to any other exercise."

"Conjugate training is basically the coupling... it's combining different methods of training... taking the method of Max effort... the repetition method and the dynamic effort method and combining them all together."

Kairikido blends powerlifting, Olympic lifting, strongman, and gymnastics into one structured system for building complete, real-world strength. With clear standards, progression levels, and adaptable programming, it’s designed to develop athletes—not just numbers in the gym.

The box squat is the most effective squatting tool available, and if you're not using it, your squat is leaving pounds on the platform.

It came from Westside Barbell, it has been in every gym we have ever had, and the story behind it says more about what elitefts is than almost anything else I can point to.

The walkout costs you reps you should be making, and a monolift fixes it before the bar even leaves the hooks.

elitefts Rebuild Series: Tom Sheppard sits down with powerlifter, gym owner, and brain tumor survivor Holly Torrez on autoregulation, sobriety, and what real resilience looks like.

A Pink Floyd lyric I used to open seminars in 2018 still stops people cold because most of us already know the answer

By periodizing cardiorespiratory exercises with your strength workouts, you can build a "lactate sink" in your slow-twitch muscle fibers that enhances metabolic flexibility, sustains muscular power, and serves as the ultimate predictor of a long health span.

"I wanted to know what it felt like to break a PR one more time."