Unpossible's ABA-BAB extravaganza

[Unpossible]

Welcome to my ABA-BAB extravaganza!

I already keep a log for myself, so maybe this will serve as more of a testimonial. Feel free to chime in at any time with advice or mockery.

Background
31 year old male, 6ft, 198lbs (April 12, 2010)

Active or formerly active in various sports, with average success and no notable achievements to brag about. Dabbled in CrossFit for a few years and generally tend to go back in forth between strength and conditioning depending on my latest goal. Did the Adv. Novice program for a while in 2009. Attended a Rippetoe cert back when he was still working with the Evil Empire. Have the books. Read the books. Plan on buying the DVD and a belt.

Lifetime PRs
Back squat: 350 (1RM)
Front squat: 255 (1RM)
Deadlift: 450 (1RM)
Bench pres: 230 (5RM)
Press: 155 (1RM)
Power clean: 215 (1RM)

Goals
Just get bigger and stronger, with a weight goal of at least 100kg (220lbs), just cuz. At some point I'll be running around playing some sort of sport so not trying to max out my weight gain either.
Using the SS Novice Program (Sq-BP-DL/Sq-P-PC) for as long as the squat keeps progressing, with resets on other lifts if necessary and maybe one squat reset before moving to advanced novice or other intermediate programming.


I'll copy my progress to date from my .xls log in the following posts.

Happy lifting!

[Unpossible]

[I'll go week by week for now, to avoid posting a gazillion times.]

A note on weights: I decided to go "full novice" and start with relatively easy weights. I have some microloading chains for when my shitty press starts to stall. Warm up sets are as per Starting Strength Wiki template, or close enough if I forget to bring my notebook to the gym. After a few light hang cleans or 3-position cleans, power clean warm-ups tend to move quickly to singles@135 due to lack of standard size bumper plates other than 45lbs.

A note on diet: GOMAD or 1/2GOMAD most days, always eating plenty on the side. Rapid weight gain is part of the plan at this stage.

A note on the shit I'm posting: "As Rxd" means I did all the prescribed reps. Any deviation or additional work is noted. Stuff like "That went well" is for general context, which I feel is important when looking back on your old entries. Feel free to ignore.

Here we go, now:

Week 1

4/12/10 Sq 3x5x225; BP 3x5x175; DL 1x5x335
As Rxd
Everything felt reasonably easy/hard. Grip still a weak point on DL?! Bodyweight 90kg

4/13/10 A bit of bball, which sucked bad. Biked to/from work.

4/14/10 Sq 3x5x230; P 3x5125; PCl 5x3x135
As Rxd
Very last Press rep was hard. Micro loading already?

4/15/10 Rest.

4/16/10 Sq 3x5x235; BP 3x5x180; DL 1x5x345. Also a handful of 1xdouble overhand rack pull+hold x 315; 2ble overhand x405 F, alternate x1. [note: adding some grip work because this has seemed to limit me recently on heavy DLs]
As Rxd
Went ok. Still need to work on grip.

[Unpossible]

Week 2

4/19/10 Sq 3x5x240; P 3x5x130; PCl 5x3x140
As Rxd
Very last press rep was very hard.

4/20/10 Rest

4/21/10 Sq 3x5x245; BP 3x5x185; DL 1x5x355; 3x1 2ble overhand rack pull+hold x315lb
As Rxd
Not feeling awesome, squats and dls felt heavy.

4/22/10 rest

4/23/10 Forced rest (stuck at work)

4/24/10 Sq 3x5x250; P 3x5x135; PCl 5x3x145
Sq and PCl as Rxd. P 5,4,4
Sq and PCl felt fine. Next press will be only +2.5lbs

[Unpossible]

Week 3

4/26/10 Sq 3x5x255; BP 3x5x190; DL 1x5x365. 3x1x315 rack pull+hold
As Rxd
Felt OK. Bodyweight 94,5kg

4/27/10 1/2 hour or so of full court Bball.

4/28/10 Sq 3x5x260; P 3x5x137.5; PCl 5x3x150
Sq and PCl as Rxd. Press 5,5,4
Lower back hurts a bit. Nex press day will be +1.25...

4/29/10
4/30/10 Sq 3x5x265; BP 3x5x195; DL 1x5x375
As Rxd
Lower back a bit sore

[Unpossible]

Week 3

5/3/10 Sq 3x5x270; P 3x5x138.75; PCl 5x3x155
As Rxd
Just barely made press reps. Bodyweight 96 kg

5/4/10 Some Bball

5/5/10 Sq 3x5x275; BP 3x5x200; DL 1x5x385
As Rxd
Almost lost grip on rep 5 of DL. Lower back is sore.

5/6/10
5/7/10 Sq 3x5x280; P 3x5x140; PCl 5x3x160.
Indoor soccer in the evening, 2vs2+goalie
Sq/PCl Rxd, Press 5,5,4.
Lower back a bit sore. Switched to presses without bounce out of bottom. Didn't feel that bad. Happy with cleans as well (remember to get into jumping position). Soccer was really tiring.

[Unpossible]

[Back to day by day. I'll update on workout days only going forward.]

5/10/10 Forced rest (stuck at work) BW 98.5kg

[Unpossible]

5/11/10 Sq 3x5x285; BP 3x5x205; DL 1x5x395
Rxd but DL was more of a 4+1 (rechalk, a few seconds rest)
Worked out before work in the morning, instead of at lunch break every other time. Felt good, but grip an issue for last DL reps. Not setting my back 100%?

[Unpossible]

5/12/10 Sq 3x5x290, P 3x5x141.25; PCl 5x3x165
Rxd except Press: 5,5,4x145

Forgot to bring my fractional chains. Doh! Last rep set 2 and 4th rep set 3 were hard. Still pressing without a bounce. Seems to be easier (better set up). Next Press workout will be as planned (if I had done 141.25 today), 142.5. A few good power cleans in there.

[Unpossible]

Sq 3x5x295 -> Rxd
BP 3x5x210 -> Rxd
DL 1x5x405 -> 3.5+1 Grip failure.

Squat is starting to feel pretty heavy. I think I'm rounding my lower back at the bottom.

BP OK

Deadlift: Left hand (supine) started opening up a few inches from lockout. Frustrating. Is my grip the weak link or is my body sending an "abort" signal to my hands because it doesn't think it can handle the weight?

[Beltshumeltz]

Deadlift: Left hand (supine) started opening up a few inches from lockout. Frustrating. Is my grip the weak link or is my body sending an "abort" signal to my hands because it doesn't think it can handle the weight?

I'm talking out of my ass here but personally at some point I just started having to actually FOCUS on keeping my hands closed firmly so they don't start opening up. Now, I try to remember to think about that and therefore I apply more strength to keeping my grip closed before it opens up - otherwise it's hard to close back on the same rep. Also, when in doubt, I reset my grip when the weight is down.

Fortunately for me at least, I *could* usually do 1-2 reps with a semi-open grip before it got too late. So the first grip that opens up, I can still finish the rep and just pay more attention to grip on the next one.

edit: but I handle little girly weights still :P