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Dave Tate's Table Talk

Dave Tate's Table Talk

elitefts.com 300 Episodes Jul 20, 2026

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

#431 To Fix Your Body, You Have to Destroy Your Identity | Ben Pollack
#431 To Fix Your Body, You Have to Destroy Your Identity | Ben Pollack Jul 20, 2026 02:29:10 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
#430 Why "Bought Fitness" Will Never Make You Strong | Daniella Means, Kailey Latimer, & Lu Faustin Jul 16, 2026 02:13:57 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
#429 I Ignored My Surgeon's Warning (And Benched 435lbs Anyway) | Jordan Wong Jul 13, 2026 02:28:50 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
#428 Stop Training Athletes Like They're Good at Lifting | Lucas White Jul 6, 2026 02:24:34 "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
#427 The Trap of the 300-Pound Power Clean | Monte Sparkman Jul 2, 2026 02:35:55 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
#426 What Powerlifting Judges See (But Never Tell You) | Valerie Smith Jun 29, 2026 02:14:55 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
#425 We've Broken Our Natural Hormones to Survive the Modern World | Mike Stratton Jun 22, 2026 01:52:09 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
#424 You Learn More From One Loss Than 100 Wins | Phil Daru Jun 18, 2026 02:25:57 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
#423 Powerlifting's Dirty Secret (The Real Freaks Haven't Arrived) | Matt Levine Jun 15, 2026 02:33:02 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
#422 The Barbell Giveth, and the Barbell Taketh Away | Jim Wendler, Matt Rhodes, & Vincent Dizenzo Jun 11, 2026 01:32:50 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
#421 Why Most Dedicated Lifters Crash Out Outside the Gym | Marcellus Williams Jun 8, 2026 02:44:07 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
#420 Why D1 Strength Programs Are Actually Ruining Elite Athletes | Jared Bidne Jun 4, 2026 02:27:06 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

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