Are You Consuming, Producing or Engaging?
Proper communication and behavior requires a firm understanding of your surroundings and of those with whom you interact.
How To Program Your Training for Kettlebell Sport
Two programs outline how to use the ballistic methods of kettlebell training to improve joint mobility and strengthen ligaments and tendons for a competitive edge.
Using Your Body's Mobility and Stability Mechanisms to Drive Perfor...
Let's climb in the driver seat of that car with a performance-tuned suspension and a set of tires that will connect that power to the ground and put the pedal to the floor!
Value, Trust, and Gratitude
Your treatment of others is the foundation of every relationship in your life. Are you building yours up or breaking them down?
What to Expect as a Strength and Conditioning Intern
In this industry, you start at the bottom and work your way up. Level your expectations, respect those who give you the opportunity, and be ready to sacrifice for the profession you love.
Revisiting 14-Day Microcycles in Powerlifting
These alternate setups for non-traditional microcycles in a powerlifting program have allowed my clients and I to target the specific needs of individual athletes.
Red Yeast Rice for Healthy Blood Lipids—Who’s Foolin’ Who?
Is this “natural” supplement used to reduce blood lipids all it’s cracked up to be?
Haters Gaineth Nothing
Would you rather engage in gratitude and abundance, or anger and vileness towards people you’ll never actually meet? Which is more meaningful?
Exercise Selection Evolution
As your athletes grow and develop, so should the movement patterns of their program.
A Push-Up Is Not Just a Push-Up
This typical throw-away, punishment exercise is in fact a highly-technical skill capable of teaching and reinforcing proper movement patterns.
JL Holdsworth on Iron Radio
Listen to Team elitefts™ Coach and The Spot Athletics owner JL Holdsworth on Iron Radio
Eight Must-Have Physical Attributes for a College-Bound Athlete
If you are about to enter your freshman year of college, follow these tips for an easy transition.
Are We Making Progress in Football Training?
It appears that more coaches are concerned with the results that they get from doing particular exercises in the weight room and with particular pieces of equipment.
Genetics Versus Hard Work
The implications on parental physical condition at the time of procreation.
Training with Purpose: Some Thoughts on Adaptation
Training is best when aged slowly, like a fine wine.
Getting the Most Out of Your Combine and Pro Day Prep
The most important thing to remember when prepping for any sort of football combine is that you aren’t getting ready for a football game.
Load Shift Training
You are only as strong as your weakest link; when that link breaks, the related injury can keep you out of the gym for an extended period of time.
Garage Gyms: How to Run Groups Effectively
Your coaching facility should be a place where work is accomplished, goals are met, and pride is instilled.
Dave Tate and Julia Ladewski on Sport Training, Part 2
In the second part of this two-part interview, Dave speaks to Julia Ladewski about the importance of comprehensive program in order to prevent injuries.
Dave Tate and Julia Ladewski on Sport Training (part 1)
Dave Tate and Julia Ladewski talk athletic training.
Interview with Vladimir Issurin
What is the history of the block periodization concept, and how has it evolved into what it is today?
Our Salute
“The Nation today needs men who think in terms of service to their country and not in terms of their country’s debt to them.”
–General Omar Bradley
The Angry Coach: High School Strength Coaches - Don't Make This Mis...
I learned that it’s pointless to bring a gun to a knife fight, if you will.
Biomechanical Analysis of the Deadlift
The deadlift can be considered as one of the best tests of overall body strength. It is a multi joint movement that in simple terms involves picking up a barbell from the floor and standing to the erect position.
You Make The Decision Right
One of the underlying characteristics that I notice about successful lifters and bodybuilders that I’m around is that they never let their gym, genetics, schedule or anything for that matter, get in their way.
Life Lessons from My Football Years
I thank God for football and I would not be where I am today without it.
Nine Things Young Athletes Need to Master
So, hopefully if we all continue to do our jobs really well, every coach will be educated on proper exercise execution.
Looking Back on What Worked This Summer
Looking back, I think it was a highly successful summer of training.
The Angry Coach: Who are you?
Everything is a competition to this guy. Even in a basic email exchange, he has to get the better of you. To some people this is probably grating. To me, it’s funny, and it’s also a valuable lesson in realizing that it pays to be “on” and paying full attention at all times.
Starting a Powerlifting Club
My father once told me that a good teammate is someone who can carry his own weight and some of yours too when you need him to.
Is Sports Practice Rationally Constructed?
Attention coaches: consider the athletes you coach and how they move during contests.
Constructing a Strength and Conditioning Program for College Hockey
When developing the strength and explosiveness program for the University of Pittsburgh men’s hockey team, there were several factors I had to take into consideration as a coach. Hopefully my experience thus far will help you in similar situations.
What Type of C.A.R. Are You Driving?
Strength coaches, our critical off-season is being taken away before our very eyes.
How Strong Is Strong Enough? Training Considerations for Track and Field...
The following is an analysis of the strength requirements and the relative importance of maximal strength for different disciplines in track and field.
Ask The Thinker
This is why I have long since abandoned the debate over exercise selection that does not fall within the realm of special physical preparation.
Are Injuries Due Mainly to Conditioning or Lack of Conditioning?
Teams keep hoping that their players will not get injured.
Creating the Explosive Baller
You can perform form running techniques and jumping techniques until the cows come home, but no matter how pretty the form looks, you won’t see many improvements if there isn’t a massive amount of force being applied to the ground.
Slosh Sled Dragging: Advanced Chaotic Sled Dragging
Don’t be fooled, this is highly metabolic and will jack up your heart rate very quickly.
Six Essentials of Football Preparation
It’s around that season where email questions shift from “How can I bench more?” to “I only have a few weeks left to prepare for the fall sports season—how can I get huge!?”
Econo Prowler Review
Team DOS just received the new Econo Prowler a couple months ago with the intent of using the hell out of it.
1100 Pound Abs
The other day in the gym, the topic of ab training for strength came up. I figured there was nobody better to ask than 1100 pound squatter Matt Wenning.
Beginner Deadlift Considerations: Conventional or Sumo?
The deadlift is the lift that a new powerlifter initially moves the biggest weights with and makes the most immediate progress.
Of Politics & Idiocy, Part 2 Strength & Conditioning at the Coll...
This is part two of a two-part series.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Justin Cecil
Justin Cecil is a full time staff member at St. Vincent Sports Performance in Indiana, and serves as the head strength and conditioning coach at Lawrence Central High School.
Army Physical Training and the Powerlifter
In October 2008, I joined the U.S. Army. I’m going to share my story about seven months of Army physical training compared to my experience as a veteran powerlifter.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Josh Bryant
Josh Bryant is a speed, strength, and conditioning coach. He is also a personal trainer who has works with many clients in person at Metroflex Gym in Arlington, Texas and via the internet.
Bench Press More Weight Instantly!
How many people do you see in the gym trying to make an exercise more difficult, believing the more difficult it is, the more effective the exercise will be?
Underground Strength Session 2009 Review
It was Friday night. I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. This was nothing new, but when I woke up in five hours, I would be starting my trek to one of the strongest gyms in the Midwest—the EliteFTS compound.
Muscular Development Training Bytes by Thomas Fahey and Steve Blechman
Static but not dynamic stretching decreases strength
Performance Training to Look Better
Performance training for improved looks is a concept that seems to get lost behind the dozens of magazines that promote your favorite bodybuilder and the supplements they’re trying to sell us.
Going Raw
I’m a lifter just like you. I’m not a trainer nor do I have any connection to the strength and conditioning field outside of elitefts™.
