Kevin, thanks again.
You are a great advocate for the BBM “philosophy”, and I mean that in the most positive way! You make a good case!
Fatigue and motivation are never really a problem for me. I live and breathe working out. I don’t have nearly as much to show for it as others relative to the time I’ve put in, but it’s still something I’m passionate about. I can mentally fight through fatigue pretty easily. Aches & pains on the other hand…
The only time my motivation wanes is if I’m experiencing any persistent aches & pain that doesn’t seem to be subsiding. That will eventually de-motivate me. But it also forces me to make some adjustments to my program.
Thinking more about it, I kind of employ my own “RPE system” in a way. I have set up my program to be very flexible in terms of when I workout. So for example, earlier this year, I was working out every other day. This proved to be too much, as some of the aches & pains that had established themselves early on weren’t subsiding. So I inserted an additional “off day” between all workouts. My aches & pains then subsided, and I was able to remove some of those previously-inserted off days. So basically I “push” myself as much as I can in terms of workout density and squeezing all the workouts of a micro-cycle together, and when I really need an extra off day, I add it in. So I guess I really do a form of RPE, but on a macro level. But that RPE meme is pretty funny!
I did a DEXA scan in mid April 2021, and I’m planning to do another at the 1 year mark. I will also do a BodPod, as in the past, I have done both DEXA and BodPod at 1 year intervals to see what kind of progress I’ve made. So that’ll tell me how this particular self-designed program has worked. Going forward, I think I will do the DEXA and BodPod at 6 month intervals, as this will allow me to assess my programming quicker and make changes if progress isn’t where I want it to be. I also like doing both DEXA and BodPod, because if they agree with each other, I can be very confident that what they show is generally what actually took place. Like a couple years ago, tests 1 year apart, both showed approximately 5 lbs lean mass gain and 8 lbs fat loss. One showed like 5 and 8, and the other showed like 6 and 8, or something like that. Based on that, I was confident that I had gained at least a couple/few pounds of lean mass, and lost even more fat. And that matched my reality, as I was subjectively working pretty hard in the gym with a somewhat intelligent (I think) self-designed program, and the scale weight had dropped about 2 or 3 pounds over the course of that year.
I will definitely think about the BBM templates, pending how I feel early next year and what my body comp tests show in April.