Jump Manual at 40 years old - Week 11 Results

Sorry folks! I'm very late posting my Week 11 Results. I guess I haven't been super anxious to update my blog as this past week was not super great from a training standpoint. I was on the road again (for the 3rd straight week) and that makes things really tough for me to get all my workouts in.

Probably the best thing that happened this past week is I had the coolest and most realistic dream I can remember in quite some time. I dreamed I got my 2 hand dunk! And it was so real and felt so good. I am a firm believer that you have to believe you can do something before you can do it. If you don't believe you can dunk, can pretty much guarantee that will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You've got to believe it! Really believe it!

Along those lines, one thing I've been doing more is visualizing myself dunking two hands during the strength and explosion workout. I especially like to visualize that for calf raises and knee drives. It doesn't require much skill or thought to perform those exercises, so its easy to really picture dunking in my mind while trying to be as explosive as possible. Maybe it sounds a little corny, but I think it helps.

Well...that's about all for now....

Oh, be sure to check out these blogs created by some new friends of mine who are chasing their dunking dreams and start following their progress too! Knowing that a few other people have been inspired to go after their goals after reading my blog makes me feel really good and motivates me to keep working hard. So thanks to everyone out there who is reading this blog and especially to those who have posted comments, asked questions, started their own blog, or whatever. I really appreciate it!

DunkQuest2012
Quest to dunk by November

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!