A late start to SS linear progression

[littlepetal]

Age 39
Weight 108kg 25% body fat
Height: 6ft 4in

Aside from the last 8-9 months or so i have not really been active beyond a bit of bike riding and the occasional yoga class. I have been attending the gym since august 2016, being inspired of course by getting on some scales and realising i was 130kg. Apparently i was less than aware about the fattening that had been occuring. I had been eating irregularly and with abandon the last few years and was a bloaty fat mess. I immediately changed my diet back to vegan which i had been for a number of years and started to focus on eating whole foods as much as possible. Initially i had the goal of bringing my weight down to 95kg for a 25 BMI, since training however i have noticed that although my weight is still high my body shape is significantly different than when i was at the same weight a few years ago... i am fitting into jeans and clothes i havent been able to wear since my late 20's when i was last at a weight much lower than i am now. My calories seem to average about 2700-3000 a day and my weight has not changed. I may reduce them slightly to bring my body fat down to 20%

When starting a gym i engaged a PT to esure i did things safely as i have had a history of reasonably debilitating back pain. I went to the gym 3-5 times a week doing a bodybuilding type full body program and i did this until the end of the year. There were some front squats in there and also some rack pulls and deadlifts. In January this year i started Candito's 4 day Beginner Strength/hypertrophy LP program and continued this for 3 months. I found that the intensity day took a lot out of me and the switched to a 4 day GZCLP program for a month which basically rearranged candito's program somewhat. Last week i had a hangover after a weekday holiday which threw out my 4 day a week program. Instead as a stop gap i started the SS program - originally with the intention of returning to my reguar program the following week. What i found was that i enjoyed the lower gym time, especially so i could focus on work more.

I own the starting strength book, but due to my previous training thought that i had missed the boat for a session to session weight progression. This has always been why i hadnt attempted it this year. I have committed to following this program through until my LP ends and see where it takes me.

Tuesday
SQ 80kg 3x5
BP 57.5KG 3x5
DL 105KG 1x5
Assisted chin ups 40KG 8,6,6

Thursday
SQ 82.5 kg 3x5
OHP 40 KG 3x5
DL 107.5kg 1x5
Assisted Pull Up 40 KG 4,4,3

Saturday
SQ 85kg 3x5
BP 60kg 3x5
DL 110 1x5
Assisted Chin Up 40KG 7,6,5

Things seemed to go reasonably well. I dont think the deadlift can sustain increases from session to session any more so i will engage someone to teach me the powerclean to aternate the deadift with

[littlepetal]

Yesterday i had some training with an olympic lifting coach for the powerclean. I realised i totally suck at this and i am not sure how much i managed to learn. Because of the timing of the appointment, and also some silly mobility and stretching exercises, which i hated, it managed to throw my program out quite a bit.

Before appointment

OHP 41kg 3x5

I was expecting i would be able to do the squat training prior to the clean training. The powerclean training was focused on trying to cordiate all the moves - lets just say i am not so co-ordinated and the whole thing sucked. I think this will need much more practice. I then did my squats, but for whatever reason this fella did not want me to do them at the weight i had programmed.He is also mentioned he wasnt familiar with teaching low bar squatting so this may be a problem. Fortunately my normal trainer is a competitive powerlifter so i can work with him more

SQ 85 3x5

The squats sucked. It could have been all the time spent jumping around with the training, but they were slow and grindy and much worse than at the previous session

Later that evening i went to the gym to practise the power clean in fron of the mirror. Again i was super uncoordinated but it was a little easier. Getting the hands in the front rack position is super slow and i think my jumping is all over the place. At least it was amusing for others in the gym to watch.It did get ever slightly better at the work sets.

PC 35 5x3
Assisted pul ups 40kg 4,4,3

My traps certainly hurt today with the addition of the powerclean.