A control system and method for exercise equipment and the like provides a way to simulate a physical activity in a manner that takes into account the physics of the physical activity being simulated to provide an accurate simulation. According to one aspect of the present invention, the control system and method takes into account the physics of the corresponding physical activity to generate a virtual or predicted value of a variable such as velocity, acceleration, force, or the like. The difference between the virtual or expected physical variable and a measured variable is used as a control input to control resistance forces of the exercise equipment in a way that causes the user to experience forces that are the same or similar to the forces that would be encountered if the user were actually performing the physical activity being simulated rather than using the exercise equipment.