Coop87's Training Log

[Coop87]

7/5/2008 - Saturday

Squats: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 245lbs.

Bench Press: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 165lbs.

BB Rows: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 105lbs.

Dips: 14/12/12 @ b/w

[Coop87]

7/7/2008 - Monday

Squats: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 245lbs.

Overhead Press: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 90lbs.

Deadlifts: 10 @ 145lbs.

Chinups: 10/5/2 @ b/w

(Bench Press 1rpmax = 185lbs.)

[KIB]

Good progress, Coop.

[Coop87]

7/9/08 - Wednesday

Squats: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 245 lbs.

(sticking with 245lbs because my form is bad and I want to catch up before I lift bigger weight.)

Bench Press: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 170lbs.

(pretty happy about my progress)

BB Rows: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 105lbs.

(form. same as above.)

Dips: 20/14/10 @ b/w

(did some extra tricep isolation)

[Coop87]

7/11/08 - Fri

Squats: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 245lbs.

Overhead Press: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 95 lbs.

Deadlifts: 5 @ 155lbs.

Pullups: 3/2/6 @ b/w

[Coop87]

07/14/08 - Mon

Squats: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 250lbs.

Bench Press: 5/5/5/5/4 @ 175lbs.

BB Rows: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 110lbs.

Dips: 17/17/10 @ b/w

[Coop87]

07/16/2008 - Wed

Squats: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 250lbs.

Overhead Press: 5/5/5/3/4 @ 100lbs.

Deadlifts: 6 @ 155lbs.

Pullups: 5/8/5 @ b/w

[Coop87]

07/19/08 - Sat

Squats: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 250lbs.

Bench Press: 5/5/4/3/3 @ 175 lbs.

BB Rows: 5/5/5/5/5 @ 115lbs.

Dips: 10/10/9 @ b/w + 10lbs. (dbell)

[sifaan]

Just noticed your benching > BW and squatting > 1.5 BW for 5x5. That's pretty damn good!

How are things with deadlifts? Is the gym allowing you to do Romanian deadlifts? Guess you must be dealing with some crap like that...

There was an article by Mehdi (not on StrongLifts.com) on making your own bumper plates using tyres - maybe if you got that, they wouldn't mind you dropping the weight on the deadlifts?

[Coop87]

Just noticed your benching > BW and squatting > 1.5 BW for 5x5. That's pretty damn good!

How are things with deadlifts? Is the gym allowing you to do Romanian deadlifts? Guess you must be dealing with some crap like that...

There was an article by Mehdi (not on StrongLifts.com) on making your own bumper plates using tyres - maybe if you got that, they wouldn't mind you dropping the weight on the deadlifts?

Thanks, bro. I still don't see as much improvement on my upper body as I would like, but I am making progress steadily. The gym won't allow any sort of weight dropping, so my deadlifts are literally something like this:

lift weight with proper alternated grip, then perform one rep. However, instead of setting the weight back down after each completed rep, I'm stuck with just easing the weight down to my shins before lifting it back up. The weight never goes below my ankles, so that is why I use light weight. It is very hard to maintain good form doing this though.

Sucks huh?

[sifaan]

lift weight with proper alternated grip, then perform one rep. However, instead of setting the weight back down after each completed rep, I'm stuck with just easing the weight down to my shins before lifting it back up. The weight never goes below my ankles, so that is why I use light weight. It is very hard to maintain good form doing this though.
Sucks huh?

Sucks indeed. I also notice you writing before that you can't do weighted dips as the gym doesn't have a belt. Have you worked out an alternative yet?
I haven't really studies much about alternative posterior chain exercises, but there are a few options like GHRs, pull-throughs, etc which may be useful to do when you can't deadlift. You'll have to search/ask specifically about this though.

Thanks, bro. I still don't see as much improvement on my upper body as I would like, but I am making progress steadily.

I noticed that in the 6-7 weeks on the program, you're squat has gone from 5x5 155 lbs (just under BW) to 5x5 250 lbs (just over 1.5 BW) which is freaking awesome.
In the same period, your bench has moved from ~5x5 155 lbs to ~5x5 175 lbs. That doesn't sound like much compared to what you've achieved on the squats, but I'd say it's still good progress. Possibly something holding you back is that you need the additional strength that weighted dips at low reps can give you.
The Close Grip Bench Press could be your friend here. Another option could be to work with rings for push-ups, Doo can give you some advice on that if you PM him.

I think your making way too good progress, and you've got way too much potential, to be wasting your time in a piece-of-shit gym that won't let you deadlift.
Have you had any success in finding an alternate gym? Even if it's more expensive than your current gym, remember that your time is also worth money... every hour spent in a shitty gym is costing you progress, is making less use of the food you eat, of the knowledge you gain, etc.

Further, while you can continue with the SL Beginner program as long as you're getting results (if you switch to intermediate, you'll be increasing weight every week instead of every workout), I believe you're at a strength level where you can justify the inclusion of additional assistance exercises to help your goals - for example, dumbbell bench press. I'm not saying the DB Bench Press will help you (I don't have enough knowledge on programming to give you specific advise), just that when your benching BW for 5x5, it's quite possible that you body needs more specific stimulation than just busting your guts on the bench 3 times every 2 weeks.