Okay so I feel like an impaired idiot but I need some help. I hate asking for help but I think I need it.
I have several of the templates but I have a really hard time using excel. Both because it just frustrates me and because I am usually having to use my phone.
When I try and look at them everything is off the screen and it makes it nearly impossible to read.
I am used to just writing down what I am going to do on paper and then logging it that way.
Does that make sense or does anyone understand what I mean?
Is there some way to make it easier or more manageable to work with?
If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it!
I use FitNotes on android to log my workouts.
Before each training week I transfer the whole weekly program from āexcel languageā to āfitnotes languageā.
How well does FitNotes handle logging RPE? Holy grail question. Does it handle e1RM calcs and can it help you calculate the next weeks load based off of it even if the rep scheme is different?
I got my first purchased BBM templates last weekend during the sale, and I wonāt be using them until at least 7 weeks from now, as I just started a second run of the Bridge 1.0.
So I havenāt finished going through the effort of piecing together how they work, but here are 2 observations that may help. 1. Having observed Jordan discuss them in the past, Iām pretty sure the intent is that they be interfaced with on a phone via google sheets. I donāt know if google sheets is a superior way to view them on a phone compared to excel, as I donāt have excel on my phone, but I expect that it is.
2. Competition Press is supposed to be logged as a bench supplemental. I couldnāt find this spelled out anywhere on the templates I bought, but a search of the forum brought up a couple few topics where the BBM crew clarified this. Although Iāll be logging my workouts on the phone, either in google sheets or possibly using IeGDEās suggested app, I am doing my familiarization of the templates via my laptopās screen.
Right, I appreciate the feedback.
I can use sheets but the way it is formatted you have to shrink it down so far to fit one page on the screen that the words are microscopic.
However I donāt find them to be readable even on my laptop. I will just have to figure out how to reformat them. Thanks.
My plan is to make my own spreadsheet and log everything there for the Bridge 1.0 and reuse it for the HLM and GPPH templates I bought. If it ends up working out Iāll share it on the forums.
I agree with Morganism. The actual log tabs are almost impossible to read even on a 15" screen, and they make very little sense to me.
If itās helpful, after much fuss, I discovered the process of how you WOULD use them:
Look at the main page (template name) and find your week and day.
Look up the codes for the exercise on that day and write them down somewhere (with the corresponding numbers)
Next, look up the rep schemes for each exercise. Those rep schemes are organized by lift type and number. Write the rep schemes based off what you looked up next to each exercise from before
Now at least you know what workouts youāre doing ā do them!
Record the RPE next to each line item from 2/3 for lifts with RPE > 7
Now you have all the data to fill out part of Log(0) tab
Thereās no logic to how this is laid out. Youāll probably be entering the data in something like:
a. The upper left table
b. The lower right table.
c. The upper middle table
I havenāt actually used them yet and, again, I have no intention of doing so, other than at the end of the week to get the free analysis done.
What Iād like to see (and what Iāll probably create) is simply 7-8 tabs, one for each week, with each days exercises in the same column (so 3 columns per tab, probably each 4-5 cells wide). Every exercise youāll do for that day with the recommended RPE should be prepopulated so all you have to do is enter numbers while you work out. The tab should have a place to enter your e1rms, which would preopulate ārecommendationsā for weights for each exercise. Every other tab should calculate those recommendations off data from the previous tab, or the e1rm from the first tab if it doesnāt exist.
If I had any skill in, or patience for, excel I would do something like that. It sounds great.
Iām great with word type software but have always had some brain block with spreadsheets.
I tried converting it to a pdf just so I could print out the part that says what to do but the formatting was not happening.
This is what Iāve done - it just takes a bit of prep before starting a template - but during the program thereās no stress:
I create a word document, and basically write out the entire program in a table similar to how The Bridge is displayed in the ebook. I save that as a pdf on my phone. This saves me from āwhatās S1 again?ā and āhow many reps and sets was that again?ā which involves a lot of scrolling back and forth and sideways on the template file.
I create the program on an app called Progression on android, where I just have to input the exercises for each day of the program. Usually have to create 2 separate programs because the exercise selection tend to change halfway through each program. Then as I work out I can input however many sets, reps, weight etc Iāve done, and thereās a timer in between sets I can modify too. I can comment on each set as well, in the comments I can just jot down the RPE and other things - e.g. if I felt the rest time affected my performance, which set I put the belt on, which set I changed my deadlift grip etc.
I have a template excel spreadsheet saved on my phone purely for the RPE calculator.
Come back home and log it into the excel log to track my e1RM.
I can understand the frustration when trying to view them on the phone, but on a computer? Perhaps some of you just donāt have experience using spreadsheets in general? I find them SUPER easy to use on a computer. Nothing to it at all. Much of that is just being used to bouncing around quickly in spreadsheets, which Iāve been doing for routinely as part of my career for a couple decades now, so perhaps that is why itās so easy.
Google Sheets is not easier than Excel in my view. Excel is the gold standard, so if you have access to it thatās what Iād use. Excel on a Mac is even easier due to the large trackpad and the multi-finger gestures that make navigation super easy.
All this said, viewing spreadsheets like this on a phone will always be limiting. Just the nature of having so little visible real estate to work with. Iām fortunate that I lift at my home gym, and I have a desk setup on one wall where I have my laptop so I can easily navigate and work through the calculator. But, I also have my phone out when Iām lifting. I not only log my lifts in the spreadsheet, but I also log them on my iPhone in the Strong workout app. Canāt recommend that enough either. I am certain I could get by just using Strong in a commercial gym. Yeah, Iād have to plan my lifts within strong BEFORE going to the gym, but that wouldnāt take long at all. I canāt recommend Strong enough, as it is more of my go-to for reviewing previous lifts than the spreadsheets are. Itās just easier to see all my previous session in one pane of glass for a given exercise, or by calendar, or by PR, etc. Combined with the spreadsheet, it makes everything super flexible.
Quite the opposite. Iām an engineer. I spent over a year at one job programming Excel/VBA. Iāve been called an āExcel wizardā by more than a few people.
The problem I have with these spreadsheets is they were clearly put together by people who havenāt spent much time making spreadsheets for other people. The UX is atrocious and far more complicated than it needs to be. Iām not sure what screen your looking at these on but I have to zoom out to 55% just to see the whole page of a log tab, which renders it unreadable ā on a 15" screen. At 100% I can see 2.5 columns of exercises at a time. For a given day, Iād obviously have to horizontally scroll back and forth and up and down to enter all my data.
And once again, they arenāt organized for an actual daily workout. Your daily workout is simply 3 2-5 character keys that you use to look up the rep schemes in 3 different tables. If you have the patience to do that while youāre working out thatās awesome. For the rest of us it literally requires spending 5-10 minutes before every workout just ot figure out what weāre supposed to do. And if we donāt write it down somewhere weāll probably need to spend another 5-10 minutes figuring it out again before the exercise.
And Jordan has said theyāre meant to be viewed with Google Docs ā itās the recommended platform over Excel.
All this is why I would recommend using something else while youāre in the gym. Thatās where I think the Strong app comes in. You can build the dayās workout before you go to the gym so that it is ready. Weights, sets, reps, RPE, etc. Then when you get there all you have to do is execute it, and record your sets/reps/rpe in the app. Then when you get back to your computer, add the data to the spreadsheet if you want to track it there also. Itās also easy to see what you did on the last workout while in the gym to help you adjust. You can even record your warmpus, and mark them as such. There are ways to build exercises as AMRAPās, or whatever. Strong doesnāt specifically track RPE, but it does have a note section for each each exercise on each day. I record my RPEās there for each set, so itās easily viewable later in your workout log.
It also has a feature where as soon as you log a set, it can start a timer so you can keep track of your rest periods. I always use that feature so I know my rest periods arenāt too short or too long.
You could also save the RPE calculator in itās own spreadsheet for making easy weight selections while in the gym if things donāt go as planned. Just trying to help you guys with some ideas since I agree about the limitations of using only the phone to view these things in the gym.
It doesnt support RPE so far. I contacted the developer, he said that he received lots of request for adding RPE so it will be something he will consider down the road. He told me that for the moment just to put the RPE as a comment to each set to keep a record.
Thatās about as much as you get.
If you want a log app, I am afraid that you donāt get anything better than FitNotes. RPE is not even that popular in the āfitnessā world.
If you want all the calculation perks instead, I am afraid youāll have to stick to have your own excel tables.
Plus one for the RTS tracking tools; they are remarkably flexible for recording every possible variation of equipment, tempo, etc. for any movement you could name, plus they have great reporting and analysis.
That said, I happened across this site yesterday and I was quite pleased with it as a more minimalist alternative for tracking: https://weightroom.uk/
I tried the RTS tracker. It is a pain to enter data while in the gym. Too fiddly. It has good functionality, but UI and UX is not great, particularly on mobile.
