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Jordan Feigenbaum MD SSC: The Texas Method and 5/3/1.
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Serious question, who actually does heavy deadlifts on volume day instead of intensity day? Everyone who I've heard from who has tried both ways drastically prefers doing them on intensity day, because it allows one to actually deadlift heavy and make progress, possibly because the intensity day squats are a quarter of the tonnage of volume day squats. Doing them on volume day pretty much precludes being able to do them well.
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Interesting article. I'll reread the section in Practical Programming about the 4-day split. A few observations, from doing both the Texas Method and 5/3/1:Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe
- Not a revelation, and something you mentioned in one of your Q&As, but TM volume days are too much for a middle-aged man.
- Similar issues with doubling up 5/3/1 sessions (one upper and one lower body exercise per day, lifting 2x per week). I tried that for a while, but it doesn't seem optimal, and it also limits the amount of assistance work you can do.
- Squat work sets seemed either too heavy or too light on 5/3/1, recently so I went back to sets across.
- The only major exercise I've hit PRs in in the last year+ has been deadlifts. I think 5/3/1's multiple, scaled work sets have been more effective for me than the TM approach on dead lifts. Part of my problem with the other exercises was I wasn't doing enough extra work after the AMRAP set. So, for the last few months, I've added extra work on those (3 sets of paused squats, 2 extra sets of barbell bench and press + 3 sets of dumbbell bench and press).
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I did 5-3-1 last summer and enjoyed it, mostly because it was refreshing to do something other than just 5's all the time. I used the joker sets (doing a set or two beyond the prescribed weight for the AMRAP set) as well as doing the "first set last" assistance work but on opposite days... for instance on Bench day I would follow up with 5x5 Presses at whatever weight my press day started out at that week. On press day I would bench 5x5, etc. Same with squats & deadlifts. I'm sure this extra volume and intensity in the main lifts helped some. I did hit some PR's including a 600lb deadlift after my second month of the program. However, since I never tested my 1RM or even did heavy singles before that it's hard to say how much actual strength improvement that represents. When I started it I was feeling pretty beat up and it was a nice change of pace doing 4 shorter workouts instead of three long ones, not squatting every day, and cycling through different rep ranges, but after a four month layoff followed by 3 month LP I'm going to do a more aggressive program (HLM) to keep adding weight on the bar weekly.
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It's kind of hard to criticise 5/3/1 as there are so many variations. BBB, Joker Sets, First Set Last etc etc etc. You can also mix and match your assistance work - i.e. do bench assistance exercises on pressing day.
I probably started it too early (i.e. before my LP ended, but I was new to lifting). It stood me in reasonable stead for 5 years of lifting and allowed me to get in and out of the gym in a reasonable length of time.
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Finally! Thanks for your work on this Jordan!
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I've done 5-3-1 a time or two. To me, it seemed to lack enough intensity until the last set of AMRAP. As a 60+ geezer it was easy to recover from and because the first two sets weren't all that challenging, I could jam through a workout faster with less down time between sets. But my strength gains stagnated. But then again, especially in the 60's the gains will not go on forever.
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When I did the TM, I deadlifted on volume day and preferred them that way. However, I am a better deadlifter than I am a squatter. I hit PRs on both the squats and deads during that time.
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I am, because I can have a long volume session on the weekend and keep weekday workouts short. However, I'm doing a little less squat volume than the classic TM VD, and then add a back-off set on ID. Sort of midway between TM and HLM. Has been working great for the deadlift, less so for the squat.
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When I did my initial run on the 3 day TM, I did as Thomas did, and PRd both even with doing DL on Monday's VD, with heavier squats and cleans on Fridays. However I also sensed this would end soon. When I switched to the 4 day, squatting volume on Tuesdays and Intensity on Fridays with no light day, I switched DL to Friday's ID. This worked well, and then I had three full days to recover from that before doing volume squats again. That worked well for quite a while.
It'll vary lifter to lifter, but the kind of lifter who would make good progress on the TM in general is probably also the kind who has a higher likelihood of being able to do DL on VD after 5x5 squats and presses, and still progress for a while that way.
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