Texas Method vs. Conjugate vs. 5/3/1

The Texas Method vs. Conjugate vs. 5/3/1

I wanted to share my personal experiences of the Texas Method vs. Conjugate vs. 5/3/1.  For those who don’t now what these are, they are some of the more well known barbell-based strength programs out there.  They’re the ones I’ve had the most success with so far, and they’re all quite tried and true.  I’ll explain the fundamentals of each program, as well as my experiences with each and how they compare to one another.  This is purely anecdotal and very subjective, so take it for what it’s worth.  Everyone is different and will respond differently to different programming.

For a bit of context, I’m a 41 year old male.  6’0″, 210 lbs, low bodyfat.  I’ve never had any sort of testing done to determine my muscle fiber type, but I’m fairly certain I lean towards fast twitch.  My vertical jump is still in the 36″ range at 41 years old, so I have good natural motor unit recruitment.  I’ve always been athletic and coordinated.  I should also point out that I played football in college.  So I was squatting close to 500 lbs. when I was 22.  And even though I stepped away from heavy lifting for quite a few years, my nervous system seemed to retain a good amount of the motor patterns for the barbell lifts.  I also had the previous mental reference experience of having weights that heavy on my back.  So when I returned to heavy lifting in my mid-30’s that was a huge advantage.  Still, it has taken a number of years to get back to where I was at 22, but I’ve gotten to that point nonetheless and plan to surpass my younger self.  I believe in lifting for strength with muscular development as a side effect.  And I generally prefer the physique created by compound lifts anyway.  Big legs, back and traps look strong, and compound lifts naturally create muscular balance because the whole body is working in concert as a unit to lift the weight.

Also, I eat a really good diet, don’t drink regularly, and sleep well which all make a huge difference in my experience.  Especially beyond age 40.

So here we go.  Let’s jump into this discussion of Texas Method vs. Conjugate vs. 5/3/1.

Texas Method

The Texas Method is an intermediate lifting program developed by Mark Rippetoe of Starting Strength notoriety.  I’d already regained a lot of my former strength when I decided to look into Rippetoe’s programming, so I jumped right into the Texas Method instead of his novice linear progression programming.  I was already at the point where I was lifting heavy enough weights that weekly progress in loading was more appropriate from a recovery standpoint than progress each workout.

The Texas Method combines a high volume session as the first training stimulus of the week (medium weights combined with high reps), with a recovery day at lower weights, and a high intensity workout (heaviest weights at lower reps).

As is common in the Starting Strength approach, weight is incrementally added to the bar.  But it isn’t increased every workout like the novice progression.  Instead, it is increased over the prior week since the three workouts each week are done at different loads.  For example, the weight used on the volume day squats will be increased over the weight used for the prior week’s volume day squats.  The same goes for the weights used for the recovery and intensity days.  The program is designed to be a weekly progression that allows for more recovery from the heavier weights when a lifter moves from being a pure novice into being an intermediate.  At this point a lifter is getting closer to their genetic potential and recovery becomes more difficult.

I should note that Rippetoe offers up quite a lot of good advanced lifter programming, but it is truly for people approaching the top end limits of their genetic potential, and who are dedicated to competitive lifting.  That said, the intermediate programming is still appropriate for lifters who are very strong, and rather experienced under the bar.  Don’t let the name fool you.

So on to my experiences with the Texas Method.

I ran phases 1-3 of the Texas Method over approximately six months (see Rippetoe’s book Practical Programming for Strength Training for more details).  When I started I’d just finished experimenting with Conjugate programming and had hit a 475 lb. squat in wraps and belt, as well as a 485 lb. sumo deadlift (had been experimenting with sumo for the first time due to a sore lower back).  My goal was to switch back to conventional deadlifting and hit a 500 lb. deadlift.  As of the last Texas Method intensity day workout I did, I squatted 480 for five easy singles across with a belt but no knee wraps.  The bar moved nice and quickly.  I also deadlifted 500 lbs. conventional for a pretty easy double.  Mission accomplished and more.  These were work sets and not true maxes either.  I was satisfied and didn’t bother to go for true maxes, especially since I generally lift alone in my garage and I’m fine letting the bigger numbers come as part of work sets in future programming.  If I had to guess, I probably could have hit a max squat of 500+, and max deadlift of 525+.  Those are solid improvements in six months, especially considering I did the 480 lb. squats without knee wraps.  I should also point out that I squatted 435 for five sets of five on my last high volume day.  Before starting this programming, a single set of five at 405 would have been a huge accomplishment, so to me this was almost the most significant improvement – 25 squats of 435 lbs in a single workout.

The pros of the Texas Method in my experience:

• Very fast progress on the squat and deadlift.  Assuming I added 40 lbs. to my deadlift in a half year, it doesn’t take a math whiz to see how that could play out over the course of another year or two.  Of course, progress doesn’t always move that quickly as weights get heavier, but it was still a quick jump in strength.
• When I started the Texas Method, I was dealing with chronic lower back soreness.  But the Texas Method is very low volume when it comes to the deadlift.  The programming only calls for one heavy set of deadlifting per week.  I also did some medium weight Romanian deadlifts each week to build my back a bit, but this program seems to mostly rely on ever increasing low bar back squat maxes to drive the deadlift.  For me it worked very effectively and by the time I deadlifted 500 for a double, my back pain was completely gone.
• I gained 10 lbs. of lean muscle in six months.  The high volume days that feature 5×5 programming not only build strength, but they induce some real hypertrophy.  My legs, glutes, traps and back got huge.
• The increasing weights every week can be difficult mentally, but learning to get under the bar and do it anyway was a huge boost to the mind.  More on the flip side of this below.
• In preparation for this program I read both Starting Strength, and Practical Programming for Strength Training by Mark Rippetoe and his teachings helped me re-dial my technique on the lifts which was huge.  I learned to become  a believer in the low bar squat.  It allowed me to move a lot more weight and I found it to benefit my deadlift tremendously.  I believe this has to do with the more horizontal back angle and greater emphasis on the posterior chain and muscles that stabilize the spine.  No other program drove my deadlift up more and I was only doing one non-warmup deadlift work set per week.  Thank you low bar squats.
• I like the inclusion of the power versions of the clean and snatch.  They’re fun and awesome lifts.
• I really respond to 5×5 programming.  The volume at heavy weights drives up both my strength and hypertrophy in  profound way.
• Though some sessions are longer than others, there are only three training sessions per week.
• While the following comment isn’t necessarily related to the effectiveness of the programming, I do love the prevalence of “sets across” where all of the work sets are at the same weight.  The bar can be loaded once for an exercise and there is no calculating loads and taking plates on and off in between sets.

Some of the cons of the Texas Method in my experience:

• You may have noticed that I’ve been talking exclusively about squats and deadlifts, and haven’t said much about shoulder press and bench press.  The truth is that I didn’t make gains on those lifts that were nearly as noteworthy.  That could be my fault for not increasing those lifts enough each workout, but the Texas Method doesn’t put as much emphasis on those lifts since they are alternated each workout.  These lifts also get alternated which means they’re each done half as often.  Either way, I still got stronger in my upper body, just not to the same degree.  And let’s be honest, I don’t care that much because the squat and deadlift are my real focus anyway.  So I don’t consider this a true “con”, especially since I’m not looking to bench press at any competitions any time soon.
• The volume day session is a long, brutal workout.  Once I got to squatting 435 for 5×5, it took quite a bit of rest between sets to ensure I hit all of the reps without missing.  And by then I was following it up with near limit 5×5 press or bench press, not to mention 3×5 heavy power cleans and some light-ish assistance work.  This all took a good two plus hours and was honestly quite taxing.  That being the case, I had to do these sessions on the weekend.  Weeknights were pretty much out of the question for volume day due to limited time by the time I got home from work. The point of all of this is that there wasn’t a lot of flexibility as far as fitting this program into my life.  If I missed the volume workout one weekend, I basically had to just skip a week and do a couple of the lighter recovery workouts until I could resume the following weekend.  That only happened once thankfully.  Yes, I could probably have sucked it up and done a volume workout on a weeknight once or twice.  But then my intensity session got pushed into the next weekend, or close to it, and didn’t leave much time to recover before the next volume workout.  I’m not 20 years old any more, and this programming pushed the limits of my body’s ability to recover so I had to be smart about the timing of workouts.
• Because my ability to recover as the weights got heavier and heavier was getting close to it’s limits, I wasn’t able to do a lot of extra conditioning, etc.  I’d go for some light hikes and bike rides to keep loose and get some blood flow to my muscles, but for six months I was pretty much dedicated to the Texas Method and everything else revolved around it and came second.  Since I love to feel fit and athletic as well as strong, this was one aspect of the program I didn’t love.  But it was a worthwhile sacrifice to make big strength gains and pack on some substantial muscle.
• After six months, I was beat down physically and mentally.  I most definitely developed a few nagging aches and pains in my lower body, and my quads became chronically sore even though I was low bar squatting with a posterior chain emphasis.  No amount of foam rolling or warming up made it go away until I took a good break, and each squat workout was a bit more mentally difficult as a result.  And speaking of mental stress, knowing how difficult it was to squat 430 for 5×5 didn’t make it easy to walk out to the garage for the following week’s session at 435.  As mentioned above, this had some mental benefits, but also got tiring after many weeks and months.
• Because this program is a grind, don’t expect to do much else in terms of athletic endeavors as mentioned previously.  Rest days really have to be taken as rest days, and only light activity will allow for recuperating before the next session.
• The way this program was able to grind me down wasn’t always great for my mindset and energy at work, etc.
• I’m someone who can eat the same food day after day, and do the same workout week after week without getting too bored.  Progress makes it worthwhile.  But this programming did get very repetitive.  Ultimately, who cares about variety though when the gains are coming fast.

All in all, the Texas Method turned out to be the most effective programming I’ve done to date when it comes to fast progress in a short amount of time.  I’ve been doing a variation of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program to switch things up a bit since my last Texas Method workout, but I just might run the Texas Method once or twice more in the future.  Rippetoe has figured out how to go from A to B in the straightest line possible, as quickly as possible, and that’s something I can appreciate.  I would have liked to try it at age 25 to see if the recovery would have been any better, but I still found it to be very effective in my 40’s.  I can’t recommend this program enough to those with the will to work through it.

The Conjugate Method

 

Prior to running the Texas Method, I experimented with the Conjugate method made famous by Louie Simmons and Westside Barbell.  Specifically, I worked with a template published by Westside called Westside for Sports Athletic Development.  Conjugate tends to be a rather controversial approach to programming, with very polarized points of view.  Many insist it’s mostly applicable to geared powerlifting, and requires lots of hands on coaching.  There may be some truth to that because one of the staples of the program is using special assistance exercises to correct specific weaknesses.  And that isn’t always easy for someone to self-assess.  But Louie Simmons has had some incredible success training world class track athletes as well as the strongest powerlifters in the world.  That ability to develop explosive athletecism was a draw for me, and the program in question here includes some jumping and explosive work that I found appealing.  Also, I was dealing with some unrelenting lower back pain and tightness, and Westside prides itself on injury prevention so I thought maybe I could work out this back pain issue while getting stronger.

The basis of the program is that twice a week, a lifter works up to a new max attempt on both a lower body and upper body lift (maximum effort).  Then the other two days use lighter weights with a focus on lifting them as fast as possible (dynamic effort).  For the second half of each workout a lifter chooses a few assistance lifts for targeting weak spots and hypertrophy (repetition effort).  Add in the jumping and the muscles and nervous system are being worked in a variety of ways from grinding out max weights, to moving medium weights as fast as possible, to outright explosive power.  A lot of this is based on Soviet-era training principles that have been very effective for a lot of lifters.

Let’s continue this analysis of Texas Method vs. Conjugate vs. 5/3/1 with my personal experiences using the Conjugate approach.

I started Conjugate after several months of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 full body programming.  I definitely gained some solid strength on that program, so I was starting from a good base.  Though I never actually maxed out during that program, but based on some best efforts at multiple reps, I was able to extrapolate maxes using a formula ((weight x reps x 0.0333) + weight = 1 rep max).  It’s no doubt imperfect, but my best lifts were somewhere around the following at the time – squat 450, deadlift 465, shoulder press 195, bench 270.  During my time experimenting with Conjugate I worked up to a squat of 475 with belt and wraps, a sumo deadlift of 485, a 300 lb. bench press, and a 205 lb. shoulder press.

Some pros of the Conjugate method in my experience:

• The fact that lifts are changed frequently prevents the program from getting stale, and also prevents nagging overuse injuries from repetitive movements.  It also allows a lifter to continually tweak and fine tune the program to focus on lifts that bring up weak areas.
• The emphasis on volume with the assistance lifts seemed to induce some nice hypertrophy.  I looked huge.  Although I did put on more actual muscle with the Texas Method.  Conjugate puts an emphasis on triceps for building the bench press so I was doing more arm work than usual.
• The dynamic effort days are a nice mental break and a bit of fun.  They’re also somewhat decent from a conditioning standpoint since the rest in between sets is timed and the sets are numerous and rapid fire in nature (though low in reps).  I always found myself dripping sweat on these days.
• I love box squatting with chains (see below for thoughts on bands).  And I have no doubt it made me a faster and more explosive, though I wish I would have done some before/after measurements on my vertical jump and 40 yard dash time.  On the flip side, I don’t squat in a multi-ply suit, so that much sitting back may not have been overly beneficial for raw squatting with nothing but a belt?  Hard to say.
• Westside and Louie Simmons introduced me to a number of new exercises that I think are great for recovery and athleticism.  These are exercises I can use with other programs too.  Things like the reverse hyper (found one for a great price used on craigslist, thank god), sled dragging, and the inverse curl (I did Russian leg curls instead since I don’t own an inverse curl machine).
• Unlike the Texas Method that has one really long workout every week, I found the Conjugate training sessions relatively consistent in length.  So my Sunday workout could pretty easily become my Tuesday workout if I went out of town for a weekend, resulting in good flexibility and the option to miss a day and easily pick up where I left off without getting too far behind.

Some cons of the Conjugate method in my experience:

• While changing the lifts frequently has some benefits, it also misses some of the benefits of specificity and doing the same lifts more consistently.
• I ended up plateauing on the maximum effort days after a nice bit of progress.  I learned from then moving on to the Texas Method that I respond best when i include some heavy sets of five and three.
• Max effort days are a bit mentally taxing.  One rep maxes take a toll, even when it’s a different exercise each week.
• Setting up bands for accommodating resistance on different exercises can be a pain.  Though in fairness I have a home garage setup that required me to get creative with attaching bands to my equipment.  Would probably be more of an afterthought if I had a professional monolift and bench with proper band pegs.  But the bands feel like a distraction sometimes.
• Along the same lines, it took a lot of trial and error to get the band tensions right on each lift, and when I used too much tension it beat me up a little.
• The constant changing of exercises requires a lot of thought.  Nothing wrong with that, but I always wondered if I was choosing wisely or spinning my wheels.
• The suggestion to max out on lifts besides the main three  is fun and interesting, but not terribly specific for raw lifters who don’t use lifting suits.
• Utilizing a huge variety of assistance exercises requires a huge variety of equipment.  I have a number of toys in my garage gym, and was able to get creative.  For instance I used a simple Spud Inc. belt and weight pin with some wooden platforms I built to mimic Louie Simmons’ belt squat machine.  I did Russian leg curls by putting plates and a pad on my bar, and a mat on the ground so I had something to hold my ankles and cushion my knees.  But this type of programming can still be difficult in the confines of a garage gym.  And even most commercial gyms for that matter.
• The huge variety of exercises aren’t super specific to the main barbell lifts.  It might prevent injuries, but if I did this again (and I might) I’d experiment with greater focus on fewer lifts.
• Conjugate doesn’t generally include power cleans and power snatch like the Texas Method, though that might be an option for assistance work if desired and programmed properly.

All in all, I’m not sure Conjugate is the best choice for a lifter just looking to get strong in the raw lifts for living life.  Especially when considering that 5/3/1 allows for plenty of jumping and running too.  I may give this another go at some point, and I can’t deny I made progress, but I have to include more heavy sets of five and three to make steady progress.  That said, I might use Conjugate for periods of time when heavy sets of five have me worn down and it’s time to mix things up temporarily.  If I can make some steady progress on maxes for a few months by maxing weekly after building myself up with fives for a period of time, that will be a worthwhile use of Conjugate.

5/3/1

Interestingly, I came across Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 programming in an article about the Texas Method.  The author of that article was arguing that the Texas Method is really geared towards younger lifters and that 5/3/1 might be a better intermediate training program for lifters over forty.  Turns out I had huge success with the Texas Method in my forties, but I digress.  Anyhow, I was familiar with Jim Wendler and immediately looked up the program to see what it’s all about.

5/3/1 moves in monthly cycles and is based on percentages of a training max that is notched up at the beginning of each new monthly cycle.  The percentages increase over the first three weeks of each month with the repetitions per set generally decreasing with the increase in weight.  However, on the last set of each barbell exercise Wendler recommends doing extra reps depending on how a lifter feels.  Then the fourth week is a nice light deload week for extra recovery.  Rinse and repeat.  The meat of this program is properly based around the squat, deadlift, press and bench press as it should be, and those are the lifts that the percentages are applied to.  After the main lifts, a lifter can program various assistance lifts as they desire which gives it a bit of a Conjugate feel.  But Wendler has a handful of meat and potatoes assistance lifts he recommends (as oppose to constantly changing), and also offers up several variations on the 5/3/1 program for different objectives and focuses on the assistance part of the workouts.  Generally speaking he suggests that the assistance work be done without much stress and strain to keep the focus on the compound barbell lifts that drive the real adaptations and gains.

Another explicit aspect of 5/3/1 that I really like is a focus on agility and conditioning.  Wendler suggests Joe DeFranco’s agile eight warmup to get loose, and he suggests lots of options for staying fit as well, from hill sprints to prowler workouts to walking with a heavy weight vest.  Personally, I also fit in some heavy bag workouts and interval training that is somewhat like a Crossfit WOD.  Wendler was a Division 1 fullback in college and places a good amount of emphasis on staying athletic while getting stronger.  I think there’s a lot to be said for that, and the 5/3/1 workouts are relatively quick and to the point to allow for more time to gain fitness outside of the weight room.

On to my experiences with 5/3/1.

Some pros of 5/3/1 in my experience:

• As mentioned, the workouts are concise and effective, with an emphasis on staying fit, loose, and athletic.
• Each workout takes approximately the same amount of time, allowing for flexibility to fit it into my schedule.
• The deload week is a nice feature.  I never feel like I’m flirting with the threshold of overtraining on this program.  And in the deload week I can do a little bit more intense conditioning which I like.  That’s something I just couldn’t do at all with the Texas Method.
• The percentage approach makes things pretty straight forward.  The Texas Method isn’t percentage based, the weekly increases were generally pretty much prescribed, so both programs prevent excessive guesswork.  This is in contrast to the Conjugate method where every week there were lots of decisions to be made about which exercises to pick and how much to lift.  There are advantages to both, but sometimes it’s nice to have training sessions laid out succinctly to take guesswork out of the planning so a lifter can focus on the actual lifting.
• Month-based training waves as opposed to weekly allows for more recovery between the highest intensity and highest volume sessions.  Again, this allows for fresher legs to get fit and athletic outside of the weight room.
• Increased recovery for the muscles, nervous system, and joints also means increased recovery for the mind and a bit less cortisol coursing through the veins.  For me, this generally means  better mental function and mood which can’t be overlooked.
• While monthly increases means slower progress overall, I’m able to run this program for longer periods of time because of the increased recovery.  And if the training max for the squat and deadlift increase 10 lbs. per month, that’s 120 lbs. per year.  The Texas Method calls for 5 lb. increases each week or 20 lbs. per month.  But I got to a point where I met my goals for the Texas Method, was in the advanced intermediate range as far as the weights I was lifting, and felt pretty beat up.  As Rippetoe will tell you, a lifter starting to get closer to the limits of their potential will have to make slower progress as they proceed because the training stress gets harder to recover from.  5/3/1 is a nice option for me in that regard.  And if I can add 120 lbs. to any lift in a year that’s a huge win.
• The assistance work is meant to be a bit of an afterthought which makes it more fun and creates zero stress.  Just build a little extra useful muscle and get a pump.  I lift for strength and performance primarily, but it feels good to get a little pumped sometimes.
• The 5+, 3+, and 1+ sets that finish of the main lift for the day are a nice feature that allows a lifter to add another rep or more at the heaviest weight for the day.  This allows for more work/progress when feeling good, and tests the will too.  But I caution anyone doing this program to always leave a good amount in the tank.  One of the reasons I ended up stopping 5/3/1 was because I went too hard on the “plus” sets at the end of some workouts and beat myself up unnecessarily.  It was my fault and not a fault of the program, but it’s worth noting.

Some cons of 5/3/1 in my experience:

• Never ventures into that 5×5 volume at heavy weights that seems to drive some serious adaptation for me.  Definitely some good sets of five and three though anyway.  And in all fairness, the slight decrease in volume is less of a grind and leaves me feeling far fresher for other activities while continuing to make strength progress anyway.
• I have to be careful with programmed deadlift volume, and 5/3/1 calls for a bit more volume than the Texas Method.  As mentioned above, my deadlift follows my progress in the squat with minimal deadlifting volume.  And deadlift volume sometimes wears my back out unnecessarily.  I have to be willing to back off when my body tells me to
• Slower progress than Texas Method because the program is based around monthly increases as opposed to weekly increases.  But that comes with the territory anyway as a lifter gets much stronger.  Training is a marathon, not a sprint.  And if one steps back and looks at the progress that could be made in a year of 5/3/1, it’s pretty staggering.
• Unlike the Texas Method and its “sets across”, 5/3/1 requires calculating and changing weight on the bar pretty much every set.  Not the end of the world, but something that has been noticeable to me.

Final Thoughts and My Current Programming

I think there are some great aspects to each of these common barbell programs.  And each seems to play a different role.  One will be good for a lifter trying to do one thing, while another program will be good for a lifter trying to accomplish something else.

I’d say the Texas Method was instrumental in busting through some plateaus that had been haunting me, and I accomplished some things in that program that I wasn’t sure I could do.  I also eliminated my lower back pain while increasing my deadlift significantly.  I made great progress with Conjugate too, but I think I’d rather try that approach again with a good coach and access to a gym that has a lot of the Westside specialty equipment.  And I like the injury prevention aspect of Conjugate and Westside’s track record of having healthy lifters.  After all, an injured lifter can’t make any progress.  5/3/1 is also a great program for big strength gains, and for me it’s easiest to fit into my life and allows me to stay in incredible shape fitness-wise and do other things simultaneously.  For instance, it’s great during ski season because the fitness, agility, and ability to stay well recovered and free from nagging pains lends itself to going out and charging down a mountain feeling relatively fresh and prepared to do so.

Having just finished up a long hard slog through the Texas Method, my plan is to try the 5/3/1 Boring But Big program.  This program keeps the assistance work emphasis on the main barbell lifts, just at much lower weight and higher volumes for packing on muscle.  I’ve been doing it for a couple of weeks and I love the simplicity so far.  Wendler has recommendations for a few additional light assistance lifts like dumbbell rows, dips, and abdominal exercises.  And I’ll continue to do some back raises, pullups, reverse hypers, etc.  If the program continues to feel good, I might see if I can run it for a year and add that 120 lbs. to my squat and deadlift training maxes.  Not to mention a potential 60 lbs. (5 lb. monthly increases ) to my press and bench.  I’ll also be curious to see if I can make those kinds of strength gains while incorporating plenty of hard conditioning and agility/flexibility.  I’ll never know until I try.  If progress stalls, I’ll have to assess next steps and alter my course.  I’ll plan to write some updates along the way.

I also plan to tap into Rippetoe’s more advanced training methods at some point.  Perhaps if 5/3/1 stalls out a bit.  I have no doubt Rippetoe knows how to keep a more advanced lifter making progress.

I hope this was helpful insight for anyone dabbling in these programs.  As always, I’d love to hear what others have tried and what they’ve had success with since everyone is different.  Please share in the comments.