Tier System for the Physical Preparation of the Swimmer
How different can programming be for swimmers? Let’s take a deeper dive into how the Tier System fits perfectly into portions of the swim event and the number of days we train (no pun intended).
From the Floor
No matter how strong you think you are, don’t let it go to your head. There’s always room for improvement and progress in the sport of powerlifting.
ConjugateU for College Baseball — A Powerful Combination
Jim Seratt doesn’t understand how anyone wouldn’t want baseball players to bench press. Here is his method for implementing conjugate training in his baseball program.
How to Avoid Pitfalls with Exercise Selection and Progression
You found a new fancy-looking exercise on the ‘gram, so you do it. Then, you have your athletes do it. But you don’t know the exercise’s common technique flaws or how to fix them — all you know is how the person looked and how you felt doing it.
The Post-Surgical Knee: The Stability and Proprioception Rebuild
The initial stages of the balance, stability, and proprioception phase will be performed through the slow rebuilding of ROM through single-leg movements and will eventually use more advanced dynamic movements, such as jumping and landing mechanics drills.
The Post-Surgical Knee: The Range of Motion Rebuild
The focus of this article will put on the importance of the phase following the rehab phase in terms of the rebuilding of stability, strength, and proprioception in knee injuries, such as patellar fractures and ACL tears.
3 Things I Learned From Training My @ss Off with Dave Tate
The Train Your @ss Off with Dave Tate event was not only a life-changing experience; it was also truly something I will remember forever. It has made me a better coach, a better training partner, and a better overall human because it helped me figure out what is truly important in my life.
Finding Your Way into the Strength and Conditioning Industry
My hope is that this article will help new coaches or aspiring coaches with their transition into strength and conditioning by highlighting some barriers and providing a personal example of how those barriers can be overcome.
Your Haters are Pushing You to the Top — Embrace It
Maybe instead of flipping off the haters, you should be thanking them instead. If anything, the haters are just bringing more people your way!
Peaking Technically
Peaking technically is reeling in your training from general to specific as a meet approaches while changing and removing variations and setting yourself up to be at your best technically. This is important when transitioning to a conjugate approach.
Your “Other T” Levels
Testosterone isn’t the only “T” that’s driving internal health and performance. Meet the thyroid, the main metabolism gland in your body. It’s in charge of influencing food consumption and the amount of energy strength sports athletes have to hit new PRs and doing daily tasks.
Project Return to Press: The Road Back
You really don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. But man, when you’re able to bench again… there’s nothing like it.
Project Return to Press: No Barbell, No Problem
OK, maybe I shouldn’t have gone so hardcore with jiu-jitsu, but you know what? I made the best of my injury and learned from it.
A Strength and Conditioning Program for Youth Swimming
As with training any new client, there is a trial and error process to see what is effective and what isn’t. In this case, the training system I have put in place for my swimmers has supported them in breaking multiple national records in various events.
12 Gifts for the Whole Family
Move over, Oprah’s Favorite Things — these are the hottest and strongest gifts of the season, all in a one-stop-shopping guide.
5 Items for a Fatter Christm-ass Than Last Year
While your keto-obsessed cousin and diabetic grandmother stress over their diet decisions and stay away from the dessert tray, go all in. Make Christmas count this year.
Gifts for the New Class of Annoying Gym Members
Members in smaller training facilities are like family, and what says family more than giving a gift to someone you can’t stand?
5 Items That'll Transform Your Dad Bod Into a Beach Bod
The term “dad bod” was tossed my direction more often than I could count when I found out I was going to be a dad, and I was certain that I wasn’t going to fall into this physique and let my lifestyle slip because of any children. These items will ensure that I have a beach bod, not a dad
5 Gifts for the Ultimate Powerlifting Garage Gym
I am here to tell you if these are on your Christmas list and you get all these items, then you will be on track for a massive total and some of the best training of your life. I cannot recommend all of these pieces enough.
7 Items That'll Make You a MILF
Use these items 20 minutes a day, every day, and you’ll be a MILF in no time.
7 Gifts for New Dads
Let’s be honest: Moms do most of the work at first with babies. That means us dads need to make sure that we’re in the best shape to help our strong, badass wives with the newest addition of the family, and this wishlist will kick our dad bods back into shape.
5 Things Every Small Garage Gym Owner Should Have
Your training space is a one-car stall garage, and you want quality equipment at a decent price. Does this sound like you? Great, say no more. Every small garage gym owner should have these five things for endless training possibilities and year-round gains.
The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Muscle-Building Diet
“How do I make my own muscle-building diet?” is a complex question, and this article will take you through a complete step-by-step process. By the end, you’ll have a muscle-building nutrition program ready to go.
5 Gifts for the Friend on Santa's Naughty List
Bad news: Your buddy is on the Naughty List. The only thing he deserves for the holidays is a kick in the ass to get back into the gym. Good news: You take the high road and give him the gift of training with you next year with some nice incentives.
5 Essential Items That'll Keep You Warmed Up Without Doing Warm-Ups
It’s winter, it’s cold, and Dave says fuck warm-ups. With these items, you’ll stay warmer than you’ve ever been, in and out of the gym.
Why Are We Doing This?
Here, in this article, you will find the answer to why accomplished coaches and athletes I’ve been fortunate enough to know gravitate toward the iron and have made it a core element of their life.
5 Christmas Gifts for a Crazy Strongman Hermit Who Lives in the Woods
Now that I’m out in the middle of nowhere, I’m looking forward to beginning my descent into hermitude and madness as I train alone. Picture Jack Nicholson’s character in “The Shining” except more swole because of these 5 items.
5 Items to Whip Your Powerlifting Fiancé into Wedding Day Shape That Won...
My fiancée has helped me grow as a person emotionally, mentally, and of note here, physically — I’ve put on about 100 pounds in the last four years, so I need to become the man she sees me as. The items on this list will help me accomplish just that.
5 Gifts for the Garage Gym of Your Dreams
Having a garage gym has been my dream since 1999. Now I’m going on my 10th year in my second marriage with two kids and working as a part-time Mr. Mom and a part-time gas utility worker in Northern California. That dream is slowly becoming a reality, and the items on this list will help speed things up.
Touch as a Feedback Mechanism for Athletes
Not every athlete can feel their spine twist into a pretzel, so how do you teach them not to do that? This article will give you a model for how to manipulate the sense of touch to create an altered feedback environment for your athlete. Work your way up from simple movements, such as the prone stick hold, to something
10 L(G)ift Ideas for the Formerly MAMF (Military-Aged Male or Female) in...
Don’t despair. Christmas is the season of hope, and these 10 ideas will help ease the pain that years of abuse from Uncle Sam have wrought on that body. So break out the AMEX and get your older military officer or veteran back in the fight!
Daily Undulating Periodization Programming for Your Next Powerlifting Meet
Want to smoke your old PRs? Try applying daily undulating periodization, or DUP, to your programming. Rather than changing sets, reps, and intensity every 6 to 12 weeks, DUP changes those variables on a daily basis.
Selecting Appropriate Exercises for Youth Athletes
Parents are understandably worried about their children starting strength training. Ease their minds by selecting appropriate exercises for their kids.
7 Reasons Why Conjugate For Strongman Makes Sense
Strongman, like any strength sport, can be programmed intelligently, allowing an athlete to reach their zenith for that time in their life. No training style has allowed me to do that quite like the conjugate method.
Neck Training Guidelines to Reduce Incidences and Severity of Concussions
A strong neck is critical to preventing concussions in athletes participating in contact sports — but what are the best ways to strengthen necks?
The elitefts Internship Guide
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about internships, all in one place.
Practical Prilepin Plans
It is this article’s intention to impart an easily identifiable progression in accordance with Prilepin’s stipulations and practical examples of it, all of which I’ve used at the Division I level.
5 Alternatives to Olympic Lifts
I have nothing against the Olympic lifts. They’re fantastic movements that create explosive power. It’s just that there are safer alternatives that still force the lifter into triple extension.
Editor's Letter for October
If you’re after Gobstoppers, Reese cups, Jolly Ranchers, Snickers, or Candy Corn this October, knock on your neighbor’s door. If in fact, you’re after exercises to strengthen your spinal erectors, a conjugate triphasic program, an injury equation, intramuscular pressure, and alternatives to the Olympic lifts, click here. And of course, you’ll find the most popular content from September in here
Combining Dynamic Hip and Stabilization Drills for Runners
Strength training for runners is the chassis that underpins the abilities of speed and endurance to help these withstand practice and compete at a higher level — no meathead approach here! Plus, all you need for this program is a buddy and a band. Easy peasy.
A Conjugate-Triphasic Program for a PR Squat
It’s hard to argue that triphasic training produces results. But what happens when you combine triphasic and conjugate training methods? I decided to find out with an experiment and apply it to my squat. The result: I added more than 50 pounds to my squat in 4 months.
6 Exercises to Strengthen the Spinal Erectors
This article will focus on the spinal erectors, when one needs to place a focus on them, the exercises/equipment used to strengthen them, and how the variations should be used, progressed, and changed throughout the training process.
Managing Training Schedules and Economies
My hope for any of you lifters, young or old, novice or elite, would be that you can take a more educated approach to your next training program, and managing your training schedule and economies is a great place to start.
Career- and Body-Killing Food Allergies From Eating the Same Foods Too O...
Eating the same foods too often can lead to a wide range of significant problems, such as difficulty breathing, an upset stomach, bloating, joint pain, low energy, skin rashes, lack of motivation, inability to focus, mucous build-up, and more.
Peak Week for the Physique Competitor
You’re at the point where you have nothing left, but you still keep going because you see yourself at the end of this crazy 20-plus-week diet complete with one month of self-induced torture, a week full of waterboarding, starvation, and a pissy temper. Welcome to peak week.
Applying The French Contrast Method to Beginners
As with all great articles and ideas, this one was inspired… by a controversial tweet. Rather than rail against the idea that newbies shouldn’t use the French Contrast Method, I argue that this training method actually may be suitable for beginners in some situations.
How to Get Through a Near Career-Ending Injury
It’s said a person is only one injury away from ending your sports career. When dealing with that kind of injury, we often neglect how it affects our minds, which are almost just as easy to break as our bodies.
How to Effectively Train Core Strength
My idea of developing core strength is by both locally and globally training all the musculature that is attached to the hips, specifically by focusing on programming planks.
Improve Your Hip Clam
The hip clam is a great functional exercise, but it’s incredibly easy to perform it incorrectly. My solution? Bring in the wall.
Editor's Letter for September
As we begin to swing into autumn, take a quick fall into the piles of content we have stored away for this month: more Table Talk episodes, exercise variance, conjugate, strength training equipment (for injured rugby players and small budgets), food allergies, internship opportunities, and more!
The Big Picture of Conjugate
The goal with this series is to get to you to think about how you can manipulate the max effort, dynamic effort, and repeated efforts to fir your needs and to understand that conjugate is a fluid system that requires experimenting.
5 Repeated Effort Method Principles to Master
In conjugate, accessory work plays a huge role, even if it isn’t one that gets the attention. Accessory work is going to help fill your gaps and prevent you from developing new ones.
5 Dynamic Effort Method Principles to Master
As I said in Part 1, conjugate is one of, if not, the most effective training systems when it is executed properly. Moving a light weight fast isn’t enough to make the dynamic effort method work. Moving a light weight fast with intention is.
Newton's Third Law (of Gains)
You’ve probably heard Newton’s third law: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Turns out Newton DIDN’T tell you that he specifically wrote this law in anticipation of gym bros only training the muscles they see in the mirror. Let me explain.
4 Max Effort Method Principles to Master
In my opinion, conjugate is one of, if not, the best training systems — when employed properly. If it isn’t working, don’t disregard the system; instead, check your application.
3 Things Physical Therapy School Taught Me About Being A Strength Coach
I could write a big article covering every detail about physical therapy and strength coaching, but I’ve chosen to spare your computer screen space and discuss the most important topics about what physical therapy school taught me about being a strength coach.
The Travels of a Strength and Conditioning Coach — Jonathan Leitch'...
I quit my personal trainer job to become a strength and conditioning coach. I lived in my car, slept on a couch, and I even had a raccoon living in my apartment wall at one point. But all of these struggles and sacrifices were worth it.
Editor's Letter for August
The content calendar for August is packed with special content from Justin Harris, Vincent Dizenzo, JM Blakely, and Jordan Shallow that’ll bring you gains in muscle, strength, and knowledge. For a sneak peek at what’s to come, read on ahead!
Make Box Squats Work for a Stronger Raw Squat
I found the most success when I box squatted, and I applied what I learned box squatting to my raw squat. On meet day, I felt the most dialed in, the most explosive, and the strongest that I ever have on a raw squat. Here’s how.