This is gonna suck. A TM log

[kanahan]

Background/history

Male, 33 years old, 1m73 (5"8). Always been a skinny kid, never been much of an athlete, just jogged in my youth, played some tennis and football on sundays, some skiing in the winter. Then in my 20s I could sometimes go several months without doing any sort of physical exercise. Bodyweight reached around 53kg at 20 and crept up to about 57kg by late 20s/early 30s. Fucked around at the gym on and off in the past several years, not eating nearly enough and obviously never achieving much.

First LP:
Two years ago some guy told me about SS, I googled it and found a webpage (maybe a forum or wikipedia). Read those few pages and started doing my version. Ate a lot more but in retrospect, not nearly enough. Still made a lot more progress than I ever did, with bodyweight reaching 65kg after around 10 months. Squat started at 35kg (!) and ended at 105kg, though retrospectively those were likely quarter squats.

That "LP" ended with a very painful back injury when loading plates stupidly. Never would have sustained it if I had known the SS book and forum in the first place, and also would have recovered much faster. In the end it kept me out of the gym for about 9 months. I lost all those gainzZz, both strentgh and bodyweight.

But it was for the best since it forced me to do some research. Eventually I found out there was an SS book, and that it had a great reputation. Took me a little while more to find the forum.

Second LP:

I started my second LP very conservatively because my back was still acting up. Unfortunately I screwed up the explosive gainzZz phase because I still hadn't realised how much I needed to eat. Eventually took my diet to 4500cals by the end of LP, which lasted about 9 months.

In addition to eating only 2500-3000cals for the first few months of my LP, I have chronic sleep issues which also explain why my gainzZz were so poor.

End of LP numbers:
Bodyweight 80kg
Lifts (all 3x5):
Squats (high bar) 122.5kg, then kept on going for a week or two with top sets. Ended at 130kg for 3 singles.
Deadlift 130kg (then went up to 145kg singles)
Press 55kg
Bench 72.5kg then 73.5kg x4-5-4

I might have kept presses going LP for a little while longer if I had kept eating like a pig, but by then I was too fat to keep gaining 5kg/month.

[kanahan]

Why TM?

You're going to ask, if you're over 30 and not recovering well, what the hell are you messing around with texas method?

Well the first reason is I am sick and tired of 3x5. The last month or two of LP were hard as fuck and I need a change. I'm also spending way too much time at the gym during the week, and my career is stagnating. So one very long workout on sunday and two short ones during the week sound fucking great.

Also, I can still afford to eat. Even though I'm quite fat after increasing my bodyweight by 50% rapidly, I'm ok pushing it a few more kg. I'm aiming for +1kg bodyweight per month. That, and doing TM smartly (very few assistance exercises for example) should allow me at least a couple month on the program. If I can do it 3 or 4 months it will be awesome. Then I will switch to an HLM type, add some conditioning and try to come back to under 20% bodyfat. Losing weight will be the easiest thing for me, the hard part will be to lose more fat than muscle.

That's the plan anyway. We'll adjust as it goes.

[kanahan]

Week 1 (presses still on LP)

Volume day
Squats 110kg x5x5

Since this a big deload from my LP working sets I thought I could get away with 5mn rests. Took me 3 sets to realise that wouldn't work. Last couple reps of last couple sets were a bit grindy but otherwise manageable. Felt quite tired afterwards though. That was expected.

Recovery
Squats 90kg x2x5

Intensity
Squats 122.5kg x5
Deadlift 130kg x5

ID went pretty smooth. Overall I felt the week went ok. I felt sore but the "good" kind of sore when you feel your muscles are growing stronger. Hope that makes sense.

[kanahan]

Week 2

Volume day
Squats 112.5kg x5x5
Press 50kg x5x5

Squats felt harder than I thought they would. Needed full rests between sets. Slept shitty that night.

[kanahan]

Week 2

Recovery

Squats 92.5kg x2x5. This felt so heavy
Bench 60kg x3x5
Chins 2x5 at 10kg, 10 reps at BW

[kanahan]

Week 2

I felt super sore from volume squats all week.

ID
Squats 125kg x5. Felt unnessessarily grindy due to still feeling the fatigue from VD. Am I supposed to still feel sore on ID mornings from VD, every week?

Press 55kg x5. Felt weirdly out of balance. Should have felt easier I think.

Deads 135kg x5. The first rep felt heavier than I thought considering I had managed singles at 145 kg a couple weeks earlier. But in the end I managed 5 reps. Grip a bit problematic. Think my back started to arch from the 3rd rep. Time to use 2.5kg increases maybe.

[kanahan]

Week 3

The carry-over fatigue from last week volume squats, compounded by the ID effort, was a lot more than I expected. I woke up on VD with sore legs, still. So basically sore every single day of the week. Hurts when I walk up a few stairs kind of sore. Warm-up was a grind! But I knew it would get better as I got warmed up. I decided to repeat last week's weight. Don't want to burn out by the 3rd week. A bit disappointed because I slept pretty good for my standards during the week, and ate fairly ok too. Oh well, what matters is what you lift on ID right? I may need a larger offset than 10% much sooner than I thought.

Volume
Squats 112.5kg x5x5
Bench 67.5kg x5x5

[Tom K]

Sleeping and eating just "OK" on TM doesn't work for long. The fact that you've said everything feels heavy is indicative of that.

I'd increase the offset between VD and ID. Try 85% and see how that rolls.

[Str8shutr]

As long as ID weights are increasing, you can repeat VD weight. Remember you want to drive adaptation.

[kanahan]

As long as ID weights are increasing, you can repeat VD weight. Remember you want to drive adaptation.

That's one of the things I still don't get. If you don't get your reps on ID, how do you know if that was because:
- your VD was too easy and failed to drive adaptation
- your VD was too hard and you were too tired on ID
- your VD was fine, it's just time to switch to 3s on ID

Still at a loss.

As a guideline for VD, how sore should I be and for how many days afterwards ? My intuition tells me if you are still sore on ID, VD was too hard.