Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Jump Manual - Week 6 Recap of "40 at 40"

After about 4 weeks of limited vertical jump training due to injuries, week 6 went much better because I was finally feeling better! I did 5 of the 6 Jump Manual workouts and it felt really good to get back after it.

In other good news, I've been able to drop 7 lbs during these past 6 weeks. When I started this phase of training on January 16, I weighed 174.2 lbs. This past Monday, Feb 27, my weight was down to 167.2 lbs. So I've been losing about 1 lb per week. Assuming, I haven't lost any muscle (which is probably unlikely due to these dumb injuries and limited training), my estimated bodyfat % would now be 14% which is still too high but much better than 18%!

What did you think of this year's NBA dunk contest? I thought it started off pretty lame, got interesting in the middle, and went right back to lame. After watching so many amazing dunkers on YouTube, it is hard to be impressed anymore. Somehow we got to get Lebron, Wade, Rose, Wall, and some of the other superstars to participate.

Here is a pretty cool video I found the other day of Team Flight Brothers doing 19 dunks that have never been done in an NBA dunk contest. Some pretty cool stuff.


I realized today (Feb 29) that 2012 is a Leap Year! And that is what this year is going to be for me! And I hope it will be for you too!

Thanks for reading!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Jump Manual - another dunker!

As a result of my YouTube videos, a guy named Steven contacted me back in November. He had bought the Jump Manual and was getting ready to begin his vertical jump training and had some questions. Since then, we've stayed in touch and it has been fun watching his progress.

He has worked really hard these last couple of months and it has paid off! Today, Steven posted a video of his first dunk!

Congrats Steven! Check out his first dunk and his YouTube Channel to see his progress from Day 1.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Jump Manual - Week 5 Recap of "40 at 40"

Another week has passed towards my pursuit of a 40 inch vertical using the Jump Manual!

The last 3 weeks have been frustrating due to injuries (low back and left ankle) making it difficult to train.  Thankfully, I'm almost back to 100% and should be able to get all my workouts in this week and get things moving in the right direction again (up!).

On the positive side, I have been playing very well on both of my city league teams. I'm getting more rebounds and steals and I'm also finding it easier to score. I'm not just an outside threat (I love to shoot 3's) because I'm now able to get to the basket for easy layups or to dish to a teammate. That part of my game had kind of gone away in the last few years as my quickness and explosiveness began to fade. So, although I'm not dunking 2 hands yet...I'm having a blast!

Recently, I recorded myself doing the exercises in one of the Jump Manual plyometric workouts (there are 2 different versions). I've sent those videos to Jacob (creator of Jump Manual) and he's going to critique my technique to hep make sure I'm doing them correctly.

If you haven't been filming your workouts or jumping/dunking, I highly recommend you do. Watching the video will teach you things that you simply can't learn any other way. For example, I really thought I was being really explosive and giving my all on each rep like your supposed to (train explosiveness not endurance). But, after watching the videos, I can see that is not always the case. So, I'm going to train more explosively which means I will get better results!

Thanks for reading and I hope your training is going well!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Jump Manual - Week 4 Recap of "40 at 40"

I'm a few days late posting my Week 4 Recap of my dunk training. I don't have a ton of new things to share but do have kind of a funny story.

In my last post, I mentioned that Jacob Hiller (creator of Jump Manual) was in town visiting for a couple of weeks and so I invited him to play on my city league team. We had another game on Monday night and so had another chance to play with him.

With about 20 seconds left in our game, we had the ball at half-court and my teammate was trying to get the ball in but the defense had us covered pretty well. Just before the 5 second count, my teammate lobbed a pass to me over my head into the backcourt. I jumped as high as I could to try and get the ball. Just as I was about to get it, some guy comes out of no where and literally knocks the crap out of me and steals the ball. No joke. Picture a wide receiver getting taken out by a safety for an interception. That's about the closest thing I can compare it to.

At first, I thought it was someone on the other team and was trying to figure out why there was no whistle blown. But, as I'm falling down I realize that it's none other than Jacob Hiller who skied over me (somehow -- no idea where he even came from) and caught the ball! They fouled him immediately and he went to the line and made both free throws. We won the game. :-)

The not-so-funny part of this story is I twisted my ankle on that play as I came down really awkward from Jacob's basketball tackle. My left foot is purple around the heel on both sides just under the ankle bone. I haven't had a sprained ankle in forever!

So, while I highly recommend using the Jump Manual. Be careful about playing ball with Jacob! You are not safe even when you are on the same team! Beast!

Thanks for reading!

Monday, February 13, 2012

I played hoops with Jacob Hiller!

If you read my last post, you may remember I mentioned I was gonna be playing ball with an amazing dunker -- but I didn't say who it was. Well...that dunker was the one and only Jacob Hiller (creator of Jump Manual)!

Since starting the Jump Manual last April, I have gotten to know Jacob through his weekly online coaching sessions and facebook. He has helped me a ton by answering my questions, customizing my training, and reviewing my videos.

On a coaching session a couple of weeks ago, Jacob mentioned he was going to be in Utah for a few weeks (which is where I currently live). So, I told him he should come and play on my city league team while he was in town. I had no idea if he would be interested or not but wanted to at least invite him.

Well, last Tuesday night he played on my team and it was an absolute BLAST! I wish someone had been recording the game because there were some pretty sweet highlights. After the game was over, I filmed Jacob throwing down a couple of dunks. Unfortunately, I was exhausted after the game and my back was hurting and so I wasn't jumping very well. But, after one of Jacob's dunks the rim didn't snap back all the way and so I took advantage of the opportunity to barely put down a 2 hand dunk (rim was probably 4 inches low).

Anyways, here is a short vid of Jacob and I messing around. Thanks for reading and watching!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Jump Manual - Week 3 Recap of "40 at 40"

My third week of "40 at 40" dunk training didn't go so well. I tweaked my back last Tuesday morning doing overhead squats or deadlifts (not sure which one caused the injury) and as a result wasn't able to workout the rest of the week. I felt my age this past week and didn't like it one bit!

I went to the chiropractor a couple of times and that has helped but I'm still not 100% yet. I had a city league basketball game last night and was moving pretty good. But, today my lower back is really stiff again. I have another city league game tonight and will be doing a really long warm-up to see if I can get some better mobility. May not be able to jump as well, but that won't stop me from shooting 3's!

I'm taking the video camera with me tonight and will record a little if I'm able to jump at all. But, the main reason I'm bringing the camera is I have a friend in town visiting who is going to play with us and this guy is an incredible dunker. I'm hoping when I see him fly it will inspire me to do the same! Got to throw him at least 1 alley oop. It has been a very long time since I've played with anyone that you could throw an alley oop in a game so should be a lot of fun.

One thing that did go well this past week is my diet. This morning I was 169.8 which is the first time I've been under 170 in quite a while. I just hope I lost fat and not muscle due to missed workouts.

That's all for now! Thanks for following along.