Training Principles and Techniques for Progress

Philip Pape 0:00

On today's Quick Lits , we are answering questions about how to train , how to warm up your lift , how to choose an initial load so that you can get all the reps but not go too lightly , how to rest so you get sufficient time between sets , how to progress and which movements to do week after week . And then how to manage recovery so that you can train hard , but not so hard that you stop making progress . Welcome to the Wits and Weights podcast . I'm your host , philip Pape , and this twice-a-week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self-mastery by getting stronger , optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition . We'll uncover science-backed strategies for movement , metabolism , muscle and mindset , with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry , so you can look and feel your absolute best . Let's dive right in . What you are about to hear is an excerpt from a video in the monthly workout programs course in Wits and Weights Physique University , where I go over how to train , training principles , how to warm up , an exact protocol to do so , as well as the success factors so that you can continue making progress . And the reason I'm sharing all this is because this week and next week , wits and Weights Physique University is open for enrollment and as a thank you for listening to this podcast , I would love to give you a free month of workout programs from the program . All you have to do is click the link in the show notes and I will send it to you , no strings attached . You will get the exact Google sheet with all seven programs , that's , three novice programs , one late novice program , two intermediate programs and a female lower body focused program . They're all focused on strength and physique development and a female lower body focused program . They're all focused on strength and physique development . And you'll be getting the exact sheet that I am dropping for the first month of Wits and Weights Physique University as a thank you again for listening to this podcast . So again , just click the link in the show notes to get your free physique focused workout programs .

Philip Pape 2:02

The next section I want to cover is how to train . All right , this can be a giant topic in and of itself , but I'm going to just stick to the basics of what's most important , all right , first of all , always warm up with the lift , meaning you don't need other warmups unless it's super cold and you just need to physically warm up the body , like with some cardio on a bike , but besides that , you don't need to stretch . You don't need to do any fancy dynamic warmups that you learned in your CrossFit class . Trust me , I've been there you just need to warm up with the lift itself . You can use the partial range on the lift to warm up . If you're very tight , like if you're going to squat and your shoulders are tight , you can stretch under the bar for a bit until you get that full stretch and can get it on your back , for example , for us older folks and I actually have a whole section here on how to warm up that I'm not going to explain in detail here . It's very self-explanatory , but that is my suggestion on how to warm up the lift . And you don't have to warm up if you've just warmed up . If you've just done a lift of a similar body part and you're already warm , just go into the working set .

Effective Training Tips for Success

Philip Pape 3:07

Second , I get this question all the time . Well , what do I start with when I've never done the movement before , or when I'm doing a new program ? And even if you're intermediate or advanced , you want to find the sweet spot for that first week , and the way I like to do it is you know , you go through your warmup and , as you're warming up , you're going to get a feel for how close you are to that stressful point where it starts to feel heavy and then you want to settle on a weight that is not pushing yourself to failure , but also not easy . So it's like two to three reps in the tank , right when you do , let's say , it calls for a set of five and you go ahead and you do five and you're like I could maybe get into more reps . Okay , that might be the spot you want to be at , because then the subsequent sessions , week after week , you're just going to go up from there . Once you have your baseline , you're just going to go up from there and that's going to be how you progress . Just don't start too light , okay .

Philip Pape 4:02

The next one is long enough rest periods , very , very important . Okay , this actually , I'm actually going to fix this . This is not correct . Three to five minutes or longer for compound lifts . One to three minutes for direct isolation work , because I actually how to train number three Okay , getting real time updates here as I make these videos . All right , the next one and , by the way , the reason we want long enough rest periods is to get all the reps and actually demonstrate an objective progression week to week , because if the rest period is all over the place , that's another variable we're changing . If we were rested a minute last week but three minutes this week , or vice versa , it's not going to be an indication week to week that we're actually progressing or not .

Philip Pape 4:43

The next one is very important . Uh , and that's why I'm dropping them monthly and not like weekly or whatever , because I want you to know this is a long game . You want to pick a program , run it , for you know , run it for six to 12 weeks , with deload if needed . Okay . And then number five I want you to train hard . I want you to train hard , but not to the breaking point , not to where your form breaks down . All right , usually this is not all the way to failure . Rarely it is so like if you're doing bicep curls , yeah , go to failure , but for the most part you're one to two reps shy of failure , and that proximity to failure is an indication that you are training hard . All right , we already talked about the warmup . You can read this for yourself .

Philip Pape 5:28

And then success factors are just . You know , to prevent the question hey , I just missed my reps . What do I do ? I would rather you say I did everything I could to not miss my reps and then I missed my reps . What do I do ? Two different things , because most of the time when somebody says they missed their reps , they are deficient in one of these areas . If you take care of these areas and you miss a rep , well , you may just be plateauing and need to change your programming .

Philip Pape 5:53

Okay , so what are they ? Number one rest long enough between sets . Talked about that already . Number two increase the load each session , but just the right amount . Don't go too much . You know , if you start going up 10 pounds a week on your deadlift and then all of a sudden you just , it feels just extremely heavy , maybe you should have gone up five pounds the most recent increase or even on a press or bench press or something , two and a half pounds . You know , using microplates you never want to jump up too much , and I see this a lot of times with dumbbells when people use dumbbells , because the dumbbells jump in like big increments . It doesn't seem like it , but when you go from , you know , 20 to 25 , that's what ? Uh , 20% plus is what 25% increase . Usually we'll want to go up by like five or 10% , and so that's where microplates come in , even for dumbbells , but also for barbells .

Philip Pape 6:45

Okay , make sure you're recovering . I mean , really these last two are all the other things in your life that could affect you . The third one here is really the big stuff the eating enough calories , sleeping enough and using active recovery , which is a lot of walking , movement and strategic cardio , and then everything else that could cause stress or interfere with your lifting . That could be your schedule , your kids , your work . Whether it's causing stress or not , it may interfere in some way and make you inconsistent . If that's happening , you know , if you're working out in the morning one time and the afternoon another , that could also affect your ability to hit the progression . So keep all those in mind .

Philip Pape 7:24

This is videos being made based on the first month's workout programs . Um up for your feedback and improvements along the way . Maybe we're going to add another program or two in here if the demand calls for it , and keep making this better and better and helping all of you get swole , get jacked , get strong , build the best physiques ever and have fun working out and training . What you just heard is an excerpt from the introductory course in the monthly workout programs within Wits and Weights Physique University . But again , if you want the full month of workout programs absolutely free , whether or not you are enrolled right now , go click the link in my show notes . Thank you for tuning in to another episode of wits and weights . If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights , please take a moment to share this episode with them and make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode . Until then , stay strong .