February 12, 2025 • 24 mins
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Stop chasing arbitrary strength standards and learn why progressive overload is the only metric that matters for continuous progress.
Discover how engineering Control Systems reveal the three key components that regulate your training adaptation, and why understanding them transforms your approach to building strength.
Whether you're plateaued or just starting out, this framework will help you create sustainable progress without burnout.
Main Takeaways:
- Your body operates like a control system with built-in feedback loops
- Three components (PID control) determine training adaptation
- Progressive overload requires strategic adjustments based on data
- Small, consistent changes beat random progress chasing
Timestamps:
0:01 - Why arbitrary strength standards hold you back
2:53 - Control systems and progressive overload
8:01 - Understanding PID control for training
10:22 - Proportional control: Immediate response
13:15 - Integral control: Accumulated training effects
14:35 - Derivative control: Rate of adaptation
16:48 - Practical metrics to track
20:25 - Creating a sustainable feedback loop
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Philip Pape (00:01):
Are you chasing arbitrary strength standards,
constantly comparing yourself towhat others can lift?
Maybe you're frustrated thatyour squat still isn't at body
weight or your bench presshasn't hit two plates yet.
Here's what most lifters missthat true strength development
works just like a control system.
It's not about hitting randomnumbers.
It's about creating the rightfeedback loop for continuous
(00:23):
progress.
Today, we're talking about whyprogressive overload is the only
strength standard you'll everneed and how understanding
control systems will transformyour training forever.
(00:44):
Welcome to Wits and Weights, theshow that helps you build a
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, philip Pape, andtoday we're talking about the
most important principle instrength training, the one from
which all others deriveprogressive overload, or what
some people like to callprogressive loading, because
technically you're notoverloading, but that's a
different topic and we're goingto look at this progressive
overload or what some peoplelike to call progressive loading
(01:04):
because technically you're notoverloading, but that's a
different topic and we're goingto look at this through the lens
of engineering control systems.
I'm surprised.
I have never talked aboutcontrol systems before, but here
we are.
A control system is a feedbackmechanism that helps something,
improve or maintain stability,like, for example, for example,
(01:25):
the speed on your cruise controlin your car right.
Or another one I like to talkabout is your thermostat Keeping
your house at the perfecttemperature.
It's always feeding back basedon what the actual temperature
is, and your body has a similarsystem for adapting to training.
And if you can understand thatand tie it to this concept, it
is kind of going torevolutionize how you think to
(01:47):
getting stronger.
Now, before we get in to thisepisode, if you want to
experience a program thatapplies this and all of our
other principles for nutritiontraining mindset with scientific
precision I'm just kidding, notthat scientific, there's a
little bit of flex in there Iwant you to consider joining
Wits and Weights PhysiqueUniversity.
We now have, as of the end ofFebruary, going into March,
(02:11):
we're going to have our firstmonthly challenge.
Every single month we're goingto have a challenge in the group
in addition to the customnutrition plans, workouts,
tracking tools, courses, thesupportive community check-ins
all of that to help you reachyour strength and physique goals
faster than ever.
So if you want to try it freefor 14 days and get your first
challenge at absolutely no cost,use the special link in my show
(02:35):
notes.
That is the only way to get it.
You have to click the link inthe show notes to join for free
for the first 14 days, wits andWeights Physique University and
get to try the first challengeat no cost, and I will be
unveiling what that challenge issoon.
But you can join at no cost.
Reach out to me if you havequestions.
And now I want to get intotoday's topic, which is
(02:56):
progressive overload, and we'regoing to cover it from a
different perspective.
First we're going to talk aboutcontrol systems, because
control systems are a reallygood analogy to our bodies in
the context of strength training.
Then we'll talk about the threecomponents that regulate your
training adaptation, and thenhow to apply this framework to
(03:16):
your own training so you can getsome consistent progress.
Now I've talked aboutprogressive overload before.
I usually approach it in themore traditional sense, talking
about increasing your weight andyour reps and all of that.
But today is going to be adifferent angle that I think
you're going to appreciate.
So let's talk about controlsystems.
These are actually everywherein engineering.
They're everywhere in your life.
(03:38):
You don't even realize they'rethere.
They monitor outputs, theycompare them to a desired target
and then they make adjustmentsand anything run by a computer
today pretty much has a controlsystem and that's how things can
run optimally and automatically.
So I mentioned the cruisecontrol in the intro your car's
cruise control very commonsystem that we're all familiar
with.
It is measuring your speed onthe road, it compares it to your
(04:01):
target speed and then itadjusts the throttle.
Now, of course, if you'redriving a Tesla or something
that has automatic driving, thatis a much more advanced control
system that's using sensors andcameras and everything to keep
you on the road.
But just back to the cruisecontrol, you know if you go
uphill it's just going to addmore gas.
If you go downhill, it easesoff and it does it in a very
smooth way.
(04:21):
Well, generally it does.
It's not jerky, it's not likeover responsive.
The system's always working tomaintain that perfect speed.
Well, your body works the sameway when it comes to building
strength.
When you lift weights, youcreate a stimulus.
Your body then responds byadapting.
It builds stronger muscles andmore efficient neural pathways.
(04:42):
Right, it's both neuromuscularas well as physical muscular.
But here's where most liftersgo wrong.
They focus on arbitrary numbersinstead of trying to optimize
the feedback loop so that theycan keep making progress.
Whether you want to call it egolifting or just a lack of
understanding very commonproblem, I see.
If I give you a concreteexample.
All right, let's say you'resquatting 225 pounds and then
(05:06):
you try to jump straight to 275pounds.
What usually happens?
Your system gets overloaded,your form breaks down, your reps
get sloppy, you risk injury.
And it doesn't even have to bethat big of a jump.
You may take a 10 pound jumpand it's too big.
It's one of the most commonreasons people fail their reps
common reasons people fail theirreps.
Then they say, hey, philip,this isn't working.
(05:26):
Should I do a reset or take adeload?
I'm like, no, you just jumpedtoo much and you would have
known not to do that if you hadtaken your history and your data
into account.
But we'll get back to that.
So if you jump more than youcan handle, that'd be like again
in the car analogy you'reslamming the accelerator instead
of letting the cruise controlmake the smooth adjustments.
And remember when you do thatyour car can't quite get there
(05:50):
and then it may eventually getthere, but it's basically doing
it in a very jerky way thattaxes the engine, your body,
like a good control system needstime to process the feedback
and then adapt.
I mean Same idea Nowprogressive overload, which is
the gradual increase in trainingdemands.
That's all that is right.
(06:10):
It's not that your body is onits own just deciding to get
stronger.
It is that you are pushing itto its limit and it's getting
stronger.
And it works just like anyother well-tuned control system.
You provide a stimulus, youmeasure the response and you
make calculated adjustments.
And too many lifters get caughtup chasing numbers.
(06:30):
I need to squat 315, or mybuddy squats 315,.
I'm only squatting 275, so I'mweak.
But yeah, maybe for you you'renot.
I should be benching twice mybody weight.
Whatever.
You know these strengthstandards and I've been asked
many times before like what isconsidered strong?
Well, it's all relative to you.
Some people are super strongright out of the gate.
Some people are not.
(06:51):
Some people actually getstronger, faster than other
people, and so if we usearbitrary standards, they are
going to ignore how your uniquesystem responds.
Think again about homeostasis,your body's natural tendency to
maintain balance.
When you train, you aredisrupting that balance and then
your body is going to adapt tohandle future disruptions better
(07:12):
.
That's one way to put it.
Another way to put it is youare shifting your homeostasis,
your capacity, your peak.
You're shifting it outward,you're shifting it upward and
it's this beautiful feedbackloop that allows you to become a
different person physically,but only if you respect how the
system works and lean into itproperly.
So that gets me to somethingvery it's going to sound a
(07:34):
little bit technical.
It's something we use in controlsystems and it's called a PID
controller.
I'm going to use this as ananalogy for the three components
of training control, but you'llI'll go back and forth so you
know what I'm talking about.
So don't get lost in theterminology.
It's a pid controller,proportional integral derivative
.
Again, you don't have to knowexactly what those means mean
and I'm going to give you a veryum kind of simplified
(07:57):
definition of those.
So it might sound complex, butyour body's response to training
follows the same pattern.
Let's let's just break it downFirst.
The P.
So remember PID proportionalintegral derivative.
The P is proportional control.
This is your body's immediateresponse to a training stimulus,
like right in the moment whenyou lift a weight.
That's challenging butmanageable, meaning you can
(08:18):
actually do it, and thatincludes for all the reps.
So that means if you're doing aset of five, that means you
lift a weight that you can getfor a set of five and it's not
like a max, all-out grindy set.
Your body then respondsproportionally proportional.
It recruits the right amount ofmuscle fibers, it helps you
maintain proper form, rightBalance, stability, all that and
(08:39):
it helps you complete themovement successfully.
A lot of this is neuromuscular.
A lot of this is based onmovement patterns.
This is why having enough repsand enough practice and
frequency is important.
But the point is your body willproportionally respond.
If you, however, try to go tooheavy, too fast, the system gets
unstable.
You're going to fail your repsor your form is going to break
down.
That could be the potential forinjury.
(08:59):
Your nervous system also getsoverwhelmed, especially on
really big lifts like deadlifts.
But if you increase it just theright amount, right, just that
five pounds on your bench press,or maybe it's two pounds with
microplates depends on where youare your body's going to adapt
perfectly.
There's a nice sweet spot.
It's not super wide, but it'salso not so precise.
(09:20):
You have to be down to adecimal point or anything like
that.
And again, I've seen thiscountless times with clients
those who try to force hugejumps in weight inevitably are
going to plateau.
I don't even call it a plateau,I just it's like um, they, they
feel like the program's wrongfor them or it's not the right
weight or not the right lift orwhatever, and they immediately
go to the doom and gloom.
(09:41):
All these potential issues and,granted, if you're not sleeping
enough, you're not eatingenough, those could definitely
be the issues.
But sometimes it's just you'renot increasing by the right
amount or you're not takingenough rest period and you're
just over.
It's not only progressiveoverload, it's progressive way
overload, okay.
But if you respect thisproportional ability for your
(10:01):
body to meet the demand only upto its limits, right, and
getting into that sweet spotwith those small calculated
increases, now you could buildstrength consistently for years
on end.
I mean years and years.
So that's proportional control.
Then we have integral controlRemember PID proportional,
integral, derivative.
So integral control.
(10:22):
This is really looking athistory.
It's looking at the accumulatedtraining over time, not like
your injury history or yourtraining or diet history over
the years.
This is more of the recent,like the last few days or last
few weeks of training, and thisis also why tracking your volume
and your progression and whatyou're lifting and how much
you're lifting really matters alot.
(10:44):
Okay, your body, just you knowit doesn't just respond to what
you're doing today.
It kind of remembers theworkload that you've handled
over the past few days, weeks,even months.
And so if you brought mesomeone and said, hey, write a
program for them, I wouldn'tknow what is optimal for them
unless I talk to them about whatthey've done recently, right?
(11:05):
Or I would have to get theminto a kind of prep, easy kind
of prep phase for a few weeksjust to work all the fatigue out
of their system.
Actually, there's a goodanalogy when we talk about
dieting and prepping for fatloss, kind of getting the
food-related calorie deficitstress out of your system
similar idea.
So your body kind of remembersthis kind of like.
(11:28):
You know it's like your bankaccount.
I mean, you know, if you put$1,000 in the bank today, that's
great, but if you've spent somuch money the last six months
that you're in a million dollarsof debt, that thousand dollars
isn't going to do much.
So I don't know how great ofanalogy that was, but it came to
mind.
And back to training.
This is where the program, a lotof programs themselves, like in
(11:49):
isolation, actually fall shortbecause it's all about this
individual workout, right?
Hey, come buy my latest workout, like I have a workout for you.
Or follow this workout onYouTube and it just says just
jump right in, it's notpersonalized, it doesn't count
for history.
If, if you're going to buy aprogram from somebody, um, take,
take my coach, andy Baker, forexample.
(12:09):
He sells templates on his, onhis website, but when you
download one of those templates,it's this like 20 page PDF
explaining the principles behindit, and there's actually a lot
of work you have to do to makeit work for you.
And this is not a criticism onAndy, he wouldn't mind me saying
this.
It's because he doesn't knowwhere you started from and you
need to figure that out as youget into the program.
He's not just going to say, hey, do these exercises these days
(12:32):
and you're done.
Anybody can do that with chatGPT today.
That's going to fall short andyou're done.
Anybody can do that with chatGPT today.
That's going to fall short.
Um, the bigger picture is areyou gradually increasing your
volume or have you gone with toomuch volume recently?
Are you balancing intensity andvolume over different exercises
, days and weeks, right, Becauseyour body knows this, even if
your mind doesn't realize it,and that's why you need um, well
(12:54):
, I guess I'm going to get, I'mgoing to get to the third piece
now when I talk about deloads.
But that's why you have to beaware of your history when you
program.
So the last part is derivativecontrol.
So remember PID proportional,integral derivative Derivative
control is the rate of change,so that's how quickly you're
progressing or accumulatingfatigue, right.
(13:15):
And this is why we need eitherdeloads or we need a program
that naturally incorporatesresets or variety or undulation
or waves or whatever it is.
It doesn't have to becomplicated Some are more
complicated than others Somesort of cycling that is in there
where you don't even need adeload necessarily, right, some
(13:35):
programs you just design it thatway and then six weeks and then
you have a deload.
Others it's kind of built in.
You know, like I'm following aprogram that's based on a base
strength and then peak strength,and every third week you reset
slightly, but the reset isheavier than three weeks before
that.
So it's kind of a naturaldeload.
(13:55):
Your body has limits on how fastit can adapt, so if you're
pushing too hard, too fast andthe system starts to get too
fatigued, you start breakingdown.
That's where you're going tohit a wall and you're going to
keep hitting a wall until yousomehow release all that tension
and go at the right rate ofchange.
So both the history of it howmuch have you accumulated and
then also now what we're talkingabout is the rate of change,
(14:18):
how fast and how hard you'regoing as you work through this
are really important.
It's like balancing all of thisout is critical.
So now, how do we use thisknowledge to build your
real-world strength, to becomeas strong as possible, to keep
doing it without injury, to keepgoing and being consistent?
The first thing is to forgetarbitrary strength standards.
(14:39):
Don't worry about it, stopasking about it, stop worrying
about absolute numbers andinstead create a system that
respects how your body actuallyadapts to training and you may
respond differently than someoneelse to a certain amount of
volume.
You may respond differentlywhen you're in fat loss versus
when you're not, or when you'reeating certain foods versus not,
(15:00):
when you're training fasted ornot, how much cardio or sports
or other things you're doingoutside of the lifting sessions.
So, going back to our threecomponents, if we want to apply
these to real life.
Let's start with proportionalcontrol.
This means you're going to makesmall, consistent increases in
either load that's, the weighton the bar and or reps.
So if you're bench pressing 185for three sets of five, you may
(15:24):
not want to jump to 215 nextweek or next session.
Whatever program you'refollowing.
You may want to go from 185 to190.
And if you've been doing thatfor a while and it's getting
really, really hard, you mightwant to go from 190 to 192 and a
half.
This is where microplates arehelpful and a lot of people
somehow don't even realize theyexist.
(15:45):
I shouldn't say it that way.
That sounds patronizing.
I should not have said that,but what I mean is a lot of
people.
You could sense some of myfrustration here and how many
times this comes up.
For those of my clientslistening who have benefited
from me sharing microplates, whodidn't know this before, I
apologize if that comes acrossas insulting, but I guess I'm
(16:06):
just saying I'm surprised thatit's not part of the common
lexicon, like so many otherthings.
So look for microplates whichinclude both small fractional
plates for your barbell but alsoplates that can go on dumbbells
, and then that way you canprogress in the right levels and
then, as you get closer andcloser to your limit, until you
(16:28):
reduce the frequency.
In other words, if you'resquatting three days a week, you
can only go up so so much doingthat before you have to now
increase once a week, right.
Even if you're squatting threetimes a week, you may only go up
once a week, for example, right.
So it's got to depend on whatlevel of training you're at.
So that's proportional controls, those small, consistent
increases.
(16:48):
If you're a beginner, Idefinitely love focusing on
increasing load, and then, asyou become more advanced, you
can learn how to increase onreps as well, or back and forth
load reps, depending on whatyou're working on.
For integral control remember,this is the one based on
accumulated fatigue you're goingto want to track three metrics.
The first one is your volumeper exercise.
(17:10):
This is sets times reps.
It could be times weight aswell, so that's called tonnage,
but even sets times reps, justthe volume per exercise, okay.
And then number two is thevolume per muscle group, because
that way you can see how manysets you're doing per muscle
group, which will also tell youmaybe you're not doing enough,
depending on what your goals areand then your overall training
(17:32):
load across your what somepeople call mesocycle or a block
like a four to six week block.
What's your overall load?
And there's some cool apps thatdo this as well.
If you're into that, like I useBoostcamp.
You could find a link to thatbelow in the show notes.
But with Boostcamp you couldactually see a graph of your
volume over time.
So the program I'm followingyou'll see it go up for three
(17:53):
weeks and then drop, and then goup for three weeks and drop.
So that can be really helpfulfor those who are trying to make
sure that you're in the sweetspot.
Now, if you're following a, ifyou have a personal trainer or
you're following a really goodcoach or using one of the
programs like that are alreadyin Boost Camp, for example
they're probably already set upto give you a reasonable volume.
But you need to know hey, I'mfeeling really fatigued, do I
(18:17):
have too much volume?
Well, you don't know thatunless you track it, and a lot
of people don't track this stuff.
I'll tell you, even in mylifting community, with all the
buddies that lift, that I know alot of them don't really think
about volume.
A lot of them are followinglower volume programs anyway.
You may not have enough volume,though, for what you're trying
to achieve, or you may have toomuch, and it depends on what
phase you're into.
You may have to drop the volume, for example.
(18:38):
So tracking, that's the onlyway you're going to know, right,
that you're progressivelyoverloading without overwhelming
your system.
And then the last piece, thederivative control.
This is more.
How do you know, do you needrecovery or deload, unless
you've already built it in,which I talked about earlier,
which is a really smart strategy.
Just build it in and beproactive.
But I want you to be trackingyour biofeedback.
(19:00):
How's your sleep quality?
How is your recovery?
I mean, are your warmup setsfeeling smooth?
Are you feeling kind of wipedout right from the beginning?
Is your overall performancetrending up or down?
How is your motivation?
How is your energy right?
All of that is important and,again, it may indicate a problem
with your diet, with your carbs, with your meal timing,
something else like with yoursleep, with your stress.
(19:21):
But as long as you have theinformation, you can then start
digging into the why behind them.
And these indicators are greatbecause they tell you whether
you're adapting optimally or youneed to adjust something.
Of course you can use aurarings, you can use your Apple
Watch, and those all havedifferent measures of stress and
resilience.
It's all good stuff, just makesure you're correlating it with
what you're doing.
So the key to all of this?
(19:41):
To progressive overload andnotice.
I'm just talking principleshere.
This one principle is going totranslate to everything else.
It is even more important than,for example, mechanical tension
.
Right, we talk about mechanicaltension being the driver of
hypertrophy and muscle mass, butI've never seen a really good
lifter not also progress byvirtue of using mechanical
tension.
Thus it's sort of a secondaryprinciple, if you will.
(20:04):
As long as you're progressing,that tells you you're doing the
right things.
Now you may have to uncoverwhat things you need to do right
to get to proper progressiveoverload.
That's a whole different deepdive.
So the sustainable feedbackloop is pretty cool once you've
implemented it.
It makes you a lifter, it makesyou confident, it helps you get
(20:24):
progress.
So I have a client who madeprogress on a beginning style
three by five style program,kind of like starting strength
with some modifications right,and she made progress for a
while and then she started tomove into an intermediate
program and started to stall alittle bit and get frustrated
and asked her are youprogressing on all of your
accessory movements?
She's like, yeah, all of that'scoming straight up.
(20:45):
I said, okay, then there'ssomething going on with the main
lifts in one of these threeareas we're talking about here
that we're off on.
We're either not increasing theright levels right, we we are,
we have too much fatigue.
I don't think that's the issuein this case, but you know,
could always be that I thinkit's more the proportional
control.
We're not necessarily going upin the right levels.
Something's off in the waywe're progressing.
If she's able to progress allthis other stuff, you know it
(21:07):
could be a form issue orsomething as well.
All right, so you know.
What do you do here for thissystem?
Just to recap, you're going tomonitor performance through
consistent tracking, so you havethe data to act on.
You're going to make smallstrategic adjustments based on
your data.
You're going to have adequaterecovery between training
sessions, between sets andacross your whole block of
(21:28):
training and you're going torepeat this while gradually
increasing demands over time asyour capacity increases and then
, when all of this works well,you're going to notice
consistent strength gainswithout plateaus.
They're going to be veryinfrequent and usually for other
reasons, or usually becauseyou've just gone, you've
overreached just a little bit.
You're going to have betterrecovery between sessions.
You're probably going to havefewer aches and pains, lower
(21:51):
likelihood of injury and morepredictable progress, like you
can forecast.
Okay, six months.
I want to.
I want my deadlift to be hereand I know I have a pretty good
confidence I can get there nowthat I've gotten a predictable
process in place.
And that's how you buildlasting strength without burnout
or injury.
Right, it's not as exciting aschasing big numbers every
session, but it's far moreeffective and efficient in the
(22:13):
long run.
That's what we're all about,right?
What's what's fascinating aboutall this is, once you understand
this control your body is acontrol system.
It has these feedback loops yourealize that progressive
overload really isn't about justadding weight to the bar.
Right, it's actually aboutoptimizing your body's
adaptation mechanisms, youradaptation mechanisms.
(22:33):
The weight on the bar is just amethod to get there right.
And then that framework canapply to any fitness goal, from
fat loss to muscle gain.
They're all adaptations.
So then you're not justbuilding strength, you're
becoming guess what an engineerof your own physique.
That is what we do on this show.
That is the point.
(22:54):
When you stop chasing arbitrarynumbers of any of this stuff
and you start treating training,nutrition, mental growth, all
of it, relationships like thesophisticated control system, it
is, I mean, your body.
When it comes to training,everything changes.
Your progress becomes moreconsistent, more predictable and
, ultimately, more sustainable.
(23:15):
All right, and again, if youwant to apply these principles
to your training, join us inWits and Weights Physique
University.
I'm going to give you a secretlink in the show notes, and I
didn't mention it earlier, butin addition to the 14-day free
trial, in addition to a freechallenge, you are going to get
a discounted rate from what ispublicly available.
(23:36):
It is a rate that I am testingwith new clients.
Keep it a secret.
Well, I know the millions ofpeople listening to the show
won't but hearty heart, okay.
Anyway, back in the physiqueuniversity.
You know we use this approach,this kind of very logical,
objective, efficient, confidentbuilding approach, to help you
(23:57):
build strength and muscle andalso tackle your nutrition
Nutrition is a huge part of itTo make this sustainable, to
stay injury-free, to get theconfidence in the wins
constantly.
So click the link in my shownotes for the 14-day free trial,
the free challenge, the secretdiscounted price.
And remember, smart trainingbeats random progress.
Chasing every time, everysingle time, all right until
(24:21):
next time.
Keep using your wits liftingthose weights and remember your
body is the most sophisticatedcontrol system you'll ever work
with, so learn how to use it.
This is Philip Pape.
You've been listening to Witsand Weights.
I'll talk to you next time.
Are you chasing arbitrary strength standards,
constantly comparing yourself towhat others can lift?
Maybe you're frustrated thatyour squat still isn't at body
weight or your bench presshasn't hit two plates yet.
Here's what most lifters missthat true strength development
works just like a control system.
It's not about hitting randomnumbers.
It's about creating the rightfeedback loop for continuous
(00:23):
progress.
Today, we're talking about whyprogressive overload is the only
strength standard you'll everneed and how understanding
control systems will transformyour training forever.
(00:44):
Welcome to Wits and Weights, theshow that helps you build a
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, philip Pape, andtoday we're talking about the
most important principle instrength training, the one from
which all others deriveprogressive overload, or what
some people like to callprogressive loading, because
technically you're notoverloading, but that's a
different topic and we're goingto look at this progressive
overload or what some peoplelike to call progressive loading
(01:04):
because technically you're notoverloading, but that's a
different topic and we're goingto look at this through the lens
of engineering control systems.
I'm surprised.
I have never talked aboutcontrol systems before, but here
we are.
A control system is a feedbackmechanism that helps something,
improve or maintain stability,like, for example, for example,
(01:25):
the speed on your cruise controlin your car right.
Or another one I like to talkabout is your thermostat Keeping
your house at the perfecttemperature.
It's always feeding back basedon what the actual temperature
is, and your body has a similarsystem for adapting to training.
And if you can understand thatand tie it to this concept, it
is kind of going torevolutionize how you think to
(01:47):
getting stronger.
Now, before we get in to thisepisode, if you want to
experience a program thatapplies this and all of our
other principles for nutritiontraining mindset with scientific
precision I'm just kidding, notthat scientific, there's a
little bit of flex in there Iwant you to consider joining
Wits and Weights PhysiqueUniversity.
We now have, as of the end ofFebruary, going into March,
(02:11):
we're going to have our firstmonthly challenge.
Every single month we're goingto have a challenge in the group
in addition to the customnutrition plans, workouts,
tracking tools, courses, thesupportive community check-ins
all of that to help you reachyour strength and physique goals
faster than ever.
So if you want to try it freefor 14 days and get your first
challenge at absolutely no cost,use the special link in my show
(02:35):
notes.
That is the only way to get it.
You have to click the link inthe show notes to join for free
for the first 14 days, wits andWeights Physique University and
get to try the first challengeat no cost, and I will be
unveiling what that challenge issoon.
But you can join at no cost.
Reach out to me if you havequestions.
And now I want to get intotoday's topic, which is
(02:56):
progressive overload, and we'regoing to cover it from a
different perspective.
First we're going to talk aboutcontrol systems, because
control systems are a reallygood analogy to our bodies in
the context of strength training.
Then we'll talk about the threecomponents that regulate your
training adaptation, and thenhow to apply this framework to
(03:16):
your own training so you can getsome consistent progress.
Now I've talked aboutprogressive overload before.
I usually approach it in themore traditional sense, talking
about increasing your weight andyour reps and all of that.
But today is going to be adifferent angle that I think
you're going to appreciate.
So let's talk about controlsystems.
These are actually everywherein engineering.
They're everywhere in your life.
(03:38):
You don't even realize they'rethere.
They monitor outputs, theycompare them to a desired target
and then they make adjustmentsand anything run by a computer
today pretty much has a controlsystem and that's how things can
run optimally and automatically.
So I mentioned the cruisecontrol in the intro your car's
cruise control very commonsystem that we're all familiar
with.
It is measuring your speed onthe road, it compares it to your
(04:01):
target speed and then itadjusts the throttle.
Now, of course, if you'redriving a Tesla or something
that has automatic driving, thatis a much more advanced control
system that's using sensors andcameras and everything to keep
you on the road.
But just back to the cruisecontrol, you know if you go
uphill it's just going to addmore gas.
If you go downhill, it easesoff and it does it in a very
smooth way.
(04:21):
Well, generally it does.
It's not jerky, it's not likeover responsive.
The system's always working tomaintain that perfect speed.
Well, your body works the sameway when it comes to building
strength.
When you lift weights, youcreate a stimulus.
Your body then responds byadapting.
It builds stronger muscles andmore efficient neural pathways.
(04:42):
Right, it's both neuromuscularas well as physical muscular.
But here's where most liftersgo wrong.
They focus on arbitrary numbersinstead of trying to optimize
the feedback loop so that theycan keep making progress.
Whether you want to call it egolifting or just a lack of
understanding very commonproblem, I see.
If I give you a concreteexample.
All right, let's say you'resquatting 225 pounds and then
(05:06):
you try to jump straight to 275pounds.
What usually happens?
Your system gets overloaded,your form breaks down, your reps
get sloppy, you risk injury.
And it doesn't even have to bethat big of a jump.
You may take a 10 pound jumpand it's too big.
It's one of the most commonreasons people fail their reps
common reasons people fail theirreps.
Then they say, hey, philip,this isn't working.
(05:26):
Should I do a reset or take adeload?
I'm like, no, you just jumpedtoo much and you would have
known not to do that if you hadtaken your history and your data
into account.
But we'll get back to that.
So if you jump more than youcan handle, that'd be like again
in the car analogy you'reslamming the accelerator instead
of letting the cruise controlmake the smooth adjustments.
And remember when you do thatyour car can't quite get there
(05:50):
and then it may eventually getthere, but it's basically doing
it in a very jerky way thattaxes the engine, your body,
like a good control system needstime to process the feedback
and then adapt.
I mean Same idea Nowprogressive overload, which is
the gradual increase in trainingdemands.
That's all that is right.
(06:10):
It's not that your body is onits own just deciding to get
stronger.
It is that you are pushing itto its limit and it's getting
stronger.
And it works just like anyother well-tuned control system.
You provide a stimulus, youmeasure the response and you
make calculated adjustments.
And too many lifters get caughtup chasing numbers.
(06:30):
I need to squat 315, or mybuddy squats 315,.
I'm only squatting 275, so I'mweak.
But yeah, maybe for you you'renot.
I should be benching twice mybody weight.
Whatever.
You know these strengthstandards and I've been asked
many times before like what isconsidered strong?
Well, it's all relative to you.
Some people are super strongright out of the gate.
Some people are not.
(06:51):
Some people actually getstronger, faster than other
people, and so if we usearbitrary standards, they are
going to ignore how your uniquesystem responds.
Think again about homeostasis,your body's natural tendency to
maintain balance.
When you train, you aredisrupting that balance and then
your body is going to adapt tohandle future disruptions better
(07:12):
.
That's one way to put it.
Another way to put it is youare shifting your homeostasis,
your capacity, your peak.
You're shifting it outward,you're shifting it upward and
it's this beautiful feedbackloop that allows you to become a
different person physically,but only if you respect how the
system works and lean into itproperly.
So that gets me to somethingvery it's going to sound a
(07:34):
little bit technical.
It's something we use in controlsystems and it's called a PID
controller.
I'm going to use this as ananalogy for the three components
of training control, but you'llI'll go back and forth so you
know what I'm talking about.
So don't get lost in theterminology.
It's a pid controller,proportional integral derivative
.
Again, you don't have to knowexactly what those means mean
and I'm going to give you a veryum kind of simplified
(07:57):
definition of those.
So it might sound complex, butyour body's response to training
follows the same pattern.
Let's let's just break it downFirst.
The P.
So remember PID proportionalintegral derivative.
The P is proportional control.
This is your body's immediateresponse to a training stimulus,
like right in the moment whenyou lift a weight.
That's challenging butmanageable, meaning you can
(08:18):
actually do it, and thatincludes for all the reps.
So that means if you're doing aset of five, that means you
lift a weight that you can getfor a set of five and it's not
like a max, all-out grindy set.
Your body then respondsproportionally proportional.
It recruits the right amount ofmuscle fibers, it helps you
maintain proper form, rightBalance, stability, all that and
(08:39):
it helps you complete themovement successfully.
A lot of this is neuromuscular.
A lot of this is based onmovement patterns.
This is why having enough repsand enough practice and
frequency is important.
But the point is your body willproportionally respond.
If you, however, try to go tooheavy, too fast, the system gets
unstable.
You're going to fail your repsor your form is going to break
down.
That could be the potential forinjury.
(08:59):
Your nervous system also getsoverwhelmed, especially on
really big lifts like deadlifts.
But if you increase it just theright amount, right, just that
five pounds on your bench press,or maybe it's two pounds with
microplates depends on where youare your body's going to adapt
perfectly.
There's a nice sweet spot.
It's not super wide, but it'salso not so precise.
(09:20):
You have to be down to adecimal point or anything like
that.
And again, I've seen thiscountless times with clients
those who try to force hugejumps in weight inevitably are
going to plateau.
I don't even call it a plateau,I just it's like um, they, they
feel like the program's wrongfor them or it's not the right
weight or not the right lift orwhatever, and they immediately
go to the doom and gloom.
(09:41):
All these potential issues and,granted, if you're not sleeping
enough, you're not eatingenough, those could definitely
be the issues.
But sometimes it's just you'renot increasing by the right
amount or you're not takingenough rest period and you're
just over.
It's not only progressiveoverload, it's progressive way
overload, okay.
But if you respect thisproportional ability for your
(10:01):
body to meet the demand only upto its limits, right, and
getting into that sweet spotwith those small calculated
increases, now you could buildstrength consistently for years
on end.
I mean years and years.
So that's proportional control.
Then we have integral controlRemember PID proportional,
integral, derivative.
So integral control.
(10:22):
This is really looking athistory.
It's looking at the accumulatedtraining over time, not like
your injury history or yourtraining or diet history over
the years.
This is more of the recent,like the last few days or last
few weeks of training, and thisis also why tracking your volume
and your progression and whatyou're lifting and how much
you're lifting really matters alot.
(10:44):
Okay, your body, just you knowit doesn't just respond to what
you're doing today.
It kind of remembers theworkload that you've handled
over the past few days, weeks,even months.
And so if you brought mesomeone and said, hey, write a
program for them, I wouldn'tknow what is optimal for them
unless I talk to them about whatthey've done recently, right?
(11:05):
Or I would have to get theminto a kind of prep, easy kind
of prep phase for a few weeksjust to work all the fatigue out
of their system.
Actually, there's a goodanalogy when we talk about
dieting and prepping for fatloss, kind of getting the
food-related calorie deficitstress out of your system
similar idea.
So your body kind of remembersthis kind of like.
(11:28):
You know it's like your bankaccount.
I mean, you know, if you put$1,000 in the bank today, that's
great, but if you've spent somuch money the last six months
that you're in a million dollarsof debt, that thousand dollars
isn't going to do much.
So I don't know how great ofanalogy that was, but it came to
mind.
And back to training.
This is where the program, a lotof programs themselves, like in
(11:49):
isolation, actually fall shortbecause it's all about this
individual workout, right?
Hey, come buy my latest workout, like I have a workout for you.
Or follow this workout onYouTube and it just says just
jump right in, it's notpersonalized, it doesn't count
for history.
If, if you're going to buy aprogram from somebody, um, take,
take my coach, andy Baker, forexample.
(12:09):
He sells templates on his, onhis website, but when you
download one of those templates,it's this like 20 page PDF
explaining the principles behindit, and there's actually a lot
of work you have to do to makeit work for you.
And this is not a criticism onAndy, he wouldn't mind me saying
this.
It's because he doesn't knowwhere you started from and you
need to figure that out as youget into the program.
He's not just going to say, hey, do these exercises these days
(12:32):
and you're done.
Anybody can do that with chatGPT today.
That's going to fall short andyou're done.
Anybody can do that with chatGPT today.
That's going to fall short.
Um, the bigger picture is areyou gradually increasing your
volume or have you gone with toomuch volume recently?
Are you balancing intensity andvolume over different exercises
, days and weeks, right, Becauseyour body knows this, even if
your mind doesn't realize it,and that's why you need um, well
(12:54):
, I guess I'm going to get, I'mgoing to get to the third piece
now when I talk about deloads.
But that's why you have to beaware of your history when you
program.
So the last part is derivativecontrol.
So remember PID proportional,integral derivative Derivative
control is the rate of change,so that's how quickly you're
progressing or accumulatingfatigue, right.
(13:15):
And this is why we need eitherdeloads or we need a program
that naturally incorporatesresets or variety or undulation
or waves or whatever it is.
It doesn't have to becomplicated Some are more
complicated than others Somesort of cycling that is in there
where you don't even need adeload necessarily, right, some
(13:35):
programs you just design it thatway and then six weeks and then
you have a deload.
Others it's kind of built in.
You know, like I'm following aprogram that's based on a base
strength and then peak strength,and every third week you reset
slightly, but the reset isheavier than three weeks before
that.
So it's kind of a naturaldeload.
(13:55):
Your body has limits on how fastit can adapt, so if you're
pushing too hard, too fast andthe system starts to get too
fatigued, you start breakingdown.
That's where you're going tohit a wall and you're going to
keep hitting a wall until yousomehow release all that tension
and go at the right rate ofchange.
So both the history of it howmuch have you accumulated and
then also now what we're talkingabout is the rate of change,
(14:18):
how fast and how hard you'regoing as you work through this
are really important.
It's like balancing all of thisout is critical.
So now, how do we use thisknowledge to build your
real-world strength, to becomeas strong as possible, to keep
doing it without injury, to keepgoing and being consistent?
The first thing is to forgetarbitrary strength standards.
(14:39):
Don't worry about it, stopasking about it, stop worrying
about absolute numbers andinstead create a system that
respects how your body actuallyadapts to training and you may
respond differently than someoneelse to a certain amount of
volume.
You may respond differentlywhen you're in fat loss versus
when you're not, or when you'reeating certain foods versus not,
(15:00):
when you're training fasted ornot, how much cardio or sports
or other things you're doingoutside of the lifting sessions.
So, going back to our threecomponents, if we want to apply
these to real life.
Let's start with proportionalcontrol.
This means you're going to makesmall, consistent increases in
either load that's, the weighton the bar and or reps.
So if you're bench pressing 185for three sets of five, you may
(15:24):
not want to jump to 215 nextweek or next session.
Whatever program you'refollowing.
You may want to go from 185 to190.
And if you've been doing thatfor a while and it's getting
really, really hard, you mightwant to go from 190 to 192 and a
half.
This is where microplates arehelpful and a lot of people
somehow don't even realize theyexist.
(15:45):
I shouldn't say it that way.
That sounds patronizing.
I should not have said that,but what I mean is a lot of
people.
You could sense some of myfrustration here and how many
times this comes up.
For those of my clientslistening who have benefited
from me sharing microplates, whodidn't know this before, I
apologize if that comes acrossas insulting, but I guess I'm
(16:06):
just saying I'm surprised thatit's not part of the common
lexicon, like so many otherthings.
So look for microplates whichinclude both small fractional
plates for your barbell but alsoplates that can go on dumbbells
, and then that way you canprogress in the right levels and
then, as you get closer andcloser to your limit, until you
(16:28):
reduce the frequency.
In other words, if you'resquatting three days a week, you
can only go up so so much doingthat before you have to now
increase once a week, right.
Even if you're squatting threetimes a week, you may only go up
once a week, for example, right.
So it's got to depend on whatlevel of training you're at.
So that's proportional controls, those small, consistent
increases.
(16:48):
If you're a beginner, Idefinitely love focusing on
increasing load, and then, asyou become more advanced, you
can learn how to increase onreps as well, or back and forth
load reps, depending on whatyou're working on.
For integral control remember,this is the one based on
accumulated fatigue you're goingto want to track three metrics.
The first one is your volumeper exercise.
(17:10):
This is sets times reps.
It could be times weight aswell, so that's called tonnage,
but even sets times reps, justthe volume per exercise, okay.
And then number two is thevolume per muscle group, because
that way you can see how manysets you're doing per muscle
group, which will also tell youmaybe you're not doing enough,
depending on what your goals areand then your overall training
(17:32):
load across your what somepeople call mesocycle or a block
like a four to six week block.
What's your overall load?
And there's some cool apps thatdo this as well.
If you're into that, like I useBoostcamp.
You could find a link to thatbelow in the show notes.
But with Boostcamp you couldactually see a graph of your
volume over time.
So the program I'm followingyou'll see it go up for three
(17:53):
weeks and then drop, and then goup for three weeks and drop.
So that can be really helpfulfor those who are trying to make
sure that you're in the sweetspot.
Now, if you're following a, ifyou have a personal trainer or
you're following a really goodcoach or using one of the
programs like that are alreadyin Boost Camp, for example
they're probably already set upto give you a reasonable volume.
But you need to know hey, I'mfeeling really fatigued, do I
(18:17):
have too much volume?
Well, you don't know thatunless you track it, and a lot
of people don't track this stuff.
I'll tell you, even in mylifting community, with all the
buddies that lift, that I know alot of them don't really think
about volume.
A lot of them are followinglower volume programs anyway.
You may not have enough volume,though, for what you're trying
to achieve, or you may have toomuch, and it depends on what
phase you're into.
You may have to drop the volume, for example.
(18:38):
So tracking, that's the onlyway you're going to know, right,
that you're progressivelyoverloading without overwhelming
your system.
And then the last piece, thederivative control.
This is more.
How do you know, do you needrecovery or deload, unless
you've already built it in,which I talked about earlier,
which is a really smart strategy.
Just build it in and beproactive.
But I want you to be trackingyour biofeedback.
(19:00):
How's your sleep quality?
How is your recovery?
I mean, are your warmup setsfeeling smooth?
Are you feeling kind of wipedout right from the beginning?
Is your overall performancetrending up or down?
How is your motivation?
How is your energy right?
All of that is important and,again, it may indicate a problem
with your diet, with your carbs, with your meal timing,
something else like with yoursleep, with your stress.
(19:21):
But as long as you have theinformation, you can then start
digging into the why behind them.
And these indicators are greatbecause they tell you whether
you're adapting optimally or youneed to adjust something.
Of course you can use aurarings, you can use your Apple
Watch, and those all havedifferent measures of stress and
resilience.
It's all good stuff, just makesure you're correlating it with
what you're doing.
So the key to all of this?
(19:41):
To progressive overload andnotice.
I'm just talking principleshere.
This one principle is going totranslate to everything else.
It is even more important than,for example, mechanical tension
.
Right, we talk about mechanicaltension being the driver of
hypertrophy and muscle mass, butI've never seen a really good
lifter not also progress byvirtue of using mechanical
tension.
Thus it's sort of a secondaryprinciple, if you will.
(20:04):
As long as you're progressing,that tells you you're doing the
right things.
Now you may have to uncoverwhat things you need to do right
to get to proper progressiveoverload.
That's a whole different deepdive.
So the sustainable feedbackloop is pretty cool once you've
implemented it.
It makes you a lifter, it makesyou confident, it helps you get
(20:24):
progress.
So I have a client who madeprogress on a beginning style
three by five style program,kind of like starting strength
with some modifications right,and she made progress for a
while and then she started tomove into an intermediate
program and started to stall alittle bit and get frustrated
and asked her are youprogressing on all of your
accessory movements?
She's like, yeah, all of that'scoming straight up.
(20:45):
I said, okay, then there'ssomething going on with the main
lifts in one of these threeareas we're talking about here
that we're off on.
We're either not increasing theright levels right, we we are,
we have too much fatigue.
I don't think that's the issuein this case, but you know,
could always be that I thinkit's more the proportional
control.
We're not necessarily going upin the right levels.
Something's off in the waywe're progressing.
If she's able to progress allthis other stuff, you know it
(21:07):
could be a form issue orsomething as well.
All right, so you know.
What do you do here for thissystem?
Just to recap, you're going tomonitor performance through
consistent tracking, so you havethe data to act on.
You're going to make smallstrategic adjustments based on
your data.
You're going to have adequaterecovery between training
sessions, between sets andacross your whole block of
(21:28):
training and you're going torepeat this while gradually
increasing demands over time asyour capacity increases and then
, when all of this works well,you're going to notice
consistent strength gainswithout plateaus.
They're going to be veryinfrequent and usually for other
reasons, or usually becauseyou've just gone, you've
overreached just a little bit.
You're going to have betterrecovery between sessions.
You're probably going to havefewer aches and pains, lower
(21:51):
likelihood of injury and morepredictable progress, like you
can forecast.
Okay, six months.
I want to.
I want my deadlift to be hereand I know I have a pretty good
confidence I can get there nowthat I've gotten a predictable
process in place.
And that's how you buildlasting strength without burnout
or injury.
Right, it's not as exciting aschasing big numbers every
session, but it's far moreeffective and efficient in the
(22:13):
long run.
That's what we're all about,right?
What's what's fascinating aboutall this is, once you understand
this control your body is acontrol system.
It has these feedback loops yourealize that progressive
overload really isn't about justadding weight to the bar.
Right, it's actually aboutoptimizing your body's
adaptation mechanisms, youradaptation mechanisms.
(22:33):
The weight on the bar is just amethod to get there right.
And then that framework canapply to any fitness goal, from
fat loss to muscle gain.
They're all adaptations.
So then you're not justbuilding strength, you're
becoming guess what an engineerof your own physique.
That is what we do on this show.
That is the point.
(22:54):
When you stop chasing arbitrarynumbers of any of this stuff
and you start treating training,nutrition, mental growth, all
of it, relationships like thesophisticated control system, it
is, I mean, your body.
When it comes to training,everything changes.
Your progress becomes moreconsistent, more predictable and
, ultimately, more sustainable.
(23:15):
All right, and again, if youwant to apply these principles
to your training, join us inWits and Weights Physique
University.
I'm going to give you a secretlink in the show notes, and I
didn't mention it earlier, butin addition to the 14-day free
trial, in addition to a freechallenge, you are going to get
a discounted rate from what ispublicly available.
(23:36):
It is a rate that I am testingwith new clients.
Keep it a secret.
Well, I know the millions ofpeople listening to the show
won't but hearty heart, okay.
Anyway, back in the physiqueuniversity.
You know we use this approach,this kind of very logical,
objective, efficient, confidentbuilding approach, to help you
(23:57):
build strength and muscle andalso tackle your nutrition
Nutrition is a huge part of itTo make this sustainable, to
stay injury-free, to get theconfidence in the wins
constantly.
So click the link in my shownotes for the 14-day free trial,
the free challenge, the secretdiscounted price.
And remember, smart trainingbeats random progress.
Chasing every time, everysingle time, all right until
(24:21):
next time.
Keep using your wits liftingthose weights and remember your
body is the most sophisticatedcontrol system you'll ever work
with, so learn how to use it.
This is Philip Pape.
You've been listening to Witsand Weights.
I'll talk to you next time.
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