Dave Tate's Table Talk
Dave Tate, CEO of elitefts, hosts a podcast where he interviews top minds in strength sports. They discuss hardcore training, business, and life, cutting through fitness fads and bad advice. The show aims to provide real, applicable information for serious athletes and coaches.
Episodes
#448 Why I Banned Headphones in My Gym | Jason Manenkoff
Building a Gym from Scratch, Real Estate Landmines, and Why Most Lifters Are Training for Instagram Instead of Real Strength He built a thriving facility with $10,000, zero safety net, and a landlord operating an illegal warehouse with no certificate of occupancy—then spent two decades refining how to build real, uncompromised strength. Jason Manenkoff reveals the brutal realities of running an in
#447 "F*ck Your Micronutrients" | Anthony Oliveira & Roman Mustaccio
"We're worried about micronutrients. You missed two training sessions this week. F*ck your micronutrients." Long before Anthony Oliveira squatted an all-time 1,074-pound single-ply world record and Roman Mustaccio benched a drug-tested Junior record of 720 pounds, both were just thin kids piecing together old-school Westside articles and DoorDashing to buy bench shirts. Through brutal injuries, tr
#446 You Don't Need a Periodized Program | Guillermo Blanco
You do not need a periodized plan to build high-level performance. Guillermo Blanco started lifting in eighth grade before moving through Division I football programs, collegiate strength coaching, multi-ply powerlifting, and training military populations in the Army's H2F program. Facing unpredictable deployment schedules, minimal equipment, and low training ages, he abandoned rigid percentage-ba
#445 Why Olympic Lifting Still Belongs in Football (Despite the Haters) | Evan Barr
Most strength coaches build athletes by the book, but the ones who actually build champions learn that true physical development begins long before anyone ever touches a barbell. Before guiding Toledo Football through brutal Division I seasons or developing NFL champions, Evan Barr was a farm kid in Tennessee throwing hay, walking onto Phillip Fulmer's squad, and building a collegiate strength pro
#444 You're Not Overtrained (You're Overstimulated) | Steve Denovi
Stop turning your lifters into data-obsessed overthinkers who melt down the second a $10 velocity app tells them the bar moved 0.02 meters per second too slow. Most modern powerlifting coaches aren't actually building athletes; they are running a digital marketing business wearing a singlet, chasing short-form algorithm clout while hiding behind RPE charts and endless combo rack squatting. World-c
#443 25 Years a Personal Trainer: Why You're Still Broke | Charles Gardner
Most personal trainers fail because they master the mechanics of exercise but completely ignore the high-stakes psychology of holding a client's trust. Personal training veteran Charles Gardner spent over two decades in the trenches discovering that keeping a client on your roster for years has almost nothing to do with optimal set-and-rep schemes. From surviving early career failure in California
#442 You Are Recovering From Training That Didn't Even Happen | Dr. Mike T Nelson
Most recovery protocols are actively killing your strength gains because you haven't trained hard enough to earn them. Dr. Mike T. Nelson's path to elite performance didn't start in a weight room—it began in mechanical engineering laboratories, where he learned to view human physiology through stress mechanics rather than quick-fix soothing trends. Today, he translates twenty-five years of researc
#441 I Squatted 1,000 lbs, Then My Entire Life Collapsed | Patrick Maguire
"I've squatted 1,000 pounds more times than I've successfully asked out a female." Most superheavyweight powerlifters hide their rock-bottom moments behind PR reels, but Patrick Maguire walked onto the platform after a catastrophic quad tear, took a token squat, and pulled sumo for laughs just to finish the job. After three years of brutal injuries, botched cuts, and a personal life that completel
#440 The Medical Lie Keeping Strength Athletes Injured | Dr. Christopher Marvin
Most strength athletes aren't broken—they're just loading flawed mechanics until something snaps. Dr. Christopher "Marv" Marvin came back from nine surgeries, a wrist injury that baffled over 30 doctors, and a lifetime of being told to quit lifting to graduate as valedictorian of Palmer College West and treat world-class strength athletes. By replacing fear-mongering and passive treatment with act
#439 How 47 Football Players Hit 20+ MPH in One Off-Season | Mark Uptegraff
Most coaches fail their athletes long before an injury ever occurs because they train muscles for show while completely neglecting the structural integrity of the joints. Mark Uptegraff II had his Division I playing career ended in an instant by an L4–S1 laminectomy, a devastating setback that forced him to stop chasing personal weight room numbers and start studying how to keep human bodies from
#438 Why Powerlifters Die Young (Fix Your Work Capacity) | Jason Brown
The myth that aerobic conditioning steals your strength is the exact reason most experienced lifters hit an early plateau and stay chronically beat up. From running high-volume CrossFit boxes to completing a PhD in Kinesiology, Jason Brown realized that rigid, maximal-effort splits were wrecking real-world athletes who lacked the autonomic recovery to handle constant strain. By pairing full-body C
#437 I Ignored My Surgeon's Rehab Protocol | Josh Hendrickson
Standard medical advice after a catastrophic muscle tear will turn a high-performance lifter into a spectator if you blindly follow it. Four months after snapping his bicep off the bone on an axle clean, National Champion Strongman Josh Hendrickson refused to sit passive in a sling and hit a max-effort box squat forty-eight hours before surgery. By defying conservative rehab models, forcing daily
#436 Why You Should Never Bodybuild | Ben Mayfield-Smith
Most lifters suffer through brutal competition preps not because they lack discipline, but because they are using a physical outcome to mask a broken identity. After a career-ending rugby injury shattered his athletic dreams, Ben Mayfield-Smith rebuilt his mindset by merging raw physical grit with clinical behavioral science. He developed an intensive psychological vetting system designed to expos
#435 Why 90% of Hardcore Gym Owners Fail | Chandler Parsons
Choosing between athlete, coach, and gym owner is the only way to avoid burning out—you can only pick two. After 20 years under the barbell and totaling 2,044 raw, Chandler Parsons realized that chasing elite performance, coaching lifters, and building a gym from scratch was a fast track to physical and financial ruin. In this conversation with Dave Tate, the founder of Backyard Barbell and Fortif
#434 Why Most Lifters Over 30 Are Destined To Break| Mark Valenti
Stop chasing cheap metrics in your youth only to end up a broken, thirty-five-year-old former athlete who doesn't even know how to properly brace. When high school geometry teachers double as strength coaches, young lifters pay the price decades later with wrecked spines and destroyed joints. Mark Valenti spent seventeen years on the road as a professional Highland Games athlete and Strongman befo
#433 Stop Buying Biohacks Until You Fix Your Training | Anthony Castore
An 185-pound frame earned in the trenches taught Anthony Castore that no protocol can out-discipline a broken foundation. From a 117-pound teenager asking too many questions to a Fellow at the Seeds Scientific Research & Performance Institute, Castore turned an obsession with cellular mechanics into decades of coaching elite athletes, executives, and physicians. Before chasing modern peptide hype
#432 Your Heavy Squat Is Actually Fake Strength | Brian Bott
If you train high school athletes like Division I pros, you are destroying their potential. For 13 years at Wisconsin, Brian Bott built NFL offensive linemen and Rose Bowl champions using old-school grit—only to realize that the biggest mistake strength coaches make is confusing intensity with actual development. Bott reveals the hard-earned wisdom behind taking a 13-year-old from a broken squat p
#431 To Fix Your Body, You Have to Destroy Your Identity | Ben Pollack
To survive the brutal reality of elite-level strength, you might have to destroy the very person you spent a lifetime building. Ben Pollack earned a PhD in physical culture history while systematically destroying his own body, ignoring years of excruciating warnings for the sake of world records and plastic trophies. But when a sudden, terrifying neurological shutdown left half his body completely
#430 Why "Bought Fitness" Will Never Make You Strong | Daniella Means, Kailey Latimer, & Lu Faustin
You can buy fat loss with an injection, but you cannot fake the raw, violent physical capability required to survive when the lights turn on and the floor turns into a warzone. Before stepping under the Hollywood lights as the new faces of American Gladiators, Daniella Means, Lu Faustin, and Kailey Latimer forged their armor through shattered orbital bones, grueling Division I athletic politics, a
#429 I Ignored My Surgeon's Warning (And Benched 435lbs Anyway) | Jordan Wong
The worst thing that can happen to an elite bencher might be the exact psychological reset needed to save their career. Before Jordan Wong could break all-time world squat records and scale a massive commercial gym facility, he had to navigate a catastrophic, full-tendon pec rupture without health insurance and a surgeon who treated him like a dumb meathead. By ripping up the traditional six-week
#428 Stop Training Athletes Like They're Good at Lifting | Lucas White
"Your skill set's not going to be lifting weights—it's going to be the sport, but you still have to learn how to strain." For thirteen seasons, including eleven in the collegiate trenches, Lucas White has survived the brutal, revolving-door reality of Division I strength coaching by adapting elite powerlifting principles to hyper-talented athletes who have never had to grind out a rep in their liv
#427 The Trap of the 300-Pound Power Clean | Monte Sparkman
Most high school strength coaches are hiding behind a rigid workout template because they are terrified of what happens when the plan fails on the weight room floor. For Monte Sparkman, fifteen years of building elite teenage athletes across Texas proved that being married to a specific exercise rather than a training principle is a shortcut to baseline mediocrity and broken potential. By shedding
#426 What Powerlifting Judges See (But Never Tell You) | Valerie Smith
You aren't truly learning how to lift until someone forces you to pull the slack out of a stiff bar with an opener that's completely out of your league. For multi-time world champion Valerie Smith, transitioning from a decade in corporate HR to the elite tiers of Master's powerlifting meant trading worst-case scenario corporate risk models for the cold reality of the platform. Her evolution from a
#425 We've Broken Our Natural Hormones to Survive the Modern World | Mike Stratton
Your body naturally produces testosterone, but it doesn't make the gallons of coffee you are using to survive a modern, unsustainable lifestyle. Mike Stratton built a multi-million dollar health optimization empire from the ground up, yet he nearly killed himself in the process by abandoning his own health to keep the business alive. He walked away from a successful company to rebuild his vision f
#424 You Learn More From One Loss Than 100 Wins | Phil Daru
Most people think discipline is about pushing harder, but Phil Daru argues that real growth begins the moment failure exposes the flaws in your plan. From coaching UFC champions and elite performers to nearly destroying his body attempting a 150-mile ruck, Phil's most valuable lessons didn't come from victory—they came from painful setbacks, brutal self-audits, and the willingness to start over. A
#423 Powerlifting's Dirty Secret (The Real Freaks Haven't Arrived) | Matt Levine
The elite coaches dominating the fitness industry aren't out-programming you; they are out-communicating you. For twenty years, Matt Levine didn't just survive the brutal meat grinder of competitive powerlifting—he used its systemic failures to rewrite the rules of modern strength education. Now, he's lifting the curtain on why chasing "optimal" templates is a death sentence for your business, and
#422 The Barbell Giveth, and the Barbell Taketh Away | Jim Wendler, Matt Rhodes, & Vincent Dizenzo
If you think your current training routine is built for longevity, you are lying to yourself about what decades under a heavy barbell actually does to the human frame. For over twenty years, Jim Wendler, Matt Rhodes, and Vincent Dizenzo chased the white rabbit of absolute strength through the unforgiving gauntlet of elite powerlifting, accumulating world records, catastrophic injuries, and a mount
#421 Why Most Dedicated Lifters Crash Out Outside the Gym | Marcellus Williams
The illusion of world-class strength is built on rigid programming—but the truth is that strict protocols are often what cause elite lifters to plateau or break. Long before he was known as The Swolefessor, Marcellus Williams discovered that textbook biomechanics and conventional gym culture rarely produced championship-level results. By combining a formal education in kinesiology with advanced at
#420 Why D1 Strength Programs Are Actually Ruining Elite Athletes | Jared Bidne
Most college strength programs are actively making their athletes slower and weaker. I had another kid go to a D1 school with a 425-pound bench and come back only able to press 345. Elite strength coach and Westside Barbell disciple Jared Bidne is destroying the traditional, over-complicated sports performance model by proving that elite speed is built through brutal simplicity and high m
#419 Do ONLY These 3 Exercises for the First 5 Years | Dr. Ian Butcher
Stop majoring in the minors and trying to fine-tune a physique or training split you haven't even earned the right to optimize yet. Dr. Ian Butcher runs four distinct brick-and-mortar health and fitness businesses in the real world, completely outside the digital echo chamber, because he's too busy actually doing the work. True progression isn't found in flawless, hyper-fixated social media algori
#418 To Total 2,000lbs, I Had to Change Who I Was | Matt Sharafinski
To dominate the platform, you have to survive the lifestyle that builds it. For over a decade, Matt Sharafinski chased the limits of human strength, moving through weight classes and dismantling standard programming until his body forced a brutal reckoning with reality. From running a thermos of alcohol into high school classes to maxing out medical breathing machines just to survive the
#417 The Truth About Your Breaking Point (It's Not What You Think It Is) | Dr. Dylan Seeley
Most elite athletes are walking genetic marvels who survive on habits that would ruin the average person. Dr. Dylan Seeley spent years treating the damage caused by this genetic lottery before realizing the entire industry is chasing a ghost. True high performance isn't found in a laboratory metric—it's forged by knowing exactly how close you can fly to the sun before you burn.
#416 Why "Data-Driven" Coaching is Failing the Next Generation of Athletes
The weight room isn't just a place to build muscle. It's a battlefield where psychology meets physical adaptation — and most coaches are losing because they're coaching numbers instead of people. Dr. Justin Lima joins Dave Tate at the elitefts compound to dismantle the myth of "optimal" training and explain why giving athletes a stimulus they aren't prepared for can rob them of long-term developme
#415 The Raw Truth About the American Gladiator Arena (What TV Cut) | THE BULL, STEEL & FANG
The staged spectacle of the ring and the curated edits of prime time are stripped away to reveal a raw physical reality that cannot be faked. Eric "Bull" Bugenhagen, Jesse "Steel" Godderz, and Michael "Fang" Wardlow endured a month of sensory deprivation and high-stakes violence to resurrect a cultural legend. From the agony of competing with a ruptured bicep to the psychological warfare of gladia
#414 Your Strength Has an Expiration Date | Sean Noriega
The world isn't your oyster forever. For elite powerlifter Sean Noriega, realizing that 300kg squats were no longer guaranteed forced a complete psychological and technical rebuild. After a five-year regression that left him chasing the numbers from his junior career, the MIT-educated mechanical engineer turned world-class coach applied the same analytical mindset he used in the l
#413 How to Handle 10x More Weight: The Secret to a Flawless Setup | Jordan Buchla
Taming your "dumb strength" is the only way to survive when 900 pounds is trying to crush your spine into the floor. Jordan Buchla spent a decade as an emergency room trauma nurse while simultaneously becoming the #2 all-time strongest female squatter on the planet. From intubating patients during a pandemic to unracking 855 pounds, she built a high-performance life by forcing a "Type B" personali
#412 How Westside Training Saved Me From 4 Years of Cancer | Kalil Sherrod
One heavy squat at 400 pounds was all Kalil Sherrod needed to know the poison hadn't won. Seven weeks before this recording, Kalil walked into elitefts HQ to hit his first major milestone since a brutal cancer diagnosis. That moment bridged the gap between his life as an elite performance coach and his reality as a survivor. Through two stem cell transplants and multiple rounds of high-intensity c
#411 How to Get Every Type of Jacked (Even With Zero Genetics) | Drew Donaldson
You are likely sacrificing long-term health for short-term gains because you're following a "get bigger" blueprint designed for a body you don't actually want. After 21 years in the trenches—from wrestling on the WWE developmental circuit to coaching at the legendary MI40 gym—Drew Donaldson realized that the massive, 275lb version of himself was a high-performance engine running on the wrong fuel.
#410 The Comical Truth About "Accidental" Muscle Growth | Pat Davidson
Wealth and muscle follow the same law: if you're terrified of the extreme, you'll never master the baseline. From hauling fish on Cape Cod to earning a PhD while competing as a world-class strongman, Dr. Pat Davidson has spent a lifetime proving that obsession is the only path to clarity. He didn't just study exercise science—he weaponized it to survive a trajectory of self-destruction and transfo
#409 How to Accurately Hit 100% of Your Maxes | Dr. Dwayne Jackson
Stop looking for the magic pill and start fixing the foundation that's actually killing your progress. Yale-trained neurovascular physiologist Dr. Dwayne Jackson returns to expose why your high-tech peptide stack and "science-based" training mean nothing if you haven't mastered the internal metrics of auto-regulation. From surviving stage four kidney failure to walking away from the Ivy League "ir
#408 "You Can't Out-Lift Being An A**hole." | Bob Merkh
The strongest man in the classroom returns to the table. Bob Merkh is back to discuss one of the most unique careers in strength history—highlighted by a sanctioned 1,100 lb squat and 1,100 lb bench press. From the high-stakes platforms of the WPO to a 7th-grade social studies classroom, Merkh has evolved from a "weaponized" athlete into a mentor who understands that true strength is knowing when
#407 The #1 Reason Your Off-Season Is Failing | Tim Walsh
Alcohol is a biological detergent that systematically strips away the healthy gut microbiota required for elite performance and recovery. Tim Walsh, famously known as "The Vanilla Gorilla," transitioned from a 338-pound teenager to a national-level bodybuilder before becoming the secret weapon for Canada's strongest powerlifters. He revolutionized his coaching career by proving that mastering inte
#406 Any Idiot Can Make You Tired (The Professionalism Crisis) | Jack Lovett
The industry says you need more certifications, but the truth is you just need to be undeniable. Jack Lovett walked away from a stable government career and flew to New Jersey with no winter coat and an empty bank account because he knew that "good enough" coaching was a death sentence for a dream. From training Tier 1 special forces to building the UK's premier warehouse gym, his journey is a mas
#405 The 50% Testosterone Drop: The Hidden Cost of "The Grind." | Allan Bacon
Most people believe that mastering your physique requires a radical sacrifice of your professional sanity, but the reality is that the most elite transformations happen through calculated precision rather than brute force. Dr. Allan Bacon spent a decade operating as a dental surgeon before walking away from the clinic to prove that the same clinical rigor used in surgery could be applied to human
#404 Stop Drinking Water: Why Every Elite Athlete is Doing Hydration Wrong | Nathan Payton
Your nutrition protocol is failing not because of your effort, but because you are ignoring the biological godfather that dictates every gram of muscle gained and every ounce of fat burned. Before Nathan Payton was the architect behind eight World's Strongest Man titles, he was a Duke-trained specialist navigating the clinical reality of integrative medicine to bridge the gap between science and t
#403 The Peptide Gray Area: Crossing the Line in 2026 | Anthony Castore
EPISODE DESCRIPTION The industry lied to you: performance isn't built on a squat rack—it's engineered at the cellular level. Most coaches are guessing with your biology, while Anthony Castore has spent thirty years proving them wrong. Before becoming the bridge between elite medicine and the weight room, Castore was a student of the "Old Guard," forged in the high-stakes environments of Westside B
#402 11 Years of Ballroom Dancing Made Him This Strong | Adam Roszkowski
In this episode, we dive into the extraordinary "Triple-Threat" career of Adam "Rosco" Roszkowski, one of the most uniquely versatile athletes in modern strength training. We explore the mental and physical shift required to transition from the grace of competitive ballroom dancing to the gridiron of American football, and finally to the world stage of Strongman. This conversation breaks down the
#401 The Most Overlooked Part of the 800lb Bench | Nick Benerakis
In this episode, we sit down with Nick Benerakis, the mastermind behind Big Benchas, to deconstruct the technical precision required for elite strength training and world-class athletic performance. With 13 years of experience in the trenches of powerlifting, Nick shares the secrets of the equipped bench press and how he navigated the journey to a massive 820 lb multi-ply lift. We explore the nuan
#400 The Strength Athlete's B-Plan: How to Pivot | Anthony Diehl & Aaron Chappel
In this episode, Anthony Diehl and Aaron Chappel from MODUS pull back the curtain on the "Longevity Arc" of elite strength. From World's Strongest Man stages to the life-changing reality of metabolic health, we break down why the "Meathead Identity" is dead and how to build a B-Plan that actually saves lives. We discuss the transition from "Big and Fat" powerlifting to a "Metabolism-First" approa
#399 Powerlifting Rivalry 2026: This Pro Athlete is Making a Massive Mistake | Zachary Zeus Smith
Zachary "Zeus" Smith is the owner of Flex Gym (Virginia Beach) and a veteran Powerlifting Coach who has spent a lifetime in Rugby and Combat Sports learning exactly which "investments" actually bear fruit. Whether he's building high-performance athletes through elite gym culture or "generously" using Joe Jackson's horoscope to predict his rival's inevitable downfall, Zeus's coaching is rooted in h
#398 How to Stop Wasting Force: The Power of Globalized Core Training | Josh Miller
Josh Miller, founder of NTBFW Training Systems and UNC Chapel Hill Exercise Science alumnus, is a strength coach and powerlifter specializing in globalized core training and force transfer. This episode explores building a 'coordinated unit' to manage spinal stenosis and herniated discs while utilizing conjugate principles and block-style organization. Miller also breaks down his 'Other 22 Hours'
#397 In-Season Strength Training: How 100% of Our Team Hit PRs | Michael Brinson
Michael Brinson is the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for Jackson Academy athletics and a competitive powerlifter with a 2155 raw total. He's coached performance at every level, from collegiate football programs (Southern Miss, Kansas, Liberty, Missouri) to Fort Bragg with the 82nd Airborne bringing a no-BS approach to building strong, fast, resilient athletes. Follow Michael: Instagram: @bri
#396 Fixing the "Unfixable" Athlete: Non-Surgical Chronic Pain Solutions | Chris Stepien
Dr. Chris Stepien — founder of Barefoot Rehabilitation Clinic (Denville, NJ) and developer of Adhesion Release Methods. Dr. Chris specializes in helping chronic pain sufferers, especially 30–60 year olds who've had pain for 6+ months and have already seen multiple doctors or therapists without real relief. He's also training high-level manual therapists and clinicians to diagnose and treat adhes
#395 Fake Nattys, Synthol Freaks & Gym Fails (Dave Tate Reacts)
Dave Tate reacts to the internet's most viral fitness moments, including Kim Kardashian's Hollywood workout, Ronnie Coleman's take on the modern era of bodybuilders, and Jeff Nippard's "perfect" exercise. The Westside Barbell legend breaks down the difference between old-school grit and modern hype, tackling everything from teen steroid abuse to cringe-worthy gym fails. Tune in for an unfiltered r
#394 The Problem with Modern Powerlifting | Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson, better known as Delco Jesus, is a 140 kg raw powerlifter, coach, and member of the Delco Spotting Crew from just outside Philadelphia. After battling depression, dropping over 100 pounds, and even going through a period of homelessness, Joe found powerlifting and never looked back. With best competition lifts of 826 lb squat, 463 lb bench, and 744 lb deadlift for a 2017 lb total at 3
#394 I Drank 1 Gallon of Milk a Day (GOMAD) for Strongman & Wrestling | Bruss Hamilton
"The Gentleman Barbarian" Bruss Hamilton, a former U.S. Marine, World Strength Games u265 champion, and 2025 America's Strongest Veteran who traded the strongman field for the pro wrestling ring. Trained at the Black & Brave Wrestling Academy under Seth Rollins and Marek Brave, Bruss has become a staple of the Midwest independent scene (SCW Pro, AAW, Iron Spirit Pro, ZOWA Live, Wrestling Revol
#393 The Brutal Price of Powerlifting: "Was It All Worth It?" | Jon Grove
Jon Grove — North Georgia Barbell founder, APF Georgia State Chairman, WPC Junior World Champion, and true powerlifting lifer. Jon competed in powerlifting for 20 years (1990–2010), lifting in the first monolift meet in history and the very first WPO meet. He's a multi-time national and world champion, owner of the legendary North Georgia Barbell (2002–2013), and a self-described amateur historian
#392 Why Most "Functional Training" is Absolute BS | Dr. John Rusin
Dr. John Rusin is an internationally recognized strength coach, physical therapist, and injury-prevention expert with nearly two decades of elite-level experience working with MLB All-Stars, NFL All-Pros, Olympic gold medalists, and world-record-holding powerlifters. He's the founder of the Pain-Free Performance Specialist Certification (PPSC), the world's fastest-growing health-first training edu
#391 Why You Aren't Getting Stronger: The 7 Training Sins
Dave Tate and Tom Sheppard recap 2025 and discuss the seven deadly sins of training. Table Talk Lifetime Limited Crew Membership - https://tr.ee/Tk65mP This offer will expire on Friday, Jan 9th. Shop EWS Supplements (CODE:ELITE30) - https://eternalwarriorsupplements.com Get 10% OFF Your Next Marek Health Labs (CODE: TABLETALK): https://marekhealth.com/tabletalk Tom and Naomi's new website:
#390 Why You Should Be HAPPY When You Miss a Lift | David Raymond
David "Dumptruck Dave" Raymond is a 34-year-old father, stepfather, and grandfather from a small town in Illinois, and one of the strongest 165-lb lifters in the world. He started as a 148-lb lifter, becoming one of the first Americans to squat 600+ pounds at that bodyweight, then moved up to 165, where he squatted 705 pounds and deadlifted 716 pounds in the same meet. Along the way, he's compete
#389 Why I Smash My Head on the Bar (The Truth About Psych-Ups) | Justin Zottl
Justin Zottl — Canada's strongest powerlifter (All-Time Total). From national champion cyclist to 2300+ totals, Justin breaks down winning American Pro 3 three weeks after herniating L5, why standards matter more than hype, and what ABS is doing right on meet production. Follow Justin / Team Zottl: IG: https://www.instagram.com/fullzottl/ Team Zottl Coaching: https://www.instagram.com/teamzottl
#388 Westside Barbell vs. KneesOverToes: The Truth About Longevity | Ben Patrick
Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy) — founder of ATG (Athletic Truth Group), coach, and educator turning deep-range knee strength into scalable programs used by athletes, parents, and schools. Website & gear: https://atgequipment.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/kneesovertoesguy Become an elitefts channel member for early access to Dave Tate's Table Talk podcast and other perks. @eliteftsoff
#387 The Promise I Made at John Meadows' Grave | Cris Edmonds
Protégé of the late John Meadows, Cris has spent over 18 years competing and coaching, helping bodybuilders and serious lifters achieve stage-ready physiques without compromising their joints, digestion, or overall well-being. He now carries the Mountain Dog legacy forward with Mary Meadows—keeping the principles sharp, practical, and brutally honest. Follow Cris: Website: https://www.mountaind
#386 Why SBD Days Are Ruining Your Joints (The Truth About Frequency) | Stuart Locke
Stuart Locke is a champion powerlifter, coach, and owner of Kodiak Barbell, which specializes in athlete mentoring, rehabilitation, and individualized programming. He's also the Director of Strength Sports at Pre-Script and a thought leader on sustainable performance coaching. Stuart's Info: www.kodiakbarbell.com Instagram @stu_kodiakbarbell. Become an elitefts channel member for early access
#385 Why The Best Strength Coaches Are GHOSTS | Colton Razo & Michael Silbernagel
On episode 385 of Dave Tate's Table Talk Podcast Dave sits down with Strength & Conditioning Coaches Colton Razo and Michael Silbernagel. Colton Razo — Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach for Track & Field at The Ohio State University. Formerly University of Houston, Bemidji State, SD Mines, Kansas (GA). Frequent presenter at USTFCCCA and T&F education events. Michael Silbernagel — Manager
#384 How to Combine Powerlifting and Running Without Losing Gains | Alex Viada
Alex Viada is a coach, educator, and founder of Complete Human Performance (CHP). He's best known for pioneering the modern Hybrid Athlete methodology—training strength and endurance concurrently without tanking either. We dig into programming (MED, stress consolidation), durability for tactical/functional athletes, pain & injury re-learning, and what's inside his new book, The Ultimate Hybrid Ath
#383 A 1200lb Squatter's Guide to Handling Pain & Pressure Under the Bar | John Ruoppo
John Ruoppo is an elite American powerlifter, coach, and gym owner based in Massachusetts. He's the All-Time World Record holder in the 308 lb single-ply squat (1,075 lbs) and has posted best competition lifts of 1,201.5 lb squat, 700 lb bench, and 804.7 lb deadlift, for a 2,560 lb total. John co-owns Evolve Fitness & Training in West Boylston MA with his wife Stefanie—an ex-college soccer playe
#382 NFL Star Exposes The "Godfather" Culture of Early CrossFit | John Welbourn
John Welbourn is a former 10-year NFL veteran (Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots) turned entrepreneur, strength coach, and performance educator. After retiring from professional football, he founded Power Athlete, a global leader in athletic performance programming, education, and community building. John is also the creator of CrossFit Football, one of the earliest spo
#381 WARNING: Your Phone Is Shrinking Your Brain (Neuro-Expert Explains How to Fix It) | Alex Kikel
In this episode of Dave Tate's Table Talk, we're joined by Alex Kikel, also known as The Prep Coach—a leading figure in the world of human optimization, performance enhancement, and health restoration. With a Master's degree in Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement and a background in Exercise Science, Alex brings a powerful blend of academic knowledge and real-world coaching experience to
#380 5 Weeks on Life Support: How I Survived Total Organ Failure | Jared Maynard
Jared Maynard is a Canadian physiotherapist, strength coach, and competitive powerlifter who specializes in resilience through strength training. In January 2023, what began as a mild cold quickly escalated into Secondary Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a rare and deadly hyper-inflammatory disorder. Despite being strong and healthy, Jared rapidly suffered multi-organ failure, including l
#379 The Rise of the "Home Gym Nerd": Collecting vs. Lifting | Massenomics
We welcome Tanner Baird and Tommy DeFea from Massenomics back to episode #379 of Dave Tate's Table Talk Podcast! Massenomics is known for its lighthearted approach to the strength and fitness industry. Their motto of "Lift Hard. Live Easy." summarizes how they like to take the lifting journey seriously but still have as much fun as possible. It was started by Tommy DeFea and Tanner Baird in Wester
#378 "Powerlifting Saved Me From Cocaine Addiction & Foster Care" | Eugene Bazemore
Eugene "Big Gene" Bazemore is a 32-year-old Army veteran-turned-super-heavyweight powerlifter who clawed his way from orphan shelters in Hampton Roads, VA to a 2,050-lb raw total and an XPC Arnold Worlds title in barely three seasons on the platform. After military service left a competitive void, Eugene discovered powerlifting through Westside vs The World, self-coached his first meet in 2022, an
#377 Hard Work Is The Only Hack: A Celebrity Coach's Guide To Real Results | Don Saladino
Don is best known for training actors like Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, John Krasinski, Sebastian Stan, Blake Lively, and Emily Blunt for some of the most significant blockbuster roles of the last two decades. He opened his first gym, Drive 495, in New York City 2005. He later transitioned into building a global online fitness business, coaching tens of thousands of people worldwide through digita
#376 "Racking the Bar," The Future of Coaching, and 40 Years of Strength Wisdom | Dave Tate
Get your FREE Copy of Racking The Bar Here: https://mailchi.mp/elitefts/racking-the-bar-ebook. Tom Sheppard interviews Dave Tate about his observations seen over 4 decades in the strength industry. elitefts founder and strength legend Dave Tate is back with his third book, "Racking the Bar." In this deep-dive interview, Dave reveals the raw, unfiltered lessons from over four decades under t
#375 The Strongman Doc: Why Modern Chiropractic Is Failing Athletes | Dr. Todd McDougle
Dr. Todd A. McDougle, BS, DC, FICA, is a 25+ year veteran of the chiropractic world and the man behind the McDougle Chiropractic Methods (MCM)—a technique built to keep strength athletes strong, not "sprung." From backstage at World's Strongest Man, to consulting for UCLA Gymnastics, USC Swimming, and the LA Dodgers, Todd has spent decades treating the world's top performers when it matters most—u
#374 Your RPE is a LIE. Here's How to Find Your TRUE Max Effort | Ben Pauli
We welcome Ben Pauli to this episode of Dave Tate's Table Talk Podcast! As the Athletic Director of Rochester Performance Gym (RPG), co-founder of Coaching Revolution, and owner of Michigan BarBenders Barbell, Ben brings a unique blend of Conjugate methodology and data-driven auto-regulation to the strength world. A seasoned multi-ply powerlifter with best lifts of 1,107 lb squat, 810 lb bench, an
#373 Peaking is a F*cking Waste of Time" - A World-Class Coach Explains | Thomas Lilley
We welcome Thomas Lilley to this episode of Dave Tate's Table Talk Podcast! Thomas is a 36-year-old Australian powerlifting coach, gym owner, and federation president who founded Zero Weakness, a powerhouse strength brand with 11 gyms across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. He leads three major federations—APL, NZPU, and UKPU—with APL now Australia's largest. Known for coaching lifters to mult
#372 NFL Coach: Stop Training Athletes Like Powerlifters | Cameron Josse
In 2020, Cameron transitioned into the collegiate ranks, serving as Associate Director of Football Performance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte before moving to Indiana University as an Athletic Performance Coach for football, where he remained through 2023. From there, he joined Auburn University as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach, working with one of the most competiti
#371 Training The Rock & Zac Efron: A Former Marine on Building Superheroes | Aaron Williamson
We welcome Aaron Williamson to this episode of Dave Tate's Table Talk Podcast! Aaron Williamson is a Marine veteran, celebrity trainer, and fitness professional with 27+ years of experience. He's trained Hollywood's biggest names—Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sylvester Stallone, Zac Efron, JK Simmons, Josh Brolin, Jamie Foxx, Emilia Clarke, and more—while also carving out roles on screen in Terminato
#370 Why a World's Strongest Man Competitor Quit to Make Movies | Josh Thigpen
We welcome Josh Thigpen to this episode of Dave Tate's Table Talk Podcast! Josh Thigpen is a professional strongman from Houston, Texas, whose incredible 20-year career has taken him to over 60 contests in 30 countries. A four-time World's Strongest Man competitor, Josh has earned 12 international podium finishes, held multiple world records, and achieved the legendary feat of holding the most wei
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