Yet another Texas Method check

[Irishman301]

Rip,

All these different versions of the Texas Method is getting confusing. I have been following your novice program very well for several months now. I have done a few resets, I'm eating like crazy, and I'm in love with power cleans. I'm fairly certain that it is time for me to move on to intermediate training, but even after reading PP, I'm still confused on exactly how to set it up. I have a few questions, and your reply would be greatly appreciated.

First off, here's the routine I came up with:

Monday - volume day

Squat - 5 x 5
Bench - 5 x 5
Power Clean - 3 x 5
Pull-ups - 3 x 5 weighted
abs

Wednesday - recovery day

front squat - 3 x 3 (I decided to not be a pussy, and just do these fuckers)
OH press - 3 x 3
Good mornings - 3 x 8
abs

Friday - intensity day

Squat - 1 x 3, 2, or 1
Bench - 1 x 3, 2, or 1
Deadlift - 1 x 3, 2, or 1
chin-ups - 2 x 10 @ bodyweight
abs

My questions are:

1.) The assistance exercises I like are pull-ups/chin-ups and good mornings. I wasn't sure exactly where to place them, so I put weighted pull-ups on monday (because it's volume day), GM's at a lighter weight on recovery day (to keep the intensity low, yet still work my lower back and hamstrings), and bodyweight chin-ups on PR day (to make sure I'm still doing chins/pulls at least twice a week, but not adding too much volume therefore just using bodyweight). Does that sound about right?

2.) OH presses on recovery day are still supposed to be done at the heaviest I can do for 3 reps right? This is because the weight I use for presses is sufficiently lighter then for bench, so it won't cause as much stress on the system right?

3.) Power Cleans.... I wasn't sure where the hell to put these, so I put them on volume day on monday. Are these placed in the right spot?

4.) The PR day - are you supposed to just pick a rep range (1 x 1, 1 x 2, or 1 x 3), and just stick to that. Or are you supposed to rotate weekly (ie week one do 1x3, week 2 do 1x2, week 3 do 1x1, week 4 do 1x3, week 5 do 1x2etc....)?



Thanks for all your help, and for the record my 5RM's for 3 sets @ 200 lbs. 5'11" are:

squat - 265
dead - 375
OH press - 140
bench - 225
power clean - 155

Thanks again.

[Mark Rippetoe]

1. One of these days needs to be a couple of sets of chins to failure, which would make it volume, as opposed to your 3 x 65 weighted pullups. It doesn't really matter where they go, since they're assistance exercises, unless they begin to interfere with your pressing. The GMs look fine.

2. Right.

3. If you pull like this, your only DL work will be heavy 3,2, or 1. I'd DL 5s on Monday, and PC on Friday, leaving heavy 3-2-1 DL work for later.

4. Rotate the reps each week.

[semiok45]

Great Post Irish thanks.