A chronicle of an average 38 year-old attempting to dunk a basketball while increasing PRs in the squat and bench press.
My goals: Dunk a basketball (again), squat 400 pounds, and bench press 275 pounds.
Well, the hand is feeling better and has some more strength in it. I did play in my city rec league game on Monday. I had my hand and pinky taped like crazy and there was only one moment during the game when it really hurt. I went 2 for 8 from the field, but I had a decent number of rebounds.
Jump training on Tuesday went very well...it's amazing what a full night of sleep will do for you.
Standing vertical: About 27 inches. In this video, the rim is set at 8'4" and then 9'10". With this pair of shoes on, I am 6'1". Since I get my head even with the rim, that is about a 27" vertical. You'll get to watch me dunk a small ball with a one-step approach (in case you're wondering, I'm using a Disney Little Mermaid ball. Don't judge me :-))
Back Squats: 340 pounds for 3 reps. I had a wrap and a lifting strap on my left hand so that I could actually grip the bar with my injured hand. Unfortunately, I think it caused the bar to pull downward on that side. Since my balance didn't feel right, I stopped at 3 reps instead of going for my goal of 5 reps.
Hang jump shrugs: With the wrap and lifting strap, I was able to hold a bar with 135 pounds on it without my hand hurting at all. I did 4 sets of 4-5 reps. Now that it's a few hours later, I realize my mistake: My hand is really sore right now.
March Madness is around the corner with conference tournaments taking place over next few weeks. I love this time of year!
2/10/13 - Here's a photo of my left hand one day after my injury.
My wedding ring started to get a little tight because of the swelling, so I had to use some olive oil to get it off. The palm is bruised and there isn't much strength in that hand.
Now its Friday, February 16th, and the swelling has done a lot. Once the swelling started to improve, I noticed pain in the 5th metacarpal. There is definitely a lot of point tenderness there. So, I now know that there is a fracture in that hand along with a sprain. Woo-hoo! Thankfully, the bone is in proper alignment so my activity is only limited to those activities that don't cause me any pain. Unfortunately, I can't work if I have a cast or a splint on that hand. So, I baby it at home and then am really careful with how I use it at work.
So, my list of measurements and lifts is a short one this week:
Standing vertical: 27 inches
One-step vertical: I was able to dunk a mini-basketball on my 9'10" hoop. I'm going to try this on a 10' hoop as well.
Sqauts: 275 pounds for 3 reps. My speed slowed down on the last rep, so I quit the set at that time.
Funny, my one-step vertical was up this week, but I had no energy and my legs felt like jelly (my favorite SportsCenter quote: It must be jelly 'cause jam don't shake like that!). I had to cut my plyo and weight workouts in half.
Standing vertical: 26 inches.
Hang power cleans: Missed 225 pounds, but I was closer this week; I almost got the bar as high as my clavicles.
Squats: Because my legs felt like jelly, I dropped the weight and focused on really exploding through the movement. I did 225 pounds for 3 sets of 5 reps. I could've done more, but I also wanted to improve my balance. I set a bench right below parallel so that, as soon as I barely touched it, I would explode upwards. It's not a true box squat, but rather a way to improve my balance and stability during the eccentric portion of the lift. In the past, I would pause at the bottom of the lift to make sure I was balanced. Because of this, I had difficulty exploding out of the hole; the end of the lift would be explosive, but I would struggle getting out of the hole. In order to explode out of the hole with a bench present, I have to be balanced throughout the entire lift.
Deadlifts: 225 pounds for 3 sets of 5 reps. Very easy but, again, I took it easy.
One-step vertical: On a 9'10" rim, I almost got my entire hand above the rim (see video below).
I still struggle with squats because of my feet. We are taught that our knees and toes whould always be in alignment to prevent knee injury and to have a more powerful squat. Here is what my feet look like when my knees are facing forward:
My left knee will track my toes while my right knee, in my nautral alignment, doesn't track any of my toes. So, I have to focus on where my heels are placed and the direction my knees are pointing and not pay as much atention to my toes. Is this an excuse for not squatting well? No, but I've had to modify the rules a little bit in order to accomodate my natural alignment.
Well, it's Saturday now and some of my goals are going to have to wait for a while. During a church league game this morning, I tore a muscle and some ligaments in my left hand. While stealing the ball, my left pinky got caught by the ball and bent in a weird way; it happened so fast that I can't describe exactly what happened. Immediately, I couldn't move any fingers on that hand. After a few minutes, I could move all of my fingers but couldn't move my pinky when any resistance was applied to it and I couldn't pick up anything with that hand. My hand starting swelling almost immediately.
Right now, my hand hurts constantly. The swelling and pain won't allow me to use that hand for much: I can barely pick up a thin book; I can't tie my shoes; struggle getting dressed; and I'm struggling to type this using two hands. Needeless to say, my upperbody workout had to be postponed. So, there won't be anymore upperbody lifts or hang cleans for a while. As is, I'm going to have to tape my finger like I would a turf-toe injury in order to play in my city rec league (even with the tape I'm going to be limited in what I can do.). I'm frustrated right now because I was close to lifting 225 pounds on the hang clean and I was going to test my bench press max next week. At least I can still work on my vertical since I should be able to still perform most of those exercises.
I'll let you know what happens with my hand in the days to come.
Great week of basketball in my family! I won my rec league game by 20, my church league game by 4 (I hit some free throws at the end of the game to keep us ahead), and my sons won their city league game. At the end of their game, the other team was down by one when my son picked the pocket of their ballhandler with 3 seconds left to play to seal the win. I am still pumped from their win (I coach their team and all of the players played their hearts out today)!
Here are my lifts for the week:
Standing vertical jump: 26.5" (my wife thinks it was more like 27"). I was able to get my fingers completely above the rim. With my best attempt, I had my toes pulled up and then I rolled forward as I dropped my hips into my jump. It seemed to help, but this goes against the recommended technique I've seen on-line.
One-step two-foot vertical: 29", again. My technique doesn't feel fluid. I can feel my momentum slow down when I gather myself to jump.
Broad jump: 99". I got this on the last jump.
Front squats: 185 pounds for 5 reps on all sets. I'm going all the way down to where my hamstrings touched my calves.
Good mornings: 185 pounds for 5 reps. Trying to find my groove on this exercise.
Bench press: 225 pounds for 4 sets of 4 reps
Overhead press: 150 pounds for 3 sets of 4 reps
Barbell rows: 225 pounds for 4 sets of 4 reps
Hang power cleans: I missed 225 pounds on both attempts. Maybe next week.
