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.

[Maybach]

The 4 day splits start to get fiddly with structuring the lifts around each other. This is evident in the squat and pulls: the volume squat is "light" weight but "heavy" work, and so the lower body days go Monday: hard squat, easy pull, Thursday: easy squat, hard pull.

The sets of 8 are to accommodate the upper body volume. After a 5x5 bench, you might find that a 5x5 press session goes rather poorly. The lighter weight is more "sure" to go.

As the book says, it's a tool. If you don't need it, don't use it. You'll know you need it if a problem that it could solve arises.

[Peter Bex]

Why 3x8 all of a sudden? I see sets of 5 everywhere else for the volume work. Any reason not to do 3x5 instead?

The book gives two reasons why:

To avoid stagnation, it is a good idea to vary the way each lift is trained when the press and bench are trained heavy in the same session

and

higher rep sets of 8 are introduced... this keeps volume high but the reduced load gives the lifter a break from the monotony of sets of 5.

You wouldn't do 3 sets of 5 as you're suggesting, because that would be lowering the volume to 15 reps in total. Instead, we're going from 5x5 (25 reps total) to 3x8 (24 reps total, same ballpark).
The reduced load also gives you a mental break from the heavy, long-ass workouts you'd normally do on volume day.

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?

That's probably fine too (although you risk "stagnation" according to the book), but if I understand correctly you wanted to have shorter sessions.
The 3x8 would help with that, too: You'd only be resting twice in between sets, instead of 4 times. And the rests are likely shorter, too, because the weights are less heavy.
Note that in this program, there's room for assistance work. The example adds an assistance exercise after the main two lifts, so your workout time would still be kinda long if you did 5x5 on the main two lifts and an assistance exercise for three sets.