Ben's Texas Method Log (lbs)

[BenZab]

No longer using TM, but working from it as a basic template.

I'm using the term RM for convenience. I understand that my heavy singles aren't true 1RM and I know that my work sets of 5 may not be true 5RMs. Just don't feel like typing out "heavy singles/triples" every time.

I'm working toward building a dip station and getting/making a roman chair.

Ben
Age: 30
Height: 5'6"
Weight:168

5RM at the beginning of TM 1RM unknown for most

Squat: 250
Press: 120
Bench Press: 200
Power Clean: 170/160 (1RM/3RM)
Clean: 185/165 (1RM/3RM)
Snatch: 120/105 (1RM/3RM)
Deadlift: 295



Pendlay Rows: 150
Barbell Curls: 80 (untrained until I started TM)
Tricep Extensions: 55 (untrained until I started TM)

So far...

I started off on a bench press week...
1/28/13 Volume Day (made a slight calculation error and ended up about 5lbs heavier than I should have lifted in all lifts)

Squats: 5x5 @ 235
Bench Press: 5x5 @ 185
Deadlift: 1x5 265
Chins: 5 sets to max
Power Clean: 7x3 @ 150
Press: 5x5 105
Pendlay Rows: 5x5 140
Barbell Curls: 3x5 75

Total Time: 2hr


1/30/13 Recovery Day! (Repaired slight calculation error from monday, and also realized that I have to do cleans before deadlifts if I wish to do any cleans)

Squats: 3x5 200
Press: 3x5 90
Power Cleans: 5x3 130
Pendlay Rows: 3x5 120 (doesn't feel like it was worth it at this low weight)
Deadlifts: 1x5 240
Bench Press 3x5 165
Chins: 3 sets almost to max

Total Time: 1hr 15min

2/1/13 Intensity Day

Squats: 1x5 250, 1x5 255, 1x2 270, 1x1 285 (good bar speed)
Bench Press: 1x5 200, 1x5 205, 1x3 215, 1x1 225 (good bar speed)
Deadlifts: 1x5 300, 1x3 310 (310 is my whole weight set...time to buy another pair of 45s...)
Chin-ups: 3xMax
Press: 1x5 120, 1x4 & 1x3 125, 1x2 130, 1x1 135 (very very slow bar speed)
Power Cleans: Ramped sets to 160, but didn't have enough juice left in me to set new intensity PRs
Pendlay Rows: 1x5 145, 1x5 150, 1x2 165, 1x1 170 (good bar speed)

Total Time: 1hr 40min

So...this day was a bit of a screw up.
1. I started WAY too late in the day and ended up doing all but my squats and benches in the dark.
2. I did squats and deadlifts before power cleans (which I did in the dark...on ice) and still thought I might get a new PR...insanity. My cleans didn't even get close to my old 3RM.
3. I messed up my breathing during my first new 5RM press attempt. Thus my 1x4 @125 in presses, the 1x3 @125 set was just to make up for missing a rep.


Pressing Week
2/4/13 Volume Day Correct calculations, a few changes, and I'm way happier. Bar speed was easy-mode on the first set, and got me close to failure by the last set. I also altered my rest times set 1-3 rest @ 2min, sets 4-5 rest @ 3min. This workout left me sore for the first time since June, but only lower back and upper traps. Seeing as this was my first workout with my new plywood platform (lol)...I'm guessing that's almost all from the cleans. Lower back soreness was gone by the next day, traps stayed sore until thursday.

Cleans: 7x3 155
Press: 5x5 105
Squats: 5x5 235
Snatch (still a novice lift): 4x3 @ 105
Chin-Ups: 5xMax
Bench Press: 5x5 185
Pendlay Rows: 5x5 140
Deadlifts: 1x5 265
Tricep Extensions: 3x5 55

Total Time: 2hr 15min

2/6/13 Recovery Day This day was too easy, so I dropped the rest periods between sets down to 45-60 seconds, was eager to see how my body would feel afterward, and I'm definitely far less sore today (2/7) than I was yesterday before my work out. I decided that staggering my progress weeks for presses was necessary, as such, my bench press did a semi-intensity day thing.

Cleans: 4x3 135
Presses: 3x5 95
Squats: 3x5 205
Front Squats: 1x5 185
Bench Presses: 3x5 165, 1x3 205, 1x2 215, 1x1 220
Chin-ups: 3x almost max
Deadlift: Skipped because my body asked me to (wasn't feeling tired overall, but lower back felt fatigued)
Pendlay Rows: 3x5 120

Total Time: 1hr 5min

[BenZab]

One of those rare days where everything is perfect.

This was my first intensity day with Cleans first...so I was a little nervous about how I was going to feel under heavy squats. Cleans went great, so I figured I was probably rather spent. Going into presses I was nervous, presses have been (of course) the slowest progressing lift and I really wanted to get a new 5RM @ 125. So, nervousness blew my first set at 125 and I barely got 3 out...figured I was not going to get my 5RM. Then I just decided to get really fuming mad and kick the bars ass. So I did! I might have even been able to manage 6 @ 125, but the thought didn't even cross my mind. After that I was golden and everything was awesome. I even got progress on the bench.

Kept rests between 2-3 minutes, except for my biggest squat and press, which had 3.5 minute rests. Failed bench attempt @ 235 was only a 3min rest.

Cleans: 1x3 150, 1x3 160, 3x2 170, 2x2 175, 1x1 185, 1x1 190
Presses: 1x5 120, 1x3 125 (first failed set), 1x5 125, 1x1, 135, 1x1 140
Squats: 1x5 255, 1x6 260, 1x1 290, 1x2 300 (290 felt good; skipped 295)
Bench Press: 1x5 205, 1x5 210, 1x1 230, 1x0 235 (failed)
Deadlifts: 1x5 305 (because of cleans, I ditched the 1x3 310)
Pendlay Rows: 1x5 150, 1x5 155, 1x1 170, 1x1 175
Chins: 1x7, 1x6, 1x7

Total time: 1hr 45 mins

[BenZab]

So, there was a huge storm this weekend and it dropped two and a half feet of the finest powder humans have ever seen. Thus did I spend 9 hours snowboarding on Sunday. So when monday rolled up, I was still terribly sore in my adductors...I grudgingly decided to rest and wait an extra day. Good thing I did...because I was barely recovered enough to get through my program today. The first two sets of pretty much everything felt nearly impossible, but it all got done.

Cleans 8x3 155
Bench 5x5 190
Squat 5x5 235
DL 1x5 265
Presses 5x5 110
Chins 5,5,5,4,5,6 total 30 reps
Pendlay Rows 5x5 140
Curls 2x5 75,80

Time 2hr 30min

[BenZab]

Today felt as easy as it ought to have, except for an old climbing injury (flexor carpi ulnaris) that just flared back up. It actually got sore on Sunday after a snowboarding fall overstretched it a bit, then Tuesdays volume on cleans and chin-ups probably aggravated it. Either way, it hurt badly today by the end of the workout, and caused me to bail on one set each of rows and chin-ups. Overall a very moderate effort, nothing felt difficult (except chins).

Clean 2x3 140
Press 3x5 100
Snatch 3x3 95
Squat 3x5 205
Bench 3x5 170
Deadlift 1x5 240
Chin-ups 2x5
Pendlay Row 2x5 135 (a little heavy for recovery day, yes)

Total Time: 1hr 15min

[BenZab]

So, this was a weird day. Basically, I fucked up and ruined my upper body workout (except chins somehow). Cleans were hard but I put 10 lbs on my 1RM. I think I probably found my true 1RM at 200...even after a 4min rest, I was unable to do it a second time. I was happy to do singles with 195. I went into the Bench Press feeling awesome and strong, all my warm-ups went well and I loaded up what was supposed to be 210, as a single final warm-up. I un-racked it and it felt misloaded, the right arm felt heavier than the left. I racked it and checked the plates, they looked fine (I was wrong), checked the bench to see if it was off-level...all good. I unracked it and pressed it once, it was manageable, so I figured my right just wasn't as warmed up as my left or something (stupid). I then loaded the other 5 lbs to bring it what I thought was 215, asked my pops for a spot and pressed out three before I realized something had to be wrong...I hopped off and spotted it instantly this time right side was 45,35,5 the left was 45,25,5...one arm loaded for 215, the other loaded for 195...lame. I felt stupid, re-racked it to a true 215 and only managed 3 reps, got progress on the big single and that's nice. But, I totally fatigued my right bicep and anterior delts while trying to keep the bar from listing to my right on the misloaded heavy set. As such presses were weaker than last week, and rows made no progress. On the up side, squats were great, new 5RM and 10 more lbs on the heavy single...If 310 isn't a true 1RM, it's probably about 312, 313 at most. And chin-ups were great! I had wanted to come get a set of 8 and a set of 7, I ended up with a 9 and 7, sweet. I was pretty sure my presses weren't going to progress very much anyhow this week, so I'll be happy to nail the same numbers properly next week on the upper body stuff.

Clean ramped doubles 150-180, 185x1, 190x1, 195x1, 200x1, 200x0, 195x2x1 (too much volume?)
Bench Press 200x5 (misloaded) 205x3 (misloaded), 215x3, 225x2, 230x1, 235x3x1
Squat 265x5, 285x3, 300x1, 305x1, 310x1
Press 125x5, 130x2, 135x0, 140x0
Deadlift 300x5
Chin-ups 1x9, 1x7
Pendlay Row 155x5, 165x3, 170x1

[Requiem]

Where did you get this routine from? TM generally looks like this:

Volume
Squats 300 5x5
Bench 185 5x5
Power cleans 185 5x3

Recovery
Squats 235 2x5
OHP 125 2x5
back extensions

Intensity
Squats 355x5
Bench 205x5
Deadlift 445x5

OBviously you can add assistance on VD and chins are ok on recovery day and you can alternate ohp and bench if you want.

[BenZab]

Hey Requiem, you are correct, this has ceased to be TM at all, and is now just a long intermediate routine.



Volume day's difficult, but fun, repeating the same numbers as last week for press and bench press due to Saturdays poor loading and lack of progress. Everything went as scheduled except chins were easier than I expected. Lowered sets on the Clean from 8 to 7. Kept rests below 2 mins for the first 3 sets of each exercise, kept rests at 45 seconds for first 3 sets of chins. Rests between 3-4 mins for final 2 sets generally, except cleans which stayed at about 2 mins.

Cleans 160 7x3
Press 110 5x5
Squat 240 5x5
Bench Press 190 5x5
DL 265 1x5
Chins 7/7/5/6/6
Pendlay Row 140 5x5
Curls 85x5, 80 2x5
Drag Curls 85 2x5
Tricep Extensions 60 3x5

Total Time: 2hr 20min

[BenZab]

I changed my sleep schedule drastically, and I hope that's why I had no willpower today. This was recovery day, but I felt like I had to bitch all my muscles out to get them to do anything. I adjusted volume to be more accurate for recovery...it's hard to know how many sets of cleans to do...

Properly located the aggravation for my flexor carpi ulnaris: clean form. For some reason I'd been dropping my elbows after the rack, and then while in the front squat position I was lining my arms up underneath the bar as if I were pressing...like pressing it with my arms would get my front squat up faster. This was done, not with correct pressing form, of course, but with some fucked up hybrid between the clean rack position and the press position...resulting in a totally incorrect, non-useful, flexor destroying wrist position. Caught that on my second set, and my third set was much more squarely placed on my deltoids.


Cleans 140 3x3
Snatch 105 2x3
OH Press 100 3x5
Squat 205 3x5
Pendlay Rows 120 3x5
Bench Press 190 3x5
Deadlift 245 1x5
Shrugs 135 2x5

Total Workout Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

[BenZab]

So, I imagine that the reason my Recovery day was so hard was because I was coming down with a head cold, because the next morning I was fully sick. This really bummed me out for two reasons: 1. sick sucks, but mostly 2. I'm moving in a about a week and I really wanted to get two more intensity days in before I left. So, I gave in and added an extra rest day, bummed that I wasn't guaranteed a 320 squat before I left, oh well. I woke up sick yesterday, but it was all in my head, as opposed to lungs/chest/throat, so I figured I'd give it a try. Joke...

I wasn't even able to clean 150 without wondering if I was going to die. Came back inside and boxed 7 rounds in an attempt to sweat the virus out, didn't cure me.

This morning...illness is still progressing. I'll be happy to have one more intensity day before I leave.

[BenZab]

So, after being laid up sick for 9 days, 3 pounds lost...then the moving rush started. Low sleep, still kinda sick, a little underfed and first thing in the morning. Let's just say I knew I wasn't going to be crushing huge numbers as soon as I opened my eyes this morning. Even if I didn't try as hard as I could have, at least I got to get under the barbell one last time before a 12 day road/camp trip, and after being sick.

Cleans 170, 180, 185, 190, 195 (miss), 195 (miss), 190
OH Press 120x4, 125x3, 135x1
Squat 250x3, 270x2

Called it at that. 30 minutes with the barbell...