Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Jump Manual - Week 10 Recap of "40 at 40"

Another week of my Jump Manual training has passed bringing me to a total of 10 weeks for this phase of training. This was another tough week for me to get my workouts in due to my tournament games. I ended up taking several days off to rest. I always feel guilty and lazy when I take days off and so I have to remind myself how important rest and recovery is.

Unfortunately, both of my teams came up short in the tournament. We took 3rd place in one league and made it to the final four in the other league. I'm disappointed especially since I feel like we had the talent to win both leagues. I'm sure we'll go after it again next year!

As much as I love playing basketball, I'm kind of relieved the season is over. I still really want that two hand dunk and now I can refocus my time and training to really get after it.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to my new friend Aleks in Australia who has started the Jump Manual and made a bet with his buddy that he will dunk in six weeks or less. I'm not a big gambler but my money is on Aleks to win this wager!

Check out his blog and follow his progress!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Jump Manual - Week 9 Recap of "40 at 40"

Week 9 of this phase of Jump Manual training didn't go as well as the previous 2 weeks where I didn't miss a single workout. But, given my schedule I'm still pleased with what I accomplished.

It's tournament time for the 2 basketball leagues I'm playing in and so I had 3 games this past week including a doubleheader last Monday night. I found myself completely exhausted (which is very rare for me) and so I decided to take Wed, Thu, and Friday off from training. I then hit it hard on Saturday for the strength and explosion workout and it felt great to get back in the gym.

Last night, we came in 3rd place in the highest division for one of the leagues I play in. We had a bad game last week and lost to the team who ended up winning the championship. Tonight, we play in the semi-finals for the other league and if we win ("when we win"), we will play tomorrow night for the championship. So will likely have 3 games again this week. I love hoops but I'm honestly kind of ready for it to be over so I can really focus on my training.

My 1 year anniversary of Jump Manual training and posting to this blog is coming up very soon (April 11) which is really hard to believe. I've got to get that 2 hand dunk before then which doesn't leave much time!

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Jump Manual - Week 8 Recap of "40 at 40"



For the second week in a row, I got in all my Jump Manual workouts! Yes! I really feel like I'm back on track. Had a tough start to the year but things are going really well now.

After losing weight consistently for the first 6 weeks of training this year, my body seems to want to stay at around 166 lbs. I had my bodyfat tested tonight at Gold's Gym with one of those electronic machines you hold in your hand (not sure how accurate it is) but it said I was 12.9% bodyfat which is a pretty significant improvement from the 18% I was back in January. Still can't believe I was that fat!

Crunching the numbers and comparing to my last test shows I have lost fat and gained muscle so that is very good news. I was concerned that I may be losing muscle from reduced training from my injuries but that doesn't appear to be the case. I will test my bodyfat again using the bodpod next month so I can get a true before and after comparison. I'd like to be 8% bodyfat or less.

This past week I had an awesome coaching session with Jacob (creator of Jump Manual). We reviewed videos of me performing several of the plyometric exercises from the Jump Manual. He provided tons of helpful tips and feedback and I learned some great stuff!

This is one of the reasons I've become a huge fan of the Jump Manual and of Jacob too. Having access to an expert like him has made a big difference for me. He is very willing to help his clients and his weekly coaching sessions are invaluable. Take advantage of them if you aren't already!

Click on the video at the top of this post or picture at the bottom to see the video of us reviewing my depth jumps. Post some comments if you found this helpful and would be interested in me sharing more videos like this. Thanks for reading and watching!

Depth Jumps - Coaching Session with Jacob Hiller


Sunday, March 4, 2012

Jump Manual - Week 7 Recap of "40 at 40"

For the first time this year, I was able to get in all my Jump Manual workouts this past week and it felt sooooo good!

This past week, I also made some more changes to my workout that I'm really excited about. Frankly, I was getting pretty burned out on the Core & Upper Body workout from the Jump Manual and felt like it was time to mix things up. I think it's healthy and productive to change up your workouts from time to time. I think the benefit may be as much mental as it is physical.

Anyways, I came across this video that claims to be the Ab workout that Lebron does and so thought I would give it a try.


I really like this Ab routine and so I've implemented it into my workout in place of one of the standard core & upper body workouts from the Jump Manual. There are a couple of exercises in this workout that I haven't done before and so that is fun and challenging. Try it out and see if you like it!

The tournament starts tomorrow for one of my city league teams and next week for the other team. I really think both teams can win their tournaments and so I'm really looking forward to these games. March madness is also just around the corner so this is going to be a great month of basketball.

Hope your training is going well! Thanks for reading.