Merry Christmas!

Wow! I did it! I still got in all of my workouts this week! I didn't measure my vertical, but I did get in all of my weightlifting! I'm going to mix it up a little bit and switch through some different exercices to add some variety to my program:

• Box squats: 305 pounds for 3 reps (bench set at parallel)
• Incline bench press: 215 pounds for 3 reps
• Romanian Deadlifts: 155 pounds for 3 sets of 6 reps (this feels light; I can definitely do a lot more)
• Barbell rows: 215 pounds for 3 sets of 5 reps each
• Military press: 135 pounds for 3 sets of 5 reps
• Dynamic effort box squats: 195 pounds for 10 sets of 2 reps each.
• Dynamic effort bench press: 150 pounds for 8 sets of 3 reps each
• Power cleans: 175 pounds for 3 reps. I really need to work on this exercise. My form is poor and I'm not truly exploding through the lift. My goal is to get to 225 pounds in the next 2 months and then to get to 250 pounds.

I also mixed in some close-grip bench presses, dumbbell presses, dumbbell rows, dumbbell swings, and tricep presses. When I played ball on Wednesday, I was moving well, jumping well, running well, and my legs didn't hurt!
I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year.

Week 14

This week didn't start off well. The time for my Monday rec league basketball game was changed and I didn't know about it. The game was moved up and hour and I ended up showing up with a few minutes left to play. One of our other players also didn't know about the change and showed up at halftime. We ended up having only 4 players in the first half, one of whom was one of our teenage sons, and lost the game by 15 points. It was so frustrating because I really look forward to these games and both of my sons came with me to watch me play. We could've beaten this team with a full roster. Hopefully, we'll meet them in the tournament so that we have another chance at them.

Also, the team we ended up playing against beat us last year. They have one player in particular who pushed us around. He's a nice guy, but he is a physical player on the court. This may sound psychotic, but on those days when I faced more weight than I thought I could handle on the bench press or squat, I thought of that guy and how I didn't want to get pushed around again. This thought helped motivate me push through some of my strength plateaus. After all of that work and progress in the weight room, I didn't even get to play against the guy.

Well, this week was busy with work and other activities, so I wasn't able to get in all of my workouts. I'll let you know how next week goes.

Happy Holidays!!!!

Week 13

I had a rec league game on Monday and we won 82-46. The other team was composed of a bunch of 18 year-old kids. It was funny to see some of our children in the stands who are almost as old as the kids we were playing against.
One of the rims was bent so that the front was 1-1.5 inches low. According to my wife, I was able to get my hand over the rim up to the wrist with a running two-foot jump. I bounced the ball off the floor a few times to myself but was not able to put it down; my attempts all bounced off the back of the rim. Similar to my video of my bench press max, my wife was laughing at me during these dunk attempts. She thinks its adorable how I'm trying so hard to get back to dunking :-)

Here are my best measurements/lifts this week:
Standing vertical: When I measured on Wednesday, it was an inch less than last week. Tired legs, sore knees.
One-step vertical:Again, when I measured on Wednesday, it was an inch less than last week.
Running two-foot vertical: 32 inches, or there about, on Monday after my game. 
Box squats (I thought I'd switch it up a little): 280 pounds x 5 reps (the bench was set so that I went down to parallel. I think I could've put up more).
Hexbar deadlift: 285 pounds x 3 reps
Bench press: 240 pounds x 3 reps.
Barbell rows: 240 pounds x 3 reps
Jerk: I've stalled on my overhead press, so I'm going to try this olympic lift to help me gain more overall explosive power and to help overcome this plateau. I did 145 pounds x 5 reps for my best set.

I need to stretch more and definitely need to do more foam rolling. I really want to stay away from injuries this year. 

Week 12 - with PRs

I switched it up a bit and decided to test my PR on a few lifts. Here are my results this week:

• Standing vertical: 1 inch improvement.
• One-step improvement: 1 inch improvement

• Squat: 340 pounds x 1 rep. I only have a total of 340 pounds of weight at my house so I don't know if I could do more. As is, my form broke down on the way up with my hips starting to rise faster than my shoulders.

• Deadlift: 340 pounds x 1 rep. Again, I only have a total of 340 pounds of weight at my house so I don't know if I could do more.

• Bench Press: 265 pounds x 1 rep!!! I am now as strong as my 62 year-old uncle. At the end of the video, you hear my wife laughing at me because of all the grunting I did during the lift.

• Overhead Press: I put up 165 pounds, no problem, but missed 185 pounds. I'm pretty sure I could put up 175 pounds, but I jumped ahead instead of trying that weight this week.

Week 11

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! For those of you reading this in other countries, I hope your week has gone well.

I stuck to my plan last week and didn't perform any more jump or upper body training. I did play basketball one other time (just pick-up games) and participated in a "turkey bowl" Thanksgiving morning. I spent time icing my knees (1-2 times a day for 20 minutes each time) and took ibuprofen per the manufacturer's recommendations. My knees now feel great, I feel invigorated, and I am so anxious to get back to training this week. The time off appears to be exactly what my body and mind needed.

There will be some weeks when I won't have a rec league basketball game because of holidays or holes in the schedule. On those weeks, I will perform the Jump Manual program as written. On those weeks that I have a game or possibly more than one game (I will start a second rec league in January), I will perform an abbreviated Jump Manual program. I will combine the training days into one day and will drop some of the exercises. On these weeks, I will also perform only one upper-body day.

This week, here are my vertical jump measurements:

• Standing vertical: No change
• One-step: 1 inch improvement when reaching with two hands

Weightlifting (best sets):

• Squats: 280 pounds for 4 reps. My legs were tight and tired that day.
• Hexbar Deadlifts: 280 pounds for 5 reps
• Bench Press: 230 pounds for 5 reps
• Overhead Press: 170 pounds for 2 reps. This is the second week in a row that I wasn't able to hit my goal for this exercise. Next week, I'll drop back to 155 or 160 pounds and keep adding 5 pounds per week.