Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / Stop Switching Exercises Until Changing THIS First (Tolerance Analysis) | Ep 240

Transcript

Stop Switching Exercises Until Changing THIS First (Tolerance Analysis) | Ep 240 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:01
  Philip Pape: If you're struggling with an exercise that just isn't quite working maybe bench press bothers your shoulders, rows don't engage your back properly or squats don't feel stable and you're thinking about abandoning it completely for a different movement hold up.
• 0:14
  Philip Pape: There's an engineering approach that could save that exercise while maintaining perfect form, and today I'm revealing how engineers use tolerance analysis to make precise adjustments to complex systems, and how you can apply this same method to modify exercises without compromising proper technique.
• 0:33
  Philip Pape: Get ready to learn a systematic approach to exercise modification that will unlock better gains for movements that you thought you couldn could do.
• 0:41
  Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique.
• 0:59
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, philip Pape.
• 1:01
  Philip Pape: Now, when an exercise isn't working perfectly, the easy answer is let's switch to something else.
• 1:07
  Philip Pape: Let me just give up and try something else.
• 1:09
  Philip Pape: But what if you could systematically modify that movement, while maintaining proper form and principles of movement, to make it work exactly as intended, so you don't have to abandon it?
• 1:22
  Philip Pape: Today, we're exploring how engineers use tolerance analysis to make precise adjustments within acceptable ranges.
• 1:28
  Philip Pape: Again, you don't have to be an engineer to understand this stuff.
• 1:31
  Philip Pape: I really try to simplify it for you and show you how to use these frameworks to optimize exercise and exercise selection, even when it's not quite clicking for you right now, as always, before we get into it.
• 1:43
  Philip Pape: If you're enjoying the show, if you want more content on building muscle, losing fat, like today's engineering approach, and you're not gonna find this anywhere else, go ahead and hit the follow button right now.
• 1:54
  Philip Pape: It will help more people find the show, but also ensure that you never miss an episode.
• 1:58
  Philip Pape: All right.
• 1:59
  Philip Pape: So what is the problem we're talking about today?
• 2:01
  Philip Pape: It's something I see all the time with my clients, but I've experienced it myself, having come through shoulder recovery over the last year and wondering can I even do this movement?
• 2:11
  Philip Pape: And, if so, do I need to modify it?
• 2:12
  Philip Pape: Because we don't want to be in pain, we don't want to feel like we can't make progress, and so when an exercise isn't working perfectly, most people usually fall into one of three traps.
• 2:21
  Philip Pape: They either keep forcing themselves to do it anyway, even though they're not getting results and that could be dangerous if it's even causing pain, for example or they start randomly trying all sorts of modifications.
• 2:35
  Philip Pape: All at once, they change a whole bunch of variables their grip, their stance, their angle and they don't really have a plan for that or, most commonly, they just give up and switch to a different exercise.
• 2:44
  Philip Pape: So the real issue is not the fundamental movement pattern itself.
• 2:52
  Philip Pape: We're going to assume that your strength training for progressive overload, for progressive loading, and you have a decent understanding of how to lift weights and you understand the value of proper form, proper form principles, like maintaining a vertical bar path when you're squatting, or engaging your back instead of your arms when you're rowing or doing a pull down.
• 3:10
  Philip Pape: These are universal principles.
• 3:12
  Philip Pape: They are not negotiable.
• 3:13
  Philip Pape: The problem is finding the right variation within those principles that works for you and your body right now, at this moment.
• 3:20
  Philip Pape: Don't get frustrated or discouraged.
• 3:23
  Philip Pape: This is where the approach I'm going to share today is going to come in to help you.
• 3:27
  Philip Pape: It's called tolerance analysis.
• 3:29
  Philip Pape: Now, in engineering, tolerance analysis determines the acceptable range for modifying a product or item or design while maintaining the core principles or core specs, core specifications.
• 3:41
  Philip Pape: Right, think about if you had to make a critical part for an engine.
• 3:45
  Philip Pape: The width might need to be exactly 10 millimeters, because that's an important criteria, but the height could vary within certain limits without affecting performance.
• 3:54
  Philip Pape: So the same concept applies perfectly to exercise modification.
• 3:59
  Philip Pape: Some aspects of a movement are fixed right, like the vertical bar path in a squat.
• 4:04
  Philip Pape: We want that to be non-negotiable.
• 4:05
  Philip Pape: In fact, even having that midfoot center of gravity, you know, within a tiny tolerance, those are the core specifications that we don't change.
• 4:14
  Philip Pape: But other elements have ranges where you can modify them, and so the key is understanding which is which and then how far you can adjust those, while keeping the exercise true to its intended purpose and getting what you want out of it right.
• 4:26
  Philip Pape: Like when you squat.
• 4:28
  Philip Pape: Chances are you're trying to get bigger legs and it may be a specific muscle group quads, hams, you know, glutes but that's that's the purpose of it.
• 4:35
  Philip Pape: So let's just break down systematically how to modify exercises using this framework.
• 4:42
  Philip Pape: All right, first, you have to be crystal clear on the parts that don't change what is the movement pattern you're going for?
• 4:51
  Philip Pape: Which muscles should be engaged and triggered and targeted?
• 4:55
  Philip Pape: What say joint alignments have to be maintained, right, if you're doing a hinge, trying to do a deadlift.
• 5:01
  Philip Pape: There's a principle there that is a non-negotiable.
• 5:05
  Philip Pape: So you've got that in place right.
• 5:07
  Philip Pape: Let's say it's a um.
• 5:10
  Philip Pape: Let's go with a bench press right, because I've had shoulder issues and a lot of you listening probably have issues with your shoulder.
• 5:15
  Philip Pape: When it comes to bench press, what are you trying to do?
• 5:17
  Philip Pape: Well, you're probably trying to target the pecs right, the chest muscles, but also the triceps, and you know it depends on the grip and everything else what you're going to target.
• 5:28
  Philip Pape: But there are a lot of variables that you can adjust and still get incredible growth in those few areas that you're going for with the bench press.
• 5:38
  Philip Pape: And so what can you adjust?
• 5:40
  Philip Pape: That's what we have to identify.
• 5:41
  Philip Pape: So with most exercises, you have a few variables to work with.
• 5:45
  Philip Pape: You have grip width.
• 5:47
  Philip Pape: So think about let's focus on the bench press.
• 5:49
  Philip Pape: You could go with kind of the standard grip, which is a fairly wide grip but not super wide.
• 5:54
  Philip Pape: It's wide enough where your forearms are vertical at the bottom, all right.
• 5:58
  Philip Pape: But we can go narrow, which you see with a close grip, bench press, hence the name.
• 6:01
  Philip Pape: It's gonna target the triceps.
• 6:03
  Philip Pape: You can go much wider, which is more like a power lifting kind of width which shortens the range of motion.
• 6:09
  Philip Pape: So that that's one thing you could change width, and that applies to presses, that applies to pulls, like you could change width on a lot of exercises.
• 6:17
  Philip Pape: The next variable is your angle of your hands.
• 6:19
  Philip Pape: So think about we often don't even think about our hands.
• 6:23
  Philip Pape: We were like, okay, it's a bench press, it's a straight bar, so my hands are just going to be facing forward, which is effectively pronated.
• 6:29
  Philip Pape: If you were standing up, that's what it's called facing forward.
• 6:32
  Philip Pape: But what if you used a multi-grip bar that lets you have a neutral grip?
• 6:36
  Philip Pape: Right?
• 6:37
  Philip Pape: What if you use a pull-up bar that lets you have a neutral grip?
• 6:40
  Philip Pape: What if you use a trap bar for your rows instead of a barbell to have a neutral grip and for shoulder issues?
• 6:45
  Philip Pape: That can be a huge difference.
• 6:46
  Philip Pape: Just that slight change.
• 6:48
  Philip Pape: What about a lat pull-down?
• 6:49
  Philip Pape: Slight change.
• 6:51
  Philip Pape: What about a lat pulldown?
• 6:53
  Philip Pape: Look at all the attachments you could have for lat pulldown.
• 6:55
  Philip Pape: You don't have to pull down with a pronated grip.
• 6:56
  Philip Pape: You can have a neutral grip pulldown or even a supine like slightly underhand, slightly angled grip with these special attachments.
• 7:03
  Philip Pape: You know the V grips and such that have different angles.
• 7:05
  Philip Pape: There's a lot of different angles you can work with without changing anything else how far you move through the range of motion.
• 7:15
  Philip Pape: And I say it that way because there is a full range of motion and if you're going for the normal traditional movement.
• 7:21
  Philip Pape: You want the full range of motion.
• 7:22
  Philip Pape: Get the most muscle group muscle engaged, muscle fibers engaged through the lengthened and shortened parts of the muscle.
• 7:28
  Philip Pape: But you might not find that super comfortable for certain movements.
• 7:31
  Philip Pape: Take bench press again If you've got shoulder issues, the very bottom of the muscle.
• 7:32
  Philip Pape: But you might not find that super comfortable for certain movements.
• 7:32
  Philip Pape: Take bench press again If you've got shoulder issues.
• 7:35
  Philip Pape: The very bottom of the movement might be so much of a rotation on your shoulder, there's too much stress there.
• 7:40
  Philip Pape: And so that's where you can say, okay, should I come down almost to that level, but not quite, by using pins in the rack right, more of a rack press than a full press?
• 7:52
  Philip Pape: Should I use a pause at the bottom?
• 7:55
  Philip Pape: Actually, that's a different variable.
• 7:56
  Philip Pape: Let's hold on that.
• 7:57
  Philip Pape: Should I use a slingshot?
• 7:59
  Philip Pape: So it takes some of the load at the very bottom, knowing that I still get to push through the sticking point and work the pecs.
• 8:06
  Philip Pape: So think about range of motion.
• 8:07
  Philip Pape: You know something like a what do you call it?
• 8:10
  Philip Pape: A barbell row.
• 8:12
  Philip Pape: You know traditional row is fairly bent over.
• 8:14
  Philip Pape: You pull back with your back, um, but you can come up to a higher angle and do more like, like uh, what is it called Yates row where, um, it kind of changes the range of motion a bit as well in the angle.
• 8:25
  Philip Pape: So that's another variable.
• 8:28
  Philip Pape: Then we have the speed or the tempo, and here you have tons of options.
• 8:32
  Philip Pape: My two favorite options are pause, okay, pause at the bottom of the movement.
• 8:36
  Philip Pape: So pause at the bottom of a squat, a bench, pause at the bottom of anything.
• 8:40
  Philip Pape: Pause at the bottom of a bicep curl.
• 8:42
  Philip Pape: It actually makes a massive difference.
• 8:44
  Philip Pape: It makes it harder, yes, meaning you're going to have to drop the weight, but don't let your ego get in the way, because it could give you much more growth by doing that.
• 8:52
  Philip Pape: Pause and protect your joints and tendons.
• 8:55
  Philip Pape: So think about that.
• 8:57
  Philip Pape: We also have another way to modify tempo is slowing down the eccentric and exploding on the concentric, like when you're doing dynamic effort movement or compensatory type acceleration, or just just don't get hung up in all the terms.
• 9:11
  Philip Pape: Let's just say a bench press.
• 9:14
  Philip Pape: You come down nice and easy to the chest, you pause for a good one, two count and then you explode up.
• 9:21
  Philip Pape: You might find that feels great on your shoulder, right?
• 9:24
  Philip Pape: Let's say, doing a seated overhead press using a multi-grip bar, right?
• 9:29
  Philip Pape: See, you can get creative and combine these in any different way, but I would only change one thing at once.
• 9:34
  Philip Pape: What else can you change?
• 9:36
  Philip Pape: Your stance width, you can change your stance width, or, on the squat, you can change the heel raise If you're wearing squat shoes or putting plates under your heel.
• 9:44
  Philip Pape: I was trying to help somebody with a front squat and they were trying to front squat barefoot and I said let's just throw some rise under the heels, either standing on plates or wearing squat shoes.
• 9:55
  Philip Pape: And all of a sudden I was like, oh great, now the bar isn't trying to pull me forward, it feels much more comfortable and now I can do the movement.
• 10:02
  Philip Pape: All right.
• 10:03
  Philip Pape: So it's a lot of different things that you can change without actually changing the fundamental movement pattern.
• 10:09
  Philip Pape: I think that's incredibly powerful.
• 10:11
  Philip Pape: It really is.
• 10:12
  Philip Pape: Those are your modifiable specifications.
• 10:14
  Philip Pape: All right, now, when you have that, instead of being overwhelmed.
• 10:19
  Philip Pape: This is where the engineering mindset comes in Don't change multiple things at once.
• 10:23
  Philip Pape: You want to isolate one variable Again, just like an engineer would isolate one thing at a time.
• 10:28
  Philip Pape: So, going back to the bench, press right.
• 10:31
  Philip Pape: The core principle here is maintaining that consistent bar path with stable, tight shoulders, a slight arch, feet driven into the ground, right, all of those are going to be fixed.
• 10:45
  Philip Pape: And then you change one thing I'm going to bring my grip closer, or I'm going to keep the grip with the same, but I'm going to switch to a multi-grip bar and have a neutral handle and try that and see how it feels, see what the difference feels like.
• 10:59
  Philip Pape: Do it in your warmup both ways and just see how it feels.
• 11:02
  Philip Pape: And then know that you might have to reset a bit on the load, because it's kind of a new movement to your body, but it's a sort of variety that can actually help quite a bit and might translate to the main movement pattern and make it feel better as well in some cases.
• 11:18
  Philip Pape: Okay, so this requires a little patience, a little experimentation.
• 11:22
  Philip Pape: You know, starting with a small change and keeping everything else the same, and then paying attention.
• 11:26
  Philip Pape: Is your shoulder discomfort relieved, while you're actually able to get the movement in?
• 11:31
  Philip Pape: What about an incline instead of a flat?
• 11:34
  Philip Pape: What about a steeper incline, right?
• 11:37
  Philip Pape: So there's a lot of things that you can change.
• 11:39
  Philip Pape: Make sure to write it down, make sure to log what's happening.
• 11:41
  Philip Pape: Note it in your notebook or app for your workouts.
• 11:44
  Philip Pape: Find that sweet spot where the movement feels better but still accomplishes its intended purpose.
• 11:51
  Philip Pape: Now the critical piece here is you need to know when you've reached the limit of that modification.
• 11:56
  Philip Pape: Sometimes, despite your best effort, you've made all these changes, it doesn't solve the root movement problem or it starts to compromise form.
• 12:05
  Philip Pape: That's when you have to admit hey, maybe I just want to switch to a different exercise.
• 12:08
  Philip Pape: Maybe I do, maybe I just do want to have a completely different exercise.
• 12:11
  Philip Pape: And in the case of bench press, like going from a bench to a incline, that's technically a different exercise, right, even though they're kind of different angles of the same thing.
• 12:22
  Philip Pape: But you've got to be open to those kinds of more dramatic changes if needed, right.
• 12:26
  Philip Pape: Sometimes you have to redesign the system rather than just modify the piece.
• 12:31
  Philip Pape: Now, the fascinating thing about this approach that I've been actually using a lot lately.
• 12:35
  Philip Pape: I've been thinking how do I change my grip width, how do I maybe different straps that I'm using, equipment that I'm using?
• 12:41
  Philip Pape: It reveals that small, precise adjustments actually can make a huge difference.
• 12:45
  Philip Pape: They weren't feeling it and all we did is we.
• 12:58
  Philip Pape: We changed the hand angle right, or we adjust the the shoes or um chain, even changed a cue.
• 13:01
  Philip Pape: We were, that's more of a form issue and that tiny change made the difference, and now something that they dreaded and did not look forward to now becomes potentially a cornerstone of that muscle development group.
• 13:14
  Philip Pape: You know, like back development, whatever it is.
• 13:15
  Philip Pape: Like back development, whatever.
• 13:16
  Philip Pape: It is Not reinventing, but finding the variation that allows you to perform it as intended.
• 13:22
  Philip Pape: And that's it.
• 13:22
  Philip Pape: That's it for today.
• 13:23
  Philip Pape: That's really what I want to tell you is think about the creative ways that you can modify your exercises to keep using the same movement patterns.
• 13:29
  Philip Pape: And, of course, if you found value in today's episode again and you want more content, please hit the follow button and let other people know.
• 13:35
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• 13:41
  Philip Pape: Not enough people do that, even if they follow the podcast, and if you're a super fan, or even a somewhat fan, and you love it and you think it's worth sharing with others, please go ahead and leave a review.
• 13:51
  Philip Pape: Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember that sometimes the perfect exercise is just a small modification away.
• 14:00
  Philip Pape: I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.