Each Monday, I'm going to test my no-step vert to track my progress. My best no-step jump for week 1 was a 30.1 which I'm fairly happy with. That is just one inch off of my PR of 31.1 so am expecting to be able to pass my PR soon.
Here's the video:
I also got my bodyfat tested again and I can't believe the results! If you recall from my last test, I was really bummed that my bodyfat was still so high (17.9%) and was going to do whatever it took to get really lean. To help with that, I started intermittent fasting. I was eating pretty clean and healthy (but not perfect). And, I started doing a little more cardio to help get rid of some excess fat. And, my bodyfat after 4 months of that went from 17.9% to an amazingly lean 17.7%!
$#@!%!!!
I was so disappointed. The worst news though is I actually lost 3 lbs of muscle. So, I definitely wasn't doing something right on my diet. Most likely I wasn't getting enough protein. I work out in the mornings and was drinking BCAA's before, during, and after the workouts to avoid muscle breakdown and then eating my first meal at noon. My weight was dropping and my waist had gone down by almost 2 inches. So I really felt like I was moving in the right direction. So although I did lose a little bit of fat, I lost muscle which is never a good thing and my overall bodyfat % barely went down.
So...I'm going back to eating 5-6 small meals a day and making sure to get protein immediately after every workout. I'm also going to start creatine again.
I will get my bodyfat tested again in 3 months and hopefully will see much better results. I'm thinking about getting a different test to see how the results compare. When I look in the mirror, I find it really hard to believe that my bodyfat is so high. I don't quite have a six pack but you can see my abs pretty well which is usually a pretty good indicator of how lean someone is. But, the bodpod is supposed to be the most accurate test out there and 3 times in a row the results have been almost identical.
Here's a picture of me getting into the bod pod.
I guess the good news is if I can finally get my bodyfat % down that should help me jump higher. So, not giving up!
Thanks for reading!
Looking at that picture it really looks more like 15% bodyfat to me. Have you ever tried the caliper method to measure youre bodyfat?
ReplyDeleteI have before but it was a really long time ago. I am thinking about having it done wih calipers or the water method to see how close the results are to the bodpod.
DeleteSorry to hear about your poor results with IF. Which variety of IF did you do? Did you do the JM routine while doing IF or did you switch to a strength program?
ReplyDeleteHaving done IF with a couple different lifting protocols, I found I had the best results with a pure strength program done 3 times a week: Starting Strength 5x5 progressing to the "Three Day Split RPT" from rippedbody.jp.
For me, I had to give up jump training in order to lower body fat. Once I got down to about the 10% range, I started back on JM and was able to get back to my max verts in 6 weeks.
I was eating from noon to 8:00 pm but my workouts were from 6:00 am to 7:30 am. So there was a good 4 hours before I ate after my workouts. I had read that with this protocol you should drink BCAA's before, during, and after your workouts to avoid muscle breakdown.
DeleteI still really liked eating that way and am confident if I had been working out at like 11:00 am and then eating my first meal at around noon that it would have worked out well.
I was doing my normal jump training during this time except I was doing my bodyweight exercises (pistol squats) rather than weights.
What's your vert at now?
That daily schedule is totally different than mine so I can't help you out too much. From my study of IF it is more than possible to have success with morning workouts, I just personally haven't tried it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my one recommendation, if you were to try this again, is to take a break from jump training completely, and just do strength training while on IF. I would just rotate between 12 weeks of JM and 12 weeks of strength training. You can still do the off day JM exercises when you are doing strength training. This helps maintain some explosiveness. For the IF side of things, I would take a one week "diet break" every 6-8 weeks. If you plan for this break, it is so much easier to enjoy and then to get back to doing IF.
As for my progress, it took me about 7 weeks to get my vert back to pre-surgery (~36" running, ~31" standing). I was doing IF with the JM program. I did plyos on Mondays, light plyo and legs on Wednesday, and JM legs on Friday. Also played pickup ball on Tuesday and Thursday. My body fat went down from 13.2 to 8.8 during that time....so forget my earlier posts about not being able to do IF while on JM. The key though, is to do use heavy weights and not go with body weight exercises.
In any case, I then stalled because of back and knee problems. I also started working out with co-worker in July so I have had to change my workout routine to fit his level. He's finally at the point now where I can incorporate more plyo and explosive-centric work into our routines.
Lastly, you mentioned a while back that you were doing a modified version of JM. Did you ever make a blog post about that? I am curious to know what changes you made and what results you saw.
In a couple weeks, I want to start another round of JM. My thought was to do most of the plyos on Monday and some of it on Wednesday. I would also do some of the legs on Wednesday. And then Friday, I would do the rest of the leg work. I prefer three good workout days instead of two. Also, I found that if I only did the workouts on Mondays and Fridays, I was in the gym close to two hours each day.
I have done so many workouts now that its hard to remember. The one modification I do recall that seemed to bring some gains was adding front squats into my workout routine. Some weeks I would do both back squats and front squats and some weeks I was just doing front squats. Another thing I changed was I started doing the seated chair explosions on the off-day exercises on one leg and holding a 10 lb medicine ball. That is an awesome exercise.
DeleteThanks Candyman for those suggestions. I will try both, especially the front squat. I still can't do a proper back squat because I can't rotate my right shoulder into the proper position. As for the seated explosion, I do something similar now. It is just a weighted explosion / dumbbell jump. But instead of doing the usual continuous variety, I first go into a half squat position, pause, explode, land properly, and reset. I do this on weighted days and do the continuous variety on plyo days.
DeleteIn any case, I will try the chair explosion and see what feels better. The one-leg aspect of it sure sounds fun though. ;-)
no problem man! hope it helps! let me know if you see any difference! front squats (once you get the grip down and how to hold the bar) are actually much easier to perform than a back squat and i found that i can hit depth much easier with a more narrow stance.
Delete