Time to change?

[Mahendra]

Good day everyone,

Before I start, my stats are as follows:

5'5 - 148 lbs.

5RM are as follows:

Squat - 215
Press - 115
Deadlift - 300
Bench Press - 170
Weighted Chins - 40 lbs
Barbell Rows - 170
*I workout at home and don't have a coach to properly teach me powercleans

I've been stalling on the above numbers and have rest 3 times on the squat and bench press - only once on the deadlift.

Given my height and weight, should I consider moving on to the Texas Method now? Or should I just try to continue eating even more food, and push my weight up even further?

Given my height, my goal is probably to weigh around 155lbs lean (or should I aim even higher)? I train Muay Thai about twice a week.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[builtbyrowan]

How old are you?

[Mahendra]

I'm 27 (soon to be 28).

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

"I workout at home and don't have a coach to properly teach me powercleans"

You have the book, right?

[Mahendra]

Yes, and I've worked on them a few times but have always been worried about technique. I also don't know anyone else who knows anything about them to judge whether I'm doing them correctly.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

"Yes, and I've worked on them a few times but have always been worried about technique."

Did you get the weight up? Was there a jump? DId you hurt anything?

Do you have a camera?

[Mahendra]

Yes, Yes, No.

Yes.

If that is the criteria, I will stop being a pussy and work on them.

I only left them out and incorporated Weighted Chins/Pullups because in Practical Programming, Rip mentioned that it could be used for the Novice.

[Carlos Daniel]

I think you should at the very least weight 160 lbs.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

I won't say anything bad about upper body pulls, but PC are a great lift.

I agree with Carlos, you should be at least 160.

[Les Hahn]

It looks like you are making great progress. Just keeping working towards your goal weight, and you might be able to squeeze a little more out of LP. Otherwise, I don't think it would hurt to start an intermediate program.

How does the MT effect your training? I know a lot of guys that do martial arts and lift have to be a little more careful about how they program their lifting. The Texas Method can be hard to recover from as well, if you are doing a lot of other training. If it feels ok though, give it a shot. Check out the Sherdog Strength and Conditioning Forums to see how guys mix the 2. That forum really supports SS and TM, so you will get a lot of good ideas from there.

I too just do barbell rows. They seem to help bring my bench press up a little more, since I am pulling with my back more parallel to the ground (like a Pendlay row). I think power cleans can be great too, but I don't do them. If I ever decide to try some olympic lifts down the road, I will be at a disadvantage. If you aren't interested in those type of movements, you could just do speed deads or high pulls. Either way, you don't HAVE to do them to get strong.

Good luck!