2/29/13
Bench (Volume @ 81%)
265×1, x0
2/26/13
Squats (Volume @ 84%)
435x0x2
This week was a repeat of last week as far as Bench. It’s pretty clear why I missed the second single again. My volume is just way too low @ 81%. Going to start recording all the percentages here on my blog so that I’m constantly aware of them. Next week I’m going to up my volume weight by 2.5lbs and drop intensity to 250.
What the fuck I don’t even. I’m guessing the deal with Squats is the opposite of Bench. Too much volume too soon. Going to do volume on Monday and Intensity on Friday so that I have another day to recover next week. I’m also going to eat like a fat kid and skip deadlifts tomorrow too. Hopefully just a case of under-recovery.
force x dist 
Hey dude, I was hoping to get in touch with you and dropped you a line on youtube. I just wanted to ask a few questions about the TM from someone with hands on experience and saw your blog. Any help would be appreciated.
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Hey man, sure thing. I’d be happy to help in any way I can.
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Thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time. Well basically, I started on a beginner program for high school football (not starting strength, basically an adaptation of the old Bill Starr routines), didn’t do a anything for about a year after high school, and then started again once i got to college. After I had gotten my base level of strength up again, I moved on to more advanced programs and think that I overstepped my boundaries and went too far. I have tried 5/3/1 for about 4 months and hated the low frequency, tried Conjugate Method after being recommended by a friend who loves it, disliked it for the same reason, and for most of the time until now have been running % based cycles where I trained each lift once a week. However, after reevaluation and realizing I have made little to no progress in about a year, I believe I need to take a step back and use something more basic like the texas method. I really like the layout of the 4 day split you used with the texas method and was outlined in Lascek’s e-book and just wanted to ask you a few questions about it. On your volume days, you typically stuck to either 5 sets of 3 or 3 sets of 5 and a heavy triple on your intensity day as recommended in the book. Did you have the volume set that on volume days (as opposed to a more traditional texas method 5×5) to promote recovery, or simply to maintain the 1/5 volume ratio that Justin recommends for intensity/volume days. Also, I have read that volume days should stay around 85% or your intensity day’s weight; do you just stick with a weight until you feel like you need to raise it to make progress, or consistently increase it so it keeps pace with your intensity day at approx. 85%?
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Feel free to use my email if you’d prefer that: chadhydro@gmail.com
I initially did 5×5 but dropped to 3×5 after reading Lascek’s TM Advanced. In most cases it’s best to do the least amount of work required to garner progress that way you’ve got more recovery resources for other lifts, accessory, etc. Plus 5×5 Squats at a decently heavy weight are brutal, heh.
Naturally 85% is not a hard rule and you can make progress with a lower percentage. I’ve found, though, that once volume day gets ~81% of intensity then it’s not heavy enough to garner progress (at least for me). So you have to keep pace such that you don’t get too far away from 85% but slow enough that you don’t drive yourself into the ground. I’m actually going to begin experimenting with increasing volume day more often by 2.5 pounds.
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