Back again

Well, it's been a while since I last posted anything. I wore myself out playing in two basketball leagues and decided that I needed to lose some weight before I would restart my jump training. I focused more on higher-rep sets and on interval training. In the end, I ended up being more tired all of the time and my strength took a serious dive (squats, dead lifts, bench press numbers all looked bad).
So, I've decided to focus my efforts on increasing my strength as much as possible before restarting serious jump training in the Fall. I followed Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength weight program and made some progress. I then switched to the Madcow program that I found on www.stronglifts.com. I've actually lost a little bit of weight (down to 210-215 pounds) and have set some PR's in the squat and bench press.

In the video above, I hit 370 pounds for 5 reps in the squat.. a PR by a lot! Depending on which one-rep calculator you use, I should be able to squat 415-430 pounds. I was able to bench 240 pounds for 4 reps but lost all energy on the 5th rep. I tested my bench press right after the squat set that you see in the video; I know that if I had rested my bench a day or two later that I would've put up 240 pounds for 5 reps.

In my life, of course, no real gains can be made in the weight room without some type of a set-back. I'm having surgery later this month and won't be able to even look at a weight room for at least 4 weeks. Hopefully, I won't be set back too much.

Week 3 - Feeling good!

Another week of Jump Manual training and my knees are feeling good. I played basketball Monday morning and then performed my plyometric routine in the gym after we were done playing. I had a rec league game that night and my legs felt pretty good while I played. During my lower body weight training session later in the week, I switched from regular deadlifts to snatch-grip deadlifts. I had to use less weight but I like how the exercise felt. For the next 2 days, however, I could hardly bend down to tie my shoes because of how sore my glutes and legs were. I'm liking the combination of Bulgarian split squats and snatch-grip deadlifts.

My results for the week were:

• Vertical jump: I didn't measure my standing vertical, but I was able to grab a 9'11" rim with two hands, jumping off of two feet, using a two-step approach.
• Bulgarian split squats: Best set was 145 pounds for 5 reps.
• Snatch-grip deadlifts: I used 225 pounds for 3 sets of 5 reps. I lifted the weight pretty explosively and should be able to increase the weight next week.
• Hang power clean: 205 pounds for 1 rep.
• Bench press: Best set was 235 pounds for 2 reps. 
• 45-degree incline bench press: I maxed out at 225 pounds for 1 rep.

We lost our city rec league game 88-82. I shot the ball well and my knees felt good during and after the game. 

Week 2 - Switching it up!

We had a big snowstorm recently that left a ton of snow that isn't going anywhere. This has caused me to go completely indoors for my training.
I was happy that my knees didn't hurt after my plyometric training on Tuesday. I switched from back squats to bulgarian split-squats on my lifting day on Friday. I love squats, they are my favorite exercise, but I switched so that I could work on any strength imbalances between my legs and, hopefully, get over my knee issues. From what I've read, a lot of strength coaches love bulgarian split-squats for improving one's vertical leap and have had success increasing one's back squat PR using bulgarian split-squats as the main lower body exercise. Per the Jump Manual support desk, I added leg extensions to help strengthen my knees.
In the past, my left leg was always my stronger leg. To my surprise, I could handle more reps with my right leg than I could with my left; it was a significant difference.

• Vertical jump: I focused a lot on jumping form and didn't get a good vertical jump measurement. I'm trying to start out standing tall with my arms over my head, drop quickly into my jump stance, and then explode upwards with forceful arm swing. Habitually, I start out low before I jump upwards which has worked for my sore knees but has limited my progress.
• Depth jumps: I was able to drop off of a chair and then land on the 5th step on my staircase. 
• Bulgarian split-squats: 95 pounds for 5 reps. I handled this weight pretty easily and should be able to increase it by a lot next week. 
• Deadlifts: 315 pounds for 5 reps. 
• Hang power cleans: 155 pounds for 5 reps. Normally, I start with the weight at my knees. This week, I started by holding the weight from a stand, moved the weight down to my knees, and then immediately exploded through the lift so that it feels more like a vertical jump. 
• Bench press: 205 pounds for sets of 5 reps

Week 1 - Need to work on jumping form

Even though I've been training consistently for a while, using the Jump Manual has made my legs more sore than they've been in a while. The plyometric exercises felt great but the weightlifting kicked my butt.

• Squats: 290 pounds for 3 sets of 3 reps. I did a fourth set with less weight at a slow pace: 4-count down and a 4-count back up. I need to lower the weight more for this set because I only got to 3 reps when I was trying for 5-8 reps.
• Deadlifts: 315 pounds for 3 sets of 3 reps. Similar to my squat, I did a fourth set with less weight at a slow pace: 4-count down and a 4-count back up. I need to lower the weight more for this set because I only got to 2 reps when I was trying for 5 reps.
• Hang power clean: 160 pounds for 3 sets of 3 reps.
• Depth jumps: Jumped up onto a 41" platform. I increased the height that I dropped from (I stacked 3 chairs), but I think I'll go back to just one chair; my legs aren't ready for a greater height just yet. 
• Standing vertical: Best attempt was about 25.5".
• Standing long jump: Best attempt was 8'5" about two weeks ago.

I'm going to spend some time working on my jumping form. I found a vertical jump calculator that estimates where your vertical should be based on your body weight and 1-rep squat. Based on that calculator (I don't know how accuarate it is), I should be jumping 27-28" without an approach.

My knees are also pretty sore today. I don't mind sore muscles, but having sore knees concerns me.

Starting Over

Here's how my jump looks right now. I'm not really bending my legs and I'm not really exploding through my jumps. It looks like I'm holding back on my 2-foot approach jumps. As my form gets better, I should be able to jump higher. In this video, I also included some depth jumps training. The platform that I'm jumping to is 38" without the pads and 40" with the pads.

I tested my one-rep max on various lifts this week. My PR's for the week were:

• Squats: 340 pound x 1 rep. I definitely go below parallel and get a lot lower than I did when I maxed out earlier in the year. I think I could have done 2-3 more, but 1 is what I got.
• Bench Press: 245 pounds. I was close to getting 275 last winter.
• Hang Power Cleans: 195 pounds x 1 rep. I barely got that rep, too.
• Deadlift: 340 pounds x 3 reps. I performed these immediately after maxing out on the squat.

I played basketball 4 times this week and my legs were feeling pretty good up until today. I definitely need some rest right now. 

We've played 2 games in my city rec league and won them both. We have a decent team, but we are older than a lot of the other teams. We tend to walk the ball up the court, pass it around 7-8 times, and then make a shot. By that time, the other team hasn't had the ball in a while and will put up a quick shot that we'll rebound. We'll then walk the ball up the court, pass it around 7-8 times, and then make a shot. We'll keep doing that over and over until the other team gets so frustrated that they start turning the ball over and taking terrible shots. By the end of the first half, we're running up and down the court and scoring almost at will on some of these young teams.

Wow, it's ben a long while since I've last posted anything. Life has been busy with our 5 children and their activities, work, etc. I've still been working out but I've lost a lot of strength since the Spring. I stopped taking creatine a while ago because I was up to 220-225 pounds and felt that was too heavy for me. I was also sick with the flu and lost 5 pounds in one week; I went from being able to bench press 225 for up to 8 reps to only being able to bench that weight for one rep after the illness. I'm about 205 pounds right now and my vertical is now back to where it was in the Spring. I've been stretching consistently and my flexibility has improved a lot.

What's been fun is workout out with my sons. I had them start with an empty bar and add only 5 pounds to the bar each week. They can only add weight if they perform each lift with perfect form without any assitance from me. My oldest son has really added a lot of weight to the bar over the past 4 months and my younger son, expectedly, has had more difficulty. My goal for both of them is to have them get stronger but, more importantly at their ages, I've wanted them to get in the habit of strength training and to learn proper lifting mechanics. My oldest can really jump now. On a previous posting, I said that he could hit 8'10" with a standing jump but, come to find out with proper measurements, his reach wasn't quite that high. Right now, at age 12, he can touch 9'4"-9'5" off of two feet with a two-step approach. His coordination is still improving; he is only able to reach that height occasionally. He can also hit 7'9" on the standing long jump but, again, can't do it consistently. I think I'm having more fun training with them than I've ever had training by myself or with a team.

I'm in a city rec basketball league right now and will start church basketball in the next 4-6 weeks. I will also coach my sons basketball team again this year.

My goals right now are:
- get down to 190-195 pounds
- Squat 400 pounds
- Bench press 275 pounds
- Power clean 250 pounds (this will take some time)
- Dunk with one hand

Now it's time to get to work.

Weeks 29-31: A break in my training

Well, life for me changed in the past 2 weeks. We just adopted a little girl and were out of the state for a couple of weeks. Now that I'm back home, life is still busy adjusting to a new baby in the house while still keeping up with our other children. While we were out of state, we stayed at a hotel that had an exercise room that had some stationary bikes, treadmills, an eliptical trainer, and a set of both 15 and 25 pound dumbbells. So, I got in some cardio and plyometric training, but no real weighlifting. I also played basketball only once during that time. So, while my vertical jump training has suffered in these two weeks, as has my sleep schedule, this beautiful baby girl makes life really good right now.

Pushing forward, I will continue my program with an increased emphasis on plyometric exercises. As a part of this, I will incorporate more jump roping both before my workout as part of my warmup and at the end of my workouts. My left hand feels great now so I'll be able to perform power cleans as a part of my training. I've gotten under the bar for squats once this week and tried the low bar position, but my shoulder flexibility is really poor. So, stretching my shoulders 1-2 times a day will also be a part of my routine so that I can perform low bar squats.

So, my new goals, which are also now listed at the top of my blog, are:

• Dunk with two hands by June 4th.
• Bench press 300 pounds by June 4th (now that my hand is completely healed, I should be able to make progress with this lift)
• Squat 400 pounds by June 4th