#413 How to Handle 10x More Weight: The Secret to a Flawless Setup | Jordan Buchla

Dave Tate's Table Talk

Dave Tate

Fitness, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 586 Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2026

⏱️ 138 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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" personality into a disciplined "Type A" structure.

Inside the Episode:

The Physics of Focus: Why the "pick" is the most underrated phase of a world-record squat
Clinical Recovery: A Doctor of Nursing Practice's breakdown of BPC-157, TB-500, and hormone optimization
The High-Stakes Pivot: Balancing a doctorate, 16-hour hospital shifts, and elite-level meet prep
Gym Ownership Realities: The gritty truth of taking over Hellbent Barbell while preserving a hardcore culture
The Identity Shift: Knowing when to step away from competition to build a legacy through mentorship and business

Meet the Guest:

Jordan Buchla, DNP, is a board-certified Nurse Practitioner and one of the strongest women in strength sports history. With an 855 lb multi-ply squat and a 545 lb bench press, she bridges elite performance and medical science through her work at BioRestore Health.

She is now the owner of the legendary Hellbent Barbell, where she applies lessons from both the trauma ward and the mono-lift to athlete longevity and total human optimization.

Follow Jordan:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gi_joe_barbie/
Hellbent Barbell: https://www.instagram.com/hellbent_barbell/
BioRestore Health: https://biorestorehealth.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If people really tamed their dumb strength honed into that control of a pick,
0:05.0	I think that they would be 10 times stronger and be able to handle way more weight.
0:08.0	I am a type B person forcing myself to live a type A life.
0:11.0	If you let me, I just want to sit there and watch TV, man.
0:14.0	Like that's like what I want to do, but I don't let myself because I know that that will lead me nowhere in life.
0:31.2	It's time to sit down, keep it real, and cut the bullshit.
0:33.2	Welcome to Table Talk.
0:38.3	First question, what's it feel like to have an 854 pounds on your back?
0:45.0	Honestly, it's the most extreme focus that I'll ever feel in my life.
0:49.8	It brings me into the zone where it's all I can think about, all I can focus on.
0:51.0	I don't even hear anybody.
0:51.6	I see nobody.
0:53.3	I might see that hand of the judge.
0:54.0	Probably don't. What it feels I see nobody, I might see that hand of the judge, probably don't.
0:54.6	What it feels like is a godly, insanely invincible feeling.
1:01.2	It's the best feeling that I can get out of any drug, out of any experience in life personally.
1:06.7	Okay.
1:07.7	So the reason I ask this is, for me, there's, there's weights that you squat,
1:14.6	that it becomes like a different world, right? So for me personally, everything up to,
1:20.9	it was probably 800, you know, everything up to 800 pounds. It was like, oh, whatever, it's heavy.
1:25.2	Then it was like, you know, like what the hell? Yeah, right? It, it was like, oh, whatever, it's heavy. Then it was like, you know, like what the hell? Yep. Yeah. Right. It, it felt heavy. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And then anything higher than that just got worse to the point where I believe it was Matt Dimwell told me straight up. It doesn't matter what you think. It's just, it's just heavy. It's heavy and it's going to feel heavy. Yeah. But it was a different kind of heavy. Yep. Right. You're smaller than I am. You're different gender than what I am. Yeah. So when was the first, what was the first weight that's that first? Honestly, it probably was when I started doing a reverse bands, then I started to really start testing things. Like, I actually did a reverse band Monsters 915. That was insane. Yeah. That was insane. Like that pick, first of all, it was, it just shocked me how much it just still was attached to my body. When I stood up, I was like, all right, it's mine. Like, here we go. We're going to take this for a ride. You know, we're sitting back, sit back.
2:18.3	And I'm like, all right.
	...

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