#399 Powerlifting Rivalry 2026: This Pro Athlete is Making a Massive Mistake | Zachary Zeus Smith

Dave Tate's Table Talk

Dave Tate

Fitness, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 586 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 142 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 high standards and higher stakes. He specializes in developing lifters who perform when it counts, proving that while horoscopes might be a joke, the Legacy he's building is anything but.

Website: https://flexgymva.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevoodooviking_zeus

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I took a look at Joe Jackson, Doco's horoscope today.
0:04.4	It says to invest in things that will bear fruit.
0:07.8	Be careful not to invest in things that won't.
0:10.4	I'm going to caution him to invest in his coaching and his spotting crew and his future judging career
0:15.1	because I think that'll bear more fruit than the ECC.
0:32.1	It's time to sit down, keep it real and cut the bullshit.
0:34.1	Welcome to Table Talk.
0:36.5	I've been looking forward to this one.
0:40.1	I'm a little bit conflicted on where to start.
0:44.4	And I was just thinking about it in the bathroom. I still couldn't make a decision on where to start with this. So where I'm going to start is you were just recently called out. So we'll start
0:49.2	with that one. We're going to start with Joe at the beginning of this podcast. Yeah. So we're
0:53.4	going to start with Joe first. And then I want to get to what my other start was going to start with Joe at the beginning of this podcast. Yeah, so we're going to start with Joe first.
0:54.9	And then I want to get to what my other start was going to be. Because any way that I heard that you were called out, it's probably going to be more interested in that than what my next question. Yeah, yeah, they're going to want to hear about it. Yeah. That head-to-head with Joe has been ongoing for some time. I think we did. we started with America Pro 1.
1:12.8	And you might get some... head with Joe has been ongoing for some time. I think we did we started with America Pro 1 and you
1:13.3	might get some stories out of this a little bit. Well there's one I'm looking forward to the most
1:20.2	recent one probably. The head to head with Joe started at America Pro 1. I think Joe even said we
1:27.3	didn't know we were in a head-to-head.
1:29.0	I had two other athletes in it. And, you know, that production was just so big from a power lifting
1:37.7	standpoint that I was trying to make sure my athletes, you know, represented what we, what we brought to the table just because I coach them
1:47.6	and I self-coach. So there was a lot of just pressure. We hadn't had anybody out of our gym
1:53.5	that we had people compete at a national level and at a world's level, but this felt different.
1:58.1	You know. Were they in your division too? Your flight, your flight.
	...

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