Volume/Medium Squat Day for 40yo

[Anthony King]

Been a few threads on this lately, but wondering if I can get more discussion--I'm still a little unsure about how to program the non-ID day for my squat.

Vitals: Just turned 40, doing my first intermediate cycle.
Last ID's: SQ 355x5, DL415x5, BP 235x5, PR 152.5
Recovery is mixed bag. I have kids, a business, and am doing 10-20hrs a week learning web development. So my schedule is packed, but I have a home office and set my hours, so food and sleep are pretty good.

I'm unsure about squat programming. My presses don't put me in a recovery hole--so I'll stick to TM on those for now.

My first VD squats at 320x5x5 put me in a hole, I took an extra day to rest up for ID and felt good. But I don't think it sustainable and the consensus of the forum agrees. I'm trying to find something in between Old Man's TM and Young Man's TM, I guess. I've never run out 5's to 3's to singles, and I'd like to stick to the TM ID template and change up Volume Day.

Ideas for Volume Day--which might end up being more of a Medium Day--are:

1. Stick to 5x5 across, but reduce percentage to 80-85% of 5rm.
2. Do something with RPE's, like work up to a set of 5 @8, then do 7% fatigue sets (would probably end up with 3-4 sets depending how I felt that day). This would end up being more of Medium day, so I'd probably add a backoff set to ID squat.

Any input welcome. Thanks.

[Eric Larousse]

HLM is the least stress of the two programs might want to check into it.

Another option would be a split routine with a heavy/light setup.

[Anthony King]

3 day or 4 day TM?

4 day is worse, imo.

3 day allows you to do an HLM-based mix.

Don't use 90% of ID as a factor. That shit is whack for lower body lifts.

Using 360x5 as your next ID:

~300x5x4 or 3 on "Volume Day"

~215x8x3 or 2 on "Light Day"

360x5x1

Thanks, 5x4 at 84ish% of ID sounds more tenable long term.

[Ryan Arnold]

Agree with everything Gilchrest said. I'm 37 and I find using between 80-85% on Volume Day to work quite well. 90% is too tough for anyone over 35 I'd say, at least without perfect recovery. VD weight should be a trial and error process of finding out what % makes ID keep going up. Once you find the right amount of VD stress you'll be all set. I'd give running it out a try too. Its a nice break from 5's all the time