3 or 4 day Texas Method? Why Not Both?

Many of you reading this article will already be familiar with a method of training organization known as the “Texas Method.”  Presented in Practical Programming for Strength Training in rather exhaustive detail, I’m not going to review every last painful detail of the methodology for you in this article.

But before we go further, I’ll offer a very brief review of the methodology just to orient those who may not be overly familiar.  Essentially, the Texas Method takes a rather large workload across 3-5 major barbell exercises and distributes it across an entire training week.  In one half of the week are dedicated volume sessions (usually something like 5×5 at around 75-80% of a trainees 1RM) and in the other half of the week we have higher intensity/lower volume work in the 85% – 100% range.  Many have found that a total workload of about 3-6 total repetitions to be a proper dose of volume at this level of training intensity.  So the training session might consist of a single 4-5RM set, 1-2 heavy triples, 2-3 heavy doubles, or 4-6 heavy singles across.  Exact dosing varies from trainee to trainee but this is the gist of it.

Let me deviate from the point of this article for just a minute to explain something about the bigger picture.  The Texas Method is not “a program.”  It’s an organization of training.  A template.  To me, a “program” is something I write out for a single individual based on his needs, goals, age, level of training advancement, work capacity, and my own observations of how this individual responds to very high doses of volume and/or intensity – both of which can vary quite a bit from one trainee to the next.

So within the Texas Method template/organization a coach could produce dozens of different “programs.”

One of the biggest mistakes readers of Practical Programming for Strength Training (PPST3) often make is reading all of the training templates and sample programs we provided in the book as prescriptive for them.  Set for set, rep for rep, they want to blindly follow what we laid out without understanding the bigger picture and then adjusting the program for their own needs and abilities.

Back to the main point of the article……..

The original Texas Method model presented in the first 2 additions of Practical Programming exclusively utilized a 3 day training split where the whole body was trained at each session, usually on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or some other comparable weekly schedule.

This has several advantages:

1. It makes for a very easy transition from the Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression.  For novices who have been training their whole body with 3 lifts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the transition to intermediate level training is made very simple when the schedule is kept the same.  Basically the only alterations made to the program are the adjustments to the set/rep/loading schemes.  Structure and exercise selection are largely kept intact.
2. It prevents the trainee from getting distracted with exercises they don’t need yet.  I am a fan of targeted assistance work for later stage intermediates and advanced trainees.  There comes a point in time, where the simple continual adjustment of sets/reps becomes very stale and progress can grind to a halt.  Progress can often be furthered by directly training smaller muscle groups (“weak links”) or altering how we train the basic barbell movements.  However, most early intermediates do better to continue to simply train the basics.  The 3-day model doesn’t leave a lot of room for adding extra assistance work
3. It keeps frequency high.  Novices need frequency.  2-3 days per week on each lift is generally necessary for progress.  Most early intermediates are in the same boat.  While not every day is necessarily going to be “heavy” early intermediates do better when they can “grease the groove” – especially on the squat.

However there are disadvantages as well:

1. The workouts take a long time to complete.  Especially volume day sessions.  When adequate rest is taken between sets (as it should be) then it isn’t uncommon for 5×5 Squats, 5×5 Bench Press, and 1×5 Deadlifts to take upwards of 2 hours to complete.  Many people just don’t have the time for this, nor do they have the recuperative abilities to complete and recover from such exhausting sessions.
2. It doesn’t allow for assistance work.  As I said earlier, many intermediate and advanced trainees are going to benefit greatly from some exposure to a relatively high volume of assistance exercises.  If they stick with the 3 day model it can be difficult (often impossible) to fit these exercises into the template.  Additionally, at this point in the lifters progression he may want to start incorporating more GPP or conditioning work into their programming and they need the time and energy after the meat of their workouts to do this

So in the 3rd ed of Practical Programming for Strength Training we presented the 4 day Texas Method model.  This model essentially takes the same or similar workload from the 3 day template and spreads it across 4 shorter less exhausting sessions.

The advantages are obvious:  shorter workouts fit better into most peoples daily schedule, and are easier to recover from.  It also allows some “wiggle” room at the end of each workout for some targeted assistance work and/or GPP/conditioning work.  If you keep your head down and work you can generally get all that done in 60-90 minutes.

Even so though, the 4 day Texas Method is still no walk in the park.  It’s still a very difficult training program in most cases as the lifter is training heavy 4 days per week and over time, it can beat you up a bit.

Over the last year or so, I’ve had a growing number of my clients enjoy progress by combining the two templates and getting the best of both worlds.  4 distinct training sessions spread out across a 3-day week.

For lifters who have struggled a bit with their ability to recover from either a 3 day or a 4 day Texas Method set-up, this has been a delightful switch.  It still allows them to train heavy at every session, but spreading the sessions out over a longer period of time has ensured they felt fresh and strong at every workout.

For reference let’s take a look at the traditional 3-day and 4-day Texas Method set ups:

Traditional 3-Day Texas Method (example)

Monday:  Volume Squat 5 x 5,  Volume Bench 5 x 5,  Volume Pulls (Cleans 5×3)

Wednesday:  Light Squat 2-3×5,  Press 3-5×5,  Chins 3-5 x 5-8

Friday:  Intensity Squat 3RM,  Intensity Bench 3RM,  Deadlift 3-5RM

Traditional 4-Day Texas Method (example)

Monday:  Volume Bench 5 x 5,  Light Press 3×5

Tuesday:  Volume Squat 5 x 5,  Light/Volume Pulls (Cleans 5×3 or SLDL 3×5)

Thursday:  Intensity Bench 3RM,  Volume Press 5×5

Friday:  Intensity Squat 3RM,  Deadlift 3-5RM

*Potential assistance exercises not included for illustrative purposes

So basically in the method I’m discussing here, we take the 4 training sessions from the second example and place them on a 3-day per week schedule.  You’ll wind up with something that looks like this:

Week 1

• Monday:  Volume Bench Press 5 x 5,  Light Press 3×5
• Wednesday:  Volume Squat 5 x 5,  Light/Volume Pulls ex:  SLDL 3×5
• Friday:  Intensity Bench 3RM, Volume Press 5×5

Week 2

• Monday:  Intensity Squat 3RM, Deadlift 3-5RM
• Wednesday:  Volume Bench Press 5×5,  Light Press 3×5
• Friday:  Volume Squat 5×5,  SLDL 3×5

Week 3

• Monday:  Intensity Bench Press 2×2;  Volume Press 5×5
• Wednesday Intensity Squat 2×2;  Deadlift 3-5RM
• Friday: Volume Bench Press 5 x 5,  Light Press 3×5

Week 4

• Monday:  Volume Squat 5 x 5,  SLDL 3×5
• Wednesday:  Intensity Bench Press 5 x 1,  Volume Press 5×5
• Friday:  Intensity Squat 5×1,  Deadlift 3-5RM

What we wind up with is a fairly neatly packaged monthly cycle where each of the 3 main lifts receives 3 dedicated high volume days and 3 high intensity sessions that progress from triples, to doubles, to singles.  Each week has some variation to it and this helps to keep the lifter fresh mentally and physically.  The added time between training sessions also leaves ample recovery time if the lifter wants to add in a relatively high volume of assistance work at each session.  3-4 days between similar training sessions should be plenty of time to adjust to some unexpected soreness and fatigue that might be generated by the addition of new movements.

For Squat/Deadlift days I like adding in extra work for the lats/upper back, hamstrings, lower back, and abs.  For the Bench/Press days I like the addition of things like Dips, DB Presses (flat, incline, or overhead) and direct tricep work like LTE’s.  Obviously we don’t try and add ALL of these things in at every session, but you can select 1-2 you want to work on at the end of each session and rotate through some of your favorites.

So if you like the results of the Texas Method, but struggle with recovery, give this a try.