I'm an industrial engineer from Austria. My work is finding why a system
produces less than it should, and fixing the one thing that actually limits it. These are the tools
I use professionally. Every one of them has a direct, unforced translation to training — and
together they are why this plan looks different from the ones you have followed before.
01
Theory of constraints
Bottleneck analysis
A production line runs at the speed of its slowest station. Everything upstream piles up, everything downstream waits. Adding capacity anywhere else changes nothing.
↓ applied to trainingYour weakest muscle sets the ceiling for your whole upper body — and most plans give volume to whatever already feels strong.
02
Capacity planning
Load levelling
You cannot schedule more work into a shift than the shift can hold. Plans that ignore this do not fail loudly; they quietly under-deliver everywhere.
↓ applied to trainingFour sessions carry roughly 150 counted sets. Ask for 200 and something silently gets cut. Here the targets are scaled to what your week can actually hold, and the shortfall is named.
03
Overall equipment effectiveness
Availability x performance x quality
Output is not one number. It is uptime multiplied by speed multiplied by how much of the output is usable. A line at 100% speed and 60% uptime is a bad line.
↓ applied to trainingAdherence x intensity x execution. A perfect programme followed 60% of the time loses to an average one followed 95% of the time. That is why sessions here are capped at what you will finish.
04
Specification and tolerance
Range, not a single value
No engineer specifies a single number. They specify a target and the band around it where the part still works.
↓ applied to trainingTwelve to sixteen sets, not 'twelve'. Training inside a band is what makes a plan survive a bad week.
05
Statistical process control
Signal versus noise
Every process varies. The skill is telling ordinary variation apart from a real shift that needs intervention.
↓ applied to trainingOne bad session is noise. Three weeks of falling performance at the same load is a signal — and that is what the scheduled deloads are placed to catch.
06
Root cause analysis
Five whys
You do not fix the symptom. You keep asking why until you reach the cause that, once removed, stops it recurring.
↓ applied to trainingA muscle is not growing. Is it volume, proximity to failure, recovery, food, or execution? Adding sets to a technique problem just adds a technique problem.
07
PDCA cycle
Plan, do, check, act
Improvement is not continuous effort. It is bounded cycles: change one thing, run it, measure, decide, repeat.
↓ applied to trainingAn eight-week block with a deload is one cycle. Changing your programme every fortnight means you never reach the measuring step.
08
Measurement system analysis
Trust the gauge first
Before optimising anything you verify the instrument. An unreliable gauge makes every decision downstream worse than guessing.
↓ applied to trainingBodyweight swings two kilos on water alone. Weekly averages and a fixed measurement protocol come before any decision about your calories.
