#450 Stop Getting MRIs For Low Back Pain (Do This Instead) | Dr. Justin Farnsworth

Release Date: 10/19/2026

#450 Stop Getting MRIs For Low Back Pain (Do This Instead) | Dr. Justin Farnsworth

Dave Tate's Table Talk

The Most Powerful Rehabilitation Tool Isn't an Exercise—It's Changing How You Think About Pain. The most powerful rehabilitation tool isn't a complex exercise sequence or an expensive imaging machine—it's convincing a person that low-level pain doesn't necessarily mean their body is breaking. Dr. Justin Farnsworth spent 18 months walking through Manhattan with a serious lower back injury that he deliberately chose not to have imaged. Through a decade across sports medicine and high-performance training, he discovered how easily normal age-related structural changes can be mistaken for the...

#449 Why 90% of Lifters Pick the Wrong Weight on Game Day | Matt Gary

Dave Tate's Table Talk

Most lifters don't lose a meet on strength; they lose it on ego, bad math, and missing their first attempt. After three decades inside elite powerlifting—from coaching multi-time IPF world champions to analyzing over 17,000 competition attempts—Matt Gary reveals why attempt selection is an exact science, why personal coaches are destroying game-day execution, and how the political war behind the curtain threatens the sport's highest level. INSIDE THIS CONVERSATION Data-Driven Attempts: The exact math required to maximize total kilos without leaving weight on the platform. The 6.5%...

#448 Why I Banned Headphones in My Gym | Jason Manenkoff

Dave Tate's Table Talk

Building a Gym from Scratch, Real Estate Landmines, and Why Most Lifters Are Training for Instagram Instead of Real Strength He built a thriving facility with $10,000, zero safety net, and a landlord operating an illegal warehouse with no certificate of occupancy—then spent two decades refining how to build real, uncompromised strength. Jason Manenkoff reveals the brutal realities of running an independent gym, why copying social media bench technique is destroying your joints, and the exact three-day undulating periodization system that built his elite press. INSIDE THIS CONVERSATION The...

#447 "F*ck Your Micronutrients" | Anthony Oliveira & Roman Mustaccio

Dave Tate's Table Talk

"We're worried about micronutrients. You missed two training sessions this week. F*ck your micronutrients." Long before Anthony Oliveira squatted an all-time 1,074-pound single-ply world record and Roman Mustaccio benched a drug-tested Junior record of 720 pounds, both were just thin kids piecing together old-school Westside articles and DoorDashing to buy bench shirts. Through brutal injuries, trial and error, and testing modern execution under four-digit loads, they transformed traditional conjugate principles into a progressive framework designed to protect lifters from self-destruction...

#446 You Don't Need a Periodized Program | Guillermo Blanco

Dave Tate's Table Talk

You do not need a periodized plan to build high-level performance. Guillermo Blanco started lifting in eighth grade before moving through Division I football programs, collegiate strength coaching, multi-ply powerlifting, and training military populations in the Army’s H2F program. Facing unpredictable deployment schedules, minimal equipment, and low training ages, he abandoned rigid percentage-based periodization in favor of adaptable general physical preparedness that keeps lifters performing when life destroys the plan. INSIDE THIS CONVERSATION The Posterior Chain Deficit: Why high...

#445 Why Olympic Lifting Still Belongs in Football (Despite the Haters) | Evan Barr

Dave Tate's Table Talk

Most strength coaches build athletes by the book, but the ones who actually build champions learn that true physical development begins long before anyone ever touches a barbell. Before guiding Toledo Football through brutal Division I seasons or developing NFL champions, Evan Barr was a farm kid in Tennessee throwing hay, walking onto Phillip Fulmer’s squad, and building a collegiate strength program completely from scratch with just two racks and a set of dumbbells. After nearly two decades of dodging back surgery, building four straight top-25 teams, and coaching over a hundred...

#444 You’re Not Overtrained (You’re Overstimulated) | Steve Denovi

Dave Tate's Table Talk

Stop turning your lifters into data-obsessed overthinkers who melt down the second a $10 velocity app tells them the bar moved 0.02 meters per second too slow. Most modern powerlifting coaches aren’t actually building athletes; they are running a digital marketing business wearing a singlet, chasing short-form algorithm clout while hiding behind RPE charts and endless combo rack squatting. World-champion coach Steve DeNovi spent fifteen years getting hurt, building an elite roster, and learning why the current online coaching ecosystem is quietly killing real strength progress. The fix for a...

#443 25 Years a Personal Trainer: Why You're Still Broke | Charles Gardner

Dave Tate's Table Talk

Most personal trainers fail because they master the mechanics of exercise but completely ignore the high-stakes psychology of holding a client’s trust. Personal training veteran Charles Gardner spent over two decades in the trenches discovering that keeping a client on your roster for years has almost nothing to do with optimal set-and-rep schemes. From surviving early career failure in California to managing high-profile clients in a military town, Gardner reveals the unspoken rules of client retention, navigating the fragile egos of Type A personalities, and building a sustainable business...

#442 You Are Recovering From Training That Didn't Even Happen | Dr. Mike T Nelson

Dave Tate's Table Talk

Most recovery protocols are actively killing your strength gains because you haven't trained hard enough to earn them. Dr. Mike T. Nelson’s path to elite performance didn’t start in a weight room—it began in mechanical engineering laboratories, where he learned to view human physiology through stress mechanics rather than quick-fix soothing trends. Today, he translates twenty-five years of research into a battle-tested blueprint that proves real recovery isn't about recovering faster, but building a system so resilient that heavy load fails to disrupt your baseline. INSIDE THIS...

#441 I Squatted 1,000 lbs, Then My Entire Life Collapsed | Patrick Maguire

Dave Tate's Table Talk

"I've squatted 1,000 pounds more times than I've successfully asked out a female." Most superheavyweight powerlifters hide their rock-bottom moments behind PR reels, but Patrick Maguire walked onto the platform after a catastrophic quad tear, took a token squat, and pulled sumo for laughs just to finish the job. After three years of brutal injuries, botched cuts, and a personal life that completely shattered, he stripped away the toxic "mass moves mass" myth and rebuilt his body from scratch using strict range-of-motion bodybuilding, cold data, and brutal self-awareness. INSIDE THIS...

More Episodes

The Most Powerful Rehabilitation Tool Isn't an Exercise—It's Changing How You Think About Pain.

The most powerful rehabilitation tool isn't a complex exercise sequence or an expensive imaging machine—it's convincing a person that low-level pain doesn't necessarily mean their body is breaking.

Dr. Justin Farnsworth spent 18 months walking through Manhattan with a serious lower back injury that he deliberately chose not to have imaged. Through a decade across sports medicine and high-performance training, he discovered how easily normal age-related structural changes can be mistaken for the source of debilitating pain.

By shifting clients away from fear-based movement, questioning unnecessary MRIs, and treating rehabilitation and performance training as the same discipline applied at different stages, Justin helps lifters, athletes, and everyday clients continue building strength instead of abandoning the gym.

INSIDE THIS CONVERSATION

MRIs vs. Reality: Why structural findings on medical imaging don't always explain physical pain.
Pain Redefined: How to distinguish manageable, yellow-light discomfort from warning signs that training needs to change.
Rehab Is Training: Why Justin believes progressive strength training should be central to effective rehabilitation.
The Squat Trap: Why the traditional barbell back squat isn't always the best choice for everyday lifters.
Single-Leg Power: How unilateral training can improve joint resilience, address asymmetries, and build functional strength.
Spinal Resilience: Practical approaches to progressively loading the spine, managing back pain, and rebuilding confidence under weight.

MEET THE GUEST

Dr. Justin Farnsworth is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Board Certified Sports Clinical Specialist, former professional soccer player, and Director of Rehabilitation for the Pain-Free Performance Specialist Certification (PPSC).

As the founder of Re Strength and Programming Around Pain (ProAP), Justin specializes in bridging the gap between clinical rehabilitation and high-performance strength training.

Since 2019, he has led over 150 in-person certification courses, educating more than 7,000 coaches and clinicians on how to help people move beyond pain, develop resilience, and return to meaningful strength training.

FOLLOW DR. JUSTIN FARNSWORTH

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https://www.drjustinfarnsworth.com

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YouTube
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Programming Around Pain Course
https://www.drjustinfarnsworth.com/education/

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The Most Powerful Rehabilitation Tool Isn't an Exercise—It's Changing How You Think About Pain.

INSIDE THIS CONVERSATION

MEET THE GUEST

FOLLOW DR. JUSTIN FARNSWORTH

Become an elitefts Channel Member

Support Dave Tate's Table Talk

Best-Selling elitefts Products

Official Sponsors & Discounts

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