Home / Programs / Texas Method
Texas Method
The Texas Method is the program you move to when adding weight every session stops working. Three days, three different jobs, and one progression a week. It is built into Ægir Iron and free to load.
What this program is
The Texas Method takes the stress a novice absorbs in a single session and spreads it across a whole week. Monday is volume: five sets of five, the week's work. Wednesday is deliberately light and technical, a recovery day however much it looks like a third training day. Friday is intensity: one heavy set of five per lift, which should be a new best. The squat is on all three days, heavy then light then heavy.
Why it is written in two-week pairs
The press alternates. Bench leads the volume day one week and the overhead press leads it the next, with the other one taking the light day, so across a fortnight each lift gets a volume day and an intensity day. The pulls do not alternate: the deadlift is one heavy set of five on Monday, after the squat and press, and Friday finishes with power cleans, which are lighter and faster, so Friday does not cut into the recovery the hard Monday needs. The alternating press is why the program is a two-week pattern rather than one repeating week, and it is why Ægir Iron writes it out in full rather than asking you to remember which week you are on.
At a glance
| Discipline | Powerlifting |
| Experience level | Intermediate (a novice linear progression has run out) |
| Length | 8 weeks |
| Training days | 3 per week |
| Equipment | Full power gym |
| Loading | Percentage of your real bests. Friday holds at about 87 percent and your max moves each week when you make the five, with Friday flagged all out so the app can move your maxes off what you did. |
| Price | Free for individual lifters and rostered athletes |
Free for individual lifters and for athletes on a coach's roster. Coaches pay only for roster tools.
How it works in Ægir Iron
The method is written against recent five-rep bests, which nobody has stored anywhere. Ægir Iron prices it against the maxes you already keep instead: the volume day sits near seventy eight percent, the recovery squat near sixty three, and Friday at about eighty seven. That is the same week, anchored to a number you have. Friday stays at eighty seven every week and your max is what moves: each week is its own cycle, Friday's top sets are flagged as all-out sets, and when you make the five the app proposes the next step for your max, which you accept or edit. Miss it and the max holds. That is the judgement the method asks you to make by hand; the size of the step is the app's own.
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
Start Texas Method
Open Ægir Iron, go to Program and choose New Program, then the Program Wizard. On the first screen pick Powerlifting, then choose Texas Method from the cards under WHAT DO YOU WANT TO RUN? It is free on iOS, Android, and the web, with your data synced across all three.