When Dave started elitefts seminars, the movie Home Alone was in theaters and Garth Brooks was just rising to fame. Before this, Dave had already been doing travel seminars for Westside and had competed in powerlifting for years. In other words, Dave has been doing this for a long time — and he started before most of our readers even considered touching a barbell.
Throughout this time, Dave has learned a lot of things from a lot of people. Coaches, lifters, doctors, friends — they've all had an impact on his life and his experiences as a lifter and businessman.
In this video, Dave speaks to the attendees of the John Meadows Open UGGS and talks about the people that have impacted him the most. He talks about seminars, about Dr. Eric Serrano saving his life, about training for meet after meet after meet, about leaving the sport he loved for 30 years, about Justin Harris giving him new purpose for training, about John Meadows helping him rediscover love for training, and about building relationships in the gym that change your life forever. He explains how Live, Learn, Pass On is more than just a catchphrase.
Some of Dave's best quotes from the video:
"Powerlifting is the sport I started when I was 13 years old, 12 years old. It's all I ever trained for, meet to meet to meet. I did have a little deviation into bodybuilding, which I'm just going to call a college mistake, like the girlfriend you didn't really date but you don't want to admit you dated."
"When you do something and it becomes your identity for 30 years, everything you do is based upon that meet and what's next. Everything."
"Adversity hit in multiple [areas]. I'm not going to bullshit and I'm not going to pretend and I'm not going to hide behind anything. I would've rather have been dead at the time than been alive. Eric was there for me and soon after that same time John popped back up into my life and provided me with another reason and another way to train. He gave me a way to train that can deal with this fucked up center of mass between my two ears."
"When I hear people say 'I can only help people so much before it starts to get too personal', here's my advice to you: fuck you."
"For years I was in the process of acquiring knowledge. Keep acquiring knowledge. Learn, learn, learn."
"If you're in the gym and you spend all your time writing notes in the training long, are you really training or are you writing a fucking book?"
"To truly live, ask better questions."
By the minute:
- (0:35) Evolution of elitefts seminar structure
- (4:45) Should you give up on someone who doesn't want your advice?
- (6:10) When Dave started and gave up powerlifting
- (7:37) Justin Harris helping Dave with a new purpose for training
- (9:10) When training becomes your identity and when you lose it
- (11:20) Relationships you build in the gym change your life
- (13:39) The mission of elitefts
- (15:19) Knowledge vs. Wisdom
- (18:38) What it means to learn
- (21:39) What it means to pass on
WATCH: Table Talk — Lessons from Training with John Meadows
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