Mick from Aus doing starting strength

[Micko]

Just bought the book and certainly learnt a fair bit, my only questions are if I should do chinups with the program after my deadlifts? And what my diet should consist of, currently eating oats for breakfast with blueberries and milk, 2 sandwiches with meat, cheese and salad and meat and veges for dinner with eaither rice or pasta.

I'm 85kg and 5'11

Program
A.
Squat 3 x 5
Bench Press 3 x 5
Deadlift 1 x 5

B.
Squat 3 x 5
Press 3 x 5
Power Cleans 5 x 3

Also I don't have bumper plates so I will not be dropping the weight on the ground while doing my cleans. I'll lower it, is that going to effect my training in a very poor way?

Thanks in advance for any help, my goal is to gain as much muscle as possible

[Brodie Butland]

"Just bought the book and certainly learnt a fair bit, my only questions are if I should do chinups with the program after my deadlifts?"

If you want. I personally think they work better after a pushing motion, i.e., bench press or overhead press. Whatever helps you gain the most. Maybe experiment with each and see what feels best? (You may even decide it's too much to add chinups to your programming...who knows...)

"And what my diet should consist of, currently eating oats for breakfast with blueberries and milk, 2 sandwiches with meat, cheese and salad and meat and veges for dinner with eaither rice or pasta."

You're 85kg, which I'm guessing puts you at 187 lbs (sorry--we Americans prefer pounds). My general rule of thumb is that to be in an ideal bulking phase, you need about 20 calories per pound. That's over 3,700 calories daily for you...for right now. If you're hitting 3,700 calories with at least 300g protein on that particular diet, you're all good. If not, find new ways to increase the calories.

Whole milk really helps with this. Try up to a gallon a day if you can.

"Also I don't have bumper plates so I will not be dropping the weight on the ground while doing my cleans. I'll lower it, is that going to effect my training in a very poor way?"

I don't have bumper plates at my gym, yet the power clean has been the most reliably-progressing lift for me. You'll lose a little more energy lowering the weights rather than dropping them, but I've never found it to be substantial enough to cause a miss.