Texas Method - Small Changes - Inputs/Critique?

Hey ladies and gents.

I’m new to this site,but not new to training.

I’ve been living between two worlds (crossfit without kipping - and power lifting) trying to figure out what I want to focus on. Up till now I have been doing Bill Starr’s “big 3” for 2-3 months and then switching to crossfit-ish training, when I got bored.

Now it has been decided! I want to lift heavy things! I’ve ended up with the Texas Method. I’m using the method as a template and I have made some small changes.

Since I have no experience with the Texas Method I would love some inputs! both good and bad is welcome!

Here goes:

Mon - volume day
WU: Flow/movement + low intensity sprints
Squat 55 starting at 70% of 5RM
(Backoff - 2
10 pistols pr leg odd weeks / 220 stepouts even weeks)
Bench 5
5 at 70% odd weeks / Press 55 at 70% even weeks
(Backoff - 2
10 DB incline bench odd weeks / 210 Dips even weeks)
Deadlift - 1
5 at 70%
(Backoff - 2*10 BB bent over rows)

Wed - easy day
Flow/movement for 10-15 minutes
Squat 25
Press / Bench 3
5
Goodmornings 510
Chin ups 3
max reps (when hitting 310 add weight in belt)
Shoulder assistance: YTW 3
10 of each

Fri - intensity day
WU: Jump rope 5 mins + agility ladders & plyo for 10 mins
Squat 15 (starting slightly below current 5RM and hitting new PR’s in a few weeks)
Bench / Press 1
5 (same as above)
Power cleans 5*3 at 70% of 3RM
Finisher: BB complex at low weight - no more than 10-15 mins.

Hope for some feedback! Is it too much, can I ad more, starting weights too high/low? Hit me.

Thank you :slight_smile:
Thomas

Sounds like a pretty safe bet, quite close to the standard Texas Method overall but with the common reduction in weight for the volume day. 5x5 programs will work if you let them, and the heavy day will help drive progress on for longer still, so if you train well you should achieve a lot assuming you are a low level intermediate / advanced beginner in terms of lifts and experience.

If you are at a higher level, you might benefit from adjusting further based on results rather than following the plan exactly, but in that case you’ll have to try things out and see. Run with it for a while and re-assess if you begin to feel that progress is stalling too much. A large part of it otherwise is just down to preference - if a style suits you well, you’ll likely get more out of it.

If you want to focus on powerlifting, consider keeping to bench on 5x5 and press on the light day - practice with the main lifts is vital if you want to maximise your ability.

The Texas method is known to be a high demand program as it is already.I’m going to start running it after my next cycle of 5/3/1. All the information I’ve read says additional work should be added in/ modified at a really slow pace. If you end up enjoying it and are finding that you’re making gains then full steam ahead. If you find it too taxing just start with the base and go from there. Start with RDLs on VD, chins on recover day, and GHRs on intensity day (or lifts similar) and work from there! Hope that’s some help

Check out Alpha on the training logs. Alpha's Work IV - Training Logs - Forums - T Nation He doesn’t do Crossfit, but some of his conditioning stuff had that flare to it sometimes. He might have some ideas for you, or at least be an inspiration.

I agree with halcj and bmcinnis96. Don’t add a bunch of extra work and focus on the main lifts if powerlifting is your goal. What you are calling “backoff” work can be done at the end, if at all, because you will be more tired by the time you get to the third exercise. Plus, your warmups are more like conditioning work, you would be better off doing that on Tuesday and Saturday so it doesn’t interfere with the important stuff. I have seen a few different layouts for the TM, if I was going to do that I would set it up like this:

Monday
squat, bench, deadlift 5x5 @70% or so of 5rm

Wednesday
Squat, press 3x5 @ 60% of 5rm
Pendlay rows 3-4 sets of 5-8 or something like that

Friday
Work up to new 5rm’s in squat, bench, and deadlift. Don’t add down sets until you are ready because you will be suffering on deadlift

If you want to do conditioning and some extra work like chin ups or shoulder work then do that on Tuesday or Saturday. If 70% is easy to do for 5x5 then raise the %, concentrate on that rather than non-specific exercises.

Dude, trust me when I say that when the volume day weights get very heavy, there is no way in hell you will be doing step ups or pistols, or probably any assistance work. Deadlifting afterwards will be hard enough.

Seems fine. month or two down the line try sprinkling in some direct tricep/gunz work on the friday

Thank you very much for the replies.

I’ll listen a bit to all of you, so I will:

Stick with the basic programme and add the “backoffs” at the end of Mondays training - and that only after a couple of weeks, if I feel like I can stomach it.

Do bench on Mondays and Fridays - and only press on Wednesday

Warm-up with movement and ramp up sets - and keep my short conditioning sessions to Tuesday and Thursday - if recovery allows it.

Again, thank you for the advice
Thomas