Written by Hamza J
Based on the program popularised by Mark Rippetoe and Glenn Pendlay in Practical Programming for Strength Training, with some minor adaptations.
A three day intermediate program built on a weekly cycle instead of a session to session one. Monday is volume, Wednesday is recovery, Friday is a new five rep max. You stop adding weight every workout and start adding it every week, which is what makes it the natural step after a linear progression stops working.
The Texas Method is for the early intermediate: someone who ran Starting Strength, Greyskull or another linear progression, added weight every session for months, and can no longer recover from one workout to the next.
That is the whole diagnosis. If you can still add 2.5 kg / 5 lbs to your squat three times a week, stay on the linear progression. It will give you more in less time and this program will feel like a step backwards.
The idea is simple. A beginner recovers in 48 hours, so a beginner can add weight every session. An intermediate needs about a week, so an intermediate adds weight every week. The Texas Method stretches one bout of overload, recovery and adaptation across seven days instead of two:
Every week is one full cycle of that, and the number that has to go up is Friday's.
| Day | Job | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Volume | Five sets of five. The hardest session of the week |
| Wednesday | Recovery | Light and short. Nothing here is meant to be hard |
| Friday | Intensity | One all-out set of five. A new record if the week worked |
Monday, Wednesday and Friday is the canonical layout, and the two rest days between Monday and Friday are the point. Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday works equally well. What does not work is compressing them: Wednesday needs to sit between the other two.
| Exercise | Sets and Reps | Load |
|---|---|---|
| Squat | 5 × 5 | 90% of your last Friday five rep max |
| Bench Press | 5 × 5 | 90% of your last Friday five rep max |
| Back Extension | 5 × 10 | Bodyweight or light |
All five squat sets are at the same weight. This is the session that drives the whole week and it is meant to be genuinely hard by the fourth and fifth set. It is also the session most people quietly cut, which is the most common reason the Texas Method stops working for them.
| Exercise | Sets and Reps | Load |
|---|---|---|
| Squat | 2 × 5 | 80% of Monday's weight |
| Overhead Press | 3 × 5 | Adding weight weekly |
| Chin Up | 3 sets | Bodyweight, or add weight |
| Back Extension | 5 × 10 | Bodyweight or light |
Wednesday is not a workout you try to win. Two sets of squats at 80% of Monday keeps the movement pattern fresh and moves blood through the legs without adding fatigue you then have to recover from before Friday.
The overhead press is the one lift on this day with a job of its own. It is trained once a week and it climbs once a week, and it is the reason your shoulders keep up with your bench.
| Exercise | Sets and Reps | Load |
|---|---|---|
| Squat | 1 × 5 | A new five rep max |
| Bench Press | 1 × 5 | A new five rep max |
| Deadlift | 1 × 5 | A new five rep max |
One work set each, after a full ramp. This is the session the entire week exists to set up.
Friday is short. If it feels long you are doing too many sets, and every extra set you add here is volume that belongs on Monday.
The Texas Method progresses weekly, not per session, and it progresses in exactly one place: Friday.
Each Friday, add weight to last Friday's work set and take it for five reps.
| Lift | Weekly Increase |
|---|---|
| Squat | 2.5 kg / 5 lbs |
| Deadlift | 2.5 kg / 5 lbs |
| Bench Press | 1.25 to 2.5 kg / 2.5 to 5 lbs |
| Overhead Press | 1.25 to 2.5 kg / 2.5 to 5 lbs |
Everything else follows from that number:
Friday's five rep max 100%
Monday's five sets of five 90% of it
Wednesday's two sets of five 80% of Monday
So when Friday goes up, Monday goes up the following week, and Wednesday goes up after Monday. You never decide Monday's weight. It is a consequence of what you did last Friday.
Why 90% on Monday? Because five sets at your five rep max is not a workout, it is an injury. Ninety percent is heavy enough to be the overload of the week and light enough that you can still complete all twenty five reps.
Everything below assumes your form is already solid. Finding your working weight, adding weight, chasing reps, all of it only works if you can perform the lift correctly. While your form is not locked in, that is your only job. Make good form the goal of every set, not the weight on the bar. Drilling the movement with an empty bar beats loading plates onto a lift you cannot control yet.
To learn, don't hesitate to search Google and YouTube (there is a lot of good free material) and record yourself from the side to compare against a proper demonstration. In general, good form means a full controlled range of motion, a braced neutral spine, no bouncing or momentum, a consistent setup every rep, and ending the set when technique breaks down rather than grinding sloppy reps.
You need a current five rep max for the squat, the bench press and the deadlift, plus a starting weight for the overhead press.
Use the last weight you completed for a hard set of five. That is your five rep max and it is the most honest number you will ever have. Start there, not above it.
Example:
You complete 140 kg / 310 lbs for 5 hard but clean reps:
Friday's starting weight = 140 kg / 310 lbs
Monday's five sets of five = 140 × 0.90 = 126, round to 125 kg / 275 lbs
Wednesday's two sets = 125 × 0.80 = 100 kg / 220 lbs
The first two weeks should feel comfortable. This program's failure mode is starting at a genuine limit five rep max and having nowhere to go by week three. If you are between two numbers, take the lower one and let the weekly increases carry you past it.
Warm-up sets are never counted in the working sets above.
| Set | Weight | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Empty bar (20 kg / 45 lbs) | 8 | 45 seconds |
| 2 | ~40% of working weight | 5 | 45 seconds |
| 3 | ~60% of working weight | 3 | 60 seconds |
| 4 | ~80% of working weight | 2 | 90 seconds |
| Work sets | 100% | As prescribed | See rest table |
Friday needs the most careful ramp of the week, because there is only one work set and you do not get a second attempt at it. Take small jumps near the top and rest fully before the work set.
| Session | Rest Period |
|---|---|
| Monday, between the five sets of five | 3-5 minutes |
| Wednesday | 90 seconds to 2 minutes |
| Friday, before the work set | 5 minutes |
| Accessories | 60-90 seconds |
Monday's rest is not optional. If you cut it to two minutes you will not complete five sets of five, and the week will fail on the first day.
If you miss reps on Friday, that is the signal the whole program is built to give you.
If you miss reps on Monday, your Monday percentage is too high. Drop Monday to 85% of Friday and keep Friday where it is.
If Wednesday feels hard, you are using it wrong. It is 80% of Monday, two sets, and it is supposed to feel easy.
If you stall on everything at once, take a light week: Monday at 80%, no Friday work set, then restart the following week from where you were.
The Texas Method runs for as long as Friday keeps going up, which for most lifters is somewhere between three and nine months.
There is no fixed end date and no built-in deload, because the weekly cycle IS the deload: Wednesday is the recovery day and it is scheduled every week rather than every fourth one.
When Friday stops moving for three weeks in a row, even after a reset, that is the signal to move on to a program with more variation in it, not to run a fourth reset.
The Texas Method is described in full in Mark Rippetoe and Andy Baker's book on intermediate programming:
Virtus Athlete carries the weekly arithmetic for you: enter your five rep maxes once and the app works out Monday's ninety percent and Wednesday's eighty percent from what you actually lifted, adds to Friday every week, and keeps every set logged so you can see whether Monday is really being completed.
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