Texas Method for starters

(me) Male, 48, 5'10", 240lbs
(partner) Female 35, 5'9", 240lbs

Calorie deficit 2300 calories per day using supplements and cronometer to ensure 180 grams protein. I am only losing about 1 pound per week but its working to help her drop 2-3 pounds per week and we just pkan on continuing until we are satisfied with our abs :D

We had already been "exercising" with the barbells out regularly for close to 8 years and novice linear progression ended up not working to add weight every session quickly (1 month). We are still able to add 1lb to 5lbs every week or two after 2 months of this program. Do you guys think we are missing anything or should make any changes?

Current five rep max after 2 months of modified Texas method

(me) 5RM ~ Squat - 420lbs, Deadlift - 450lbs, Overhead Press - 135lbs, Bench - 225lbs, Power Clean 5 x 3 - 135lbs
(partner) 5RM ~ Squat - 300lbs, Deadlift - 340lbs, Overhead Press - 96lbs, Bench - 135lbs, Power Clean 5 x 3 - 95lbs


Tuesday: VOLUME DAY
Squat (SQ): 5x5 (@ 90% of 5RM)
Overhead Press (OHP): 5x5 (@ 90% 5RM)
Deadlift (DL): 3x5 (@ 85% of 5RM)

Thursday: RECOVERY DAY
Squat (SQ): 2 x 5 @ 80% of Tuesday’s weight
Power Clean (PC): 5x3
Bench Press (BP): 5 x 5 (@ 90% of 5RM)
Back Extension (BE): 5 x 10
Chin-up (CU): 1x3 or Pull Downs (PD) 3x5

Saturday: INTENSITY DAY
Squat (SQ): warm-up, then work up to new 5RM
Overhead Press (OHP) : warm-up, then work up to new 5RM
Deadlift (DL): warm-up, then work up to new 5RM
Bench Press (BP): warm-up, then work up to new 5RM

Was there a question here?

I would think that if you keep doing on a caloric deficit, you're going to have a bad time very quickly. The fact that you've made it this far is interesting.

Just looking for feedback on the programming. The main question was, do you guys think we are missing anything or should make any changes? I was thinking we should switch to a 4 day split since she's a girl and I am so old but we only do 1900 calories on off days and I want to keep enough of those to in there to make a difference.

The caloric deficit is an attempt to somehow exchange fat for lean tissue and she really struggles with it if we don't get at least 900 calories before heading in for volume & intensity. I figured for sure it would really kill me but i seem to progressing just fine except for being so weak on the upper body still. Other than learning how to squat properly and almost immediately adding 100 pounds to those I really love that I can overhead press without hurting my shoulders after studying the blue book. Thanks Rip!

Note, we are supplementing creatine and beta alanine which may help explain why we are still able to recover and progress without a surplus.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rvwinkle

Note, we are supplementing creatine and beta alanine which may help explain why we are still able to recover and progress without a surplus.

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I don't think those supplements would explain this. I'll be curious to hear what Rip and Broggi think.

Switching to a four-day split would be a good way to manage the stress. I think that's a good change.

A few thoughts:
1.That calorie deficit seems pretty aggressive and not tenable for very long.
2. That's a lot of pulling.
3. You're probably going to need to scale back your volume loads to the 80-85% range soon.
4. Your bench and press numbers are relatively low. Are you microloading these movements?

Thanks Matt,

1. I know its crazy right, but guessing my metabolic rate must be super low or something similar as I am still only dropping 1lb a week
2. We initially tried power cleans instead of pulling on volume day but all that jumping was just harder than we could handle gracefully by that point in the routine.
3. I was considering a switch to 4 days if this stopped working but volume % reduction as an easier step for troubleshooting if needed and seems like a good idea too, thanks!
4. Yeah I always hated bench and would be in pain for days with any overhead pressing so we just didn't do it for years. Then we were reverse grip benching for awhile but just not enough and without a drive to add weight, so it has always been lame numbers compared to our SQ/DL. I was so excited after doing the SS method for overhead press after 2 weeks without any pain and I thought for sure I would be adding 5lbs per workout, but I found a single pound a week was all I could manage right away, although I did just add 10lbs this week to bench for the 225lb 5RM benchmark so the synchronicity and planning seems to be paying off so far.

Figuring out the correct calories once we get to where the abs are visible seems like it will take a while without some actual professional testing, but I am assuming we will just starting adding an additional 200 calories a day for two week evaluations until we find that sweet spot.