I am finishing the starting strength novice program and am about to start a new program (Bench 5RPM 240, Squat 5RPM 285, Deadlift 5RPM 315). I basically created a new program by modifying the Texas Method by adding volume. Below is my athletic background plus the program I going to start, let me know what you think.
ATHLETIC BACKGROUND
I will start out with my athletic background. I started lifting in early February of this year. I weight 200 pounds. I have previous experience bro lifting years ago, but had stopped lifting in 2012 and other than a 2 month period in 2015 where I picked it back up I had not lifted since 2012. My bro lifting considered of heavy upper body including lots of bench and not that much lower body. My lower body workouts usually considered of 3 sets of leg press, 3 sets of leg extensions, 3 sets of hamstring curls, and a couple sets of calf raises. I did no squatting or deadlifting. In 2013 I took up long distance running. I am above average at running (I am probably average when it comes to strength). As a runner I ran a 3 hour marathon (just over) which is considered a pretty good time. In 2018 I hurt my knee. I ended up having to get about 15% meniscus removed in my left knee. The meniscus is the shock absorber in the knee so I think my days of running 50 to 60 miles a week during marathon training are over. While doing the novice program I ran about 15 miles each week (all at easy aerobic pace) and I also did an additional 20 or so miles on the elliptical so I am still in decent cardio shape and could probably run a sub 20 minute 5K if I wanted to. I am going to continue that cardio program as I do my new program.
As a lifter I am not an explosive athlete. Intensity wears burns me out quicker than average but I handle volume better than average. My reps to 1 RPM ratio is fairly close to ratios for females in Ripptoe’s starting strength book. If you don’t have the book, he has a chart for males and a chart for females that says how many reps the average male and female can do at certain percentage of their 1 RPM. I don’t have the book in front of me, but for hypothetical the chart in his book may have said the average male can do 5 reps at 85% of their 1 RPM whereas the average woman can do about 7-8 reps at 85% of 1 RPM.
So when I wanted to modify the Texas Method Program, I wanted to add volume to make it more challenging for me. That first lift of the week (the volume day) is supposed to be challenging with 5 X 5 at 85% of your 5 RPM. The problem for me is that is kind of easy. I can probably crank out about 15 repetitions at 85% of my 5 RPM whereas I think the assumption in the programming is its a weight you could probably crank 9 or 10 repetitions at. The other possibility was to increase the intensity, but the 3rd day the intensity already has intensity and I struggle to recover from high intensity.
MAIN EXERCISES
Instead of focusing on just the powerlifting lifts (squat, bench, and deadlift), the program is centered on 2 main lifts (squat, bench, deadlift, press, barbell row, chinups) and 2 ancillary muscle areas (stomach and calves). All of those exercises are done 3 times a week (except for deadlift which is done on the volume and intensity day with powercleans substituted in on the recovery day).
VARIATIONS
For each of my main 6 lifts I picked 3 variations. The variations I chose are:
Bench press: Incline press, multi-grip bar wide grip, multi-grip bar closed grip
Squat: Safety Squat Bar, Paused squats, Paused Squats
Deadlift: Powerclean, Stiff leg Deadlift, Paused Deadlift
Barbell Row: Inverted Body Rows (with weight vest), Cable Machine Rows, Face-pulls
Chinups: Pull-ups, Neutral Grip Pull-ups, and Lat Pull down
Press: Pin Press, Push Press, Behind the head press (not going all the way down to avoid shoulder impingement).
The variations will be the extra volume added into the program. In terms of the variations I will do a different variation on each day of the week. For example if I do incline bench on volume day, then I would do multi-grip bar wide grip on recovery day, and multi-grip close grip on intensity day. I will do the variation I did the previous week on Intensity day on recovery day the next week, the variation I did the previous week on recovery day I will do on volume day, and the variation I did the previous week on volume day will be used the following week on intensity day. So if Week 1 was volume = incline day, recovery = multi-grip bar wide grip, and intensity day =multi-grip bar close grip, then Week 2 would be volume = multi-grip bar wide grip, recovery = multi-grip bar close grip, and intensity day =incline bench.
VOLUME DAY
So here is the setup. I have broken the volume day into two days (upper and lower) because with the added volume would turn that into a 3-4 hour workout if I kept I all together. I am going to keep the 5X5 structure at 85% of 5 RPM for all six lift except chinups, but then add 2 sets of 10 at an RPE 7 or 8 level on of the variations for the volume day. So for example for the bench if my 1 RPM was 300 pounds (this is for hypo purposes only, in reality my bench is lower) and my 5 RPM is 275 pounds, I am going to do 5X5 AT 85% OF 275 pounds (about 235 pounds), plus 2 sets of 10 at RPE 7 or 8 of one of the three variations listed above) It works like that for all 6 lifts.
RECOVERY DAY
Basically I am doing 2 x 5 AT 75% of 5 RPM plus 1 x 10 on one of the variation at RPE 5 or 6
INTENSITY DAY
I try to set two new 5 RPM for each lift. For example for the squat–I try to set a new 5RPM for the squat + whichever variation I have on the schedule that day (say safety bar squat).
So for example week 1 may look like this
Volume Day 1 (Upper Body)
Bench 5 x 5 @ 85% of 5RPM + Incline Bench 2 X 10 at RPE 7
Barbell Row 5 x 5 @ 85% of 5RPM + 2 x10 inverted rows at RPE 7
Press 5 x 5 @ 85% of 5RPM + 2 x 10 pin squats from say chin level at RPE 7
Chinups 3 x 10 + 2 x 10 pullups
Plus some ab work
Volume Day 2 (Lower Body)
Squat 5 x 5 @ 85% of 5RPM + Safety Bar Squat 2 X 10 at RPE 7
Deadlift 3 x 5 @ 85 of 5RPM+ 2 X 10 paused Deadlift at RPE 7
Plus some ab and calf work
Recovery day
Squat 2 x 5 @75% of 5RPM + 1 x 10 Front squat at RPE 5 or 6
Bench Press 2 x 5 @75% of 5RPM + 1 x 10 Multi grip bar wide grip at RPE 5 or 6
Barbell Row 2 x 5 @75% of 5RPM + 1 x 10 cable machine rows at RPE 5 or 6
Powerclean 8 x 3 (not sure on the weight yet)
Press 2 x 5 @75% of 5RPM + 1 x 10 Push Press at RPE 5 or 6
Chinups 2 x 10 + 1 x 10 Neutral Grip
Plus some ab and calf work
Intensity Day
Bench Press 1 X 5 @ 5RPM, Multi-grip bar close grip 1 x 5 @ 5RPM
Squat 1 X 5 @ 5RPM, Paused Squat 1 x 5 @ 5RPM
Barbell Row 1 X 5 @ 5RPM, Face pull 1 x 5 @ 5RPM
Deadlift 1 X 5 @ 5RPM, Romanian Deadlift 1 x 5 @ 5RPM
Press 1 X 5 @ 5RPM, Behind the head Press 1 x 5 @ 5RPM
Chinups (with weight vest) 1 X 5 @ 5RPM, Lat pull down 1 x 5 @ 5RPM
plus some ab and calf work
Ideally all the 5RPM are PR’s on intensity days and I will base the volume day numbers on what I did the previous Intensity day.
I would like to run this program for about 12 weeks. What do people think?