Coach of the Year
This weekend would be more of that testing, coaching twenty-one lifters over the course of a single day. People say I am crazy for working with the number of lifters I do.
Take It, Take It, Take It
What can I say? Learn from my hard lessons. Make sure your spotters are aware of the intent BEFORE the set.
Staying the Vigilant Lifter
The vigilant lifter wants to be a student of strength. They do not just want to be told what to do to get stronger. They want to learn and understand how to get stronger.
Bodybuilding Exercises for the Powerlifter — Widen Your Grip to Beef Up ...
Bulk up your back, strengthen your deadlift, and learn to activate your lats with this one exercise.
Converting to Sumo Deadlifting: How I Made It Work for Me
Deadlifting is one of the oldest and hardest exercises around. It’s very simple—you just pick the bar up off the ground and stand up with it. Well, it’s not that easy for everyone.
WATCH: Table Talk with Nate Harvey — How Important Are the Quads for a R...
You want debate? Go to a powerlifting meet and ask the lifters in the warm-up room if you should be focusing on your quads to build your squat. You’ll hear a lot of opinions. Who’s right?
Overhead Pressing for a Bigger and Safer Bench Press
After two pec tears, I needed to try something new. Not only did training the overhead press make my bench stronger, but it also solved all my pec injury problems.
Dear Powerlifting
I owe a lot to the sport of powerlifting. Now it’s about giving back in more ways than on the platform.
Unlocking Your Full Power Potential Through the Blue Zones
In five locations on earth, the people live 30% longer and continue to be active and healthy until their final days on earth. What’s the secret?
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Hip Position, Not Strength, to Fix Yo...
Want to know how to have a better deadlift lockout? Look at what Pete Rubish has done in recent years and you’ll see it.
Meet Report: New Challenges and New Lifters — USAPL Spring Meet at CBUS ...
With this meet, I wanted to prove to myself that I could go from competing equipped to qualifying for USAPL Raw Nationals.
Meet Report: CETC US Open 2017 — Second Place with a 2121 Total at 220
I’ve had a taste for where I’m meant to be, and now I will be training with an unmatched ferocity. I may not have been strong enough to beat the colossus on this day, but I faced him prepared to die.
Meet Report: 2017 CETC US Open Powerlifting Championships with Ben Pollack
I’ve already written about my training strategy going into the meet, and what I’ve learned from my meet prep, but I didn’t share a few things for competitive reasons.
WATCH: Westside History with Mark Bell and Dave Tate
Training goals after powerlifting, quality time with children, training at Westside, leaving Westside, thoughts on training methods, the purpose of life, the challenges of being a mentor, and more — all in this video.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — How to Choose Secondary and Accessory...
A good training program has three main parts: the main lifts for technique, the secondary movements for strength, and the accessory exercises for muscle-specific work.
Building the Yoke
A big yoke equals instant respect. No one wants to screw with a guy that has a big neck and a thick yoke.
Meet Report: RPS King and Queen of Spring
I went into this meet to total 1800 at 180 pounds bodyweight, but learned an important lesson about having backup plans.
What's Your Game Plan?
You’re never going to build a big total by going into the gym and lifting as much as possible every session, week after week, year after year.
How I'm Training for the 2017 US Open Powerlifting Championships
I’m going to share my strategy and reasoning behind it here, so hopefully, you can get some inspiration for whatever meet you’ve got coming up.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Powerlifting Longevity and Meet Strategy
A lot of strong lifters have come and gone through this sport, posting two or three big totals to then never to be heard from again. The best lifters are there, year after year, finding new ways to stay healthy enough and hit PRs. How?
Shooting Knowledge Applied to Training
I recently made a transition from someone who had a decent amount of experience and was relatively advanced in one sport, to someone who is a true beginner in another sport. It’s taught me a lot about training and shooting.
Team or Dysfunctional Family? Stories of an Elite Lifting Group
We might look dysfunctional, but this lifting family is like a Swiss clock put together with a hodgepodge of parts that somehow still always has the right time.
RANT: The Truth About Internet Idiots and a World Record Squat Attempt
A few weekends ago, a world record squat was attempted. The lift passed, but the video got torn apart on Facebook. Want to know my thoughts on it? No? Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Adrenaline Levels in Training
How do you get your mind in the right place for a big lift in training? Should you treat it like meet day?
Excuses Don't Count Towards Your Total
At least, not at this point. As it stands, we are left with adding up our heaviest successful attempt for each of the three lifts and the sum of those is how a powerlifting total is born.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Lifters
When you look at the best lifters, you find that they have several things in common. Make these behaviors a regular part of your life and you’ll continually see progress, too.
WATCH: Sumo Deadlift Technique for CrossFit Competitors and Weightlifters
Clint walks through simple adjustments to help an experienced weightlifter and current CrossFit competitor overhaul his deadlift.
Why We Powerlift — Getting Inside the Minds of New Lifters
I know why I lift and compete, and you probably do too. But our reasons aren’t the same as new lifters who enter the sport of powerlifting. If we want powerlifting to grow for the better, we need to listen.
Daily Undulating Periodization: Conjugate Adapted for Raw Lifters
While raw powerlifting circles have been discrediting the merits of a concurrent approach to training, many have been using a program that is congruent with the very principles that conjugate is based on.
Is Powerlifting Gear Right for You?
Single-ply, multi-ply, 20 different kinds of raw — what is the right way for you to compete?
The Gift of Perspective: Five More Things to Know as a New Powerlifter
Continuing the perspective series, I look more closely at training, meet day, and who to look to for advice.
The Role of Federations in Powerlifting
Powerlifting is a sport of continual evolution. In understanding federations today, it is important to note not only the evolution of powerlifting athlete, but also the history of why most powerlifting federations came into existence.
Nine Weeks of Linear Progress To A Bigger Bench
Using these two cycles together is a great template that I guarantee will make you a stronger bencher.
How I Dropped 17 Pounds Over 9 Days and Gained It Back in 12 Hours
I don’t recommend this big of a cut for anyone. It is detrimental to many bodily processes and overall health. To be clear, this is not a how-to guide; it is a documentation of my process.
2017 Sports Performance Summit — Dave Tate Speaks
You may have heard or read a few things about Dave’s second hip replacement and the PRs that led to his surgery, but no one has heard the full story. Until now.
Stop Making It Okay to Just Give Up
If you’re still looking for the most important thing to becoming a top athlete, here it is: not letting anyone or anything tell you what was meant to be or what your destiny is.
Approaching the Bar: What Motivates You Before A Heavy Lift?
Do you need ammonia? Loud music? A slap to the back of your head? Your training partners screaming?
Brandon Cass — Record-Breaking Squat Strategies
He beat cancer, he set an all-time world record, and he’s soon to hit another huge squat PR. This is how Brandon’s doing it.
The Pros and Cons of a 100-Pound Weight Gain
I’ve gained 100 pounds over the last seven years and I’m going to share my journey and my experience, both good and bad, this has had on my general health.
Bodybuilding Exercises for the Powerlifter — Adductor Work for Added Gains
Say your quads, hamstrings, and glutes are capable of handling 500 pounds in the squat, but (because of weakness, tightness, or overuse), your adductors can only handle 400. Not a good look.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Building a Base as a New Lifter
If you don’t start on the right path, you might spend years training hard and making no progress.
Three Hypertrophy Waves to Use If You're Stuck on Progressive Overload
If you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, give one of these a try: Intensity-Based Hypertrophy Wave, Working Set Volume-Based Hypertrophy Wave, or Exercise Volume-Based Hypertrophy Wave.
XPC Finals — My First 2400-Pound Total
My first meet as part of elitefts was the first Lexen Pro/Am ten years ago. Last weekend, in Columbus again, I finally got to 2400.
2017 XPC Finals — I’m Not Retired Yet, Motherf*ckers
If I had a lot riding on this lift before, everything was riding on it now. Making it would be the highlight of my powerlifting career. Missing it would probably be the beginning of the end.
Simple Meet Mistakes and Their Solutions
Judging the SPF Ultimate Powerlifting and Bench Press Championship in Georgetown, Kentucky, I saw a lot of lifters make easily-correctable mistakes. Here are the ones to look out for.
16 Week 5thSet/Conjugate Mash Up
Rather than explain, in great detail, when and how I think it would make sense for you to do this, I’m simply going to recount how I did it while coming back from a pec injury.
From Deadlift Cues to Overcoming the Blues — One Year with elitefts
I couldn’t believe it when I saw that it has been a year since I joined elitefts. In honor of the anniversary, here are five lessons from my first year.
The Gift of Perspective: Things to Know as a New Powerlifter
In this first part of the perspective series, I share five perspectives for you to consider as you make your initial steps into the journey that we call powerlifting.
5 Cues That Can Screw Up Your Lifting
Believe it or not, there is such a thing as “too much of a good thing”, and over-applying a cue when it’s not needed can really jack up a lifter’s technique.
John Carroll University ROTC Seminar — Powerlifting as Military Training
After 20 years of service, I have come to realize that a powerlifting style of training is best for members of the military.
34 Ways to Maximize Your Raw Bench
Here are some of the tried-and-tested methods that helped me finally break through the 400-pound barrier, which had been a monkey on my back for years.
Apply the 80/20 Principle to Powerlifting
Use this principle to analyze your training program, your technique, your diet, your recovery, and your time.
Bare Bones Conjugate: A Bar, Rack, and Bench Weeks 1-4
When thinking about conjugate training, we often look at all the specialty bars, bands, chains and other goodies that we use in training. But when you boil it down, conjugate training doesn’t need those things.
The Pursuit of Elite
Surrounding myself around top-level powerlifters for over 30 years, I’ve noticed a trend.
What's the Purpose of Your Training?
It is almost as if lifters don’t think training starts until the weight gets heavy. I’ve got news for these kinds of lifters: a training session starts right after the last one is finished.
WATCH: What It Means to Have Someone's Back
Caring about someone doesn’t always mean agreeing with them — sometimes it means telling them they’re making a stupid-ass decision.
Matt Sohmer — Squat and Deadlift World-Record Strategies
Bottom line: all that matters is results. You are either creating or you are disintegrating. If this requires breaking from orthodoxy, so be it. Here are five ways we did this with Matt.
WATCH: Table Talk with Mark Dugdale — What Makes You Beginner, Intermedi...
Number of competitions? Severity of injury? Conditioning and size? Powerlifting total?