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In effort to successfully track my usage of the Texas Method I will be using this battle log to document my progress and journal my thoughts. My plan is as follows. Tuesdays - Volume Day Squat - 5x5 Bench Press/ Overhead Press - 5x5 (alternating) RDL - 3x5 Pulldowns - 3x12 (work on building up to pullups/chinups) Thursdays - Light Day Squat - 2x5 (about 85% of Volume days weight) Bench Press /Overhead Press - 3 x 5 (opposite of Volume Day, about 85%) Curls - 3 x 15 Satudays - Intensity Day Squat - 1x5 (go for PR) Bench Press / Overhead - 1x5 (same as Volume day, go for PR) Close Grip Bench Press - 3 x 10 (work on building up to doing dips) Dead Lift - 1x3 (go for PR) I also want to build up some walking on the tread mill. I will be following this plan 3-4 days per week.

Not with a bang but a whimper, Juni0r83’s not so triumphant return So it’s been a while since I was active here. Basically, not since the last lifting competition. And not a lot has changed. I switched from 5/3/1 to the Texas Method of Power lifters. And I’ve gained about 13.5kg. In four months. Yeah I suck. So, the Texas Method has been going really quite well. Which is to say that I’ve finally managed to get my training maxes to line up pretty much with my actual maxes from the last virtual lifting competition (once again, yeah I suck). And I’ve finally found a diet system that I think I can stick with, now I just have to actually implement it. That’s where this challenge comes in, the diet stuff, cause I finally feel like I’m starting to actually do well at the lifting stuff. My challenge will therefore be to eat stuff that helps me get where I want to go. And where I want to go is a healthier weight class. Which one, I’m not entirely sure just yet, as I’m not sure where my body will find its resting point until I get there, all I know is: 138.5kg is not it. So, let’s talk about my actual goals. Start planning your evening meals so that they fit your overall goals. That is, 400 calories per meal, with plenty of protein. Not complicated, mostly about portion control, shouldn’t be too hard. But, we’ll see how it goes. 1 point for each day that I eat a 400 calorie evening meal (total possible score: 28 points). Actually eat breakfast on my non-working days. I still tend to sleep too late on the days I’m not rostered on, and as a result skip breakfast, which then makes me feel like I can overeat on my subsequent meals for the day. Only problem is I always end up eating too much, and it becomes kind of a negative downward spiral. Once again, 1 point for each day that I eat breakfast when rostered off (total possible score: 14 points) Eat my healthy lunch on days when I’m not working. Basically what happens here is I’m not being disciplined enough to stay on track when my wife isn’t motivated to do so. And likewise she isn’t being disciplined enough to stay on track when I’m not motivated to do so. Yes, we’re enablers. And so far it’s resulting in 5+ times per week takeaway. I’m not saying takeaway can’t be a part of a healthy balanced diet, but we definitely take it to excess. So, If I stick to my chicken salads on my days off, it’ll be one less thing that I can be derailed by. And hopefully it’ll help my wife stay on track too. And again, 1 point for each day that I eat my salad when I’m rostered off (or soup with my wife as she doesn’t like salad). (total possible score: 14 points) So at the end of this, I should have a score out of 56 points. Normally I would then break it down into percentages (85%+ for an A, 70%-85% for a B, 50%-70% for a C, and everything else is a fail, just like when I was at high school). But instead, I’ll base my reward on my performance. Obviously getting the highest score will result in getting all of the rewards, and I won’t wait until the end of the challenge to get them all. As I hit a target point score, I’ll get myself the reward. And hopefully I’ll also be rewarded with a decent weight loss by the end of this whole thing too. <30 – no reward. Suck it up princess; you should have done better if you wanted cool swag. 30+ - wrist wraps 40+ - knee sleeves 50+ - squat shoes This is probably the most reward driven challenge I’ve run so far. Now let’s just hope that I don’t run out of money before the end of it and can’t afford my rewards!

So I am getting back into the gym. I also decided to give the Stronglifts 5x5 app a try and I like it so far. (Although I really need to bump my weights up for a couple things since I'm flying through reps. I didn't know my maxes and so I just went with the base numbers it told me) I dont see see myself continuing SL for a long time though. I workout 3 days a week. Monday and Friday are lifting days and Wednesday I do a spin class for some cardio as well as speed in my legs. As I progress through the app I keep getting the same two workouts. So I started looking for another program to try. I came across the Texas Method and it seems like something that would fit in with my current schedule of twice a week lifts and be a decent strength builder to help me improve with my throwing in the Highland games. So I guess the question I have is, would the Texas Method be a good program to progress into? Or is there something else I should explore?

So I started my lifting career with Stronglifts 5x5, and it seemed great, except my deadlift was always either equal with, or even slightly below my squat. And I never could seem to get it to progress any faster than that, despite the fact that everyone else (not just here, but pretty much everywhere, with only a few world class athlete's, or half squatters as exceptions) had a bigger deadlift than their squat. I've since moved onto the Texas Method for powerlifters, and do RDL's on Monday for pulling volume. And sure enough, my deadlift keep creeping up, but once again, only at the same rate as my squat. In fact, I struggle more to finish my deadlift reps at the end of Intensity Day than I do to finish my squat reps at the start of intensity day (and I know, I'm tired by the end of the workout, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise). And before anyone asks, yes, I did check my depth on my squat to make sure I wasn't cheating my way up on squats. Anyway, this week I've taken 10% off of my squat training max, and managed all my reps on squat in a single set (hasn't happened since I last broke 180kg as my Intensity day squat weight), hit my bench (which I was expecting to fail because its now put my training max equal with my last virtual comp max), and then proceeded to hit my 5 singles on deadlift easier than last weeks weight. So the point of all of this is (and I'm sorry for going on quite so long about it): should my squat training really be impacting my deadlift training so much that a 10% deload in the squat resulted in immediate improvement in my deadlift? tl;dr = my deadlift suddenly seems easier despite being heavier simply by reducing the intensity of my squat training. Is this normal or am I just broken?

New log! Background: Been doing some sort of barbell strength stuff for about 18mo consistently now, from SL 5x5 thru 531 and now TM. Have been (deliberately) eating ad libitum and so got big and strong and fat. Just did my first powerlifting meet and totalled 467.5kg in the 125kg weight class. Midterm goals: Get to a 500+ total. Lose some of this belly. A bit more biking. Methods: Moar Texas Method, I enjoy it - I'm doing a slightly reduced volume flavour to allow my 42yo carcass to cope with the load. Leangains recomposition eating plan (carb cycling, IF) rather than a cut even though I'm well in cut territory, because strength is my primary objective. TM is more of the same; Leangains is new to me.