Road to 40 inch running vert - Week 1 Results and I hate the number 17!

I finished my first week of this phase of training. It was a good week. Got in all the workouts and did a lot of work on my mobility and saw some progress there which should help me. I hate stretching but am forcing myself to do it every day.

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!

40 inch vert at 41 years old? Possible?

Sorry for another long hiatus from posting updates! The last 2 months have been really crazy and I'm so glad that it is now back to "normal". Time to get back on it!

It doesn't seem like I'm the only one though. I follow several other blogs of guys like me chasing their jumping dreams and seems they also have been on a bit of a vacation. Where is everybody? :-)

I started another phase of training that I'm super excited about it. I'll share more details over the coming weeks. 

I've still been doing Intermittent Fasting and it has become a habit now and I still really like it. I am getting my bodyfat tested next week and am expecting to see significant improvement from my last test where I was 17.9%. 

I will start testing my vertical each Monday starting next week and post a video showing my progress. I expect to be a little bit down from my PR a few months ago. But, that's okay. I can get it back quickly.

My new goals to reach before Thanksgiving (12 weeks of training) are:

35" no-step vert

40" running vert 

Wonder how many 40+ year old's are there who have had a 40 inch vert? I got to imagine it is a really small number! Hope to join that club!

Getting Leaner & Jumping Higher

Sorry for the long delay on updates. I've been traveling alot during the last month and had a crazy schedule.

But, I'm still training hard and seeing some progress. I mentioned about a month or so ago that I had started Intermittent Fasting (IF) and it is working. My jeans and dress pants are getting pretty baggy! Which is great but who wants to buy more pants!

When I started IF at the end of May, I weighed 173 lbs and my waist was 34". This morning I weighed 167 lbs and my waist was 33". Most of the weight has fallen off though in the last 2 weeks when I've been more disciplined in my eating. I have 2 weeks until I get my bodyfat tested again so I'm going to be even more strict.

I really like IF. Its actually pretty easy and I feel really good. I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to get leaner.

I will get some new videos posted soon. I've been playing a ton of basketball and not filming much but will start uploading again. I am still determined to get the two hand dunk and although the progress is slower than I want it to be, I am gonna get there!

I will leave you with this very interesting article I came across the other day about the well known urban legend about guys taking quarters off the top of the backboard and making change.

Give it a read and let me know what you think!

James White vs a Jumping Myth
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/4307/james-white-vs-a-jumping-myth

I lost the dunking bet for Nike Elites!

Last summer, I felt like I had kind of hit a plateau in both my vertical jump training and my motivation so posted on my blog asking  if anyone wanted to have a little friendly wager to help me (and maybe others) push a little harder to reach our dunking goals.

I think 4-5 guys took me up on the offer and today I found out that I lost that wager! Dang!

Congrats to Aaron Perry who beat me to the two-hand dunk!

Check out his vid! I will be sending him a new pair of Nike Elite's.

If you want to jump high -- you better be lean!

Just a quick update today. In my last post, I talked about the athletes tested in the NBA combine during the last several years who have a max vertical of at least 38" (a total of 46 athletes). Their average bodfat % is only 6.33%.

This made me wonder about the athletes who have participated in the NBA combine who had the highest bodyfat %. Would these guys have a significantly lower max vertical?

So I crunched some more numbers to find out! The 20 "fattest" athletes to participate in the NBA combine so far (who also tested their vertical jump) have an average bodyfat percentage of 12.4%! So twice as high as the best jumpers! And guess what the average max vertical is for these guys? A very measly 31.8"! Wow!

It boggles my mind with what we know today in terms of training and nutrition that any athlete -- let alone someone with a legitimate shot at the NBA could have a max vertical jump of only 31.8".

So I was already convinced that I've got to get really lean. But, this my friends sealed the deal.

New videos coming soon! I'm making some nice gains right now!

Shocking news! Elite jumpers are not FAT!

For those of you following my blog (thank you!) and my apologies for the lack of posts. Things have been extra busy lately but I am ready to get back to posting updates and videos of my vertical jump training.

My last post talked about how I'm WAY TOO FAT! My bodyfat as of a few weeks ago was 17.9% at a bodyweight of 173 lbs which equates to 31 lbs of fat. As a comparison, I looked up the bodyfat % from the NBA combine for each player with at least a 38" max vertical. This includes 46 athletes over the last several years. I decided to crunch the numbers and figure out the average bodyfat % for these athletes. Not surprising, the average is very low -- only 6.33%! In addition, there were only 2 of the 46 athletes who had a bodyfat % over 10%.

So I'm absolutely going to get much leaner and stronger. My goal is to be 8% by August 5th. To help achieve this, I started Intermittent Fasting (IF) a few days ago. I first heard about IF from Jacob Hiller (creator of Jump Manual). He was posting before and after pictures on his facebook page and I was amazed at the results he was getting.

For those of you not familiar with Intermittent Fasting, it is pretty simple. You eat during a 8 hour window each day and the rest of time you don't eat (water is ok). My eating window will be from noon to 8:00 pm. It is also recommended to take BCAA (branch chained amino acids) as a supplement before, during, and after your workouts. I didn't think I had taken this supplement before but it is included in many protein powders including the one I take (Optimum Nutrition). But, I have not taken BCAA all by itself before. I got watermelon flavor by Scivation. You just add it to water and it actually tastes really good. 

I won't go into all the reasons why Intermittent Fasting seems to be an effective way to get very lean and strong but read up on it if you are interested. It actually contradicts everything I and most people believe about nutrition (eat every 2-3 hours). But, I have an open mind and am willing to give it a shot. I will be sure to post updates on how it's going.

To wrap up this post, I want to leave you with this amazing video I saw yesterday. This is a high jump competition in Kenya with some high school athletes who are absolutely unreal. I hope these guys get access to some better resources and a shot at the Olympics. They absolutely deserve it. BTW, I bet these guys bodyfat % is also just a little lower than 17.9%! :-)

On my next post, I will let you know what tweaks I've made to my training. My vert has increased a little over the past few weeks and will share what I've been doing different.

Happy Summer!

I'm Too Fat!

Whoa! It's been a month since my last post. I think that is my longest hiatus since I started jumpmanual training just over 2 years ago. It was nice to have a break but it's time to get back on this!

Last Thursday, I got my body fat tested again using a bod pod which is supposed to be the most accurate test out there. If you have been following this blog for a while, you may recall I also did this in January 2012 and was shocked to find out I was 18% body fat (was expecting to be around 12%). Well, nearly 18 months has passed since my last bodyfat test on the bodpod. And I thought for sure with all my training that surely I would be down in the 12% range this time. Nope! I was able to drop a HUGE .1% in bodyfat. My test came in at a disappointing 17.9%.

So, it is painfully clear that I've got to drop some bodyfat. I currently weigh 173 lbs and 31 of those lbs are fat! That is just way too much! My best jumping days were when I was 29 years old and was in probably the best shape of my life. I weighed 169 lbs and was just 7% bodyfat which means I had only 12 lbs of fat. Today, the scale says I weigh only 4 lbs more than I did 12 years ago but I'm carrying 19 more lbs of fat. It also means I have 15 lbs less muscle. That is a pretty substantial difference in the wrong direction.

So the bad news is I am too fat! At least in terms of maximizing my vertical jump. Of course, I'm not saying I'm obese or anything like that. But, I'm too fat to be an elite jumper. And I want to be an elite jumper!

The good news is I am jumping really well right now. I actually had of my best dunks and best misses ever last week. And, if I lose 20 lbs of fat that should surely help me jump a few inches higher which would be two hand tomahawks all day long.

Today, I started another 12 weeks of training. I have made some changes to my workout and diet that I will tell you guys more about in a future post as this one is already quite long and unlikely many people are still reading this. :-)

Have a great summer! Keep workin hard!

And...if you haven't had your bodyfat tested recently, get it done. Maybe you are like me and need to drop some lbs.