The Texas Method Explained
The Texas Method is what you run when adding weight every session stops working. It takes the stress a novice absorbs in one session and spreads it over a week: a volume day, a genuinely light day, and one heavy set of five that should be a personal best.
Where it comes from
It came out of Glenn Pendlay's lifters at Mark Rippetoe's Wichita Falls Athletic Club in Texas, which is where the name comes from, and Rippetoe wrote it up in Practical Programming for Strength Training. The origin story usually told is that Pendlay offered an athlete a deal: hit a five-rep personal best on the first set and skip the other four. It worked, and the structure grew out of it.
The three days
| Day | Job | Looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Volume. The week's actual work. | Squat 5x5, bench or press 5x5, deadlift 1x5 |
| Wednesday | Recovery. Deliberately light and technical. | Squat 2x5 light, the other press 3x5 light, chins, back extensions |
| Friday | Intensity. One heavy set of five, ideally a best. | Squat 1x5, press 1x5, power cleans 5x3 |
Wednesday is the day people get wrong. It exists so Friday is possible, so keep it light and add nothing to it. If Wednesday leaves a mark, it was too heavy.
Why it is a two-week pattern
The press alternates. Bench leads the volume day one week and the overhead press leads it the next, with the other taking the light day, so over a fortnight each press gets both a volume day and an intensity day. The pulls stay put: one heavy set of five deadlifts closes Monday, and Friday gets power cleans, which are lighter and faster and leave you fresh for the next Monday. The press alternation is why the program is properly written as two weeks rather than one.
Are you ready for it?
The test is whether you can still recover from one session to the next. While you can, a novice linear progression is giving you a personal best three times a week and nothing beats that. When you cannot, one progression a week is the next rung, and this is the classic version of it. Coming from StrongLifts or a 5x5, the Texas Method will feel familiar immediately: same lifts, same 5x5, different distribution.
Original source
Ægir Iron's template is built from this source. Under it is what the template takes from it.
- Rippetoe M, Baker A (2014). Practical Programming for Strength Training (3rd edition). The Aasgaard Company.The Texas Method: volume 5x5 at 90 percent of Friday, a light day at 80 percent of Monday, one heavy set of five on Friday, deadlift 1x5 on Monday and power cleans on Friday, with Glenn Pendlay credited as its origin
Running the Texas Method in Ægir Iron
The method is written against recent five-rep bests, which nobody has stored anywhere, so Ægir Iron prices it against the maxes you already keep. Friday sits at about 87 percent every week, Monday at 90 percent of Friday and Wednesday at 80 percent of Monday, which puts the squat volume day near 78 percent and the light day near 63. That is the same week, anchored to a number you have. Friday's sets of five decide the week: make them and the app offers to move your max when you finish the week, miss them and it holds the max. That weekly move is the progression, and the whole week re-prices with it. Friday's sets are sets of five to make or miss, so do not rep them out; a rep-out on Friday is what ruins the next Monday.