For someone who wants to get stronger, what is a good benchmark to determine whether the programming I am using is working?
Austin on his Insta live yesterday said he gained ~40lbs on his squat using the Texas Method and was not happy with those result. I am guessing this was because it was over a fairly long time period. It did made me wonder though for a post novice, what % strength increase over x period is reasonable. (i.e. x% increase in 1r @rpe 8 by month).
Have you listened to our programming podcasts? We talk about this topic (tracking progress) in some detail. There is no % increase per unit time that can be generalized across the population, as there are far too many variables at play (including, perhaps most significantly, training sensitivity).
Regarding my TM experience, I gained about 40 lbs on my squat, almost nothing on my bench press, and minimal progress on my deadlift, while simultaneously getting psychologically burned out from training (which is the only time this has happened in my entire training career) and excessively fatigued. I did not know any better at the time, but I would not do it again.
Thank you Austin, I made the leap to BBM after listening to the programming podcasts and bought several of your templates afterwords. I quess my 58yr old brain does not comprehend as well as it use to. Will listen to them again.
I am currently doing HLM, then planning on doing hypertrophy, followed by making the switching to 4 days a week training with 12-week strength. I do approx. 6hr of rock climbing and martial arts on top of strength training. I am hoping this progressing will buildup my work capacity enough so I don’t crash and burn. Does that seem like a reasonable approach?
Martial arts I have been teaching and practicing for over 30yr, rock climbing about 4yrs now. So they are both fairly well tolerated already in theory.
Sorry I know I just switched topics on you. Thanks again for your time.
I’m sure your brain is just fine, sir 
Your plan is reasonable, though I’d ask what your goals are here, as the 12WS program involves quite a lot of training over four days per week and is very focused on strength improvement, particularly for people who care about their 1RM. If you choose to do it, I’d probably substitute the programmed GPP work with your martial art and rock climbing and see how you do with that high of a total weekly workload.
My goal in general is to get stronger. while minimizing gaining weight :(. I have seen some strong enough benchmarks for both Jiujitsu and rock climbing. They are vary similar for the 4 main lifts. Not a big surprise, since they were both adapted I believe by something Dan John had published. Anyways when I started strength training my goal was to hit those benchmarks and then reassess where I am at. Currently, I am relatively close on Deadlift, Bench and Press. Squats are lagging. I realize these benchmarks are just someone’s best guess, but they would put me right around the 1,000lbs club so this is what I am currently working toward.
I have not attempted anything more than a 3rm, since I started barbell training again 2yrs ago. Everything is just a projection based on 5rm or 3rm sets. I am looking forward to doing some heavy singles in the second 1/2 of HLM to see where I am really at. Hope this makes sense.
Thanks again for your time.