#373 Peaking is a F*cking Waste of Time" - A World-Class Coach Explains | Thomas Lilley

Dave Tate's Table Talk

Dave Tate

Fitness, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 586 Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2025

⏱️ 169 minutes

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Summary

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 multiple all-time world records, including the #1 total of 1200kg (wraps) and highest DOTs score ever (688.33), Thomas also holds the #1 equipped total and bench in Australia. Through ZeroW's expansion into franchising, education, and equipment, and his work on the Peak Speak and ZeroW Podcasts, Thomas continues to shape global powerlifting culture.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombro7/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ptcgoldcoast
Zero W: https://www.zerowequipment.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From a long-term training success point of view, peaking is a fucking waste of time.
0:04.0	So the red pill, every single powerlifter and powerlifting coach needs to swallow on earth right now,
0:10.1	is that strength is not an adaptation. Strength is an expression of the adaptations that we make. It's time to sit down, keep it real and cut the bullshit.
0:28.6	Welcome to Table Talk.
0:30.8	All right, guys, we're back with another episode of Table Talk.
0:33.2	Today, my guest is Thomas Lilly, founder of Zero Weakness, a global powerlifting brand.
0:40.9	There's a lot associated with.
0:42.6	There's 11 gyms.
0:44.0	There's online training.
0:45.0	You're in three countries.
0:47.1	I do want to talk about the federations, but not a lot.
0:49.6	But the owner sounds like three different federations.
0:51.8	So I want to kind of not that much, but I would do want to ask a little bit about that.
0:56.7	Coach of multiple world record holders and dot scores, the accolades I could sit here and read them off forever.
1:04.0	So let's just say you're one of the most prominent powerlifting coaches out there today.
1:13.6	And I'll just leave it at that. That way you can sit there and kind of stew around that one. But that's how I would put it, as well as being a
1:19.9	competitor. And when did you, was it 2018 that you had the number one equipped total?
1:28.5	No, I think I did that more recently.
1:30.6	More recently?
1:31.0	Yeah, 2002, I believe it was.
1:33.9	And you're still competing now, or 2024?
1:37.2	Yeah, yeah, I do maybe one competition a year.
	...

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