Road to 40 inch running vert - Week 3 Results

Another good week of training despite spraining my left ankle playing hoops (luckily not a bad sprain). The "cool" part was I did it blocking a guy's shot. But, there was some contact in the air and got off-balance and landed wrong. It's still a bit swollen and I need to do a better job icing it.

Last week was also kind of crazy because my oldest son was trying out for 2 competitive basketball teams and I probably get more stressed out than he does. But, he did great and is so fun to see his hard work pay off!

My best no-step vert was down this week almost an inch. I got 29.5 compared to 30.4 last week. I attribute that to having a bad day, some soreness, and my sprained ankle.


No-step vert test results so far:

• Week 3 best no-step vert = 29.5 
• Week 2 best no-step jump = 30.4
• Week 1 best no-step jump = 30.1
• PR for no-step jump = 31.1 (April 2013)

I also did the 4 jump test again. My best of 3 attempts was:

.24 (ground contact time)
2.91 (explosive leg power)
23.4 (avg vertical for the 4 jumps)

Ground contact time (.24) is same as last week.
Explosive leg power (2.91) is down from last week's 2.99.
Average vertical for the 4 jumps (23.4) is down from last week's 25.6.

This kind of shows I just had no "bounce" this day which also helps explain my no-step vert being down. Just one of those days. Next week will be better!

Road to 40 inch running vert - Week 2 Results

Week 2 of this phase of training towards my goal of a 40 inch running vert went really well. Got in all my workouts again and I'm still doing my stretching/mobility work each day. Starting to become a fan of stretching as I'm noticing improvements in my range of motion and my recovery. It seems like it has been so long since my body felt good (not sore) and had fresh legs. But, that is changing and I like it.

Tested my no-step vert and had a small increase over last week. My best today was 30.4 compared to 30.1 last week. I should be able to beat my PR of 31.1 in the next week or so.

Here's the vid:

I also did the 4 jump test a couple of times on my jump mat today (no video) and my best results were:

.24 (avg ground contact time)

2.99 (explosive leg power)

25.6 (average vertical for the 4 jumps)

This is an interesting test as it measures your explosiveness and reaction time. I will be testing this each week and posting the results here as well. For comparison, I also tested this last week a couple of times and my best results were:

.26

2.74

25.4

So in addition to improving my no-step vertical, I made some progress this week on explosiveness and reaction time too which is good news.

I also started taking creatine a couple of days ago and expect to see my strength go up and also some weight gain. Hopefully though I can make progress on getting leaner at the same time which hasn't been near as easy as I have expected. 

Keep training people! Go get your dreams!

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!