[00:00:00] Philip Pape: Welcome to the Wits & Weights podcast for busy professionals who want to get strong and lean with the strength training and sustainable diet. I am your host Philip Pape, and in each episode, we'll examine strategies to help you achieve physical self-mastery through a healthy skepticism of the fitness industry and a commitment to lifting heavy and eating right.

[00:00:32] Hey guys, welcome to the very first episode of Wits and Weights: strength training for skeptics. I'm extremely excited to let you know what I'm all about and give you a sneak preview of what you can expect on this podcast. If you're a skeptical, critically minded person like me, you've probably gotten tired of what the modern day so-called fitness industry has to offer.

[00:00:54] And you just want to know what actually works. Not only that you're probably a busy working professional with a full-time job, maybe two or three, or perhaps you own your own business or run several side hustles. So time is at a premium, let's say you can only get to the gym two days a week. Can you actually build a stronger, healthier body and maintain a sustainable active lifestyle?

[00:01:18] This way? The answer is an emphatic. Yes. Plenty of everyday folks have figured out what works in terms of exercise, nutrition, habits, mindset, and lifestyle. But there is just so much information out there even from highly respectable sources that it can be overwhelming to distill it down to a single focused plan that works for.

[00:01:43] That's why I created this podcast. Like you, I'm busy with a career and family, and I didn't truly understand the importance of strength as a foundation of fitness until my late thirties, just a few short years ago, just to get it out there. I turned 41 right before this podcast went live on this episode.

[00:02:03] First, I'd like to tell you my story and why the heck you'd even want to listen. Then we'll talk about why strength is so important. Perhaps the most important aspect of fitness and health. Finally, we'll preview some of the really cool topics we'll examine in upcoming episodes related to resistance training, especially with barbells fat loss and body recomposition exercise, selection, form technique, programming, recovery, and adaptation, and many other topics from foundational to.

[00:02:38] All right, please indulge me while I share a bit about my background. So you'll understand why this podcast and becoming strong and healthy are so important to me. For most of my life. I was not at all. Athletic, never participated in organized sports and lived the sedentary life of a desk jockey with a job that has me sitting in front of a computer.

[00:03:01] All. During my twenties and thirties, I very inconsistently went to commercial gyms and very inconsistently, tried to quote unquote exercise. Usually this involved, the clumsy sweat inducing use of a treadmill or elliptical machine, and maybe 10 minutes playing around with strength machines. You know, the ones where you get to sit down, there's a label that tells you how to use it.

[00:03:26] And you whip out a few sets of lots of lightweight. Needless to say this, didn't put a single pound of lean muscle on my frame, which vacillated between skinny, fat and fluffy. Over the years in my thirties, I found CrossFit. I had decided that with my wife pregnant with our first daughter and me about to become a father, I needed to step it up and get in shape.

[00:03:52] Although it's far from the most effective way to gain strength and I don't do it anymore. CrossFit introduced me to three new concepts that changed my life: barbells, coaching, and physical transformation. First barbells, many people correctly, in my opinion, credit CrossFit with reintroducing barbells to the general population, not to mention the squat, deadlift and Olympic.

[00:04:19] I had never touched a barbell in my entire life. So the first time I realized an empty bar, weighed a whopping 45 pounds, surprised me, but I also learned that a barbell holds great power due to its uncanny ability to allow a human being, to move very heavy loads, using safe, natural, full range of motion, multi jointed.

[00:04:44] After all squatting picking things up, pushing and pulling our primal to our anatomy.

[00:04:50] Second is coaching other than low paid unskilled, personal trainers and commercial gyms. I had never worked with a coach who would watch me lift and then give me immediate cues and feedback to. Say what you will about certifications and experience the value of having a training partner, coach, or even someone online to look at a video of you lifting cannot be understated if you want to make meaningful progress and improve your form and technique.

[00:05:21] Third CrossFit introduced me to the idea that I could physically manipulate and transform my body through sheer effort. And. Mind you CrossFit doesn't use the principles of linear progression, periodization and objective tracking that we'll talk about in later episodes when it comes to having an effective strength training program.

[00:05:45] But given that I was previously sedentary, the sudden use of barbells and conditioning workouts showed me that. Yes, despite what I thought was my so-called bad genetics. I can indeed improve my fitness and body. By the way the CrossFit gym I attended later evolved into a strength focused facility called Romeo athletics in Enfield, Connecticut of which I'm still a proud member.

[00:06:11] It's owned by Andrew Romeo and you'll hear clips of an interview I did on his podcast. Finding your strength radio in a future episode. It wasn't until two years ago, when I realized progress had stalled years earlier, that I changed my mindset on this whole fitness thing from an inconsistent hobby to a dedicated, focused educational and training pursuit.

[00:06:35] I discovered I needed to take my research and learning to a completely new level. And I began to voraciously consume books, videos, interviews, and podcasts on the subject while gaining direct expertise and experience through heavy barbell training. I also engaged various mentors and coaches posted form checks became active in online communities and started tracking everything with the most contemplative, serious ethos I could.

[00:07:04] That led me to the epiphany. That strength appears to be the pillar of all other aspects of health. And. Want to lose fat, add muscle Want to throw your grandkids in the air. When you're 70, get stronger. Want to avoid injury, metabolic diseases of aging, sarcopenia osteopenia, you need more muscle. Want to increase your metabolism, increase your athletic power or survive a harrowing physical ordeal.

[00:07:31] The answer is strength. And for those fathers out there who want to be an intimidating presence to your daughter's future suitors get big and strong. Having realized this universal truth. I got honest about my training. I buckled down, selected the appropriate program, dialed in my nutrition, which often means eating more, not less and proceeded to gradually get stronger and pack on muscle.

[00:07:56] I'm excited to share the details of my personal habits, training, eating, and progress in future episodes. Strength training is setting a goal, developing a plan, executing that plan and objectively measuring your progress toward that goal until it's achieved. And that is what we're going to do together on this.

[00:08:18] With wits and weights. My goal is to help busy professionals get strong and lean through lifting and eating like a normal human being so they can achieve physical self-mastery to do that. I'm going to draw on personal experience, well vetted sources of information, such as people who have been successful in their fitness.

[00:08:40] The latest evidence-based, but practical findings from the research and comments, reviews, and Q&A from you the listener, I may also experiment with different formats. Initially this'll be a solo podcast, but I may also do interviews live Q&A or even live mentor, coaching and future. Most importantly, I plan to lay out specific actions.

[00:09:04] In each episode you can use and apply right away. Here's a sneak preview of what you can expect in the next few episodes. The next episode is already available for download and future episodes will come out every two weeks. So make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out. In episode two, which as I said, should already be in your download queue.

[00:09:25] If you subscribe to the podcast, I cover how to choose a training program. I think this will get you started in thinking about and taking action on learning to lift properly and developing your initial foundation of strength. We keep things simple and discuss the various programs out there. Programs I have used and how to choose the right one.

[00:09:47] Episodes three through six cover foundational topics to give you a well-rounded base of information to help you separate what's important from what's not as important, including why do we care so much about. The truth about cardio fat loss and metabolism, how to approach diet without being on a diet and developing systems and habits to put your fitness on autopilot.

[00:10:14] After episode six, we will start to dig deeper into all of these topics and more such as dissecting form and technique on the big barbell lifts , rest periods, warmups, how to calculate metabolism and body fat. The truth about supplements, why walking is awesome, how to build a sweet home gym and many more.

[00:10:37] Finally, each episode will have one or more unique segments, such as listener Q&A. Just send me an email, DM me on Instagram @witsandweights or post in our WitsAndWeights subreddit. And we'll feature those on future episodes. I personally love listening to Q&A episodes on other podcasts. So I think it could be awesome to take those topics that you really care about and talk about them here.

[00:11:02] In other segments, I might break down a research paper or critically examine what the internet has to say about a particular fitness. That's just a sampling of what's to come. And I, for one, am extremely excited to start this adventure with you, the listener in a way I'm envious of those who are in an early phase of their strength training journey, because that's when all the wonderful discoveries and progress.

[00:11:28] But I'm equally excited for our more advanced listeners and lifters who might learn something new or contribute to the podcast through our listener community. 

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Thanks very much for joining me today. 

To view the show notes and a recap of today’s episode, head over to podcast.witsandweights.com.

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Thanks again for joining me, Philip Pape, in this episode of Wits and Weights. I’ll see you next time. Stay strong.