This post is part of a series on the Texas Method. Here is Part 1.
Now that there is a general understanding of what the Texas Method (TM) is, what it’s used for, and why it’s useful, we will talk about how to transition different exercises into it.

I have several themes that resonate over and over and over and over and over and over … on this site. The concepts of adaptive stress and individuality mean that in order to drive progress, an adaptive stress must be imparted on the body. However, the magnitude and method of that stress is dependent on a person’s current state of adaptation. Our society likes to group things to make them easier to comprehend; skinny, weak, skinny-fat, big, fat, and strong are ways to describe a trainee. However these distinctions aren’t descriptive enough. For instance, there may be a trainee who has just gotten into squatting and deadlifting, yet has been doing bench and other upper body exercises for years. His bench may be higher than the squat and deadlift; such a body isn’t balanced for performance.

In the case of discrepancies in weight lifted or muscular distribution, it may be prudent to advance certain exercises to intermediate programming instead of a linear approach. For instance, if the squat progression (on a structured linear program designed to make daily gains) has stalled several times, yet the press and bench are still making progress, then the squat could be shifted into an intermediate-style program while the presses continue a linear advancement. The opposite could also hold true. In other words, beating your dick into the ground because “that’s what the program outline tells you to do” doesn’t help you get any stronger.

Similarly, forcing yourself to find the maximum potential of your linear progression won’t be helpful in the long run. For example, I ran my (Starting Strength style) linear progression up to 465x5x3, yet every workout after 450 was purely survival. I vividly remember feeling emotionally wrecked when I finished squatting; I had to summon so much adrenaline just to get through the three sets (with at least 10 minutes of rest between sets) that I was running on empty. Forcing myself into that experience may have been spiritual, yet it wasn’t optimal for my strength development. I spent several weeks putting an unnecessary amount of stress on my structures to the point that they required recuperation as I transitioned into intermediate programming. I subjectively wouldn’t recommend this, but I also wouldn’t objectively recommend it because it blunts progress in the long-term.

The pressing exercises won’t have the same problem because they don’t involve as much muscle mass. A trainee can exhaust their progression many times yet the recuperation time won’t be as lengthy as if the overreaching occurred with squat or deadlift. Remember: the more muscle mass that is trained by the exercise, the more disruption that occurs. If you abuse the amount of stress you impart on your body – relative to your current adaptation – then you will cause local, and potentially systemic, problems.

Advancing various exercises to a TM approach isn’t difficult; the first workout is volume-based, the second is recovery-based, and the third is intensity-based. The bench and press will alternate their emphasis every week so that you bench volume and intensity in the same week (and visa versa). On bench week’s recovery day you would press; on press week’s recovery day you would do some light bench. It isn’t difficult and there are plenty of examples in the book Practical Programming (as well as on the internet).

The deadlift is a little bit trickier. I like to have novices deadlift once a week on the same day. I usually like to put it at the end of the week so that it doesn’t disrupt any other squat days and because the weekend allows an extra rest day (the Greyskull Linear Progression drops a squat day and puts the deadlift on Wednesday – this is acceptable). Novices will make progress by doing a single work set of five. Often I see people doing sets across on the deadlift. This will put more volume on the trainee making it hard to recover while using a smaller amount of weight compared to a single set of five. Don’t do sets across; for a linear progression it’s too high of a dose to get the response we want, and it will hamper other training days.

Once the single set of five starts to slow, then the trainee can shift into doing triples. This allows the trainee to continue adding weight on the bar every week while getting a moderate amount of volume. It’s important to note that moving to triples will benefit a trainee who has a decent musculature structure. The fewer reps will move away from the hypertrophy spectrum (5ish to 15 reps) and thus wouldn’t be optimal for someone with a thin back and torso. A smaller person would benefit in the long run from ratcheting the weight back and getting more cumulative deadlift training done with sets of five (there’ll be more on this topic in another post).

If a trainee has shifted into doing triples, the timing will usually work out where they have transitioned the rest of their training into TM-style training. In such a case, I would just keep driving the triples up. The triple reduces a little bit of the volume imparted on the body on the intensity day, yet handles a significant load. If the triples start to poop out, then the trainee could shift into more complicated stuff; ascending singles, singles across, ascending doubles, or doubles across (as well as rack pulls and speed deadlifts — subject matter for other posts and interviews). Of course this all depends on the current state of adaptation and what the trainee’s goals are. As a general rule I like to keep the total reps on intensity deadlift workouts below five (NOT including warm-ups). After all, it’s supposed to be a high intensity and low volume workout. To get appropriate super-compensation from the volume/intensity effect, you’ll need to maintain the weekly fluctuation of those variables, so don’t get excessive volume in on the intensity day.

As you progress you’ll learn what your limitations were in the past and how you currently adapt to stress. Your training records will help provide data that will help you predict how you will adapt to stress in the future. You will become your own scientist as you continue to advance your strength throughout your life. I will continue giving you ideas and tools to use in your experiments. In the next TM post, we’ll talk more about how to manipulate the reps and sets of the volume and intensity days to continue your strength progress.

I have a few things to take care of before I get the rest of the post up. In the mean time, you may start posting your PR’s.

A Tribute To Jack LaLanne

Jack LaLanne is the godfather of fitness. Over a career that spanned over 75 years he was a popular bodybuilder, an entrepreneur, an inventor, a fitness and nutrition expert, and a ballsy public performer (he was still towing 70 row boats while shackled and hand-cuffed at age 70). He died Monday at age 96. What was the secret of his longevity?
“Clean thoughts and dirty girls.”

LaLanne was a long-time proponent of regular exercise and proper nutrition. It’s a mantra he would repeat and live throughout his entire life. He also was one of the early voices speaking out for the use of lifting weights, yet he received a lot of criticism.
“People thought I was a charlatan and a nut. The doctors were against me—they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive.”

Jack also never ate processed foods and only ate whole foods. Ironically, he thought organic food was pretty lame (the federal government labeling something as “organic” doesn’t mean shit, by the way…most products are hardly different — if at all — from their non-organic counter parts):
“It’s [organic food] a bunch of bull,” he said. “How do you know what’s really organic? Today, there’s all these impurities in the water and the air. The water for the fruits and vegetables has junk in it. If you get enough vitamins and minerals out of normal food and whole grains, and you get enough proteins and exercise (that’s the key), then nature builds up a tolerance to all of these things. It’s survival of the fittest. You can’t have everything perfect, that’s impossible, but the fit survive.”

There was one constant throughout Jack’s life: training and exercise. He attacked it with a consistent voracity that is hard to comprehend (given the number of years he did it):
“I train like I’m training for the Olympics or for a Mr. America contest, the way I’ve always trained my whole life. You see, life is a battlefield. Life is survival of the fittest. How many healthy people do you know? How many happy people do you know? Think about it. People work at dying, they don’t work at living. My workout is my obligation to life. It’s my tranquilizer. It’s part of the way I tell the truth — and telling the truth is what’s kept me going all these years.”

Jack LaLanne may have past away, but his lessons will live on with us. A person should be strong and make it a habit to habitually exercise and eat well. Everything else in life is irrelevant because your wealth is dependent on your health.

“I don’t care how old I live; I just want to be LIVING while I am living!”

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Afterword
I want to point out that LaLanne opened the first gym in America. He would eventually expand this franchise into over 200 gyms in a time when “going to the gym” seemed foreign. Jack had a TV show for over 30 years that talked about the fundamentals of fitness; hard work and consistency. However, in the 1980s the aerobics boom created the “fast results” mantra that still permeates fitness culture today. LaLanne was pushed out of the spot light because his techniques and advice weren’t sexy or appealing. It’s unfortunate because society’s marketing requirements changed, and Jack LaLanne was left in the dust despite his sound advice and solid track record.

Eventually he would sign this franchise over to Bally Total Fitness. I think this was the right move for Jack, but unfortunately the “gym business” shifted into the falsehood that “bringing people into your gym means you earn money”, instead of Jack’s notion that “bringing people into your gym will allow them to learn how to become fit and healthy”. Jack did create the first gym franchise in America, yet he aimed at helping people (as evidenced by his advocacy throughout his career that lasts twice as long as most American’s lives). Unfortunately the industry shifted away from fundamental concepts like “putting the work in” and “making good decisions”. Instead, that industry aims for contracts, commitments, and cheap marketing techniques. Cuando compras seguidores de Threads, you can strengthen your online presence and enhance interaction with your audience effectively.

A gym owner’s true goal should be to create a quality investment that generates lasting profits while benefiting their clients. This focus on genuine value is what can elevate the fitness industry, moving away from quick-fix solutions and instead promoting effective, sustainable practices. By prioritizing meaningful results over trends, gym owners can foster a supportive environment that encourages members to achieve their fitness goals, ultimately leading to financial security and wealth protection for both the business and its clients.

If we learn anything from Jack, it’s that the fundamentals will always be superior to anything the fitness industry can provide. Hard work. Consistency. Good eating choices. These will prevail over anything the industry can throw at us. Yet it isn’t enough for us to know this and mock the industry. Take this fundamental knowledge and gently help your friends and family from the cave of shadows to real knowledge. Just make sure they understand that it won’t be easy. Nothing really is, even if you’re Jack LaLanne.

There is a new shirt available in the 70’s Big Store that is based on the intensity Chris brings to training. There are days when you go into the gym and you don’t feel your best. Whether it’s because you were up late drinking beer, not eating or sleeping well, or feeling drained from a busy week, you step towards a barbell and start warming up.

“Maybe I’ll just have a medium day,” you think. But once you put that bar on your back and get a feel for each warm-up, your mindset mutates and develops. 135, 225, and 315. Each set feels easier. Your psychological momentum is rolling in spite of your physical fatigue. Biology tries to convince you it isn’t your day, but you grimace and say, “Fuck it…I’m feeling reckless.” This is what training is all about; conquering gravity in what you previously thought was impossible. Stomping into heavy sets with reckless abandon is something only a crazy person would do. Are you reckless?



The phrase actually came after Chris squatted something crazy (500×10 or 600×2 — something like that). When asked why he did it, without hesitation he said, “I was feeling reckless.”
Edit: The back of the shirt has the classic 70sBig.com logo.
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I became friends with one of my professors from college named Dr. Dan Czech. Dr. Czech is an interesting person; he has been to 57 countries teaching and coaching baseball camps, has consulted with countless professional athletes, and is fascinated with social dynamics and human interaction. His experience gives him a unique view point on competition, perseverance, and success. Recently Shawn and I met DC for dinner (Shawn has been mentioned in these posts: first, second, and third.

To The 70s Big Community:

On Saturday January 23rd, I experienced an amazing dinner with the owner of this site, Justin. As someone who has been able to meet and travel this great land of ours, I have interacted with some top echelant people. Needless to say, my 4 hours with Justin will go down as some of the best hours I have had in a very long time. Justin brough the following to the experience:

-a knowledge base of the psychological mastering of cheesecake factory representatives
-an ability to eat 2,000 calories in one setting
-a humor to make my throat and stomach hurt for 2 days (Editor’s Note: From laughing.)
-the mental stamina to last 4 hours with Shawn Owen (Editor’s Note: A significant accomplishment.)

I am mightily impressed with this and thus have decided to partake some knowledge dropping from 70s Big. I look forward to learning from you guys.

Peace,

Dr. Czech

P.S. AC is plentiful.

70’s Big is fortunate to add Dr. Czech to the occasional contributors that include Dr. Michael Hartman and Dr. Lon Kilgore.

My post about Lewis (who benched 445 and squatted 650 this past week) inspired AC to do a write up about his friend and training partner Dustin. The following was written by AC.

My friend Taylor Ray got me a job at one of the local bars named RumRunners early Summer last year. I was walking around introducing myself and someone brought to my attention that I hadn’t met Dustin yet. I looked to the other side of the bar and all I saw was a back as wide as a door frame. He turned around and I introduced myself to him and in a deep southern voice Dustin replied “Niiice ta meet ya A.C.” His bear paw engulfed my hand as we introduced ourselves. Standing at 6’1 weighing around 260 pounds Dustin is certainly an intimidating southern gentleman.

Dustin knew I competed in powerlifting and he began to show some interest. Before our Christmas Break (early December until mid January) Dustin asked if he could start squatting and lifting heavy with me. He came from a Baseball background and had some collegiate playing time so I knew he would have some athletic prowess. Dustin warmed up and quickly learned and hit his first squat set across with 245. Every following set only looked better and easier. Keep in mind that he as not squatted in over 5 years.

Editor’s Note: When you teach new people to squat on a regular basis, especially when they haven’t squatted in a few years, they rarely get up above 185 or even 225 on the first day. It’s not that they can’t; it’s because form is important with the low bar back squat and a coach should hold the lifter back to reinforce the technique (along with other reasons, but I digress).

We train together at 180 Fitness down here at Georgia Southern University. He is currently squatting 375 for his sets across and pressing 180 for three sets of five WITH EASE. Although he is not on a strict program such as novice or TM he is certainly making progress fast. He shows great potential and he lifts with passion and desire. I can proudly say that I train WITH Dustin. He is a great friend and one strong SONOFABITCH. Oh, and Dustin claims he can do a back-flip from a standing position. I haven’t seen it , but I will get a video of it soon.

Here is a video of him squatting 375 (shitty cell phone quality).

Editor’s note: That set is very fucking easy. It’s not overly impressive internet material, but the dude is gonna be very strong very soon.