Old Man Texas Method. Week 4. Intensity Day

BW - 227

Squat - 380X5

Bench - 227.5X5

Deadlift - 390X3

380X5 is a Squat PR.  Moved pretty well.  Depth is borderline, but feels tight at the bottom.

227.5X5 ties a PR on Bench.  Probably about RPE 9.5 (i.e. couldn't have gotten another rep, but possibly could have had a touch more weight).  A good tip that came up on the Barbell Logic podcast with Matt Reynolds was that right when the bench hits a hard sticking point, allow it to drift back over your face a bit more, and that movement actually allows the elbows to extend without having to push the weight up.  The effect is that you move an inch or so closer to lockout, and through the sticking point.  I felt that very much on this last rep.

390X3 on Deadlift ties a PR.  Last rep was also about RPE 9.5  Had to reset after the 2nd rep because the bar shifted on the platform.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 2. Intensity Day

BW - 230

Squat - 370X5

Bench - 225X5

Chin-Ups - BW; 33 Reps; 8 Sets

Everything went pretty well on this day.  I've been listening to the Starting Strength podcast with Matt Reynolds, and they've elaborated on the Old Man Texas Method.  To keep in line with that, I started by dropping the AMRAP back-off sets from this day. And starting this week, I will be making some other little tweaks, and we'll see how it goes.

Bar path on Squats still looks troublesome, although these felt good.

Was supposed to do 222.5 on the bench, but I just couldn't take it anymore and went on to 225.  Moved well.

Chins started off feeling a little stronger, and got a few more reps on the initial sets, and was able to get the same total reps as last time in one less set.

Starting with the next workout, we'll see Squats on Volume Day get a little lighter, but heavier and more sets on the light day.  I'll start alternating Press with Bench again this week, and there will be many more sets on Volume Day for these with a little less weight.  Also DL will happen on both VD and ID for as long as that works.  Not resetting the DL to sets of 5 yet though. Want to see if DL on VD can help keep driving the weight up on ID.

Old-Man Texas Method. Week 2. Press/Deadlift Day

BW - 231

Squat - 290X5, 5

Press -
145X5
115X8

Deadlift -
380X3
340X3

Press and Deadlift were both pretty hard on this day.  On both the tops sets and back-off sets.  Both top sets definitely felt like RPE 9-10, as I think you can see in the videos below.  We'll see what happens with these lifts over the next couple of weeks.  I may need to find a way to introduce a bit more direct volume.

Also, I listened to a podcast with Matt Reynolds, Starting Strength coach, about the "Old Man" TM, which is what I'm doing a version of.  They talked about the "light" day squats needing to feel as hard or maybe harder than the volume day squats.  The idea being that you shouldn't be recovered enough from Monday for these to be easy, but they're light enough that you will be mostly recovered for Friday's Intensity set.  These were pretty easy, and I likely will need to add weight or sets.  However, since the switchover from what I had been doing to TM is already an overall increase in volume, I don't want to rush to make more changes, before I see what happens with the initial programming.