A not exactly optimal Novice Linear Progression (R's training log)

[Ronny Simon Mo]

Hi I'm Ronny, and welcome to my training log.

Some basic background is probably in order, so here goes:

Age: 41 changes once a year in spring.
Height: 178cm / 5'10.5 and shrinking
Weight: 95kg/210lbs at start (3/13/20) and 108kg/235lbs as of 5/7/20 <- that happens when you let yourself just eat. It's quite nice, but I'm barely any fluffier around the belly than before, and it's still down from my ~140kg /310lbs 6 years ago.

Prior to finding Starting Strength I had stopped doing any GPP workouts and was only doing BJJ and stretching. Prior to starting BJJ I was running, swimming and doing calisthenics - a standard workout was a 1hr run, 2k swim and a round of calisthenics. I topped out at a half-marathon for running, I failed to complete a marathon due to bad prep and a knee that stopped me from running for about 6 months after. During that pause I transitioned to almost exclusively BJJ - which is amazingly fun. I switched to exclusively SSPP for BJJ (between 3 and 5 times a week - say 6-15 hours) at that point. When I got my Blue belt they started handing me, as the 'biggest guy in the gym' (I'm a really small big guy in BJJ), all the young bucks and bigger white belts with limited proprioception. And although I was strong enough and skilled enough to handle it, as I turned 40 and edged towards 41 I realized that I might just need to work on my GPP and strength again to keep keeping up. So here I am. I found this program via Alan Thrall's youtube channel as well as a couple of other youtube channels in the martial arts/strength genre.

Book reading:
Blue Book: Read once (audiobook), it needs a .pdf for the illustrations.
Gray Book: Started, but still not really necessary
Strong Enough: About 3/4 through

Gear and equipment:
Due to the local Covid situation, I have not had any gym access since I actually started my NLP, and all my gear is leftover stuff I had from when I had no clue about equipment... so it's bad, but it at least purports to be heavy enough... so far. When I moved, I seriously thought I would never need to buy more plates... I had one pair of each size 20/15/10, a couple of extra sets of 5kg plates, and some dumbbells. If I ever started weight training again I'd be fine. I'm also in a garage that isn't tall enough for me to press in, but now that the snow is gone, I'm going to jury-rig something outside so I can press.

Diet:
Desperately eating anything with protein in it. Calories are ok, and can easily be cut when I want to drop weight by dropping carbs, but I'm having a hard time getting enough protein at the moment. Need 400g, which is somewhat tough.

Dinners usually look something like this when I have time to prep:
Dinner example 1.jpg Dinner Example 2-2.jpg

Since I'm almost 2 months into my training when starting this, I'll make a couple of quick notes about my training:
When I started I only had the gear on hand to do deadlifts. I almost immediately scrounged up my old bench stuff from storage and cobbled something together so I could also bench. After that I was happy for a while, so it took me quite a while to figure out how to use the gear I had to squat (Note: It is not a safe setup, but you gotta squat) . I still can't press or do pullups at home. With respect to technique, I've also several times had to deload to specifically fix form problems and I'll note when that happens in the log.

On to the actual logs with dates and numbers and all that interesting stuff.

Of course I forgot some things:
- The records are a bit incomplete, I didn't track my first two(?) weeks of deadlifts.
- I have been diagnosed with HLA-B27 Anklyosing Spondylitis - For the most part this means I wake up with a shitty back, and I get way more eye infections than most people. Stretching, lifting weights, yoga, and just about anything that makes me move a lot helps with the back though.

[Ronny Simon Mo]

These are my records from March 2020. I was only Deadlifting and Benching.

Notes: Weights are in kg, with the bar not being counted as I don't know how much it weighs (8 or 10kgs probably).

Starting Weights:
Deadlift: 87.5kg (192.5lbs) for 3 sets of 5 reps - ignoring bar, and the fact that I have no idea what my plates actually weigh.
Bench: 60kg (132lbs) for 3 sets of 5 - ignoring bar, and the fact that I have no idea what my plates actually weigh.

End of Month Weights:
Deadlift: 112.5kg (247.5lbs) for 5 reps - ignoring bar, and the fact that I have no idea what my plates actually weigh.
Bench: 57.5 kg (126.5lbs) for 3 sets of 5 - ignoring bar, and the fact that I have no idea what my plates actually weigh.

3/13/20

Deadlift	40x5	70x5	85x5	87.5x5x3
Bench	40x5	50x5	60x5x3	50x5x3

3/16/20

Deadlift	40x5	70x5	85x5	90x5x3
Bench	40x5	50x5	60x5	70x5x3

3/18/20

Deadlift	40x5	70x5	85x5	95x5x2
Bench	40x5	50x5	60x5	70x5	75x5x3

3/20/20

Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	95x5	100x5x3
Bench	40x5	50x5	60x5	75x5	77.5x5x3

3/22/20

Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	105x5x3
Bench	40x5	50x5	60x5	75x5	80x5x3	Failed

Note: As you can tell, I had not finished reading the programming section of the blue book and was moving up way, way too fast on the bench and injured myself. At the same time, I here start having problems with my grip on the deadlift, it is lagging behind my ability to pull

3/25/20

Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	105x5	107.5x5	90x5
Bench	40x5	50x5

3/27/20

Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	105x5	110x5	90x5
Bench	40x5x3	50x5x3	55x5x3

3/30/20

Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	110x5	112.5x5	90x5
Bench	40x5x3	50x5x3	55x5x3	57.5x5x3

Further notes: My grip is still lagging, the 90kg final sets are in my, not so clever mind, there to work the grips, as I think I had started to use an alternating supinated grip to deadlift the worksets. 1st rep standard overhand grip, then alternating supine grips for pulls 2-5. I will later just ditch this as I need the grip strength as much as I need the pull strength. The switch to stupid volume with a hard focus on technique let me bench with a painful shoulder. When it calmed down I had read the proper section in the blue book and all would be well.

[Ronny Simon Mo]

These are my records from April 2020. Starting on the 6th of April my routine changed from Deadlift and Bench only to Squat/Bench/Deadlift Mon/Wen/Fri.

Notes: Weights are in kg, with the bar not being counted as I don't know how much it weighs (8 or 10kgs probably).

Starting Weights (again, ignoring the bar, and using uncalbrated weights):
Squat: First day was 4/6, At 50kg (110lbs) my form started deteriorating.
Bench: 65kg (143lbs) for 3 sets of 5
Deadlift: 115kg (253lbs) for 1 set of 5 reps

End of Month (4/29) Weights:
Squat: 110kg (242lbs) for 3 sets of 5.
Bench: 87.5kg (192.5lbs) for 3 sets of 5
Deadlift: 117.5kg (258lbs) for 1 set of 5 reps - Note, these were clean, overhand grip pulls.

Improvement:
Squat: 60kg
Bench: 22.5kg
Deadlift: 2.5kg

4/3/20

Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	115x5
Bench	40x5x3	60x5x3	65x5x3

4/6/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	10x5	20x5	30x5	40x5	50x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	50x5x2	60x5	67.5x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	117.5x5

4/8/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	20x5	40x5	60x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5x3	70x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	120x5

4/10/20 - Only Squat was completed on this day, the rest was preempted by family.

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	70x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	50x5	60x5	72.5x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	110x5	122.5x5

4/13/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	70x5	75x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	50x5	60x5	72.5x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	110x5	122.5x5

4/15/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	70x5	80x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	50x5	60x5	75x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	110x5	125x5

4/17/20 - I only had 2-3 hours of sleep on the 16th, so I did not attempt to increase my deadlift.

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	80x5	85x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	70x5	77.5x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	110x5	125x5

4/20/20 Only had time to do squats on this day.

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	80x5	90x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	70x5	80x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	110x5	127.5x5

4/22/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	80x5	95x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	70x5	80x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	110x5	127.5x5

Failed to complete deadlift set. Did 2 reps at 127.5kg with one supine hand and then dropped the weight to 115, and pulled with standard grips.
4/24/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	80x5	100x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	70x5	82.5x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	115x4

Failed to complete deadlift set. Did 4 reps, and failed two more attempts. I decided here from this I would a) only use overhand grips b) to drop the last warmup set by 10kg. And if I failed I wouldn't do any gimmicky grips. I need grip strength, the overhand grip is great for my hands.
4/27/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	80x5	105x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	70x5	85x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	115x5

4/29/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	90x5	110x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	70x5	87.5x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	117.5x5

[Ronny Simon Mo]

These are my records from May 1st 2020 to May 12th 2020.

Starting Weights (again, ignoring the bar, and using uncalbrated weights):
Squat: 115kg (253lbs) for 3 sets of 5
Bench: 90kg (98lbs) for 3 sets of 5
Deadlift: 120kg (264lbs) for 1 set of 5 reps

5/1/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	90x5	115x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	70x5	90x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	120x5

The deadlifts did not feel completely locked out, so I did not give myself a pass here.

5/4/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	90x5	120x5x3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	70x5	92.5x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	120x5	Failed Rep #5

5/6/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	90x5	122.5x5*	110x5x2**
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	80x5	95x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	120x5

* This turned out to be a set where I injured myself
** I kept having the bar roll up my back at 120kg+, so I needed to deload to fix my posture.

5/9/20

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x5	60x5	80x5	110x5	115x5x3*	Failed Set #3
Bench	40x5x3	60x5	80x5	96.25x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5	100x5	122.5x5

*The injury from 5/6/20 was causing me enough pain that I was unable to do the third set, and the second set was so unbalanced I almost dropped plates off the bar. I also could not deadlift at all due to pain

5/12/20
Day 1 of Starr Rehab for the thigh.

Squat	Empty Bar x5x3	40x10	50x25x3
Bench	40x5x3	50x5	60x5	70x5	80x5x3
Deadlift	40x5	70x5	90x5x3