Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Anyone willing to try my "secret" vertical jump exercise?

2 posts in 1 week! Wow!
I had another pretty good dunking day this morning and wanted to share a new video:



These last 2-3 weeks, I've dunked the most consistently I have since I started vertical jump training 3 years ago. So what is the difference? I guess it's impossible to know for sure...but here are my thoughts.
  • I'm training LESS in comparison to what I've been doing up until now. So leads me to believe I may have been over training or like Jacob Hiller likes to say, "under recovering".  I will be the first to admit that it is really HARD for me to do less. I am the guy who will kill himself in the gym and only feel like I got a good workout if I can't walk at the end of it. And, the only reason I cut back on my training was because of limited time. It is not easy to tell when you are over training...I would have told you that I was not over training. So, be very careful about it. 
  • The last 2 weeks, I have iced and stretched almost every night for 30-45 minutes. My flexibility has increased and my body just feels better. Flexibility (and recovery) does make a difference.
  • About 3 months ago, I started lifting upper body which I had kind of neglected for the most part until recently in terms of my vertical jump training during these last 3 years. My upper body strength has really improved and I'm very close to getting a PR on bench press. I'm also getting pretty close to being able to do a muscle-up on a bar which will be almost as cool as dunking. So why would upper body help my jumping? Arm swing? Or maybe just less fat? Jumping is an overall body strength exercise...so don't neglect or overlook the importance of upper body strength. 
  • I also started doing an exercise I used to do back when I was 29 years old and was jumping the highest of my life. I don't know if you can call it a "secret" exercise but I don't know anyone else who does this exercise (the way I do it) and it was something I made up myself. What I can say for sure...is I was doing this exercise when I jumped the highest of my life (age 29) and I started doing it again a couple of months ago and I'm jumping really well right now. Coincidence?
In fact...I'd really like to know if there is something "special" to this exercise. If anyone reading this would be willing to try a new exercise 3 times a week for 3 weeks and share with me their results, I will tell you exactly what it is and how to do it. I'm dying to know if it will help anyone else. The exercise can be done at the end of a workout and will take less than 5 minutes.

If you are willing to try it, send me an email (andy @ kalunaproductions.com) or send me a message on FB (www.facebook.com/andy.nicholson.169). The only thing I ask in return is for you to tell me if it helped you jump higher!

Friday, September 19, 2014

Got some nice dunks today

Just a quick update. I got 2 really nice dunks today. The best one wasn't on camera (of course). But, the second one was. Here's the video:



My training is going really well. I am actually doing less vertical training than I have in the past. Lots of basketball and short workouts. Here's the training schedule I've been following the last few months in case anyone is interested:

Monday - play basketball, run 1 ladder at full speed, speed rope
Tuesday - upper body (weights)
Wednesday - play basketball, 10 pistol squats, speed rope
Thursday - upper body (bodyweight exercises only)
Friday - play basketball, run 1 ladder at full speed, speed rope
Saturday - squats, deadlifts, zig zags, medicine ball throws, etc.

Anybody still out there? I feel like my blog is dead! :)


Tuesday, July 15, 2014

I'm jumping higher!

I mentioned in my last post that I had a really good jumping day last week. Yesterday, I was hoping to have another day like that but unfortunately I wasn't jumping as well and actually missed every single dunk attempt I tried. I was pretty bummed out. But, then I watched one of the video clips of one of my dunk attempts and realized I was actually jumping pretty well.

Below on the left, is a freeze frame of the last dunk I got on video from December of last year. This is at the very peak of this jump before I dunked the ball. And, on the right is a freeze frame of one of my dunk attempts yesterday at the peak of my jump. I know the angles are a little different but I think this jump is definitely a few inches higher. 

What's more exciting to me is that I was definitely jumping even higher than this on Friday. So based on that, I've got to be really close to getting a two-hand dunk.

What do you think? Am I jumping higher in the second picture? Or is it just me?

Friday, July 11, 2014

Got my best dunk today in a long time!

Apologies again for how rarely I'm posting these days...but I have some good news that I wanted to share!

This morning I got the best dunk I've had probably in a couple of years! I threw the ball off the glass and caught it and dunked one handed similar to the last dunk in this video.



It felt so good! Most of my dunks in the last two years have been when someone tosses the ball up by the rim (which is the easiest dunk to do). Catching off the glass is a harder dunk and requires jumping higher too. I was jumping higher today than I have in quite a while. This is very good news because I'm not getting younger. But, more importantly...the training I have been doing the last 2 months (which is a little different than what I was in the past) seems to be working.

Next week, I will post a video with some dunks and some of the training my son and I have been doing together and share some more details about the changes I have made if anyone is interested.

Let me know!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

My Dreams or My Son's? Or Both?

So over 2 months has passed and I've not posted any updates! So lame! I see I'm not alone as the other blogs out there that I follow for tracking vertical jump progress also have not seen much activity.

Are we giving up? Anybody still training? Does anyone still read this blog? :)

I used to get quite a bit of traffic. But, of course it helps when you are posting on a regular basis!

The last couple of months I have been training some but not consistently. I have been spending much of the time I used to train to workout with my 14 year old son. Sometimes I miss playing and working out, but I love working with him and seeing him improve. He's made so much progress and still has so far to go to reach my goals (I mean HIS goals! LOL).

So...summer is almost here and that should allow us to do vertical jump training together -- instead of just skill work. Maybe I will "outsource"this blog to him and he can start making the updates!

Post some comments and let me know what you guys are up to.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Final Push!

Sorry for the delay in posting! I have been dealing with some minor injuries (right ankle, left hamstring, and bruised/broken rib) and that has limited my training. I decided to take the last several weeks off from training to try and let my body recover. I am feeling better.

My life seems to just get more and more busy and I'm not getting any younger. And, the amount of time that I can dedicate to training is not what it used to be. I'll never stop working out or playing basketball. But, I have to prioritize my time and in the near future I'm going to use the extra time I have to work with my 14 year old son. He's becoming a basketball addict just like his father and I want to help him as much as possible.

So....here's my plan. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to give it everything I have for the next 12 weeks and see if I can finally get that 2 hand dunk. After that, I may modify this blog to be about training with him. Not sure yet but I can't chase these dunking dreams of mine forever!

The timing should be perfect as I can finish this "Final Push" of 12 weeks right about the time school gets out and then my son and I can train together. Part of my motivation to train has to learn what works and what doesn't so I can help him. If nothing else, I will definitely be able to help him become a much better athlete than I ever was.

One thing I am committing to do differently for these next 12 weeks is to be crazy strict on my eating. I'm really going to focus on eating more whole and natural foods. Will be limiting dairy and gluten and focusing on protein, fruits, and vegetables.

Thanks for reading and there should be weekly updates for the next 3 months. Please follow along as I go for this one more time!


Saturday, January 18, 2014

Another birthday and my training for 2014...

I've had this blog now for over 2 years tracking my vertical jump training! I've been able to reach some of my goals and others I'm still working on. Just had another birthday which now makes me 42 years young.

About 6 weeks ago I was jumping really well. Got some great dunks. And pretty much guaranteed in writing here on my blog that I was going to dunk 2 hands before the end of the year. I'm sorry to say that didn't happen. Not completely sure why. Could have been fatigue. Could have been overtraining. Could have been that I gained nearly 10 lbs during the holidays. 

At any rate, I'm not giving up. I started training again the first week of the year and am now 3 weeks into another 12 week phase. I'm taking creatine again and am rededicating myself to eating healthy so I can get leaner. I'm right around 180 lbs which would be fine if my bodyfat was low but it's not. So, I got to change that.

I'm coaching my son's AAU team (8th grade) and am really enjoying that. I try to incorporate a little bit of what I've learned during the last couple of years into our practices. I can't help but think how much better of a player I would have been had I trained properly back then. If anyone has figured out time travel, please hit me up!

Well...Happy New Year everyone and may all your vertical jump and other worthwhile goals come true in 2014!