Jump Manual - Week 4 Recap of "40 at 40"

I'm a few days late posting my Week 4 Recap of my dunk training. I don't have a ton of new things to share but do have kind of a funny story.

In my last post, I mentioned that Jacob Hiller (creator of Jump Manual) was in town visiting for a couple of weeks and so I invited him to play on my city league team. We had another game on Monday night and so had another chance to play with him.

With about 20 seconds left in our game, we had the ball at half-court and my teammate was trying to get the ball in but the defense had us covered pretty well. Just before the 5 second count, my teammate lobbed a pass to me over my head into the backcourt. I jumped as high as I could to try and get the ball. Just as I was about to get it, some guy comes out of no where and literally knocks the crap out of me and steals the ball. No joke. Picture a wide receiver getting taken out by a safety for an interception. That's about the closest thing I can compare it to.

At first, I thought it was someone on the other team and was trying to figure out why there was no whistle blown. But, as I'm falling down I realize that it's none other than Jacob Hiller who skied over me (somehow -- no idea where he even came from) and caught the ball! They fouled him immediately and he went to the line and made both free throws. We won the game. :-)

The not-so-funny part of this story is I twisted my ankle on that play as I came down really awkward from Jacob's basketball tackle. My left foot is purple around the heel on both sides just under the ankle bone. I haven't had a sprained ankle in forever!

So, while I highly recommend using the Jump Manual. Be careful about playing ball with Jacob! You are not safe even when you are on the same team! Beast!

Thanks for reading!

I played hoops with Jacob Hiller!

If you read my last post, you may remember I mentioned I was gonna be playing ball with an amazing dunker -- but I didn't say who it was. Well...that dunker was the one and only Jacob Hiller (creator of Jump Manual)!

Since starting the Jump Manual last April, I have gotten to know Jacob through his weekly online coaching sessions and facebook. He has helped me a ton by answering my questions, customizing my training, and reviewing my videos.

On a coaching session a couple of weeks ago, Jacob mentioned he was going to be in Utah for a few weeks (which is where I currently live). So, I told him he should come and play on my city league team while he was in town. I had no idea if he would be interested or not but wanted to at least invite him.

Well, last Tuesday night he played on my team and it was an absolute BLAST! I wish someone had been recording the game because there were some pretty sweet highlights. After the game was over, I filmed Jacob throwing down a couple of dunks. Unfortunately, I was exhausted after the game and my back was hurting and so I wasn't jumping very well. But, after one of Jacob's dunks the rim didn't snap back all the way and so I took advantage of the opportunity to barely put down a 2 hand dunk (rim was probably 4 inches low).

Anyways, here is a short vid of Jacob and I messing around. Thanks for reading and watching!

Jump Manual - Week 3 Recap of "40 at 40"

My third week of "40 at 40" dunk training didn't go so well. I tweaked my back last Tuesday morning doing overhead squats or deadlifts (not sure which one caused the injury) and as a result wasn't able to workout the rest of the week. I felt my age this past week and didn't like it one bit!

I went to the chiropractor a couple of times and that has helped but I'm still not 100% yet. I had a city league basketball game last night and was moving pretty good. But, today my lower back is really stiff again. I have another city league game tonight and will be doing a really long warm-up to see if I can get some better mobility. May not be able to jump as well, but that won't stop me from shooting 3's!

I'm taking the video camera with me tonight and will record a little if I'm able to jump at all. But, the main reason I'm bringing the camera is I have a friend in town visiting who is going to play with us and this guy is an incredible dunker. I'm hoping when I see him fly it will inspire me to do the same! Got to throw him at least 1 alley oop. It has been a very long time since I've played with anyone that you could throw an alley oop in a game so should be a lot of fun.

One thing that did go well this past week is my diet. This morning I was 169.8 which is the first time I've been under 170 in quite a while. I just hope I lost fat and not muscle due to missed workouts.

That's all for now! Thanks for following along.

Jump Manual - Week 2 Recap of "40 at 40"

Week 2 of "40 at 40" training went pretty well.

I'm so glad I had my bodyfat tested as it has really made me focus more on nutrition. I lost 1.5 lbs this past week and so being more disciplined on my eating is making a difference.

I'm playing on 2 city league basketball teams with games every Monday and Tuesday nights. This is making it a little harder to get my workouts in and I am concerned about recovery. But, I'm determined to keep going.

This morning I tweaked my back doing dead lifts and was unable to finish the workout. First time I've had anything like that happen during these last several months of vertical training. I was in a bit of a hurry and didn't warm up like I normally do and suffered the consequences. I went to a chiropractor who combines massage therapy, electric stim, roller table, laser treatment, and some other pretty cool things as part of a visit. It made a huge difference and I was still able to play in my game tonight and surprisingly had a pretty decent game. 

Well...that's all for now. Hopefully my back will be "back" to feeling good in the next few days and by next week I can get a video update posted.

BTW, did you see Blake Griffin's dunk last night? I must have watched it at least 20 times today. That dude is a BEAST!!!!

Jump Manual - Week 1 Recap of "40 at 40"

Week 1 of "40 at 40" is in the books! It was a great week!

My new workout which is a customized version of the Jump Manual is definitely more challenging than what I was previously doing but I really like it. I was a little sore from some of the new exercises but overall felt really good.

Today, I had my bodyfat tested using a Bodpod which is supposed to be extremely accurate. The last time I had my bodyfat tested was 11 years ago. It was after I had done Body for Life and I may have been in the best shape of my life and was only 7%. I'm not as lean as I was then but am still in pretty good shape (or so I thought!).

Here are my results...which completely blew my mind!!!

% Fat = 18%
% Fat Free Mass = 82%
Fat Mass = 31.146 lbs
Fat Free Mass = 141.816 lbs
Body Mass = 172.962 lbs

18%!!!! Are you kidding me??? I expected to be around 12%. I was pretty bummed at first but then I realized...you know I'm jumping pretty high at 18% body fat. Imagine if I got down to 8%! So, I think this is actually really good news!

By the end of this round of training (April 7), I want my stats to be the following:

% Fat = 8%
% Fat Free Mass = 92%
Fat Mass = 13.2 lbs
Fat Free Mass = 151.8 lbs
Body Mass = 165 lbs

This would mean I would lose 8 lbs in total bodyweight but would actually gain 10 lbs in muscle and lose 18 lbs of fat. Not gonna lie...18 lbs sounds like a lot! But, I'm being extremely disciplined with my diet during these 12 weeks of training and so confident I'm going to get really lean.

If you don't know what your bodyfat percentage is, you may want to look at getting it measured. Maybe you will also be surprised to learn how FAT you are! :-) And if it is higher than you want it to be, get a plan in place to get it down where it should be. Most of the players who went to the NBA combine this last year are around 6%. So something to think about...

Thanks for reading!