Geezling moves to Texas

[bbuszard]

I tried Madcows for a spell, but stalled fairly quickly and decided to take up the Texas method instead. After a transition week this is the first workout on TM proper. I dropped back about 15 lbs on the squat and 5 on the deadlift to get a run at it. My work schedule necessitates a Th/Sat/M schedule.

Thursday 11/1

squat: 5x5x265
bench: 5x5x205
deadlift: 1x5x360

[RussB]

Nice deadlift after Volume Day squats. I do my deadlift on intensity day. I'll be interested to see how it progresses. Also doing a Th/Sat/Mon schedule.

[bbuszard]

Saturday 11/3

squat: 2x5x215
press: 3x5x125
chins: 7/9/8
back xt: 5x10@bw.

The adductors and glutes are a bit sore from Thursday, but in a good, purely-muscle sort of way. Right shoulder is still sore from benching, but I pushed through it on the press well enough. I wonder if the right shoulder will ever feel 100% again.

[bbuszard]

Monday 11/5

squat: 1x5x295
bench: 1x4x225 (miss)
power-clean: 5x3x135

The right shoulder really hurt and I missed the 5th bench rep. Next week is press week, so I'll have to make a decision the following week whether I'll want to switch in some weighted dips instead.

[bbuszard]

Thursday 11/8 (volume day)

squat: 5x5x270
press: 5x5x125
deadlift: 1x5x265

Exhausting, but form stayed good on everything. Need food!

[bbuszard]

Saturday 11/10

squat: 2x5x215
dips: 3x5x30
pull-ups: 6/7/7
back xt: 5x10

Tried dips instead of bench for press-week. The right shoulder is pretty sore on dips, too, so I'll have to wait and see how I pull up from them Monday.

[Rob Israel]

Hello fellow Geezling! I'm with Russ-- I do my DL on Intensity Day. Aside from the recovery issues of doing volume and DL on the same day, it's also good practice if you ever do a meet-- having to do the DL after heavy, low volume intensity squat and bench is very much like your 6 attempts prior to the DL at a meet. Maybe not a concern if you don't want to compete, but something to consider...

If I may be so bold-- I would suggest holding your Squat volume day at the same poundage for a couple of weeks and let your ID gain more (letting the two spread out more). Since they are only 30 pounds apart they are already close (270/300=90%) and if you keep at 5 pounds to both, they will actually get closer (300/330= 91%)

Many folks have found 90% of ID very high for volume. Especially for an older trainee, that volume is going to wipe you out. Ride the ID up for 2-3 weeks and then add 5 pounds to Volume day. I shoot for my volume day to be 83-86% of my ID.

Yes, I know PP2 says to start off at a 90% relationship between VD and ID, but it's really too high and it should immediately drop.

Cheers and good luck with TM!

[bbuszard]

Thanks for the advice, Rob, and I certainly agree with the VD assessment. I'm recovering fine from VD at the moment, but will freeze it for a bit in the next week or so. I don't plan to compete, so I'll stick with deadlift on VD for a while. I'll probably consider shifting over as the weights increase. A couple of questions, though: don't you find that your deadlift and power-cleans interfere with each other? Which do you do first?

Meanwhile...

Monday 11/12

squat: 1x5x300
press: 1x5x137
power-clean: 5x3x137

Rt. shoulder is still sore, but fortunately it didn't hamper anything today.

[bbuszard]

Thursday 11/15

squat: 5x5x270
press: 5x5x125
deadlift: 1x4x370 (miss)

Finally went to a physio about the shoulder and got worked over for 2 hours. The orders are to get some rows into the mix to offset the bench, so I'll stick those in on Saturdays instead of chins for the time being. I also got plenty of mobility work to do. Yahoo. Next appt. is Saturday A.M.

Press felt reasonable, so I'll stick with that for my "push" for a while. Once the shoulder comes around again I'll try adding some weighted dips. As for bench, we'll see...

[bbuszard]

Thursday 11/15

squat: 5x5x270
press: 5x5x125
deadlift: 1x4x370 (miss)

Finally went to a physio about the shoulder and got worked over for 2 hours. The orders are to get some rows into the mix to offset the bench, so I'll stick those in on Saturdays instead of chins for the time being. I also got plenty of mobility work to do. Yahoo. Next appt. is Saturday A.M.

Press felt reasonable, so I'll stick with that for my "push" for a while. Once the shoulder comes around again I'll try adding some weighted dips. As for bench, we'll see...