November 5, 2025 • 36 mins
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--
Every week there's new advice about training. Train to failure. Don't train to failure. Do more volume. No, you're overtraining. Meanwhile, you're stuck making zero progress because nobody's telling you what actually matters.
Today, Philip ranks the 5 training variables that drive 80% of muscle growth, plus one hidden foundation that amplifies them all. Using the concept of Leverage Points from systems thinking, you'll discover which variables create disproportionate results and which ones are just noise distracting you from real progress.
This is an evidence-based blueprint to stop spinning your wheels and start building the physique you want.
Episode Resources
- 12 Rules of Training Volume to Build More Muscle | Ep 348
- Join Physique University for Training Templates and Lifting Lessons
- Try MacroFactor for free with code WITSANDWEIGHTS
Timestamps
0:00 - Why you're stuck and overwhelmed by conflicting training advice
3:18 - Variable #1: Training volume (the primary driver of muscle growth)
8:02 - Variable #2: Training effort and proximity to failure
12:54 - Variable #3: Progressive overload (the adaptation mechanism)
20:37 - Variable #4: Exercise selection and mechanical efficiency
25:14 - Variable #5: Frequency (how to distribute weekly volume)
30:05 - Bonus variable
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👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape on Instagram
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Philip Pape (00:01):
Every week, every day, there's new advice on
social media about how to train.
Train to failure, don't trainto failure.
Do more volume, no, you'reovertraining.
Meanwhile, you're stuck makingzero progress because it's hard
to figure out what actuallymatters.
Today I'm ranking the fivetraining variables that drive
80% of your muscle growth, akahypertrophy, plus one hidden
(00:25):
foundation that amplifies all ofthem.
You'll learn exactly where tofocus your energy so you can
stop spinning your wheels in thegym and start building the
physique you want.
Welcome to Wits and Weights,the show that helps you build a
(00:48):
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering, and
efficiency.
I'm your host, Philip Pape, andtoday I'm gonna break down my
hypertrophy hierarchy so youknow exactly which training
variables produce results andwhich ones are just noise.
If you've felt overwhelmed bythe conflicting advice about
building muscle, this is one ofthose episodes that just cuts
(01:10):
right through it and gives youwhat to focus on.
As always, we are using thisengineering framework to
prioritize what matters.
So today I'm really justjumping right into it.
We're gonna start with theprinciples, as always, because
not all training variables areequal.
And by the way, when I when Italk training, I am talking
about strength training,resistance training.
(01:31):
If you're new to the podcast,you're like, what does it mean
training?
We're talking about resistancetraining, the most important
thing you can do if you're notdoing right now to build
strength and muscle.
And today we're specificallytalking about hypertrophy, which
is the act of building musclesize.
And if you've ever heard of thePareto principle, which is that
20% drives 80% of the results,that's kind of the mindset we're
(01:53):
taking today, where a lot ofthe things you and others are
doing in the gym or talkingabout online drive five or 10%
of the results.
I want to get you the 80.
And we often obsess over thethings that give you the five
because they're easy or becausethey're new, they're novel,
they're fun, whatever, and theydon't necessarily, they're not
necessarily effective.
So for today's engineeringconcept, I'm gonna use something
(02:16):
from systems thinking calledleverage points.
Someone by the name of DonnellaMeadows, a systems thinker,
identified that in any complexsystem, certain intervention
points create disproportionateeffects.
So this is the idea ofleverage.
A small change at a highleverage point can produce
(02:36):
massive results.
A huge effort at a low leveragepoint barely moves the needle,
right?
And so we this is this is theepitome of efficiency that we
talk about on the show.
And your body is a complexsystem as well.
And muscle growth depends ondozens of variables interacting
together.
And you don't necessarily haveto understand all of those.
You don't even have tounderstand the mechanisms.
We really want to understandthe cause and effect.
(02:58):
And not all variables have thesame leverage.
So today, the hypertrophyhierarchy, hierarchy meaning a
priority or pyramid ofvariables, right?
What's most important?
The hypertrophy hierarchy isgoing to identify five of those
highest leverage points in yourmuscle building system where
your effort produces thegreatest return.
And so the first variable isgoing to be training volume.
(03:22):
Now, you may have heard me talka lot about when I talk about
first principles, I talk aboutmechanical tension, I talk about
some of the mechanisms thatproduce muscle growth.
But I'm taking a differentangle today because again, I
just said the mechanisms aren'tas important as understanding
how your actions contribute tomaximizing those mechanisms.
So training volume in manysenses is the primary driver of
(03:46):
muscle growth because that isthe total number of hard sets
per muscle group per week.
And if you don't have enoughvolume, you're just gonna
flatline no matter what you'redoing.
And it may be a low amount ofvolume compared to someone else
based on your responsiveness.
It's all relative.
But the point is you need tohit a minimum amount of volume.
(04:07):
So when we talk about hard setsper muscle group per week,
let's define things.
A hard set is going to bewithin about one to three reps
shy of failure.
You almost never have to takesomething to complete failure.
So that's one myth we'rebusting right away.
You almost never have to,although in some cases with
small isolation movements, itcan give you a little extra to
(04:27):
go to failure or even to do,let's say, partial reps after
failure in some cases.
But the vast majority ofmovements, if in fact all, if
you do them one to three repsshy of failure, you're hitting
on that mechanism of mechanicaltension and you're making it
hard and you're getting to thepoint where you signal your body
that it needs to adapt.
If you stop a movement, let'ssay you have a movement on your
(04:48):
program that says do eight to 12reps, okay?
And you get to 12 reps, and youknow for a fact you could do
like six more.
Like it just feels kind ofeasy, like you could do six
more.
A lot of you out there, raiseyour hand virtually, if this is
you, will stop at 12 becausethat's what's in the program.
Or you just didn't know anybetter.
Like it says eight to 12, soI'm gonna do 12.
(05:09):
The point isn't to do 12, thepoint is to do enough to get
within one to three reps shy offailure.
And so if the if eight to 12 isprogrammed, you need to lift
the weights heavy enough so that12 is the absolute maximum
number of weight of reps youcould possibly do, or again
within one to three reps shy offailure, meaning maybe you could
(05:30):
do 13 or 14, maybe.
And that's what a hard set is.
And the research shows a cleardose response relationship with
volume of these hard sets, wherethe more volume up to a point
leads to more growth, but up toa point.
So this is the this is whatwe're talking about here: high
leverage.
Okay, not the absolute minimum,but also not the absolute
(05:51):
maximum.
Where is that highest leveragepoint?
For most muscle groups, that isgoing to be a pretty big range
of 10 to 20 hard sets per week.
And for many of you, 10 to 15is the practical sweet spot.
Practical meaning when you addup all your muscle groups and
the sets and giving a seven-dayweek and your schedule, being
(06:12):
busy people that you are.
10, maybe 15 is what you canfit in practically with hour to
hour and a half long sessionsmax.
If you want to go to 20, you'regonna be spending more time in
the gym.
That's all.
But can you go down as low asfive?
Well, the evidence says five to10 might be the minimum viable
product when it comes to this.
Meaning, yeah, you probablycould still get 70, 80% of your
(06:35):
results with five to 10 sets,but 10 to 15 is probably gonna
get you 90, 95%.
And then you go all to 20 andyou get kind of that final
optimization.
Now, more isn't always betterbecause volume comes with a cost
to your recovery.
Every set you do is gonna addfatigue.
And this is where the minimumeffective dose comes in.
(06:55):
And you have to find that foryou.
So if 10 sets per week isworking really well, why would
you do 15 unless you want tomake the trade-off with time
versus optimization or fatigueversus optimization?
And it's going to differwhether you're in fat loss or
not, whether you're aresource-stared or not.
You might have to have lowervolume during fat loss.
(07:16):
So the more stimulus is alwaysbetter if your recovery can
handle it.
You've probably heard ofconcepts like stimulus to
fatigue.
That's what we're talkingabout.
So I would start with 10 to 15hard sets per muscle group per
week, and then adjust upward ifrecovery and schedule allows.
Or you can even adjust downwardif that's too much, or for
(07:36):
practical purposes, you don'thave enough time in your week
and you want to try thatminimum, and you might surprise
yourself.
You might find that you neededthat extra recovery.
And now you can do some morewalking, some more sleeping,
things like that.
So, variable number one wastraining volume.
And by the way, I did an entireepisode on volume, and that was
episode 348, 12 rules oftraining volume to build more
(07:59):
muscle.
I'm gonna include that in theshow notes if you want to deep
dive.
Variable number two is trainingeffort.
Now we have to define thisagain.
Effort in this case is howclose you take your sets to
failure.
Now you could use a measurementcalled reps in reserve, which
is how many reps you have leftin the tank, or the inverse of
that is RPE, rate of perceivedexertion, which is a scale of
(08:23):
zero to 10, where 10 is the mostexertion, mean meaning zero
reps left.
Some people find that confusingbecause it's like thinking
backward.
And at the end of the day, Ihardly ever use these anyway as
a measurement.
I usually just go by what isthe exercise, what are the sets
and reps, what's the load, andget in my rep range with the
right load.
(08:43):
Training close to failure, oneto three.
Like actually prescribing RIR,it's it can be done.
There are cases where if you'reprogressing with a set-based
program, let's say you're gonnado three sets this week, four
sets next week, five sets thefollowing week, you might
actually pay attention to yourRIR and start submaximally first
(09:05):
and kind of add more effort andkeep the load the same, but
you're actually adding sets, andthat's the way you're
progressing, if that makes anysense.
But here's the point.
I don't want to get off on atangent here.
You have to train hard enoughto convince your body it needs
to adapt.
And we we already talked aboutthis in the volume piece, but
now I'm digging in specificallyon this as a training variable.
(09:27):
If you're stopping with likefive or more reps left in the
tank, you're probably notproviding enough stimulus.
I mean, the research, the hairyedge is probably four, four to
five reps, right?
Four maybe, but that's why Isay one to three.
Staying within one to threeRIR, reps in reserve, reps left
in the tank, shows nearlyidentical growth, muscle growth
(09:47):
as training to complete failure,but without the fatigue
accumulation of going tofailure, as well as avoiding
potential injury and stress onyour joints and stuff, depending
on the movement, right?
I'm not saying never go tofailure.
Again, I want to say that, Iwant to make that clear.
Small movements, they're easyon the joints, you can take
complete failure, you know, likea bicep curl.
But for most things, it's gonnabe one to three.
(10:10):
And if you're going to, ifyou're going to go to complete
failure, it one technique is todo it, say, on the last set of
of the of the movement.
And many of you areunderestimating how hard you
need to train.
If your sets feel too easy,you're definitely leaving gains
on the table.
And so if you've never donethis before, I want to give you
a tip.
I want you to try something.
It's called a final set AMRAP.
(10:31):
All right.
I learned this from AlexBromley.
I know a lot of guys do it.
And what you're gonna do thereis let's say you have three sets
programmed for an exercise andit's your first week in the
program.
On that last set, even if it'sprescribed, let's say eight to
twelve, just keep going untilalmost complete failure and do
as many as you can.
And so this is more of a mentalstretch goal because many of us
(10:54):
think we're training hard.
We get to that 12, we're like,oh my God, that's so hard.
But if you're instead thinking,no, the goal isn't 12, the goal
is as many as I can.
Like it might be 20, I don'tknow.
Let me just do it.
And you might only find you getan extra one or two.
And that kind of calibrateswhere hard is for you.
Now, if you're doing a programthat has sets across, like let's
say starting strength, whereit's three sets of five.
(11:16):
Well, by definition, tomaintain five reps across three
sets, first of all, you're gonnaneed enough rest to almost
fully recover.
You're not gonna fully fullyrecover because you would need a
lot more rest to do that.
But you're gonna pretty closeto fully recover if you're
taking your, say, three to fiveminutes of rest.
But also by definition, thefirst set and probably second
set are slightly sub-maximalcompared to the third set.
(11:39):
Because if they were trulyall-out grinder maximum sets,
you're probably not gonna beable to get five on the third
set, even if you take like fiveor ten minutes to recover.
Does that make sense?
In which case, a sets acrossprogram, it is the weight that
you're selecting is probablysuch that only the final set is
really close to failure, and thefirst two are slightly submax
(12:01):
compared to that.
Does that make sense?
Now, you're not necessarilyoverthinking this.
You're starting at some load onthe bar, let's say Monday for
your squat, that's fairly easyto get, and then you're going up
the next week.
The key here is those jumps inweight are the very thing that's
gonna determine whether you'regonna hit all the sets or not.
(12:21):
And so it's important to jumpthe right amount.
And that's kind of a little bitof a feel thing and an
experience thing, and workingwith a coach can help.
But I wanted to make sure toclarify the difference between
that and rep range type work.
Now, since we're talking mostlyhypertrophy today, we're
primarily talking aboutsomething where you have a rep
range as opposed to sets across.
(12:42):
But to put a cap on it,training effort, training close
to failure is what's gonnaproduce the result.
So if you're doing a bunch ofsets that are far short of that,
they're kind of wasted sets.
That's my point.
All right, training variablenumber three in the hypertrophy
hierarchy is progressiveoverload itself.
Now you might say, okay,progressive overload, is that is
that a variable that I cancontrol, or is that just a thing
(13:05):
that happens?
Well, it's a little of both.
We're gonna explain.
Progressive overload is theadaptation mechanism.
Your muscles only grow, okay,the sarcomeres in the muscle
cells only get bigger if yougive them a reason too, if you
send the signal, if you tellyour body this is important.
And that reason is consistentlyincreasing the absolute
(13:29):
mechanical tension on thosemuscles over time.
And why did I say it that way?
Absolute meaning the themechanical tension should go up
over time.
The relative mechanical tensionis always going to be
consistent with variable numbertwo, one to three reps shy of
failure.
So let me let me tight, let memention that again, okay?
The relative mechanical tensionshould always be close to
(13:51):
failure.
The absolute mechanicaltension, therefore, will have to
go up because as you're gettingrelative close mechanical
tension close to failure, andthen you go to sleep and you
eat, your muscles will grow,you'll be a little bit stronger,
and that same that same levelof mechanical tension you had
last time won't be enough to getyou to one to three repshire
(14:11):
failure, and you're gonna haveto do something about it.
You're gonna have to lift moreweights or and or do more reps
so that you get into that regimeof one to three repshire
failure or do more sets.
Because imagine if you didthree sets last time and now you
do a fourth set, that shouldpush you into that regime as
well.
And it could be any combinationof these things.
(14:31):
This is why programming can getconfusing for people.
I'm like, what the heck do Ido?
This is also why I like tosimplify it for beginners.
Don't overthink it, just liftmore weight.
Just lift more weight, even ifit's rep ranges.
You know, I hear questions onthis all the time.
Should I go up and wait orreps?
I'm like, wait, just do weightfor a long time.
And I still to this day, as anintermediate slash advanced, I
don't know what you'd call melifter, but I've been doing it
(14:53):
four or five years prettyconsistently and doing it the
right way.
If I am running a, let's say,eight or twelve week block and I
have, let's say, a Romaniandeadlift for eight to 12 reps.
Let's just say that's as simpleas that.
There's no other changingacross the 12 weeks.
It's just 12 straight weeks,Romanian deadlift, eight to 12
reps.
(15:13):
If my first week I am at 10reps, well, I'm in the rep
range, I'm gonna go up and waitnext week.
Well, maybe it drops to ninebecause I just want it heavier.
Fine, I'm still in the reprange.
Gonna go up the next week.
Maybe it drops to eight.
All right, I'm still gonna goup.
Okay, and again, I can't begoing up too much where it's
past my capacity, but I'm goingup, let's say maybe five pounds.
Maybe it's two pounds for you.
Maybe it's 10 pounds if you'rereally light.
(15:34):
Doesn't matter.
You're going up, the rep rangemight, you know, and then the
next week I might get nineagain, even though I went up in
weight.
See, you never know, right?
You never know what your body'sgonna be capable of until you
try it.
Then I go up and weight again.
Okay, now I'm down to eight.
Fine, I'm still in the reprange.
I go up again.
You see what's happening,right?
Let's say I hit eight again.
Okay, I go up again.
Oh, and now I can get seven andI can't quite get eight.
(15:55):
That's where I do, uh I have adecision point.
Do I drop the weight and do areset or do I try to get more
reps?
And there's not really a rightanswer to that, in my opinion.
It, you know, you should haveprogressed for multiple weeks
before having to make thatdecision.
Let's just put it that way.
If you didn't, then youprobably jumped up in weight too
(16:15):
much, or maybe started tooheavy to begin with.
That makes sense.
But at some point you get tothat decision.
And I might decide, okay, I'mgonna reset, I'm gonna drop by
10%, and I'm gonna try to get alot more reps than I got last
time at that same 10% lighterweight, let's say, which might
have been four weeks ago.
Or I can say, you know what, Igot seven last week.
I'm gonna keep the weight thisweek and try to get eight and
(16:36):
then nine, and then I'm gonnaincrease the weight again and
keep going up and weight.
All right.
My point with all of thatdiscussion, that example, was
almost all the time, especiallyif you're newer or even
intermediate, focus onincreasing the weight first.
It just makes it so much easierto make progress.
The caveat I've noticed is whenyou're in fat loss and it's a
lot harder to progress.
(16:57):
That's where maybe going up inreps can be more helpful.
Other people have differentphilosophy.
Other people are like, no, justgo up in both.
Go up.
There's there's somethingcalled double progression where
you do weight, then reps, thenweight, then reps.
Okay, I'm not saying there'snecessarily a right or wrong.
I just prefer the intensityvariable, the weight variable,
to the volume or the repsvariable.
Even though I said volume isimportant, I don't mean it from
(17:18):
a reps perspective.
I mean from an overall weeklysets perspective.
Okay, I hope I haven't lost abunch of you guys.
The point of this principle ofprogressive overload is let's
look at the opposite.
If you do the same workout withthe same weights for the same
reps week after week, well, nowyour body has zero reason to
build new muscle.
So if you're using the pink orthe purple or yellow dumbbells,
okay, the same dumbbells youhave, or if you're limited on
(17:40):
dumbbells at home because theyonly go up to 20s, or you know
who I'm talking to.
I'm talking to a lot of you,trust me, I know it, and there's
no way to increase them.
How are you gonna challengeyourself?
I'm sorry, that you've got toget either bigger dumbbells,
adjustable dumbbells, move to abarbell, get a machine with a
stack that has much more weightthat you can load some way to
(18:00):
increase.
Now, progressive overload doesnot mean just adding weight
every session.
Okay, and I say it that waybecause there are different
things you can add everysession.
And also, if you're moreadvanced, you're not probably
not gonna be able to add weightif you're already really, really
heavy on some lifts.
It might you might add weightevery two weeks, every four
weeks, every three months,depending on how advanced you
(18:21):
are, in which case you're you'reprogressing, you're progressing
in other ways.
You're progressing with the RPEor the RIR, you're progressing
with sets, you're progressingwith reps.
It gets a little morecomplicated, but if you mapped
it out on a graph and you justkind of multiplied all those
variables together, it would beslowly going up anyway, in some
(18:42):
way.
Okay, so again, reps, weight,set, a combination of these,
intensity in some cases whenyou're more advanced.
That's what we mean byprogression.
And the only way you knowyou're doing that is to track.
You have to have a training logso you know what you did last
session, you know what you yourPRs are, and you can aim to do
slightly more.
That's it.
(19:03):
Otherwise, you're guessing, andguessing is not gonna build
muscle, at least notefficiently.
I know people who do it over along period of time, just kind
of intuitively, but just likewith eating, it can work, but
it's gonna take a lot longer andbe more frustrating, have more
plateaus, so it helps to track.
All right, before we get to thelast two variables in the
hypertrophy hierarchy, I want tomake, I want to just mention
(19:27):
something real quick.
That if you're over 40, a lotof these variables are working
together with your recovery andyour hormones, right?
These are two big pieces thatare all working together with
your training because as youage, optimizing these variables,
the progressive overload,volume, and then recovery,
become even more important.
They only become more importantbecause they're more stressed
(19:49):
out and they they're morelimited, right?
And that's not a bad thing.
It just is what it is.
We have to be cognizant of it.
So we want to maintain and wewant to build.
We really want to build muscle.
I hate to say maintain becauseyou can build muscle through
your 90s, we've seen in theevidence.
So I have a free guide I thinkyou're gonna like.
It's called strength trainingfor hormone health.
It's not really just abouthormones, it's more the idea
(20:10):
that, you know, for those of uswho are strength training over
40, it's important that we aresupporting our hormones and
triggering our testosterone, ourgrowth hormone, reproductive
hormones, all of that.
And so it kind of ties the twoconcepts together naturally,
strength training and hormonehealth.
So go to wits and weights.comslash free or click the link in
the show notes to grab that.
(20:30):
Again, it's my strengthtraining for hormone health
guide.
For those of us over 40, go towits and weights.com slash free
or click the link in the shownotes.
All right, continuing tovariable number four, we have
exercise selection.
Now, I think this is a veryimportant variable because it
affects a lot of other things.
It affects your time in thegym, your effectiveness, it
(20:51):
affects the volume we talkedabout, it affects progressive
overload.
I mean, I just mentioned if youdon't have the right dumbbells
or equipment, it's gonna limityou.
It's gotta be things that youcould do consistently, and what
I mean consistently is not justdo them, but be able to do them
in an objectively consistentway.
You know, we know that if youdo a barbell squat down to just
(21:12):
below parallel with the sameform each time, that is
objectively consistent.
But if you're doing like a halfsquat, which you shouldn't be
doing, but let's say you weredoing that on purpose, how would
you get it exactly to thatpoint each time?
You would need like spotterarms or something like that.
You I don't know if that's agreat example, but the point is
the standard traditionalexercises we're familiar with
have evolved like that for areason because they're very
(21:33):
objective and should form thefoundation of your lifting,
right?
The novel fancy stuff, um,isometric holds and bandwork and
everything.
Have fun with that if you'dlike.
You know, kettlebells, TRX, allthat stuff, in my opinion, is
more complementary and shouldn'tnecessarily be the foundation.
And I know there's some peoplegonna argue with me on that.
(21:54):
There's actually some peoplewho are really big into
kettlebells and using them.
And I don't I don't have hardfeelings one way or the other.
Let's just be honest.
But the compound lifts, squats,deadlifts, bench press, rows,
overhead press, those should bepart of your foundation.
The variations on those, andthen the targeted isolation work
for the smaller muscle groupsto fill it in and also address
weak spots.
And individual variation doesmatter, right?
(22:16):
We're not all specialsnowflakes, but everyone is
different in objective ways,like our anatomy and our limb
lengths, and our physicallimitations and injury history
and surgeries and things likethat.
So if an exercise hurts ordoesn't feel like it's working
the target muscle, something hasto change.
Now, maybe you don't have theright form.
That's that's often the firstthing to look at, but maybe you
(22:39):
do, and it's just not the idealexercise for you.
I definitely have exerciseslike that where I just don't
feel it as much.
Like every time I do one armrows, whether it's on a bench or
up at an angle, it feels okay,but I feel like I'm doing, I'm
feeling like I'm trying to pulla much heavier weight than what
it's giving me.
And I would rather do like aT-bar row or even uh one of my
new favorite exercises now isjust a standing cable row with
(23:04):
an attachment.
What I mean is I take a V or aneutral grip attachment at the
low position, I stand back alittle bit and I pull to my
chest.
Nice squeeze in the back.
And I really feel that in thelats.
You know, pull-ups, I reallyfeel those in the lats as well.
So you've got to find thethings that give you what you
want.
Now, the big lifts like squats,deadlifts, rows, I think that's
(23:26):
that's gonna benefit everyoneno matter what.
Or I said rows, but uh notbarbell rows, but I meant bench
and overhead press.
But you've got to be able tostick to it, perform it well,
and progressively overloadthrough exercise selection.
Now, a few things I want tomention.
You know, the lengthened partof the movement is a really
important part, which is why weshould have full range of motion
(23:49):
for most exercises.
Now you're like, well, wait,why don't I just do the length
and portion?
I'm I'm cool with you doing thelength and portion for like
finishers, but for the mostpart, you want the full range of
motion, making sure you're alsogetting into the long length.
And and that a simple way tothink about that is like, let's
say you're doing a barbell curlon the down position, the
eccentric, you don't want to gohalfway down, you want to go all
(24:10):
the way down and really stretchout.
That's the length and portion,right?
Exercises with a deep stretch.
This is why I like squats belowperil.
This is one of many reasons.
It's not just for that.
When you do a Romaniandeadlift, you know, you're gonna
put push your butt back andreally feel that stretch in your
hamstrings in the length andportion.
If you're not feeling that,something's off.
The form's off or the range ofmotion's off, for example.
(24:31):
And what's interesting is theseare the most mechanically
efficient ways to do theexercise that give you the
biggest bang for your buck,which is also why the big
compound lifts themselves aresuper important because they use
the most muscle mass, the mostmuscle fibers, the deepest.
They allow you to push the mostload.
So you're just getting so muchefficiency out of it.
All right, so exerciseselection is really important.
(24:53):
That's really all I wanted totalk about on it.
It could be its own podcast, tobe honest.
But very, very important thatyou're not just doing a bunch of
light bodyweight stuff, thatyou're doing important,
efficient exercises, full rangeof motion, as much muscle mass
as possible, hitting the targetmuscle groups to have enough
volume and progressive overloadfor those other variables.
(25:13):
Okay.
And then variable number fiveis frequency.
Now, frequency is how often youtrain each muscle group per
week.
Now, training variable numberone was volume.
If you want to hit the volumeneeded, let's say it's 10 sets a
week per muscle group, you'reprobably gonna naturally have
enough frequency to do it, asopposed to doing it all in one
(25:36):
three-hour marathon session onWednesday, right?
Now, there are some theoriesout there about very, very low
volume programs.
I think a lot of them are notbacked up as sufficient, and
it's kind of an outlier.
Up to you to experiment,obviously.
But for most people, you'regonna need enough frequency,
which means being in the gymprobably three days a week or
(25:57):
four days a week for a lot ofpeople.
And even if you're intermediateadvanced, a three-day a week
program could still be highlyeffective.
That's kind of where I'm goingwith that, as long as you are
getting enough frequency.
For a lot of you, four days aweek just naturally gives you
enough frequency with not toomuch time in the gym and enough
recovery.
And that's why a lot ofprograms have four day splits.
Five days is also another wayto do it, to get even more
(26:19):
volume or to spread out thatvolume a little more.
And then that logic can becarried to even six days with
much shorter sessions.
So, what do I mean byfrequency?
Frequency, again, is if you aresquatting, how often are you
squatting during the week?
Not how much volume.
You know, in one session, youmight do two, three, four sets,
but are you then squatting twotimes a week or three times a
(26:41):
week?
And it doesn't have to benecessarily the exact same squat
pattern or squat.
It's a similar movementpattern.
It might be on one day abarbell back squat, another day
a front squat.
Or it might be the samemovement at different rep
ranges, different intensities.
Heavy, light, medium, forexample.
If you're doing Monday,Wednesday, Friday, you want to
squat three days a week.
For most people, training eachmuscle group two to three times
(27:03):
a week is what's going to getyou into that 10 to 15 rep uh 10
to 15 sets regime.
And we have to think of bothdirect and indirect work.
So the compound lifts, goingback to the last variable, give
you a lot of both direct andindirect work.
The bench press gives you chestand triceps, for example, and
(27:27):
some other muscle groups aswell, including your shoulders.
So that's where the efficiencycomes in.
Now, do you have to track allof this to that level?
You don't have to.
There are some apps likeBoostcamp that I use.
I'm use my code Wits andWeights, all one word, to I
don't know what I forget whatthe promotion is now, sorry
guys, but it would it would helpme out if you use my code.
Anyway, Boostcamp actuallytracks a ranking of how many of
(27:51):
what percentage of your volumewent toward each muscle group,
kind of ranks it and does itlike a heat map.
It's kind of cool.
All right, but you don't haveto do it to that level.
You just have to know if youhave well-rounded program with
enough frequency and volume,you're gonna hit enough things.
Now, in my case, I'm working onstrengthening my back, my upper
body more than my lower body orthe front of my upper body.
(28:12):
So I actually have more pullingvolume on purpose.
I've got more like 15 to 20sets of pulling volume, and it
might only have, let's say,between five and 15 sets of
other stuff, like leg volume.
And if, again, since you don'twant to fit this all into one
day, this is why we need atleast three or four.
If you're, let's say, in your70s, you've never lifted weights
(28:33):
before, you may respond reallywell to two days a week to
start, right?
It depends on where you are,where you've been, your history,
your responsiveness.
That's really all it is.
And it takes a lot less tomaintain than to build.
So if you're in a little more,if you're more in a maintenance
phase and trying to prioritizeother things over fitness, that
could be another reason to havelike only two or three days
(28:55):
instead of three or four.
All right.
So it all has to do with thetotal work done for the week per
training variable number oneand how it's spread out with
your training split to get thatvolume via frequency.
Now, there is a separatebenefit to having more sessions
in terms of well, there'sseveral benefits, right?
(29:15):
One is the fatigue gets spreadout.
Another is practical benefitsof time, the way you don't have
really long marathon sessions inthe gym.
Another is there potentially isa slight advantage to hitting
more frequency, even if thevolume's the same, in terms of
the stimulus to your muscles forgrowth.
And it kind of makes count, itkind of makes intuitive sense
when you think of, okay, well,if I'm I'm hitting it more
(29:38):
frequently, I'm getting a littleboost in that muscle protein
synthesis and that signal eachtime, and I'm still letting it
recover.
There's some logic to thatversus hitting it once really
heavy in one training sessionand waiting a whole week and
potentially getting a little bitof D training going on, right?
That kind of makes sense.
So frequency is reallyimportant.
All right.
So now I want to give you onebonus variable.
(29:59):
And I wanted this to make thisa bonus because it I feel like
it's not its own separateindependent thing.
And that is your recoverycapacity.
All right.
Recovery is like the powersupply under all of this.
So it's kind of the foundationof all these variables.
If you have a perfect trainingprogram and you're doing all the
other five variables, butyou're underfed, you're
(30:21):
underslept, you're overstressed,it's not going to matter.
It's going to be kind of awaste of time.
If anything, it might evenstress you out more and actually
set you back.
Right.
So this is why recovery is kindof an underlying foundation.
If the hypertrophy hierarchy isa pyramid, the recovery is the
ground that it sits on.
And if it's soft, the pyramidjust starts to sink.
(30:41):
Hey, that's a pretty goodanalogy.
Just came up with that.
Okay.
So, so what is recovery?
Well, we know what that is,guys.
You listen to the show at all.
If you're new to the show, youknow, go check out uh some of
the more recent podcasts.
I know we've covered recoveryin almost every podcast.
And that is sleep, that isnutrition, that is managing your
stress.
And those determine whethereverything you're doing in the
gym translates to meaningfuladaptations because your body is
(31:04):
ready for them and capable ofthem.
Sleeping enough, you know,seven to nine hours.
So you build your muscle, whichhappens during your sleep, you
know, your brain rebuilds itselfduring sleep, your muscle
protein synthesis is affected bysleep, your training quality,
how you utilize your food, etcetera.
Speaking of food, eating enoughcalories, especially protein.
But some of you are eating adecent amount of protein, but
(31:26):
maybe not enough caloriesbecause you're afraid of gaining
fat.
You're afraid of getting fat.
And that's a whole separatetopic.
But when it comes to buildingmuscle, at least be around
maintenance with your food andideally in a slight surplus or
even in a meaningful surplus,depending on if you're going
after that, you know, musclebuilding phase.
If you're in a deficit andtrying to build muscle, it's
going to be very hard.
You're fighting an uphillbattle.
(31:47):
And if you're doing it onpurpose because you're in a fat
loss phase, that's cool.
That like we make thattrade-off and understand that
all these variables are going tobe hampered a bit.
And maybe that's okay becausewe're just trying to hold on to
muscle.
Going back to what I mentionedabout volume needing to be a lot
less to hold on to muscle, andit's more of the intensity or
the weight on the bar that thatmaybe counts a little bit more.
You take all that into a mind,into mind.
(32:10):
Did I say that right?
Yeah.
And then, of course, your lifestress, your chronic stress,
which elevates cortisol,interferes with your recovery
muscle building as well.
So all of those are important.
And without good recovery, thenoptimal volume effort,
progressive overload, all ofthat is not going to produce
nearly the results that you'dwant.
And that's why it's one of thevery first things I assess with
clients.
And in physique university, weactually have a tracker just for
(32:32):
that, for biofeedback, forrecovery.
We talk about it all the time,almost more importantly than the
training in food.
Like training in food almostbecomes kind of easy to
understand.
And then the recovery piece iswhere people get hung up,
especially for those of us over40 who are strength training
over 40.
We're like, man, we've got somuch going on in our life.
We have to figure out how tomake this work.
Okay.
Because recovery mediates thattraining adaptation curve.
(32:56):
Under recovery is going tonullify a lot of what you're
doing, but being recovered wellis going to be an accelerator.
So taking all this together,the hypertrophy hierarchy, it I
wanted this not just to be alist of very, it's not just a
listicle of variables.
Okay.
It's a framework of trainingmaturity.
Training maturity.
(33:18):
That's your ability to juststep back, assess where you're
at, focus your energy on thathighest leverage variable for
your situation, like anintelligent human being.
It's why you listen to thisshow.
Whether you're doing it on yourown, you're working with a
coach, you're working with us,in physique university, doesn't
matter, right?
The thing about leverage pointsis they're not always the same
for everyone, and they're notthe same at every stage, every
(33:40):
age, every phase.
If you're a beginner, yourhighest leverage point might be
just adding weight to the barand tracking your lifts.
If you're intermediate, youmight need to look at your
volume.
If you're advanced, you mightneed to see are you really
putting enough into recovery asyou need?
Those are just some examples.
And early in my training, oreven before I got into so-called
(34:01):
training, I was doing CrossFitand everything else.
I was always chasing the fun,silly details, whether that was
tempo or, you know, funexercises or variety, you know,
or even conditioning.
And I wasn't tracking my lifts.
I wasn't progressing overload,progressively overloading.
I didn't even understand thatconcept.
Once I did, it actually tookout a lot of the stress.
It made it made going to thegym a confident experience, a
(34:25):
fun experience in some ways,even though it's hard in its own
way.
But I was actually gettingmeaningful growth rather than
just this mediocre flat line foryears where I'm like, hey,
maybe it's my diet, maybe it'sthis, maybe it's that.
Maybe I need to run more,right?
No.
Simplify it and focus onvolume, effort, progressive
overload.
The things we talked abouttoday, find that leverage point
for you, and you're gonna startto take off and make those
(34:46):
gains.
Identify your highest leveragepoint right now.
Take a pause on the podcast andsay it out loud.
Right now, say it out loud.
I don't care if you're inaround other people and they're
gonna look at you funny.
Is it volume?
Is it effort?
Which of the variables is ittoday?
Go back, look at the shownotes, and rank them for
yourself.
Then and only then worry aboutthe other ones until you've
(35:09):
addressed the first ones.
And that's how you'll get moremature as a train trainee and
make consistent progress and beintelligent about this whole
thing.
All right.
So if you want structuredprograms that already have these
principles in place and wherewe can teach you through
curriculum how to applyeverything and how to do other
things, like to breathe andbrace, for example, your gym
equipment, what you should bewearing on your feet, like those
(35:32):
kinds of details as well.
Check out Physique University.
Use the link in the show notesor go to witsandweights.com
slash physique.
Inside there, we give youtraining templates.
Right now we're up to nine or10, I believe.
We have another one comingalong the way for our strong
finish challenge.
And these are trainingtemplates designed around the
hypertrophy hierarchy and thelifting lessons that teach you
how to program for yourself.
(35:52):
Now, I'm not saying you have toprogram yourself.
You get all the templates andyou can literally run them as
is.
But then we teach you, hey, howcan you adjust this for you to
make it even more effective andpersonalized?
Right?
The goal isn't just to give youa cookie cutter program, it's
to teach you the skill aroundthat as well so that you have it
for life, and then you're likesuper confident about how to do
this.
So go to witsandweights.comslash physique to learn more.
(36:14):
There's a special code in theshow notes as well.
The details are there, so gocheck out the show notes, wits
and weights.com slash physique.
All right, until next time,keep using your wits, lifting
those weights, and remember tomaster the fundamentals before
you chase the details.
I'm Philip Higgs, and this isthe Wits and Weights Podcast,
and I will talk to you nexttime.
Every week, every day, there's new advice on
social media about how to train.
Train to failure, don't trainto failure.
Do more volume, no, you'reovertraining.
Meanwhile, you're stuck makingzero progress because it's hard
to figure out what actuallymatters.
Today I'm ranking the fivetraining variables that drive
80% of your muscle growth, akahypertrophy, plus one hidden
(00:25):
foundation that amplifies all ofthem.
You'll learn exactly where tofocus your energy so you can
stop spinning your wheels in thegym and start building the
physique you want.
Welcome to Wits and Weights,the show that helps you build a
(00:48):
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering, and
efficiency.
I'm your host, Philip Pape, andtoday I'm gonna break down my
hypertrophy hierarchy so youknow exactly which training
variables produce results andwhich ones are just noise.
If you've felt overwhelmed bythe conflicting advice about
building muscle, this is one ofthose episodes that just cuts
(01:10):
right through it and gives youwhat to focus on.
As always, we are using thisengineering framework to
prioritize what matters.
So today I'm really justjumping right into it.
We're gonna start with theprinciples, as always, because
not all training variables areequal.
And by the way, when I when Italk training, I am talking
about strength training,resistance training.
(01:31):
If you're new to the podcast,you're like, what does it mean
training?
We're talking about resistancetraining, the most important
thing you can do if you're notdoing right now to build
strength and muscle.
And today we're specificallytalking about hypertrophy, which
is the act of building musclesize.
And if you've ever heard of thePareto principle, which is that
20% drives 80% of the results,that's kind of the mindset we're
(01:53):
taking today, where a lot ofthe things you and others are
doing in the gym or talkingabout online drive five or 10%
of the results.
I want to get you the 80.
And we often obsess over thethings that give you the five
because they're easy or becausethey're new, they're novel,
they're fun, whatever, and theydon't necessarily, they're not
necessarily effective.
So for today's engineeringconcept, I'm gonna use something
(02:16):
from systems thinking calledleverage points.
Someone by the name of DonnellaMeadows, a systems thinker,
identified that in any complexsystem, certain intervention
points create disproportionateeffects.
So this is the idea ofleverage.
A small change at a highleverage point can produce
(02:36):
massive results.
A huge effort at a low leveragepoint barely moves the needle,
right?
And so we this is this is theepitome of efficiency that we
talk about on the show.
And your body is a complexsystem as well.
And muscle growth depends ondozens of variables interacting
together.
And you don't necessarily haveto understand all of those.
You don't even have tounderstand the mechanisms.
We really want to understandthe cause and effect.
(02:58):
And not all variables have thesame leverage.
So today, the hypertrophyhierarchy, hierarchy meaning a
priority or pyramid ofvariables, right?
What's most important?
The hypertrophy hierarchy isgoing to identify five of those
highest leverage points in yourmuscle building system where
your effort produces thegreatest return.
And so the first variable isgoing to be training volume.
(03:22):
Now, you may have heard me talka lot about when I talk about
first principles, I talk aboutmechanical tension, I talk about
some of the mechanisms thatproduce muscle growth.
But I'm taking a differentangle today because again, I
just said the mechanisms aren'tas important as understanding
how your actions contribute tomaximizing those mechanisms.
So training volume in manysenses is the primary driver of
(03:46):
muscle growth because that isthe total number of hard sets
per muscle group per week.
And if you don't have enoughvolume, you're just gonna
flatline no matter what you'redoing.
And it may be a low amount ofvolume compared to someone else
based on your responsiveness.
It's all relative.
But the point is you need tohit a minimum amount of volume.
(04:07):
So when we talk about hard setsper muscle group per week,
let's define things.
A hard set is going to bewithin about one to three reps
shy of failure.
You almost never have to takesomething to complete failure.
So that's one myth we'rebusting right away.
You almost never have to,although in some cases with
small isolation movements, itcan give you a little extra to
(04:27):
go to failure or even to do,let's say, partial reps after
failure in some cases.
But the vast majority ofmovements, if in fact all, if
you do them one to three repsshy of failure, you're hitting
on that mechanism of mechanicaltension and you're making it
hard and you're getting to thepoint where you signal your body
that it needs to adapt.
If you stop a movement, let'ssay you have a movement on your
(04:48):
program that says do eight to 12reps, okay?
And you get to 12 reps, and youknow for a fact you could do
like six more.
Like it just feels kind ofeasy, like you could do six
more.
A lot of you out there, raiseyour hand virtually, if this is
you, will stop at 12 becausethat's what's in the program.
Or you just didn't know anybetter.
Like it says eight to 12, soI'm gonna do 12.
(05:09):
The point isn't to do 12, thepoint is to do enough to get
within one to three reps shy offailure.
And so if the if eight to 12 isprogrammed, you need to lift
the weights heavy enough so that12 is the absolute maximum
number of weight of reps youcould possibly do, or again
within one to three reps shy offailure, meaning maybe you could
(05:30):
do 13 or 14, maybe.
And that's what a hard set is.
And the research shows a cleardose response relationship with
volume of these hard sets, wherethe more volume up to a point
leads to more growth, but up toa point.
So this is the this is whatwe're talking about here: high
leverage.
Okay, not the absolute minimum,but also not the absolute
(05:51):
maximum.
Where is that highest leveragepoint?
For most muscle groups, that isgoing to be a pretty big range
of 10 to 20 hard sets per week.
And for many of you, 10 to 15is the practical sweet spot.
Practical meaning when you addup all your muscle groups and
the sets and giving a seven-dayweek and your schedule, being
(06:12):
busy people that you are.
10, maybe 15 is what you canfit in practically with hour to
hour and a half long sessionsmax.
If you want to go to 20, you'regonna be spending more time in
the gym.
That's all.
But can you go down as low asfive?
Well, the evidence says five to10 might be the minimum viable
product when it comes to this.
Meaning, yeah, you probablycould still get 70, 80% of your
(06:35):
results with five to 10 sets,but 10 to 15 is probably gonna
get you 90, 95%.
And then you go all to 20 andyou get kind of that final
optimization.
Now, more isn't always betterbecause volume comes with a cost
to your recovery.
Every set you do is gonna addfatigue.
And this is where the minimumeffective dose comes in.
(06:55):
And you have to find that foryou.
So if 10 sets per week isworking really well, why would
you do 15 unless you want tomake the trade-off with time
versus optimization or fatigueversus optimization?
And it's going to differwhether you're in fat loss or
not, whether you're aresource-stared or not.
You might have to have lowervolume during fat loss.
(07:16):
So the more stimulus is alwaysbetter if your recovery can
handle it.
You've probably heard ofconcepts like stimulus to
fatigue.
That's what we're talkingabout.
So I would start with 10 to 15hard sets per muscle group per
week, and then adjust upward ifrecovery and schedule allows.
Or you can even adjust downwardif that's too much, or for
(07:36):
practical purposes, you don'thave enough time in your week
and you want to try thatminimum, and you might surprise
yourself.
You might find that you neededthat extra recovery.
And now you can do some morewalking, some more sleeping,
things like that.
So, variable number one wastraining volume.
And by the way, I did an entireepisode on volume, and that was
episode 348, 12 rules oftraining volume to build more
(07:59):
muscle.
I'm gonna include that in theshow notes if you want to deep
dive.
Variable number two is trainingeffort.
Now we have to define thisagain.
Effort in this case is howclose you take your sets to
failure.
Now you could use a measurementcalled reps in reserve, which
is how many reps you have leftin the tank, or the inverse of
that is RPE, rate of perceivedexertion, which is a scale of
(08:23):
zero to 10, where 10 is the mostexertion, mean meaning zero
reps left.
Some people find that confusingbecause it's like thinking
backward.
And at the end of the day, Ihardly ever use these anyway as
a measurement.
I usually just go by what isthe exercise, what are the sets
and reps, what's the load, andget in my rep range with the
right load.
(08:43):
Training close to failure, oneto three.
Like actually prescribing RIR,it's it can be done.
There are cases where if you'reprogressing with a set-based
program, let's say you're gonnado three sets this week, four
sets next week, five sets thefollowing week, you might
actually pay attention to yourRIR and start submaximally first
(09:05):
and kind of add more effort andkeep the load the same, but
you're actually adding sets, andthat's the way you're
progressing, if that makes anysense.
But here's the point.
I don't want to get off on atangent here.
You have to train hard enoughto convince your body it needs
to adapt.
And we we already talked aboutthis in the volume piece, but
now I'm digging in specificallyon this as a training variable.
(09:27):
If you're stopping with likefive or more reps left in the
tank, you're probably notproviding enough stimulus.
I mean, the research, the hairyedge is probably four, four to
five reps, right?
Four maybe, but that's why Isay one to three.
Staying within one to threeRIR, reps in reserve, reps left
in the tank, shows nearlyidentical growth, muscle growth
(09:47):
as training to complete failure,but without the fatigue
accumulation of going tofailure, as well as avoiding
potential injury and stress onyour joints and stuff, depending
on the movement, right?
I'm not saying never go tofailure.
Again, I want to say that, Iwant to make that clear.
Small movements, they're easyon the joints, you can take
complete failure, you know, likea bicep curl.
But for most things, it's gonnabe one to three.
(10:10):
And if you're going to, ifyou're going to go to complete
failure, it one technique is todo it, say, on the last set of
of the of the movement.
And many of you areunderestimating how hard you
need to train.
If your sets feel too easy,you're definitely leaving gains
on the table.
And so if you've never donethis before, I want to give you
a tip.
I want you to try something.
It's called a final set AMRAP.
(10:31):
All right.
I learned this from AlexBromley.
I know a lot of guys do it.
And what you're gonna do thereis let's say you have three sets
programmed for an exercise andit's your first week in the
program.
On that last set, even if it'sprescribed, let's say eight to
twelve, just keep going untilalmost complete failure and do
as many as you can.
And so this is more of a mentalstretch goal because many of us
(10:54):
think we're training hard.
We get to that 12, we're like,oh my God, that's so hard.
But if you're instead thinking,no, the goal isn't 12, the goal
is as many as I can.
Like it might be 20, I don'tknow.
Let me just do it.
And you might only find you getan extra one or two.
And that kind of calibrateswhere hard is for you.
Now, if you're doing a programthat has sets across, like let's
say starting strength, whereit's three sets of five.
(11:16):
Well, by definition, tomaintain five reps across three
sets, first of all, you're gonnaneed enough rest to almost
fully recover.
You're not gonna fully fullyrecover because you would need a
lot more rest to do that.
But you're gonna pretty closeto fully recover if you're
taking your, say, three to fiveminutes of rest.
But also by definition, thefirst set and probably second
set are slightly sub-maximalcompared to the third set.
(11:39):
Because if they were trulyall-out grinder maximum sets,
you're probably not gonna beable to get five on the third
set, even if you take like fiveor ten minutes to recover.
Does that make sense?
In which case, a sets acrossprogram, it is the weight that
you're selecting is probablysuch that only the final set is
really close to failure, and thefirst two are slightly submax
(12:01):
compared to that.
Does that make sense?
Now, you're not necessarilyoverthinking this.
You're starting at some load onthe bar, let's say Monday for
your squat, that's fairly easyto get, and then you're going up
the next week.
The key here is those jumps inweight are the very thing that's
gonna determine whether you'regonna hit all the sets or not.
(12:21):
And so it's important to jumpthe right amount.
And that's kind of a little bitof a feel thing and an
experience thing, and workingwith a coach can help.
But I wanted to make sure toclarify the difference between
that and rep range type work.
Now, since we're talking mostlyhypertrophy today, we're
primarily talking aboutsomething where you have a rep
range as opposed to sets across.
(12:42):
But to put a cap on it,training effort, training close
to failure is what's gonnaproduce the result.
So if you're doing a bunch ofsets that are far short of that,
they're kind of wasted sets.
That's my point.
All right, training variablenumber three in the hypertrophy
hierarchy is progressiveoverload itself.
Now you might say, okay,progressive overload, is that is
that a variable that I cancontrol, or is that just a thing
(13:05):
that happens?
Well, it's a little of both.
We're gonna explain.
Progressive overload is theadaptation mechanism.
Your muscles only grow, okay,the sarcomeres in the muscle
cells only get bigger if yougive them a reason too, if you
send the signal, if you tellyour body this is important.
And that reason is consistentlyincreasing the absolute
(13:29):
mechanical tension on thosemuscles over time.
And why did I say it that way?
Absolute meaning the themechanical tension should go up
over time.
The relative mechanical tensionis always going to be
consistent with variable numbertwo, one to three reps shy of
failure.
So let me let me tight, let memention that again, okay?
The relative mechanical tensionshould always be close to
(13:51):
failure.
The absolute mechanicaltension, therefore, will have to
go up because as you're gettingrelative close mechanical
tension close to failure, andthen you go to sleep and you
eat, your muscles will grow,you'll be a little bit stronger,
and that same that same levelof mechanical tension you had
last time won't be enough to getyou to one to three repshire
(14:11):
failure, and you're gonna haveto do something about it.
You're gonna have to lift moreweights or and or do more reps
so that you get into that regimeof one to three repshire
failure or do more sets.
Because imagine if you didthree sets last time and now you
do a fourth set, that shouldpush you into that regime as
well.
And it could be any combinationof these things.
(14:31):
This is why programming can getconfusing for people.
I'm like, what the heck do Ido?
This is also why I like tosimplify it for beginners.
Don't overthink it, just liftmore weight.
Just lift more weight, even ifit's rep ranges.
You know, I hear questions onthis all the time.
Should I go up and wait orreps?
I'm like, wait, just do weightfor a long time.
And I still to this day, as anintermediate slash advanced, I
don't know what you'd call melifter, but I've been doing it
(14:53):
four or five years prettyconsistently and doing it the
right way.
If I am running a, let's say,eight or twelve week block and I
have, let's say, a Romaniandeadlift for eight to 12 reps.
Let's just say that's as simpleas that.
There's no other changingacross the 12 weeks.
It's just 12 straight weeks,Romanian deadlift, eight to 12
reps.
(15:13):
If my first week I am at 10reps, well, I'm in the rep
range, I'm gonna go up and waitnext week.
Well, maybe it drops to ninebecause I just want it heavier.
Fine, I'm still in the reprange.
Gonna go up the next week.
Maybe it drops to eight.
All right, I'm still gonna goup.
Okay, and again, I can't begoing up too much where it's
past my capacity, but I'm goingup, let's say maybe five pounds.
Maybe it's two pounds for you.
Maybe it's 10 pounds if you'rereally light.
(15:34):
Doesn't matter.
You're going up, the rep rangemight, you know, and then the
next week I might get nineagain, even though I went up in
weight.
See, you never know, right?
You never know what your body'sgonna be capable of until you
try it.
Then I go up and weight again.
Okay, now I'm down to eight.
Fine, I'm still in the reprange.
I go up again.
You see what's happening,right?
Let's say I hit eight again.
Okay, I go up again.
Oh, and now I can get seven andI can't quite get eight.
(15:55):
That's where I do, uh I have adecision point.
Do I drop the weight and do areset or do I try to get more
reps?
And there's not really a rightanswer to that, in my opinion.
It, you know, you should haveprogressed for multiple weeks
before having to make thatdecision.
Let's just put it that way.
If you didn't, then youprobably jumped up in weight too
(16:15):
much, or maybe started tooheavy to begin with.
That makes sense.
But at some point you get tothat decision.
And I might decide, okay, I'mgonna reset, I'm gonna drop by
10%, and I'm gonna try to get alot more reps than I got last
time at that same 10% lighterweight, let's say, which might
have been four weeks ago.
Or I can say, you know what, Igot seven last week.
I'm gonna keep the weight thisweek and try to get eight and
(16:36):
then nine, and then I'm gonnaincrease the weight again and
keep going up and weight.
All right.
My point with all of thatdiscussion, that example, was
almost all the time, especiallyif you're newer or even
intermediate, focus onincreasing the weight first.
It just makes it so much easierto make progress.
The caveat I've noticed is whenyou're in fat loss and it's a
lot harder to progress.
(16:57):
That's where maybe going up inreps can be more helpful.
Other people have differentphilosophy.
Other people are like, no, justgo up in both.
Go up.
There's there's somethingcalled double progression where
you do weight, then reps, thenweight, then reps.
Okay, I'm not saying there'snecessarily a right or wrong.
I just prefer the intensityvariable, the weight variable,
to the volume or the repsvariable.
Even though I said volume isimportant, I don't mean it from
(17:18):
a reps perspective.
I mean from an overall weeklysets perspective.
Okay, I hope I haven't lost abunch of you guys.
The point of this principle ofprogressive overload is let's
look at the opposite.
If you do the same workout withthe same weights for the same
reps week after week, well, nowyour body has zero reason to
build new muscle.
So if you're using the pink orthe purple or yellow dumbbells,
okay, the same dumbbells youhave, or if you're limited on
(17:40):
dumbbells at home because theyonly go up to 20s, or you know
who I'm talking to.
I'm talking to a lot of you,trust me, I know it, and there's
no way to increase them.
How are you gonna challengeyourself?
I'm sorry, that you've got toget either bigger dumbbells,
adjustable dumbbells, move to abarbell, get a machine with a
stack that has much more weightthat you can load some way to
(18:00):
increase.
Now, progressive overload doesnot mean just adding weight
every session.
Okay, and I say it that waybecause there are different
things you can add everysession.
And also, if you're moreadvanced, you're not probably
not gonna be able to add weightif you're already really, really
heavy on some lifts.
It might you might add weightevery two weeks, every four
weeks, every three months,depending on how advanced you
(18:21):
are, in which case you're you'reprogressing, you're progressing
in other ways.
You're progressing with the RPEor the RIR, you're progressing
with sets, you're progressingwith reps.
It gets a little morecomplicated, but if you mapped
it out on a graph and you justkind of multiplied all those
variables together, it would beslowly going up anyway, in some
(18:42):
way.
Okay, so again, reps, weight,set, a combination of these,
intensity in some cases whenyou're more advanced.
That's what we mean byprogression.
And the only way you knowyou're doing that is to track.
You have to have a training logso you know what you did last
session, you know what you yourPRs are, and you can aim to do
slightly more.
That's it.
(19:03):
Otherwise, you're guessing, andguessing is not gonna build
muscle, at least notefficiently.
I know people who do it over along period of time, just kind
of intuitively, but just likewith eating, it can work, but
it's gonna take a lot longer andbe more frustrating, have more
plateaus, so it helps to track.
All right, before we get to thelast two variables in the
hypertrophy hierarchy, I want tomake, I want to just mention
(19:27):
something real quick.
That if you're over 40, a lotof these variables are working
together with your recovery andyour hormones, right?
These are two big pieces thatare all working together with
your training because as youage, optimizing these variables,
the progressive overload,volume, and then recovery,
become even more important.
They only become more importantbecause they're more stressed
(19:49):
out and they they're morelimited, right?
And that's not a bad thing.
It just is what it is.
We have to be cognizant of it.
So we want to maintain and wewant to build.
We really want to build muscle.
I hate to say maintain becauseyou can build muscle through
your 90s, we've seen in theevidence.
So I have a free guide I thinkyou're gonna like.
It's called strength trainingfor hormone health.
It's not really just abouthormones, it's more the idea
(20:10):
that, you know, for those of uswho are strength training over
40, it's important that we aresupporting our hormones and
triggering our testosterone, ourgrowth hormone, reproductive
hormones, all of that.
And so it kind of ties the twoconcepts together naturally,
strength training and hormonehealth.
So go to wits and weights.comslash free or click the link in
the show notes to grab that.
(20:30):
Again, it's my strengthtraining for hormone health
guide.
For those of us over 40, go towits and weights.com slash free
or click the link in the shownotes.
All right, continuing tovariable number four, we have
exercise selection.
Now, I think this is a veryimportant variable because it
affects a lot of other things.
It affects your time in thegym, your effectiveness, it
(20:51):
affects the volume we talkedabout, it affects progressive
overload.
I mean, I just mentioned if youdon't have the right dumbbells
or equipment, it's gonna limityou.
It's gotta be things that youcould do consistently, and what
I mean consistently is not justdo them, but be able to do them
in an objectively consistentway.
You know, we know that if youdo a barbell squat down to just
(21:12):
below parallel with the sameform each time, that is
objectively consistent.
But if you're doing like a halfsquat, which you shouldn't be
doing, but let's say you weredoing that on purpose, how would
you get it exactly to thatpoint each time?
You would need like spotterarms or something like that.
You I don't know if that's agreat example, but the point is
the standard traditionalexercises we're familiar with
have evolved like that for areason because they're very
(21:33):
objective and should form thefoundation of your lifting,
right?
The novel fancy stuff, um,isometric holds and bandwork and
everything.
Have fun with that if you'dlike.
You know, kettlebells, TRX, allthat stuff, in my opinion, is
more complementary and shouldn'tnecessarily be the foundation.
And I know there's some peoplegonna argue with me on that.
(21:54):
There's actually some peoplewho are really big into
kettlebells and using them.
And I don't I don't have hardfeelings one way or the other.
Let's just be honest.
But the compound lifts, squats,deadlifts, bench press, rows,
overhead press, those should bepart of your foundation.
The variations on those, andthen the targeted isolation work
for the smaller muscle groupsto fill it in and also address
weak spots.
And individual variation doesmatter, right?
(22:16):
We're not all specialsnowflakes, but everyone is
different in objective ways,like our anatomy and our limb
lengths, and our physicallimitations and injury history
and surgeries and things likethat.
So if an exercise hurts ordoesn't feel like it's working
the target muscle, something hasto change.
Now, maybe you don't have theright form.
That's that's often the firstthing to look at, but maybe you
(22:39):
do, and it's just not the idealexercise for you.
I definitely have exerciseslike that where I just don't
feel it as much.
Like every time I do one armrows, whether it's on a bench or
up at an angle, it feels okay,but I feel like I'm doing, I'm
feeling like I'm trying to pulla much heavier weight than what
it's giving me.
And I would rather do like aT-bar row or even uh one of my
new favorite exercises now isjust a standing cable row with
(23:04):
an attachment.
What I mean is I take a V or aneutral grip attachment at the
low position, I stand back alittle bit and I pull to my
chest.
Nice squeeze in the back.
And I really feel that in thelats.
You know, pull-ups, I reallyfeel those in the lats as well.
So you've got to find thethings that give you what you
want.
Now, the big lifts like squats,deadlifts, rows, I think that's
(23:26):
that's gonna benefit everyoneno matter what.
Or I said rows, but uh notbarbell rows, but I meant bench
and overhead press.
But you've got to be able tostick to it, perform it well,
and progressively overloadthrough exercise selection.
Now, a few things I want tomention.
You know, the lengthened partof the movement is a really
important part, which is why weshould have full range of motion
(23:49):
for most exercises.
Now you're like, well, wait,why don't I just do the length
and portion?
I'm I'm cool with you doing thelength and portion for like
finishers, but for the mostpart, you want the full range of
motion, making sure you're alsogetting into the long length.
And and that a simple way tothink about that is like, let's
say you're doing a barbell curlon the down position, the
eccentric, you don't want to gohalfway down, you want to go all
(24:10):
the way down and really stretchout.
That's the length and portion,right?
Exercises with a deep stretch.
This is why I like squats belowperil.
This is one of many reasons.
It's not just for that.
When you do a Romaniandeadlift, you know, you're gonna
put push your butt back andreally feel that stretch in your
hamstrings in the length andportion.
If you're not feeling that,something's off.
The form's off or the range ofmotion's off, for example.
(24:31):
And what's interesting is theseare the most mechanically
efficient ways to do theexercise that give you the
biggest bang for your buck,which is also why the big
compound lifts themselves aresuper important because they use
the most muscle mass, the mostmuscle fibers, the deepest.
They allow you to push the mostload.
So you're just getting so muchefficiency out of it.
All right, so exerciseselection is really important.
(24:53):
That's really all I wanted totalk about on it.
It could be its own podcast, tobe honest.
But very, very important thatyou're not just doing a bunch of
light bodyweight stuff, thatyou're doing important,
efficient exercises, full rangeof motion, as much muscle mass
as possible, hitting the targetmuscle groups to have enough
volume and progressive overloadfor those other variables.
(25:13):
Okay.
And then variable number fiveis frequency.
Now, frequency is how often youtrain each muscle group per
week.
Now, training variable numberone was volume.
If you want to hit the volumeneeded, let's say it's 10 sets a
week per muscle group, you'reprobably gonna naturally have
enough frequency to do it, asopposed to doing it all in one
(25:36):
three-hour marathon session onWednesday, right?
Now, there are some theoriesout there about very, very low
volume programs.
I think a lot of them are notbacked up as sufficient, and
it's kind of an outlier.
Up to you to experiment,obviously.
But for most people, you'regonna need enough frequency,
which means being in the gymprobably three days a week or
(25:57):
four days a week for a lot ofpeople.
And even if you're intermediateadvanced, a three-day a week
program could still be highlyeffective.
That's kind of where I'm goingwith that, as long as you are
getting enough frequency.
For a lot of you, four days aweek just naturally gives you
enough frequency with not toomuch time in the gym and enough
recovery.
And that's why a lot ofprograms have four day splits.
Five days is also another wayto do it, to get even more
(26:19):
volume or to spread out thatvolume a little more.
And then that logic can becarried to even six days with
much shorter sessions.
So, what do I mean byfrequency?
Frequency, again, is if you aresquatting, how often are you
squatting during the week?
Not how much volume.
You know, in one session, youmight do two, three, four sets,
but are you then squatting twotimes a week or three times a
(26:41):
week?
And it doesn't have to benecessarily the exact same squat
pattern or squat.
It's a similar movementpattern.
It might be on one day abarbell back squat, another day
a front squat.
Or it might be the samemovement at different rep
ranges, different intensities.
Heavy, light, medium, forexample.
If you're doing Monday,Wednesday, Friday, you want to
squat three days a week.
For most people, training eachmuscle group two to three times
(27:03):
a week is what's going to getyou into that 10 to 15 rep uh 10
to 15 sets regime.
And we have to think of bothdirect and indirect work.
So the compound lifts, goingback to the last variable, give
you a lot of both direct andindirect work.
The bench press gives you chestand triceps, for example, and
(27:27):
some other muscle groups aswell, including your shoulders.
So that's where the efficiencycomes in.
Now, do you have to track allof this to that level?
You don't have to.
There are some apps likeBoostcamp that I use.
I'm use my code Wits andWeights, all one word, to I
don't know what I forget whatthe promotion is now, sorry
guys, but it would it would helpme out if you use my code.
Anyway, Boostcamp actuallytracks a ranking of how many of
(27:51):
what percentage of your volumewent toward each muscle group,
kind of ranks it and does itlike a heat map.
It's kind of cool.
All right, but you don't haveto do it to that level.
You just have to know if youhave well-rounded program with
enough frequency and volume,you're gonna hit enough things.
Now, in my case, I'm working onstrengthening my back, my upper
body more than my lower body orthe front of my upper body.
(28:12):
So I actually have more pullingvolume on purpose.
I've got more like 15 to 20sets of pulling volume, and it
might only have, let's say,between five and 15 sets of
other stuff, like leg volume.
And if, again, since you don'twant to fit this all into one
day, this is why we need atleast three or four.
If you're, let's say, in your70s, you've never lifted weights
(28:33):
before, you may respond reallywell to two days a week to
start, right?
It depends on where you are,where you've been, your history,
your responsiveness.
That's really all it is.
And it takes a lot less tomaintain than to build.
So if you're in a little more,if you're more in a maintenance
phase and trying to prioritizeother things over fitness, that
could be another reason to havelike only two or three days
(28:55):
instead of three or four.
All right.
So it all has to do with thetotal work done for the week per
training variable number oneand how it's spread out with
your training split to get thatvolume via frequency.
Now, there is a separatebenefit to having more sessions
in terms of well, there'sseveral benefits, right?
(29:15):
One is the fatigue gets spreadout.
Another is practical benefitsof time, the way you don't have
really long marathon sessions inthe gym.
Another is there potentially isa slight advantage to hitting
more frequency, even if thevolume's the same, in terms of
the stimulus to your muscles forgrowth.
And it kind of makes count, itkind of makes intuitive sense
when you think of, okay, well,if I'm I'm hitting it more
(29:38):
frequently, I'm getting a littleboost in that muscle protein
synthesis and that signal eachtime, and I'm still letting it
recover.
There's some logic to thatversus hitting it once really
heavy in one training sessionand waiting a whole week and
potentially getting a little bitof D training going on, right?
That kind of makes sense.
So frequency is reallyimportant.
All right.
So now I want to give you onebonus variable.
(29:59):
And I wanted this to make thisa bonus because it I feel like
it's not its own separateindependent thing.
And that is your recoverycapacity.
All right.
Recovery is like the powersupply under all of this.
So it's kind of the foundationof all these variables.
If you have a perfect trainingprogram and you're doing all the
other five variables, butyou're underfed, you're
(30:21):
underslept, you're overstressed,it's not going to matter.
It's going to be kind of awaste of time.
If anything, it might evenstress you out more and actually
set you back.
Right.
So this is why recovery is kindof an underlying foundation.
If the hypertrophy hierarchy isa pyramid, the recovery is the
ground that it sits on.
And if it's soft, the pyramidjust starts to sink.
(30:41):
Hey, that's a pretty goodanalogy.
Just came up with that.
Okay.
So, so what is recovery?
Well, we know what that is,guys.
You listen to the show at all.
If you're new to the show, youknow, go check out uh some of
the more recent podcasts.
I know we've covered recoveryin almost every podcast.
And that is sleep, that isnutrition, that is managing your
stress.
And those determine whethereverything you're doing in the
gym translates to meaningfuladaptations because your body is
(31:04):
ready for them and capable ofthem.
Sleeping enough, you know,seven to nine hours.
So you build your muscle, whichhappens during your sleep, you
know, your brain rebuilds itselfduring sleep, your muscle
protein synthesis is affected bysleep, your training quality,
how you utilize your food, etcetera.
Speaking of food, eating enoughcalories, especially protein.
But some of you are eating adecent amount of protein, but
(31:26):
maybe not enough caloriesbecause you're afraid of gaining
fat.
You're afraid of getting fat.
And that's a whole separatetopic.
But when it comes to buildingmuscle, at least be around
maintenance with your food andideally in a slight surplus or
even in a meaningful surplus,depending on if you're going
after that, you know, musclebuilding phase.
If you're in a deficit andtrying to build muscle, it's
going to be very hard.
You're fighting an uphillbattle.
(31:47):
And if you're doing it onpurpose because you're in a fat
loss phase, that's cool.
That like we make thattrade-off and understand that
all these variables are going tobe hampered a bit.
And maybe that's okay becausewe're just trying to hold on to
muscle.
Going back to what I mentionedabout volume needing to be a lot
less to hold on to muscle, andit's more of the intensity or
the weight on the bar that thatmaybe counts a little bit more.
You take all that into a mind,into mind.
(32:10):
Did I say that right?
Yeah.
And then, of course, your lifestress, your chronic stress,
which elevates cortisol,interferes with your recovery
muscle building as well.
So all of those are important.
And without good recovery, thenoptimal volume effort,
progressive overload, all ofthat is not going to produce
nearly the results that you'dwant.
And that's why it's one of thevery first things I assess with
clients.
And in physique university, weactually have a tracker just for
(32:32):
that, for biofeedback, forrecovery.
We talk about it all the time,almost more importantly than the
training in food.
Like training in food almostbecomes kind of easy to
understand.
And then the recovery piece iswhere people get hung up,
especially for those of us over40 who are strength training
over 40.
We're like, man, we've got somuch going on in our life.
We have to figure out how tomake this work.
Okay.
Because recovery mediates thattraining adaptation curve.
(32:56):
Under recovery is going tonullify a lot of what you're
doing, but being recovered wellis going to be an accelerator.
So taking all this together,the hypertrophy hierarchy, it I
wanted this not just to be alist of very, it's not just a
listicle of variables.
Okay.
It's a framework of trainingmaturity.
Training maturity.
(33:18):
That's your ability to juststep back, assess where you're
at, focus your energy on thathighest leverage variable for
your situation, like anintelligent human being.
It's why you listen to thisshow.
Whether you're doing it on yourown, you're working with a
coach, you're working with us,in physique university, doesn't
matter, right?
The thing about leverage pointsis they're not always the same
for everyone, and they're notthe same at every stage, every
(33:40):
age, every phase.
If you're a beginner, yourhighest leverage point might be
just adding weight to the barand tracking your lifts.
If you're intermediate, youmight need to look at your
volume.
If you're advanced, you mightneed to see are you really
putting enough into recovery asyou need?
Those are just some examples.
And early in my training, oreven before I got into so-called
(34:01):
training, I was doing CrossFitand everything else.
I was always chasing the fun,silly details, whether that was
tempo or, you know, funexercises or variety, you know,
or even conditioning.
And I wasn't tracking my lifts.
I wasn't progressing overload,progressively overloading.
I didn't even understand thatconcept.
Once I did, it actually tookout a lot of the stress.
It made it made going to thegym a confident experience, a
(34:25):
fun experience in some ways,even though it's hard in its own
way.
But I was actually gettingmeaningful growth rather than
just this mediocre flat line foryears where I'm like, hey,
maybe it's my diet, maybe it'sthis, maybe it's that.
Maybe I need to run more,right?
No.
Simplify it and focus onvolume, effort, progressive
overload.
The things we talked abouttoday, find that leverage point
for you, and you're gonna startto take off and make those
(34:46):
gains.
Identify your highest leveragepoint right now.
Take a pause on the podcast andsay it out loud.
Right now, say it out loud.
I don't care if you're inaround other people and they're
gonna look at you funny.
Is it volume?
Is it effort?
Which of the variables is ittoday?
Go back, look at the shownotes, and rank them for
yourself.
Then and only then worry aboutthe other ones until you've
(35:09):
addressed the first ones.
And that's how you'll get moremature as a train trainee and
make consistent progress and beintelligent about this whole
thing.
All right.
So if you want structuredprograms that already have these
principles in place and wherewe can teach you through
curriculum how to applyeverything and how to do other
things, like to breathe andbrace, for example, your gym
equipment, what you should bewearing on your feet, like those
(35:32):
kinds of details as well.
Check out Physique University.
Use the link in the show notesor go to witsandweights.com
slash physique.
Inside there, we give youtraining templates.
Right now we're up to nine or10, I believe.
We have another one comingalong the way for our strong
finish challenge.
And these are trainingtemplates designed around the
hypertrophy hierarchy and thelifting lessons that teach you
how to program for yourself.
(35:52):
Now, I'm not saying you have toprogram yourself.
You get all the templates andyou can literally run them as
is.
But then we teach you, hey, howcan you adjust this for you to
make it even more effective andpersonalized?
Right?
The goal isn't just to give youa cookie cutter program, it's
to teach you the skill aroundthat as well so that you have it
for life, and then you're likesuper confident about how to do
this.
So go to witsandweights.comslash physique to learn more.
(36:14):
There's a special code in theshow notes as well.
The details are there, so gocheck out the show notes, wits
and weights.com slash physique.
All right, until next time,keep using your wits, lifting
those weights, and remember tomaster the fundamentals before
you chase the details.
I'm Philip Higgs, and this isthe Wits and Weights Podcast,
and I will talk to you nexttime.
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The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.