Is barbell prescription relevant at 29

[Johnsonville]

I am 29 6ft 220lbs running 4 day Texas method but I keep hitting walls when my focus deviates away from strength training a bit. When I make sure to eat excessive amounts, sleep well, and don’t get beat to shit at work (block mason) or grappling I make great progress. For periods of more grappling or when work gets busy and I’m laying block 60 hours a week a hlm template seems appropriate. Would it be enough stress if I were to use one of the programs from barbell prescription? Writing this I realize it sounds obvious that it will benefit me, but I am curious what others think. One last thing; I’ve program hopped over the last ten years and have found out I respond best to higher intensity programs.

Current lifts:
Squat 385x5
Dl 415x5
Bench 285x5
Press 160x1, 140x5x5

[James Rodgers]

How far into the Texas Method did you make it? Did you ever run it out into triples, doubles and singles?

[Satch12879]

Maybe don’t do the Texas Method? I think you’re seeing the reason Rip says it’s best for unemployed kids.

[Johnsonville]

How far into the Texas Method did you make it? Did you ever run it out into triples, doubles and singles?

I ran it out entirely first, then did 3,2,1 for deadlifts and 5,3,1 squats along with nicks intermediate upper body routine. Been cycling that for a few rounds and will make progress consistently under the right circumstances.

Maybe don’t do the Texas Method? I think you’re seeing the reason Rip says it’s best for unemployed kids.

That’s the point of the question. From what I hear there is a handful of hlm templates in barbell prescription, which is what I’m looking for. Also, I said four day Texas method split, never said I was doing the original program.

[CanuckInOsaka]

You don't have to run a 4 day program in just one week. You can stretch out how long you take to complete the 4 day program cycle. So, you could do 3 workouts per week and take just longer than a week to do one cycle. You would then run the program like this:

Week 1 - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
Week 2 - Day 4, Day 1, Day 2
Week 3 - Day 3, Day 4, Day 1
Week 4 - Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

So, 3 cycles of the program would take 4 weeks. This would spread the stress out over a longer time period. Whether that would work for you or an HLM would be better will need you to try them out.

See Andy Baker's article on this - 3 or 4 day Texas Method? Why Not Both? - Andy Baker

[JJ23]

I'm 39 and own both Barbell Prescription and Practical Programming. There's plenty of program ideas in the latter that are less demanding than the Texas Method. Also, you're underweight.

[Erich Weidner]

It is worth reading. I really like how it is organized. For me the tables/terminology used to describe the phases of the NLP (1A/2A/etc.) made things finally click, vs after just reading the PPST book. Now as I'm going back and re-reading PPST I'm getting a lot more out of it.

My recollection is that the intermediate programs in TBP are the same as in PPST, but adapted for use by 40,50,60,70+ year olds. Again, the way it is formatted/different authors perspective may give you a light bulb moment if PPST didn't fire that up.
But you need PPST as well.

Also, you will eventually be 40+. I found the first few chapters on just how you want to age very thought provoking. At 45, it really made me realize I am needing to get my crap together physically, and has further helped motivate me to try to fix how I had let my body go to hell.

[James Rodgers]

If it's a recovery and time management problem when work gets super busy, there is the option to run the 4 Day Texas Method Split on a three day a week schedule. This would give you extra recovery days and reduce your weekly workout time commitment by 25%. It also lets you alter a productive but unsustainable program by making a little change instead of switching to something you've never done before.

It would look something like this:

Week 1
Monday: Volume Squat/Intensity Pull
Wednesday: Intensity Press/Volume Bench
Friday: Intensity Squat/Volume Pull

Week 2
Monday: Intensity Bench/Volume Press
Wednesday: Volume Squat/Intensity Pull
Friday: Intensity Press/Volume Bench

The one drawback would be that on some weeks you'll be pressing and benching only once a week which isn't really enough training stress to keep them going long term.

[CommanderFun]

Have you tried other 4 day splits from the grey book? Maybe the heavy-light scheme has some potential for your situation, when you aren't able to devote maximum resources to recovery.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

You are doing way too much to stay in a high-volume TM variant. An HLM approach like those outlined in BBRx or PP could work for you, sure. You aren't an old guy, but it sounds like you are an over-worked under-recovered guy, which is SORTA the same thing. A more forgiving four-day heavy-light split might work for you, too, and you could "Block" it out to better accommodate a heavy physical job and grappling. You have to decide what your emphasis is, and stay focused on recovery. You might want to think about getting a coach, in person or online, who can dispassionately look at what you're doing and map out an appropriate program.