The Texas Method: Andy Baker

[Mark Rippetoe]

Understanding the Texas Method Intensity Day | Andy Baker

[poser]

Going back to the early, developmental stages of TM (you know, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth), I understand that there were two days of 5x5 instead of what is now called "Volume Day" and "Intensity Day". Once you guys made the switch to having an Intensity Day with a reduction in weekly volume, were the week to week improvements of the trainees sudden and dramatic?

I ask because I tend to think that a history of the evolution of the Texas Method might in some future text might help clear up misconceptions about the purpose and understanding of the program itself. "Back When we did it this way, we got these results, but when we switched X and Y, we got a different and more desirable set of results..." sort of explanation.

[David Kirkham]

Understanding the Texas Method Intensity Day | Andy Baker

Great article for me to read so I can start to understand post novice programming a little better--even if the TM isn't in the cards for me. I'm too old and busy to tackle that insanity. But there are parallels for the 50+ crowd that help us in the ultimate competition--fending off death. That was heavily on my mind today as I walked into my gym with a torn hamstring--The Grim Reaper called upon my uncle last night. Thankfully he was asleep.

[Aryah]

I've lost 28lbs on Texas method and it's one of the most difficult things I've done. The benefits are undeniable though with my strength to weight ratio consistently increasing. Deadlifts and presses haven't gone down at all. Bench is down 5% and squats are down 5%.

People just need to buy PPST and read it honestly. It gives you all the information you could possibly want. Also reading Andy's articles on his website has been a massive help.

All the information except one little tidbit, which brings me to a question: For triples, doubles and singles on intensity day, how long is an appropriate amount of rest? I've just been taking the approach that I rest as long as I need to. It's usually 5+ minutes.

[Giri Kotte]

I ran the 3 day Texas Method for four months at the age of 37. Most unforgettable of life experiences I've ever had. By the end of four months, the volume day was taking 3.5 hours to complete and at 2 AM in the morning I'd be staring at the ceiling in bliss, not being able to catch a wink of sleep with all that excitement coursing through the veins and throbbing in the head, in spite of being dog exhausted. Come morning, I had to zombie myself through the day. On the positive side, I breezed through 2x squat and then added 22 pounds to it, as if it were nothing (mind you, my genes are anything but athletic). And also, whatever I ate under that state of physical stress, NOTHING showed up on the waist. Guess I got to taste how exactly it felt like being a late teen once again. Metabolism wise anyway.

It all collapsed one fine day when I had to shift my volume day to Wednesday due to some commitments. And unfortunately, overconfidence, over ambition or sheer greed, I chose to do the intensity day on a Saturday (skipping the light day completely). I failed, for the first time in 4 months. Then it was as if a switch flipped in my head/rest of the body. I couldn't finish my warm ups on Monday. The second warm-up felt like a ton! Abandoned my pursuit and came back on Wednesday. No difference. It was as if I forgot how to squat. So anyway, I took a month off and started with the lightest weight possible, did the linear progression with every step feeling as if I'm doing it for the first time. Wisely transitioned to HLM from there on. This Monday I did 347 pounds for 5 (which is more than my previous squat 5 RM). Touch wood.

But I'm curious to know if my experience is singular

[deeprooted]

One of the things I love about the TM is how intuitive it is. If you stick to the program you'll figure out which changes you have to make to continue progress. Even without the knowledge in here or the new PP edition I realized I'm getting too wrecked by the 5x5 and couldn't recover after a while. So I reduced the VD to 4x5 while still going up in weights. Once I stalled again and got wrecked by the VD I lowered the sets to 3x5, which today is quite the challenge compared to LP novice-phase 3x5 but it is still doable. Since you can monitor your ID progress, you can easily determine if you're applying too much or too little stress on VD.

With the ID I did something similar. When the weekly 5RM PRs weren't feasible anymore I simply tried to continue to increase the weight that week and just attempt to do as many reps as possible. So that usually turned out to be 3 or maybe even 4 reps. A week later it might have been doubles and possibly the same the following week, then singles etc. for as long as I could sustain an increase in weight. Sometimes I could increase the doubles and singles for a few weeks in a row. Once I failed or didn't feel like I had it in me I went back to 5RMs or 3RMs and repeated the cycle finding that the previous weights now got easier.

In the future I might try sets of 3 on VD and see how that goes. I've also tried something from Jordan recently which I found to work quite well for VD but might be a little too light in weight:
1.) 1x6 with a weight you could do 2 more reps with
2.) As many triples as possible with the same weight within 12 minutes (which in my experience depending on the weight turns out to be 4 or 5 sets). So basically it's pretty much 4x3 with 4min breaks or 5x3 with 3min breaks.

Maybe this could be done with a heavier weight with an initial set of 5 followed by i.e. 5 doubles. That would provide the same overall volume as 3x5 sets across with maybe the same weight in less overall time.

[Mark Rippetoe]

For triples, doubles and singles on intensity day, how long is an appropriate amount of rest? I've just been taking the approach that I rest as long as I need to. It's usually 5+ minutes.

Your approach is correct. The reps are the point, so rest as necessary.

[marcf]

I ran the 3 day Texas Method for four months at the age of 37. Most unforgettable of life experiences I've ever had. By the end of four months, the volume day was taking 3.5 hours to complete and at 2 AM in the morning I'd be staring at the ceiling in bliss, not being able to catch a wink of sleep with all that excitement coursing through the veins and throbbing in the head, in spite of being dog exhausted. Come morning, I had to zombie myself through the day. On the positive side, I breezed through 2x squat and then added 22 pounds to it, as if it were nothing (mind you, my genes are anything but athletic). And also, whatever I ate under that state of physical stress, NOTHING showed up on the waist. Guess I got to taste how exactly it felt like being a late teen once again. Metabolism wise anyway.

It all collapsed one fine day when I had to shift my volume day to Wednesday due to some commitments. And unfortunately, overconfidence, over ambition or sheer greed, I chose to do the intensity day on a Saturday (skipping the light day completely). I failed, for the first time in 4 months. Then it was as if a switch flipped in my head/rest of the body. I couldn't finish my warm ups on Monday. The second warm-up felt like a ton! Abandoned my pursuit and came back on Wednesday. No difference. It was as if I forgot how to squat. So anyway, I took a month off and started with the lightest weight possible, did the linear progression with every step feeling as if I'm doing it for the first time. Wisely transitioned to HLM from there on. This Monday I did 347 pounds for 5 (which is more than my previous squat 5 RM). Touch wood.

But I'm curious to know if my experience is singular

Welp, you're 37, so it's amazing you even lasted 4 months. Your decision to do intensity day just two days after volume day came at a huge cost, and your Monday and Wednesday workouts reflected that lack of recovery, combined with the accumulated fatigue of doing TM for 4 months as an older trainee. I think it was a mistake to take a month off squatting, though, because you could've taken one or two lighter weeks to recover and come back to doing something like HLM.

In short, you severely shortened your SRA cycle and expected to hop right back on schedule.

[JimB]

Good summary of texas method with some clarifications on areas people seem to get wrong. I'm on my second run through TM right now and have found it to be highly effective, especially with the 4-day split I switched to after the first run of it, which gave me more work on press/ bench.

I will say that although I have found TM to be very challenging, I actually thought the end of my novice progression was more difficult, where I was squatting grindy sets for 3x5 with progressively heavier loads multiple times per week. I work with a SS coach, which, among other things, has allowed the proper application of weights on VD...I could definitely see myself running the VD squats way too heavy on my own.

[Giri Kotte]

Welp, you're 37, so it's amazing you even lasted 4 months. Your decision to do intensity day just two days after volume day came at a huge cost, and your Monday and Wednesday workouts reflected that lack of recovery, combined with the accumulated fatigue of doing TM for 4 months as an older trainee. I think it was a mistake to take a month off squatting, though, because you could've taken one or two lighter weeks to recover and come back to doing something like HLM.

In short, you severely shortened your SRA cycle and expected to hop right back on schedule.

Agreed. And probably if I transitioned to HLM straight away, I might have progressed farther, even if at slower rate. But I was attracted to the charm of TM being a straight forward template as opposed to HLM which is more of a malleable guideline. I initially wanted to test the waters before I moved on to HLM , then I got addicted to ID PRs. Jordan Feigenbaum did suggest splitting the volume day, which I couldn't due to various reasons. I did try to incorporate lighter squats etc. but it was almost as if my brain has completely shut down to the concept of a barbell. Lesson learnt.

I posted out of curiosity if anybody in late 30s tried TM.