Best way to cycle intensity day reps on 4 day split

[Tim W]

Unclear from PPST on how to do this.
Should I run out 5RM, then run out 2 triples, 3 doubles, and five singles?

Or is it better to cycle them by week, as in:
Week 1: 5x1
Week 2: 3x2
Week 3: 2x3
Week 4: 1x5
If I use the approach above, what do you do when you get to singles? Go back to 5RM at 5-10 lb more weight than the last 5RM?

Appreciate the help.

[Brian Goldstein]

Understanding the Texas Method Intensity Day | Andy Baker

This describes it in detail.

[Tim W]

Thanks Brian. I’m still a bit confused on whether to run it out or empirically cycle through 5,3,2,1s by week. Then not clear at what weight to resume 5s

[Peter Egener]

I remember reading something Andy wrote, actually may be in either PPST or BBRx, that said to run it out a couple of times through 5s, 4, 3, 2s (and maybe a single), then start cycling 5/3/1 week to week.

Re-read the info in PPST - TM - Phase II "Running it Out."

You are correct in the principle of running it out as you wrote above "I run out 5RM, then run out 2 triples, 3 doubles, and five singles."
The first time round you just run 2x3 as long as you can until you feel you won't get another 3RM. Then you run 3x2 for as long as you can until you feel you can't run another 2RM (the book also says that skipping 2s and going straight to singles might be a good idea), then you are into singles across and continue to increase the intensity on singles accross "until it becomes apparent that he (you) can no longer do so." The final intensity day of singles before resetting back to 5s may be one very heavy single. You might need to reset volume day (-5-10%) to cope with this kind of intensity. It is important to change from 5s to 3s "when the lifter feels he can no longer complete another 5RM on his intensity day." The take home I get from this is that you DECIDE PRIOR TO FAILING a 5RM attempt on intenisty day to go down to 3s. This deciding to drop reps before actually failing might assist in running the 3s and singles for longer, but don't expect more than a few weeks in each rep range.

Then if you like, you can reset back to 5s and run it out again. I don't know, I'd probably reset to a little below (10lb) my last completed set of 5 reps to bleed off some fatigue. If you want to be gruesome you could always calculate 85% of your last very heavy single for your next 5RM attempt.

After running it out a couple of times, go to Phase III which is the rep cycling week to week of 5s, 3s and singles.

Hope that helps, but if you read the related passages of the book again (and then maybe again), it should all make sense.