First day of Texas Method!

Bench
wu+ 1x5x235, 1x5x245, 1x3x255

Pretty poor, I guess it's going to take me a bit longer than I thought to get back to my pre-baby benching. Hopefully the additional accessory exercises will help.

Press

wu + 3x5x135

Doing this right after bench was pretty challenging (not unexpectedly), so I dropped the weight of my work set down a bit. While I'm on this split I doubt my press will be all it could be, but hopefully I can keep progressing at least a little bit.

Dips
1x3xbw+0, 1x3xbw+10, 1x3xbw+20, 1x3xbw+30

Just took it easy with these, I haven't really done dips in a while. I would expect I can add weight pretty rapidly with these recommended reps ranges.

Chins
3x5xbw+0

Pretty AIDsy, my chins have gone to **** since I stopped GTGing them. I may have to do some ladders at the gym in my in-laws place at night to try and get back to some semblance of decent on these; I'll definitely be adding weight next week. I'll be doing pull-ups on Friday (after DLs) which is probably going to blow, but I guess we'll see.

Volume Lower

Squat
wu+ 2x5x205, 2x5x215, 1x5x225
Pretty easy, but wanted to ease into things a bit. Going to work up to 225 across and then progress slowly with these; I am interested to see if recovery from Intensity Day affects these lifts at all.

RDL
3x8x135

Just trying to get the feeling on these down, definitely felt the stretch in my hammies. I'm going to watch a few videos of these to make sure I've got the form down, but I'm pretty sure I've got it (shove ass back, keep knees flexed throughout, etc).

Pendlays
3x5x165

Brought them slightly lower than usual (just below my chest instead of at the lower edge of the pec), felt a bit better so I think I'll keep it that way.

I'm down to about 220 and have lost a bit around my middle, consequently I am on the last notch in my belt already. I may have to get a drill if this keeps up.

Update on the rest of the Montecores?

Wifeacore is much improved; she's been cleared to start walking for ~15-20 minutes consecutively daily (or at least build up to that) and she's taken to the mothering thing quite well in the meantime.

Our folks combined their resources to get us a night nanny, so we're baby free from 10 pm to 8 am and can both get some rest, which she especially needs.

As for the boys, they gained 10 oz apiece from when they left the hospital (a week ago last Sunday) until their first doctor's appointment (last Thursday), so they are doing quite well (I would guess both are above 7 lbs now). Though the wife can't feed nature's way due to the medicine she's on, the boys have taken pretty well to formula and eat pretty much everything they're supposed to.

They both started rolling over onto their sides a few days after they were born, which apparently is early. They both started doing some neck bridges and glute raises recently so they're definitely starting to get into the workout culture.

Lol, sounds like they definitely are on the right training plan.

Glad to hear wifacore is progressing. Whatever it is she's suffering from it sounds pretty tough. The nanny thing sounds super-duper smart on your parents' part imo.

Yugo --

It's a form of congestive heart failure called peripartum cardiomyopathy. When I first heard heart failure I thought transplant, but that isn't usually the case with this; it's usually manageable through medication, and she seems to be recovering quickly enough that a full or nearly full recovery is possible.

She lost ~60 L of fluid in less than a week in the hospital (diuretics) so that helped too. It's certainly one way to get that baby weight off quickly.

Yeah, from the Wiki page it seems like full recovery is very possible. Super scary though at first when reading about it.

Here is how Justin says to transition squats in part 1 of the ebook

The first set is a total of 20% off of the max LP weight and the fifth set is a reduction of 10%. This represents a nice, easy transition. Jumping into the TM with a near max effort 5x5 will not only cause surprising amounts of soreness, but will blunt progress early. The inception of a new program should be treated with respect, particularly the more advanced a trainee is. It will take several weeks to acclimate to the TM, and the trainee mustn’t get greedy in the first week. By low-balling his weight, the trainee will set himself up for solid progress in the coming weeks.

Weasel --

Based on where I was when I came back from my short hiatus, that is pretty much what I ended up doing (and I did have that in mind). I'll take another two or three weeks or so to ramp up to 225x5x5 and take it from there.

This first day was relatively easy so there's definitely room for growth in there.

I don't plan on doing much baby trolling, but since this is H&F, I figured some people would get a kick out of it:

Some cursory googling has told me that most babies don't roll over until 2-3 months at the earliest, with 4-6 months being relatively standard. One of my boys just did it today (at 3 weeks); apparently the fact that he and his brother have both been GTGing rolling onto their sides and pushups while on their belly has sped up their timeline. I'll have them squatting in no time!

7/19
Upper Intensity

Bench
wu+ 1x3x265

This was pretty disappointing (almost got the 4th), but I'm still feeling the effects of that layoff I guess. Hopefully this additional upper body work will get me back to where I was before the boys in a few weeks. My left pec is a little tight, so that will be a job for the lax ball tonight.

Closegrip Bench
1x5x205, 1x5x215, 1x5x225

Kept it really light since I haven't done these in about six years; felt pretty easy, although it's harder to keep my wrists set with my hands so close together. I'll probably try to get to 3 sets of 225 across next time and then progress from there.

Curls
1x10x45, 1x10x55, 1x10x65
Those weights are assuming an EZ curl bar is 15 pounds, which I am pretty sure is correct. I had no idea how crappy my curling strength has gotten, but hopefully I can get to something respectable in the next few months.

All in all a pretty quick workout, once I work up to moving some real weight I'll feel better about it.

Yeah, easy if you're DLing or Squatting that weight, .

I could actually always CG about what I could bench, but it was nice to see I could still handle decent weight. I am hopeful all my lifts will round back into shape over the next few weeks, though, so I hope to be roughly equivalent with my normal bench in the next 6 weeks or so.

Lower Intensity

wu+1x5x265

Just got my new Kono knee sleeves, and was excited to use them for the first time. These were really easy; probably should have gone higher but I didn't want to overdo it.

DL
wu+1x5x285

This is starting to get difficult, although doing them right after squats is probably going to depress my numbers a bit. My fourth rep had some lower back rounding for sure, but I reset and took about a 20 second break in between that rep and the last one and pounded out number 5.

Pullups
5/5/4xbw+0

Man, it has been a long time since I've done these, this is getting kind of sad. Need to start progressing and adding weight on these soon for my sanity.

Back extensions
3x15xbw+0

Hadn't done these for a long time and just kept it light. I thought there was a chance I could do rounded back extensions, but the apparatus in the gym isn't right for it. This way is probably better anyway; I'll be adding weight next time for sure.

7/23
Upper Volume

Bench
wu+1x5x235, 1x5x245, 1x5x255

Pretty happy to get this, given how poorly last Monday went. Not sure if I'm going to try to get back to three across at 255 and then microload up or just start microloading now and keep the ascending sets. Thoughts?

Press
wu+ 2x5x135, 1x6x135
Pressing after benching is pretty hard on me, so I decided to just AMRAP my last press set instead of increasing the weight. The second set was pretty grindy so I was happy to get a sixth rep on the last set.

Dips
1x3xbw+25, 1x3xbw+35, 1x3xbw+45

Getting pretty hard, but I think I can try 45 across next week and then increase by sets/reps as necessary. I do like doing some low rep work on this, it's a lot different than what I used to do.

Chins
5/5/4xbw+5

Not so bad, I guess, but this is going to be slow going apparently.

Low rep dips are an intensity workout, rather than a volume workout, no?

Well, the benching assistance program has you doing weighted dips on either day, depending on preference, but you are correct that he recommends the low rep version if you're doing them on intensity day.

Since I'm doing them on volume day, I guess I'll work up to 45 across and then increase the reps until I'm doing three sets of 6 or 8 or something.

Montecore - thanks for directing me here, some really cool stuff going on. I'm very interested in this upper/lower split thing. What are the pros/cons to this? Any reason to not do this other than can only get to the gym 3 days/week? Thanks.

saw --

This is a split from the Advanced TM ebook, and as I recall, it arose from him randomly skipping light days (traditionally Wednesdays) and not having it affect his squat numbers at all -- the money makers are volume day and intensity day. As he states, the split templates allows for a more even split of the workload and/or more accessory exercises.

Personally, I was really excited to move to a program that would give me the time to do more back stuff (get the chins and pull-ups back in), get some more upper body assistance stuff in like dips and close grip BP, and do some extra lower body assistance for my posterior chain (RDLs). I'm doing a template specifically for bench assistance, but if you're more interested in press you can press 2x/wk and bench once, or press once and bench once, whatever. I like that it's more customizable, and that I get to do all the brocentric upper body exercises I used to do (even curls!).

I'm not very far into it yet, but I am really enjoying it a ton. Once the squats get heavier volume day is going to be brutal, but c'est la vie.

Thanks a lot for the details man, this program sounds great. And I'm on a college campus with free time and easy gym access, so the more gym days in my program the happier I am .

Anyway, if you're interested, keep an eye out. I'll be crafting my program (starting next week) in the next day or two. Probably heavily inspired by yours since I'm competing in powerlifting so I'll be benching on both days (with ohp thrown in one way or another).

I'll definitely keep an eye out, really interested in seeing how it works out for you (although hopefully I can close the gap in bench lol).

7/24
Volume Lower

Squat
wu+ 5x5x225

Not really all that bad; I'm going to try to stick at this level for another week or two and try to get my intensity squat to increase, then I'll increase by 5 lbs every two weeks or so.

RDLs
3x10x135

Definitely easier than last week, hopefully less DOMS too.

Pendlays
3x5x170

Pretty easy too; just left the belt on for all three exercises and it seemed to help a bit with the rows.

Even though nothing felt super taxing, I sweated more this workout than I have in a long time. Kono knee sleeves still confirmed awesome for squatting.

7/26
Upper Intensity

Bench
wu+1x3x275
Not sure if I had a 4th because the douche spotting me took it. Still 10 lbs better than last week.

CG Bench
3x5x225
Still getting used to this, not as stable as I remember being. Will keep moving up slowly.

DB Curls
2x10x30, 1x7x35
Weak biceps are weak.

7/27
Lower Intensity

Squat
wu+ 1x5x275
Harder than expected.

DL
wu + 1x5x295 (PR)
Finally remembered to take a video, form critiques are welcome.

Pullups
5/4/3xbw+0
Pretty wiped from the deadlifts, but this blew.

Back extensions
3x15xbw+10

The minicores went to the doc yesterday for their one month checkup, and both gained 1.5 lbs in the last two weeks. Also, the wifeacore just told me that our second minicore learned how to roll over today, so they're both well ahead of that curve. Hard to believe the little guys are 1 month old already . . .

You might want to wait a few weeks before you put the minicores in the power cage. Babies gettin' swole!!!