The Texas Method Split (The Better Way To Do Texas Method)

A while ago I wrote an article about the Texas Method. The purpose of that article was to introduce the idea of intermediate training; programming your lifts on a weekly basis. However I believe that the original template for the Texas Method has its flaws; the main limitation being that you cannot train the bench press and overhead press equally in the same week.

The Texas Method split solves this problem. It breaks away from the typical squat-push-pull template that you see in typical 5x5 programs, and in my opinion opens more doors for the lifter, training wise. The Texas Method split follows this basic format:

Day 1: pressing
Day 2: squats and pulling
Day 3: pressing
Day 4: squats and pulling

As a rule of thumb, I'd probably recommend this program for a lifter who's max lifts are around a 160kg squat, 100kg bench, 180kg deadlif (but if you can go higher than this by doing linear progression, then by all means go for it!).

The Program

If I were to list all the exercises and volume/intensity relationships the program would look like this:

Monday

Overhead Press (Intensity)
Bench Press (Volume)
Pressing assistance
Arms
Ab work

Tuesday

Squat (Volume)
Light Deadlifts
Barbell Rows
Extra leg and back assistance if you need it
Ab work

Thursday

Bench Press (Intensity)
Overhead Press (Volume)
Pressing assistance
Arms
Ab Work

Friday

Squat (Intensity)
Heavy Deadlift
Weighted Pull-ups
Ab Work


The rep scheme for the intensity lifts being 1 x 5, and the rep scheme for the volume lifts being 5x5. Increase the weight for the heavy squat and heavy deadlift days by 2.5kg each week, and microload (using 0.5kg fractional plates) for the bench press and overhead press. Don't increase the volume day weight too rapidly. Increase it by 2.5kg every 4 weeks. Remember volume day weight should be ~85% of the intensity day weight.
 
As you can see, the template not only allows the overhead press and bench press to be trained together in the same week, but it also allows you to add in more assistance work. This can allow you to put on more size, if the assistance exercises are performed in the higher rep range 8-12.

Assistance Exercises

Pressing Assistance:

• Dips
• Incline Barbell Bench
• Incline Dumbbell Bench
• Higher rep overhead press
• Higher rep bench press
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Leg Assistance:

• Lighter high bar squats (if you currently squat low bar) to hit the quads
• Leg curls
• Leg press

Back Assistance:

• Weighted pull-ups
• Lat Pull-downs
• Barbell Shrugs

Arms:

• Curls for biceps
• Lying tricep extension for triceps
• Tricep pushdowns

Other assistance work that is still very important:

• Ab work (ab roller, hanging leg raise, weighted planks)
• Rear delt work (very, VERY important to keep your shoulders healthy)
• Mobility work (hips, shoulders, ankle, etc) 
• Calf work (not that important but you can do it if you want lol)

Its really up to you what assistance exercises you choose to do, but try to keep the exercises somewhat useful. If you use a big arch on the bench press then I recommend you do incline bench work in order to help fill out the upper pecs more (no homo). It is also (for me anyway) a fairly grindy (slow and difficult) exercise, which I find helps me on the flat bench press as it teaches me to push harder through tough reps and not give up easily.


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That brings an end to this article, hopefully it will help out other lifters out there. I'll write another article later down the track about how to modify the programming (the rep schemes in particular), once you have exhausted weekly programming.

GPC NSW States Meet 2013

Meet results:

82.5kg weight class

• Squat 190/197.5/207.5 (PR)
• Bench 110/115/117.5x
• Deadlift 225/240/245x

My training for the meet:

This was my meet prep over the course of 11 weeks:

http://i.imgur.com/COn4A0H.png

I was on Texas Method so only the Intensity days (the days where I lift heavy) are shown. I pretty much planned all the numbers I was going to hit beforehand.

The bench numbers look funny because I used percentages, I just rounded up to the closest 2.5kg. I did 2 working sets for the bench which worked pretty well. If the first working set felt easy, I would add 2.5kg for the second working set (which I did pretty much every week, so in the last week I benched 105kg x 3, 107.5kg x 3 for example).

An observation from my previous training cycle for the squat was that I got really beaten up towards the end when I stuck with 5's throughout the training cycle, so this time I decided to switch to triples about 5 weeks out which worked well. I'm not making good progress with one working set on Intensity Day anymore so I think more adding more volume for my next meet prep will help me to continue to make progress..

For the deadlift I stuck with 2 sets of 4 reps throughout the cycle. This might have been a stupid thing to do seeing as I did worse on the deadlift at this meet compared to the previous one (although there was no squat in the last meet), so for the next cycle I plan to taper down the volume in the last 5 or so weeks.

Thoughts on the meet itself:

The squat felt strong. although I did lose the feel for heavy weights because of the deload week I took on the week of the meet. For my opener of 190 I didn't sit back enough so it felt a bit off. I got friends to cue me to sit back for my next 2 attempts which helped, they felt a lot better. It felt like I used a lot of back for my third attempt of 207.5kg but on the video it doesn't look too bad.

For the bench, people might be thinking why it didn't improve much. A possible explanation is that for my previous comp I did Smolov Jr for the bench, but I lost a lot of the strength I gained from Smolov Jr afterwards (for those unaware, the program involves benching 4 times a week for 3 weeks) because I didn't maintain the volume and frequency for the bench. For this training cycle I pretty much had to make back the strength that I lost but that being said though 115kg this time around felt stronger than the last 115kg I did.

I think the training approach I used for the bench works pretty well in the off-season when there's no competition to prepare for, but I'll be training the bench differently when preparing for my next competition (start out with lots of volume but taper it down over the weeks and gradually handle heavier weights).

For the deadlift, I think my crap performance was due to a combination of feeling tired on the day plus not being fully recovered from training. I really need to learn to back off in training early enough so that I can display my full strength on competition day. I won't make the same mistake again.

 Video:

General Lifting Advice for Beginners

Sup errbody. It's been a long time since my last post, mainly because I couldn't really think of anything useful to write about. I guess that beats writing a crappy post on a daily basis.

I've still been training hard, currently preparing for a meet on March 10th. Training has been going well so far, I've hit a few rep PRs recently:

Press 75kg 2 x 3 (form could have been better)



Bench 100kg x 5



Deadlift 215kg 2 x 4



I feel like I should be able to make good progress on the bench press this year. Anyway thats enough about me.

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I've made some observations of beginner lifters at the gym I've trained at, and the following are some tips which I believe beginners will find useful. Just to clarify, you're a beginner if you're on linear progression.

Mental Preparation

Don't do a set until you feel mentally ready. A cheesier way of describing mental preparation is 'getting into the zone'. Your body as well as your mind need to both be ready to lift the weights. Chances are, once the weights get heavy enough you will naturally find you need to psyche yourself up before the set, due to not wanting to fail the set.

How to mentally prepare is something you will have to figure out for yourself, but once you do, it will become a ritual that you perform before each PR.

Also, don't waste your rest periods. Use that time to think about your next set. Chances are if you are constantly on your phone during your rests then you aren't very focused. Get that sorted out.

Fighting Through Tough Reps

I've seen some beginners who give up too easily during a set. As soon as a rep gets hard, they give up without even putting up a fight. I've seen other cases where the beginner initially gives up on the squat for example, where they drop by about an inch then decide to keep pushing and end up getting the rep. I think the word I've used the most for beginners during their sets is "push". I tell them to keep pushing, and not to stop.

If you don't learn to push yourself your results will be suboptimal. Training is not meant to be a walk in the park. You don't go to the gym to go through the motions. Go to the gym to crush the weights.

Find The Sweet Spot For Your Bodyweight

You'll know you've hit it when progress hasn't been that great, but once you reach a certain bodyweight your lifts shoot up. This doesn't go on forever of course. Don't interprete this as the maximum bodyweight you should be at, it's more like the minimum bodyweight that lets you be strong for your height.

For example in my case, there is no way I could possibly be strong weighing 50kg. When my bodyweight was in the 70kg range, I was making steady gains on the squat and deadlift but my bench and overhead press were miserable. Once I hit the 80kg mark thats when I started making much better progress for my upper body lifts. Don't feel the need to rush to get to whatever this bodyweight may be for you, try to gain weight whilst keeping the bodyfat levels relatively constant for best results.

Remember if you don't eat, you won't grow which means you're wasting your time if putting on muscle is your goal.


This will probably be my last post for beginners unless I can think of something else to write about in the future. I have ideas for new posts which will be more targeted towards intermediate lifters, such as how to modify the Texas Method, so stay tuned!