#376 "Racking the Bar," The Future of Coaching, and 40 Years of Strength Wisdom | Dave Tate
Dave Tate's Table Talk
Dave Tate
4.9 • 586 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 122 minutes
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Summary
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 the bar—and why the fitness industry is about to be cleansed.
Dave holds nothing back, discussing why he believes AI will "eat the lunch" of lazy online coaches, the brutal accountability required to reach your potential, and why focusing on your legacy is a destructive waste of time. This isn't just about lifting weights; it's about the relentless pursuit of self-improvement, the changing perception of a lifter through the decades, and the hard-earned wisdom that can only come from becoming "the guy on the other side of the table."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The original idea behind it, you're done training, but they're not really done. |
| 0:04.0 | Because a lot of people go through that identity crisis, so I wanted those lessons in there. |
| 0:08.0 | But when I started to look back through, a lot of the lessons are all the same. |
| 0:12.0 | Perception changes. |
| 0:14.0 | Why in the fuck do you care about them when you should care about the people that are in the room that are closest to the casket? |
| 0:20.0 | They're the ones that build who you are. |
| 0:38.1 | Thank you for joining us. Thank you for joining us. |
| 0:40.0 | My guest today is Dave Tate. |
| 0:42.9 | Dave, thank you for coming all the way from your office to join us today. |
| 0:47.3 | And it was a big deal with you. |
| 0:48.4 | My pleasure. |
| 0:49.7 | Yeah, I'm sure that was a gargantuan effort for you. |
| 0:52.0 | Now, we are here today to talk about your most recent book, Racking the Bar. |
| 0:57.0 | Yes. |
| 0:58.0 | Now, the first question that I have about this book, which you guys are all going to be |
| 1:02.2 | able to get access to, is what made you write it? |
| 1:06.1 | What was the catalyst that said to you, this needs to be a third installment. I need to do this. |
| 1:12.5 | It's three things that kind of came together. I wrote under the bar and I wrote this down, |
| 1:17.7 | 2005, then I wrote raising the bar in 2007 and I've been wanting to write racking the bar |
| 1:24.2 | probably since 2010, right? |
| 1:27.6 | So it's been on my to-do list as a no priority. |
| 1:31.5 | You know, you have low, medium, and high this whole time. |
... |
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