It seems that everyone wants to get “lean” these days. There’s almost an obsession with six-pack abs, visual muscularity, and thinness if you’re to believe the legions of fitness influencers who appear ready for an instant photo shoot on any given day. I’ve got nothing against maintaining a healthy weight, and in fact this podcast is all about finding a sustainable way to get stronger, build muscle, and stay healthy. But if you were to ask yourself, “what exactly is my goal when it comes to body...
Mar 22, 2022•44 min•Ep. 12
You decided to get stronger, improve your body composition, and become more healthy. You selected a simple but effective barbell-based strength training program and committed to consistent training. During your first year of lifting, there will be many new things to learn, habits to develop, and temptations to lead you off your chosen path. After going through the process myself and talking with hundreds of other lifters, I wanted to share some thoughts to help you keep making progress and avoid...
Mar 08, 2022•25 min•Ep. 11
Sometimes advice from the fitness industry can be overwhelming. There are so many ways to program your lifting, eat your food, and meet your goals that we often get lost in the small details. At the end of the day, it’s the BIG details, applied consistently, that contribute the most to your progress and result in sustainable habits of success in getting big and strong, losing or gaining weight, and sculpting a healthier version of you. In this episode, I wanted to take it to a higher level, so t...
Feb 22, 2022•20 min•Ep. 10
Today I share some helpful and sometimes counterintuitive things I’ve learned over the last year about fitness and nutrition that either changed my mind or were completely new to me. As a forty-something-year-old lifter who has only been training seriously and effectively for the last few years, I used to believe a lot of nonsense—ideas, myths, preconceptions, assumptions, whatever you want to call them—that often held me back from progress or, even worse, were counterproductive. Chances are tha...
Feb 08, 2022•23 min•Ep. 9
One of our big goals on this podcast is sustainability and consistency, and the whole process of going to the gym is a huge barrier for many of us. The hassle of preparing your clothing, gym bag, nutrition, and then factoring in drive time, weather, convenience within our schedules, compounded by access to random equipment at the gym, sharing a rack or barbell with other members, and sometimes dealing with policies like “no deadlifting” are just some of the many reasons we find to just hit the s...
Jan 25, 2022•46 min•Ep. 8
I had the pleasure of being on another podcast a few months ago called Finding Your Strength Radio Powered by Romeo Athletics, where I was interviewed by Andrew Romeo. He’s an excellent host, experienced coach, and the owner of my long-time gym, Romeo Athletics. He asked me a ton of great questions about my journey to fitness, how I got into lifting and strength training, different movements and programming, my recent bulk and cut, body recomposition, sustainable nutrition, and other random topi...
Jan 11, 2022•50 min•Ep. 7
Today we wrap up our foundational series by diving into some practical strategies, tools, and life hacks to set your fitness and nutrition habits on autopilot. If you’re at all familiar with the autopilot in an airplane—and as a side note, I used to fly small planes years ago and still work as an engineer in the aerospace industry—you know it’s a tool to eliminate constant manual intervention by the pilot. In a similar way, we want to find ways to create consistency with our lifting and eating b...
Dec 28, 2021•29 min•Ep. 6
Today is the DIET and NUTRITION episode, one of my favorite topics. Although this IS a podcast focused on lifting and getting strong, what you eat—and more importantly, HOW MUCH you eat—plays a huge role in your ability to lose fat (while preserving muscle) or gain muscle (while limiting fat gain). You can’t have one without the other—and I’m going to assume you’re here because you want to get stronger AND leaner, and you want to do it productively without spinning your wheels. I’m very passiona...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 5
Today we’re focusing on the “calories out” side of energy balance with a discussion of metabolism, as well as whether and how we can manipulate this “calories out” side of the equation. We will not discuss diet or nutrition, which is the “calories in” side of the equation. Stay tuned for the next episode. In the meantime, understanding metabolism and especially how to accurately calculate your own energy expenditure sets the foundation for a sustainable approach to diet later on. In today’s epis...
Nov 30, 2021•29 min•Ep. 4
Today’s episode is all about the “S” word—STRENGTH. What is it, why is it important, and how to get it. If you’re listening to this podcast, it’s a safe bet that you have some sort of fitness related goal. You want to improve yourself physically in some way: build muscle, burn fat, get lean, get strong, improve athletic performance, look good in a bathing suit, or even improve mobility, flexibility, or balance. What if there is one attribute above all others that permeates each of these attribut...
Nov 16, 2021•21 min•Ep. 3
This is the episode where we lay out our fitness philosophy and give you steps to take action right away. Strength training is by far the most effective way to increase muscle mass, boost your metabolism, and improve your health in more ways than you can imagine, from mobility, balance, and flexibility to reduced risk of metabolic disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and injury. It also tests you physically and mentally because it’s hard—one of the best reasons for doing it! Today is ...
Nov 02, 2021•37 min•Ep. 2
Welcome to the very first episode of Wits and Weights: Strength Training for Skeptics. If you’re a skeptical, critically-minded person like me, you’ve probably gotten tired of what the modern-day so-called fitness industry has to offer, and you just want to know what actually works. Not only that, you’re probably a busy, working professional with a full-time job or perhaps you own your own business or run several side hustles, so time is at a premium. Can you actually build a stronger, healthier...
Nov 02, 2021•12 min•Ep. 1
In this trailer episode, Philip ( @witsandweights ) talks about the Wits & Weights podcast. If you're skeptical of the fitness industry and want to learn more about using strength training and sustainable nutrition to get stronger, build muscle and lose fat, upgrade your body composition, and achieve physical self-mastery, this is the show for you. On Wits & Weights, certified nutrition coach Philip Pape uncovers science-backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle, and mindset. Fi...
Oct 21, 2021•42 sec0
