Texas Method Squat & Dead Advice - Age 17

[Jack Morrison]

Background:
Male, 17 yrs old (ideal TM candidate)
5'11", 207 lbs, gaining 1 lb per week
7.5 hrs of sleep per night, actually consistent
Squat: 400x5x1 ID, 355x5x5 VD
Deadlift: 485x5x1
Bench: 237.5x5x5 (alternating rep ranges on a heavy heavy light split, progressing very well, don't need advice on this lift)
I started the Texas Method at a squat VD of 330x5x5 and an ID of 370x5x1. My deadlift was then at 455x5x1. In Paul Horn's video on the Texas Method, there was an asterisk near the bottom of the page that stated that, in lieu of power cleans, volume deadlifts could be added as 3 sets of 5 at around 85% of 5RM. My intent is to get as strong as I can for powerlifting and I felt that power cleans did not help my deadlift whatsoever, so I dropped them in favor of 3 sets of 5 deadlifts at around 85% of 5RM. I did these Monday: the same day as my squat volume day. This worked to continue my deadlift and still works, as my deadlift is still moving up a 5RM, 5 lbs per week.

However, my 400x5x1 squat was a humongous grind and I failed a 405x5x1 squat the next week. There are 2 things I have in mind that determine my question on what to do here: 1. I am aware that 3 sets of 5 of volume deadlifts are absolutely not standard TM programming and to most people would never be advisable; however, because of my enhanced recovery abilities given that I am 17, this deadlift volume permitted progress on the squat for 6 weeks. 2. I know that a new 5RM every squat intensity day eventually gets stale and must be replaced eventually by sets of 3, 2, and 1.

Essentially, my question is whether I should decrease deadlift or squat volume/percentage or I should switch to 2 sets of 3 on the squat intensity day without changing anything else. Is 6 weeks a normal amount of time for new squat 5RMs to get stale?

Thanks,
Jack Morrison

[Hayden-William Courtland]

6 weeks is quite a long time to run out 5s on your ID. Ah to be 17 again. Most likely the DL volume is fine and you just need to switch to triples in the SQ now. But since you failed recently you might need a deload week to dissipate some of that stress.

[Jack Morrison]

Sounds great. Now that I am increasing intensity on the squat, will it eventually be necessary to reduce volume on the squat by a set? Alternatively, when would I just refrain from adding 5 lbs to volume day and just attempt another intensity day PR? What are the circumstances that would lead one to perform these 2 different solutions?

[Hayden-William Courtland]

You may need to reduce volume on the volume day at some point. You will just have to monitor recovery to see if it becomes an issue (e.g., trashed after volume day or during it, feeling trashed as you are about to do your intensity day). Same thing for deciding to not add 5lbs to volume day. If volume day is becoming an issue, I will generally cut the 5th volume set first (switching to 4x5), then if another issue crops up I will generally keep the weight of volume day the same for a couple of weeks before increasing it and see how that affects recovery.