Four Day Texas Method

[Gerhard Häring]

I am currently doing a variant of the three day Texas Method, but I am increasingly annoyed by the long Monday sessions (currently at 2.5 hours). So I want to switch over to a four day variant. The most attractive I found in the grey book is called "Four-day Texas Method Version #2" - as I prefer to train both the bench press and the press all the time.

Here a programming detail is proposed that I have not seen anywhere else in the book so far: three sets of eight for the lift not being focussed on. Why 3x8 all of a sudden? I see sets of 5 everywhere else for the volume work. Any reason not to do 3x5 instead?

My naive me would try to just do five sets across for both bench press and press. Is there any reason not to, apart from time management?

[Jason Donaldson]

I am currently doing a variant of the three day Texas Method, but I am increasingly annoyed by the long Monday sessions (currently at 2.5 hours). So I want to switch over to a four day variant. The most attractive I found in the grey book is called "Four-day Texas Method Version #2" - as I prefer to train both the bench press and the press all the time.

Here a programming detail is proposed that I have not seen anywhere else in the book so far: three sets of eight for the lift not being focussed on. Why 3x8 all of a sudden? I see sets of 5 everywhere else for the volume work. Any reason not to do 3x5 instead?

My naive me would try to just do five sets across for both bench press and press. Is there any reason not to, apart from time management?

Post-novice programming becomes increasingly individualized, which is why there are so many disparate programs out there that work for different people.

You're looking at a change to your existing program. The reason you want to change is because of the long Mondays. Therefore, what would be the smallest discrete change for you to make to accomplish that? Identify that small change, try it for a bit, and see what changes from that single variable. Changing days AND from 5s to 8s would be changing more things, so sure, I'd say try sticking with 5s.

The more factors you change at once, the less you can know about which factor(s) produced the change. Limit the changes done at one time, and you'll learn more about the cause and effect for you.