Started vert training again - Week 5

5 weeks completed for this phase of training!

Things are going well. I've done every single workout so far and have been consistent with stretching, foam rolling, and icing on a daily basis. I've even been foam rolling and stretching before bed on most nights. My body feels good.

I've done reasonably well on my eating but that continues to be my biggest weakness. I just love sugar sooooooooo much! Despite my sugar addiction, I've kept my weight down and hover between 170 to 172 lbs (down from 178-180 lbs a few months ago). To maximize my vertical, I feel like I need to get down to the 165-167 range while gaining muscle and strength.

Overall, my vert is up around 2 inches since I started this phase of training. That's not spectacular but I know the full impact of the training won't be apparent until I've had a week or two to recover from all the training. I should be really flying around 7-8 weeks from now which will be right around Thanksgiving.

While I look forward to setting PR's next month, I fully expect to get some legit dunks next week. I've had some pretty close ones already. This past week I missed some really easy ones on a rim that is 2-3 inches low which really frustrated me. I should be able to dunk on that rim even on a bad day but just couldn't get any down that day. That's the way it goes sometimes. Oh well. You will see those attempts in my Week 5 video below along with my weekly vert tests on no-step, 1 step, and full run.

Started vert training again - Week 3

I've now finished 3 weeks of this phase of training.

Things are going really well so far. Despite the volume and intensity, my body is feeling really good which has surprised me. Guess these last 4 years of training has built up some tolerance. It was hard to take time off during these last several months but it was definitely the right decision. I'm also icing and stretching like crazy which I know helps.

Here's a video showing where I'm currently at. About the same as last week, maybe a bit higher on the one-step jump. But, I know my legs are not completely fresh either so I'm not too worried about it. Probably could have gotten a dunk on the lob today if it was a perfect throw. It was just a little high for my current vertical! :)

Give me another week or 2 and I will be dunking again. And then, I'm going to jump higher than I've ever jumped before.

Video - testing my vert at beginning of training

Yesterday, I tested my no-step, 1 step, and running vert as part of my workout. I think it will take 4-6 weeks to get back to where I was and then another 4-6 weeks to hit new PR's.

By the end of 12 weeks, here are my goals:

• No step vert: hang on rim with 1 hand
• 1 step vert: hang on rim with 2 hands
• Running vert: both wrists above rim and dunking 2 hands off dribble and off backboard

Here's the video from yesterday showing where I'm currently at on my vert.


My running vert looks SO SLOW! Got to speed that up!

Excited to be back training again!