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.

Texas Method. Week 2. Volume Day

BW - 229

Squat - 350X5, 5, 5

Bench - 210X5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BW; 33 Reps, 9 Sets

Fully onto the "old-man" TM with a short term bench focus (meaning bench every Monday and Friday).  Squats and Bench both went well.  Squat bar path was better than last week.  I need to start super-setting the chin-ups into other movements again.  It takes forever to get all these chin-ups sets in after the rest of the workout is done.  3rd Squat and Bench sets below:

Texas Method. Week 1. Intensity Day

BW - 230

Squat -
365X5
290X8

Bench - 220X5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BW; 32 Reps; 8 Sets

Top set of Squats felt pretty good at the time, but looking at the video I can see that I was getting on the front of my foot on almost every rep.  May need to video my warm-ups on Intensity day to try and get that dialed-in before the work set.  Back off set felt very easy.  It's probably somewhere around 70% of my max so it should.

220 for 3X5 is an LP PR on Bench.  REALLY thought I wasn't going to get this after the 2nd set.  And you can see that the last rep on the last set in the video was absolute limit strength, RPE 10.  Depending on how this went would determine when I would switch over to TM for Bench.  I don't see any reason to wait.

Manage to get my chins in one less set than last time.  Need to watch myself, as I think I  might be starting to cut depth a little bit.

Texas Method. Week 1. Press/Deadlift Day

BW - 229

Squat - 285X5, 5

Press - 130X5, 5, 5

Deadlift -
375X3
340X3

While I'm getting back into the Texas Method, this day is a bit of a trial day in the program.  Because my Bench has been moving so well, I'm running it 3X5 on Monday AND Friday until it stalls.  In the meantime, I will be alternating Press volume and intensity days weekly on Wednesdays.  Also, I'm trying out the Deadlift here to see if it interferes with recovery for Friday.  I'm skeptical that it will as I've seldom had trouble pulling and squatting within 2 days, and Friday is low volume.  We'll see.  Anyway, that's why this isn't the normal TM "light/recovery" day mid-week.  Press should switch back to standard fairly soon as the Bench is likely to stall quickly. 

Press sets were all fine.  I wasn't sure if this would be a challenging enough weight, but I think it was good.  3rd set shown.

Deadlift was a little harder than I expected.  We'll see how that goes again next week.

Texas Method. Week 1. Volume Day

BW - 229

Squat - 345X5, 5, 5

Bench - 217.5X5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BW; 32 Reps, 9 Sets

First day back on TM.  Squats went fine.  3rd set shown.

217.5 for 3X5 is an LP PR on Bench.  These are definitely starting to slow down.  Also, frequency will be increasing a bit.  Initial plan is to Bench on Monday and Friday, Volume Day and Intensity Day.  Press will be done on Wednesdays alternating Volume and Intensity.  This is just to try and run up the Bench as fast as possible and see where it's at before I switch over to full TM.  Could hit that wall this Friday or a week or two hence.  3rd set shown.

Chins were a bit tougher today.  I think my back is actually getting bigger from this.  That's cool and all, but what I want to see is the reps on the initial sets start to rise.  I'm still averaging 4 reps/set, with the first set being 5-6 reps, and the second set being 4-5 reps.  But I'm prepared to take this thing all the way to 50 reps/session before I start looking for new tack.

Training

BW - 229

Squat -
375X4
340X5

Press -
155X2
140X5, 5

Chin-Ups - BW; 31 Reps, 8 Sets

Had the day off and so trained a bit earlier than usual.  I usually don't perform well in the gym on a day off, but this was particularly poor performance.  I knew coming in that something was off, so tried moving Squats to the front of the workout so that I would be "fresh," but it didn't help.  The top-set was brutal and wiped me out for the back-down set.  Press was more of the same.  Did get some more reps on chins, though.

I'll be switching back over to Texas Method with 3X5 on volume day.  If that's not enough to drive progress after a few weeks, I'm prepared to switch to HLM instead.  Full, 5X5 Texas Method buried me last time and I'm not interested in revisiting it.

Greyskull LP. Session 26

BW - 230

Bench - 215X5, 5, 7

Chin-Ups - BW; 30 Reps; 8 Sets

Deadlift -
370X4
335X3

215X7 is a Rep PR on Bench.  Felt really solid.

Chins were a little all over the place.  I forgot I was supposed to either exceed total reps, or match total reps in less sets.

370X4 is a Rep PR on Deadlift.  Just didn't think a 5th rep was going to be there, and so will move on with sets of 3 and a back-off set of 3.