Recovery Day:

Front Squat: 3x3x225
Press: 2x5x137.5

Two plates in the front squat went up easy. My elbow really started to hurt after my second set of presses, so I shut it down. I'm going to take a couple of weeks off from any sort of upper body stuff, this is really annoying.

Weight: 245.0

Intensity Day:

Squat: 4x310
Dead: 5x365

**** squats. Good morninged my fourth rep and just racked it rather than fail a fifth. Deadlifts were tough. My lower back tightened up pretty good too during the drive home, although it's fine now a half hour later. Getting a little discouraged.

Weight: 244

Volume Day:

Squat: 6x5x270

These felt great, probably because I was supposed to do 280 today but added the weights wrong and did 10 pounds less. So I added a sixth set to the end and called it a day. Need to remember to stop doing shoulder dislocations to warm up, because they turn into left elbow dislocations, which I don't think are as helpful.

Weight: 244

Recovery Day:

Front Squat: 3x3x230

A couple semi-grinder reps, first that's happened with these.

Weight: 244.0

Intensity Day:

Squat: 5x310
Deadlift: 5x370

Good day. Really focused on keeping my stomach tight and chest up, and I felt like all five of my squat reps were solid. Deadlifts were somewhere in between singles and a set of five, but I really wanted to make sure I set up properly each time and maintained tightness every rep. Felt better than last week for sure, the left side of my lower back tightened up a little bit, but not too bad.

Weight: 244.6

Volume Day:

Squat: 5x5x275

It worked pretty well last week dropping the weight down a little bit, so I just added five pounds instead of doing 285. Going to start pressing and cleaning again next week, but I don't want to rush back before the elbow heals like I did last time.

Weight: 244.8

Recovery Day:

Front Squat: 3x3x235

Pretty good. Grinded out the final rep, I feel like my biggest problem is that the bar just wants to slip forward off my left shoulder.

Weight: 244.0

Intensity Day:

Squat: 4x315
Deadlift: 4x375

Ugh, just cannot get over this hump.

Weight: 243.6

Dudd, would you say TM has been a good program? Im assessing options for a likely impending shift to intermediate programming, and TM looks likely to be my choice. A summary of your experience would be good if you have time (ive read over your log since the switch in Sep). In partcular, is DLing once a week sufficient? What about the temptation to add assistance work?

I can't say I'm too pleased with it. I got off the upper body lifts almost immediately, didn't like doing the main lifts heavy once every other week, and then took some time off because my left elbow was feeling really sore after I worked out. My deadlift hasn't move at all, and I think I went from 3x5x290 to 1x4x315 squatting, so I don't even know how much of a gain that really is. I don't know whether it's a lack of WIM on my part, lack of getting enough protein, form issues, or what the problem is, but my gains have not been great. So I can't totally dismiss it because it could very easily be a problem on my end (there's another guy who was running the TM with about the same numbers at the beginning, and he blew by me at a much lower weight), but I can't really endorse it much either.

Here's the other Texas Method if you want to ask him some questions.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/85...f-log-1050701/

Thanks for the forthrightness, I still have some time to decide where to go i think. Part of the attraction of TM is the simplicity, whereas something like WS4SB requires more thinking and planning about what lifts to do. 5/3/1 is another possibility, but I like squatting and the other experience around here has been that it isnt great for that.

I'll check out Jonts log too.

beware the WIM deficient. There's also some 5/3/1 variants that have you squatting every workout. I also am not such a blind adherent to the program to think that, if WIM and/or lower squat volume is an issue, that you can't work in some heavier squats on DL day (assuming a 4 day split). I already kind of do that.

Volume Day:

Squat: 5x5x280
Press: 2x5x115, 9x115
Powercleans: 5x3x135

Back to doing upper body stuff. Squat was good. Think I'm going to push triples on intensity day for a little while, see how that works. Didn't try and push it first day back, so kept the weights light for the press/clean. Unfortunately, I could feel a slight, slight soreness in the background after I was done, so I suspect a few weeks from now the soreness will be back. Hope I'm wrong.

Weight: 245.6 (I really should get unfat one of these days)

Heh, good point. Ill investigate more before switching, thanks for the input.

Recovery Day:

Front Squat: 3x3x240
Bench: 2x5x175, 7x175

Somewhat of a grind with the front squat. Bench was ok, but there's a minor soreness again in the left elbow, just can't shake it.

Weighed in at 246.2 today, enough is enough. I'm gonna finish out the week lifting, then I'm going to switch to weight loss and lift to maintain enough lbm as possible. I've read up on the EC stack and am going to grab some of that to hopefully make it a bit easier.

Intensity Day:

Squat: 3x320
Press: 2x5x120, 9x120
Deadlift: 3x380

Switched to triples in the squat and deadlift, went well. Zero tightness in the lower back, and zero soreness in my left elbow too, which I'm pumped about. I didn't have collars on the bar for the press, and some of the weights slid down a few inches on the left side for the final few reps, but other than that, it felt great. Still plan on switching to maintenance/weight loss from this point on.

Today:

Squat: 2x5x285
Powercleans: 3x3x155
Bench: 2x5x180, 6x180

So, switching to maintenance. I think my plan for now is to lift twice a week, with two workouts.

A:
Squat
Bench
Powerclean

B:
Front Squat
Press
Deadlift

I'm going to try and keep my squat/front squat/deadlift around where it is now, but since I've reset my upper body stuff and am not currently setting PRs, I'm going to push that forward and see what happens.

Weight: 243.0

Today:

Front Squat: 1xpfx245, 2x245, 2x3x245
Press: 2x5x122.5, 8x122.5
Deadlift: 3x380

Solid day. My first set of front squats was rough, my left hand slipped off the bar my first rep and I sort of finished the rep with the bar in the crook of my left elbow, so pf for partial fail. Retried it and hit two reps, then completely lost it down to the pins for the third rep. Then I did what I should have done at the beginning and chalked up, really focused on keeping the elbows and chest up, and banged out 2x3. Press was good. I changed up my deadlift stance a little bit, I think I was starting with my hips too low and me shoulders slightly behind the bar instead of in front of it. Raised the hips and got the shoulders in front of the bar, and it felt much more solid. Going to see if I can push deadlifts a little further.

Also started taking the EC stack on Tuesday. I took a 10/100mg split on Tuesday to see how I reacted to ephedrine, and I felt fine, no jitters or feeling like my heart's racing or anything. Took 3x10/100mg yesterday and doing the same today, am easing my way towards a full 20/200x3 regiment sometime next week. So far I feel like it has done a good job with appetite suppression, I feel fuller after eating much less than normal. Also bought a copy of Just Dance 3 for some cardio on non lifting days, so far I've learned that I have no rhythm and 15-20 minutes of flailing and jumping around like an idiot kicks my ass.

Weight: 241.6

This ephedrine **** really works, took my first full dose today along with two half doses the rest of the day and have zero appetite. I always wondered how there were people in this forum posting about how they were 140 pounds and dreading having to put on weight, because eating is awesome. Now I'm beginning to understand.

How'd you feel mixing the E/C with cardio?

Felt fine, although I don't know how much JD gets your heart rate going. It made me sweat a lot and tired my legs out from jumping around like an idiot, but it wasn't like jogging where it was just slow and steady work where you'd progressively get more tired and out of breath. You'd spend ten seconds jumping around, followed by 20 seconds of just flailing your arms around, followed by more jumping, etc etc. I only did it on a half dose so far, going to do another 20 minutes to a half hour later this afternoon with 1.5 doses so far today, so we'll see how that goes. Really though, the appetite suppression is top notch, it's not uncomfortable like a stomach ache, but I'm having to force myself to down a protein shake right now, otherwise I'd be completely satisfied with just ~400 calories from a bologna sandwich as my only meal of the day, which never would happen normally. Probably should get more protein in my meals though, bologna is just pure fat, lol.

It is 4 in the morning, ~9 hours since my last half dose, and I am suddenly feeling very jittery. Happened as soon as I lay down to fall asleep. This sucks, especially since I plan on waking up to watch ND-UConn tomorrow at the earlier than normal start time of 11 AM. Go away so I can fall asleep

Edit: Seems to be going away, time for bed hopefully

Today:

Squat: 2x5x290
Bench: 4x182.5 (lol), 2x5x175, 10x135
Powerclean: 3x3x165

Weight: 239.2

Really WIMed the squat, felt pretty good. Bench was lol tastic, had to do the roll of shame on the fifth rep, so then took some weight off and finished out two sets. Was pissed at myself, so did a backoff set out of shame. Powercleans were alright, not as explosive as normal, and got lackadaisical on one rep and didn't catch it great. I guess that's to be expected, the EC stack is definitely doing some work. Down to 239.2 today, although I'm sure the bulk of it is water weight. Definitely have a much decreased appetite. Thankfully, except for the 4AM jitters Friday night/Sat morning, I can't say I've felt too bad, have stayed up pretty late the last few days, but didn't feel bad when I did lie down. Today is day 7, the last day of 1, .5, .5, tomorrow I do 1, 1, .5 for another week before doing 3 full doses a day.

Today:

Front Squat: 3x3x250
Press: 2x5x125, 6x125
Deadlift: 3x385

Good day. Really attacked the front squats from the very first rep, they felt great. Ditto on the deadlifts, new PR, first time I've hit 385. Form felt great on the first two reps, a little iffy on the third. Press was blah, first set felt good, then the second and third sets it was almost like my right arm was stronger than my left arm, the weight was not going up evenly. Disappointed in only hitting six reps. It appears that trying to lose weight is affecting my upper body lifts a lot more than my lower body ones.

Weight: 239.0