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

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!