Beginning of Week 3

I measured my vertical on Monday and got about 1-1.5 inches higher on my standing vertical and the same on my one-step approach. My running vertical was about the same; my technique on this approach is terrible. On the video, I look hesitant and I lose a lot of momentum on my take-off. I'll post these vidoes later as a compilation.

Some more thoughts on squats:
        Some of the best advice I've received regarding squats came from www.biggerfasterstronger.com . Under the archives section, type in "squats" in the search field and read all of the articles titled "Squat Correctly". The best advice from these articles had to do with the power position and establishing this before every set of squats. What you do is, without any weight on your shoulders, squat down to parallel, shift your feet until you have a strong and solid base, and then stand up. At this point, look at your feet and that is how your feet should be positioned while you squat.

I was up to 255 lbs for a set of 5 when I squatted earlier this week. I had 195 lbs on the bench press and got up 2 sets of 5, but only put up 4 reps on the third set.

Overall, I am feeling good about my progress.

My legs were incredibly tired last night when I played basketball. My knees weren't hurting, but jumping took a lot of effort. I'm trying not to get discouraged, but I am considering cutting back my training volume on the Jump Manual. Other programs, like the Science of Jumping and Jumpsoles, have you start out with lower training volumes with a gradual increase as your body adapts to the stress. I'll probably cut the number of sets in half and add back a set every 2-3 weeks. Part of me doesn't want to do this since, in a way, it seems like I don't want to work as hard. Of course, this is the same attitude that got me injured the past two basketball seasons (all of my injuries were related to overuse).

Here's my progress with my squats: I'm up to 245 pounds on my sets and feel like I could do much more. However, I am sticking with the plan to slowly increase the weight because of my knees. According to the plan I have in place, and if I don't stall, I should be able to put 315 pounds on the bar for a set of 5 at the end of these 12 weeks. That will be my goal, but I will deload by 10% when I can't complete a full set. This is a basic training philosophy taught by many trainers, including Pavel Tsatsouline who authored Power to the People. A deload helps the body recover, continue to gain strength, and, hopefully, break through the plateau that had just been reached.

I blog again in a week or so and let you know how the decrease in training load effects my progress.

This past week of training brought some positives along with some frustrations:

• I was able to perform depth jumps without knee pain. The last time I attempted this exercise was over 6 months ago. Out of all of the jumping exercises, this is by far my favorite. Those times in my life when my vertical was at its highest, I was performing either squats or deadlifts along with depth jumps; depth jumps were always part of the equation.  
• My squats are coming along nicely. I am anxious to get 300 pounds on my sets.
• My vertical measurements at the beginning of this week were, well, weak. I was tired from work and just couldn't seem to get warmed up no matter what I did. I am playing basketball tonight, so I'll re-measure my vertical after playing a couple of games.
• I was pretty sore after weightlifting on Monday, but I feel great today. Hopefully, I can complete the remainder of my workouts this week.

I've had bad knees in the past, and here are some thoughts I've had regarding squats and how to protect your knees:

• Always squat. Even if you have to use an empty bar because of lack of experience, injury, weakness, or sore joints, keep squatting. My knees have always benefitted from it.
• Go slightly below parallel.
• Squeeze the glutes to activate the hips and to not put too much stress on the knees.
• you need to feel tension, or a stretch, in the hamstrings at the bottom of the movement.
• Keep your weight on your heels throughout the entire movement.

I'll let you know how the rest of the week goes.

Yesterday, I measured my vertical leap. I performed day 1 of the Jump Manual the day before, but my legs felt good yesterday so I performed the measurements on my driveway basketball hoop. Let's just say, I have some work to do:

Height: 6' 1/2"
Standing reach (with shoes): 8'
Weight: 205 lbs
Boday fat%: I'd rather not know
Standing vertical: 23"
One-step vetical: 25"
Running two-foot vertical: 28"

A few specifics to work on:

1. I probably didn't warm-up as well as I should have. I used a homemade foamroller (an old, slightly deflated basketball) but didn't stretch.
2. After reviewing the video, I noticed that I was too stiff and hesitant. I think I'm afraid of my knees aching when I'm done. A good warm-up and cool-down should help with this.
3. I need better arm swing. 

We'll see by how much my jump improves next week. I'll review the Jump Higher in 45 download that Jacob Hiller published and, hopefully, better form alone will result in a few extra inches on my vertical.

This is my first attempt at blogging. I've been reading the blogs placed on myjumpmanual.blogspot.com and have enjoyed watching his progress as he's pursued the two-handed tomahawk dunk. My hope is that, by blogging, I can keep myself motivated as I, too, pursue the two-handed dunk.

Just a little on my background: I'm 6 feet tall and almost 38 years-old. I played basketball in high school and in junior college right out of high school. At the time, my game revolved around the passing and the outside jumpshot. I was able to dunk occasionally at the time but wasn't able to consistently dunk the ball until I was 21 years-old. At that time, I used Air Alert and had good results suring the first 3 weeks, but after that I quit the program because of sore legs and the amount of time it was taking to complete the exercises (this was the original Air Alert that had you jumping hundreds of times five days-a-week). I also lived in Italy at the time and just couldn't spend that much time on exercising with the other responsibilities I had. I got really into weighlifting when I was 21 and would squat three days-a-week. I also performed depth jumps twice-weekly and was able to dunk very easily off of one or two feet. I then got back into college and fell back out of shape but was still able to dunk on a good day. Towards the end of my undergraduate studies, I purchased the Science of Jumping and had good results as I was able to bounce the ball off the floor and dunk it with two hands anytime I wanted to. I continued to use this program but my vertical stalled after a few months. Even though I was jumping higher than I ever had before, I was frustrated by the lack of continued progress.

I graduated with my Master's degree at age 30 and wanted to get back into shape because I had put on a few pounds after two years of full-time employment and full-time studies. I tried the new Air Alert at that time and ran into the same results: Initial improvement in my vertical followed by burnout. I started to focus on weighttraining and my highest vertical after that happened at two points in time: When I used the Ralph Sampson workout and when I used the stronglifts method I found on stronglifts.com (I was also performing depth jumps with these programs). Each time, the programs were cut short because of injuries.

The past two basketball seasons were fun but I had injuries each year that set my vertical jump back by a lot: I had severe tendinitis in my right Achilles tendon and two stress fractures in my right tibia two seasons ago and a severely strained left calf with, again, severe tendinitis in my right Achilles tendon this past season.

So, I am ready to give the Jump Manual a legitimate try. I will post my starting vertical later in the week along with my current PR's in several lifts. My goals are several:

1. Dunk with two hands on a regular basis. I can get the rim with two hands right now but I need a few extra inches in order to dunk.
2. Avoid serious injuries this basketball season.
3. Get my squat back over 300 pounds. Because of my knees, I started squatting with an empty bar 12 weeks ago and am now up to sets of 5 with 225 pounds,
4. Have my sons increase their verticals in these 12 weeks. I'm going to have them perform a modified Jump Manual program where they concentrate more on form with their weighttraining using goblet squats, light deadlifts, bodyweight calf raises, and swissball leg curls.