Jump Manual at 40 years old - Week 2 Results

Week 2 of this round of vertical jump training using the Jump Manual didn't go so well. I missed 4 workouts out of 6!

And so here comes the excuses! I was out of town for the most of the week. Sleeping in another bed, being on a different time zone, working extra long hours, etc. is training kryptonite for me. For whatever reason, I seem to leave all my discipline and motivation at home when I travel. So, either I've got to stop traveling or I got to be more committed!

Today, I tested my no-step vertical using the Just Jump System that I recently purchased. I didn't have high expectations based on how the week went. But, I did improve from last week's best jump of 27.6 to 28.1 this week. If I could get a half-inch every week for the next 10 weeks, I would gain approximately 5 inches which is exactly where I would like to be (33" for no-step vertical). Gains are typically fast at first and then slow down over time but I'm hoping to beat the odds!

Here's the video from today showing my 28.1 no-step vertical test:

About six months ago, I know my no-step vertical was around 30 or 31 inches. It's a bit frustrating that I'm down from where I was. But, I looked over the NBA combine results and that made me feel much better. For example, John Wall's no-step vertical was only 30" when he tested during the combine (his running vert was 39").

Check out the NBA Combine results from the past several years. If you haven't seen them before, I bet you will be surprised to see that not a single player tested had over a 40" no-step vertical. Guys with a running vertical over 40" is also very rare. In fact, only 48 out of 988 players tested had a running vertical of 40" or more. That is less than 5%!

NBA Combine Results

That's all for now! Hoping to see 29" next week!

Jump Manual at 40 years old - Week 1 Results

As I mentioned in my post last week, I started another round of 12 weeks of vertical jump training using the Jump Manual.

Week 1 went fairly well. I got in most of the workouts and also played basketball 3 times. Yesterday, I tested my no-step vertical on the Just Jump System. I got out my camera to film only to find out the batteries were dead! Oops! So I don't have a video to show you this week, but will make sure I do next week.

My best jump (which I got multiple times) was 27.6 inches. I was a little disappointed because I'm sure my no-step vertical last Fall was around 30 inches. I expect to make up that difference within the next couple of weeks and then hope to keep adding onto it. If I can get my no-step vertical to at least 33 inches, my running vertical should be 39-40 inches which would be incredible and absolutely high enough to be throwing down a sweet two-hand tomahawk.

It's possible! Here's my friend Steven who I used to jump higher than but the punk has passed me up! He's now throwing down some very nice two hand dunks. Hopefully, this is where I'll be by July!

Jump Manual - starting over!

Last week I had intentions of doing the Jump Manual workouts, but I failed miserably! I was in Vegas from Sunday through Thursday and just could not motivate myself to workout or eat healthy.

So, I'm going to start this round of training over and it will run from today (May 14) through the middle of August. I'm going to be consistent and am going to get that two hand dunk I've been talking about forever!

The best news I have to share with you today is I now have a way to accurately test and measure my vertical. I'm now the proud owner of a Just Jump System! This blows away the homemade vertec I made a few months ago.

I first saw the Just Jump system a couple of years ago in this video below where a guy named Frank Yang shows off his 40 inch no-step vertical. Incredible!

More recently, I've become a big fan of this guy who has made huge gains on his vertical during the last couple of years and uses the Just Jump System. His running vertical is now a very impressive 41"! Check out his latest video below.

I am definitely going to start doing progress videos each week showing where I'm at. I want my no-step vertical to be at least 33" before this phase of training ends.

Stay tuned!

Jump Manual - The Adventure Continues!

After two weeks off, I'm soooooo ready to start my training again using the Jump Manual!

I had a great dunk last week and I'm confident that within the next 12 weeks or less, I'm going to get that two hand dunk I've been chasing.

Thanks for reading and hope you will following along during the next several weeks.

How important is rest and recovery?

Before I start my next round of Jump Manual training, I decided it would probably do my body good to take some time off. So that's exactly what I did this past week!

I didn't do any workouts. I didn't stretch. I didn't eat good. In fact, I ate horribly. I did play basketball three times so I wasn't completely inactive. But, compared to what I typically do during a normal week of training -- this week was equivalent to me sitting on the couch and eating bon bons.

Yesterday, the "party" continued with loads of junk food and staying up until almost 2:00 am. Right before going to bed, I ate two chocolate chip cookies. Go big or go home! I then slept for about 4 hours and got up at 6:00 am to play hoops. Yes, I'm a basketball addict.

But to my surprise, my legs felt really good today. I was jumping higher than I have in a while and I threw down the best dunk I've had in a really long time. And, it felt so GOOD!!! I didn't even take my video camera this morning as this was completely unexpected.

So the lesson here is...don't forget to take a break once in a while! Despite doing so many things wrong this week (bad diet, not enough sleep, and no stretching), giving my body some rest still resulted in jumping higher than I have in quite some time.

Here is a great article on the importance of recovery and avoiding overtraining that you might be interested in. Check it out!

Tomorrow, we leave for Disneyland so I'm sticking with this new workout program of not working out! Here's to hoping another week of junk food and avoiding exercise will result in jumping even higher next week! I'll let you know on Monday!

Are You Getting Stronger?

The other day Jacob Hiller (creator of Jump Manual) asked me, "are you getting stronger?" I couldn't confidently answer yes or no because I hadn't tested my max on lifts in a really long time.

So, yesterday I decided to max out on squats, deadlifts, hang cleans, bench press, and pullups. I'll repeat this test again following my next round of training to see how much I've improved.

Here were the results: 

• Squat: 275 lbs 

I'm going to count this as my new PR even though I probably should have gotten a little lower for it to be a true squat. I've been working on my flexibility and technique and it's helping but getting low is really challenging for me. Even when I do much lighter weight I have a hard time getting down to parallel. Here's a video if you want to check it out.

• Deadlift: 273 lbs

I'm pretty sure this is a new PR for me as I don't remember lifting more than this and looking back at my tracking sheets, I couldn't find anything higher. Here's the video:

• Hang Cleans: 165 lbs

This is not a PR for me. I've done 170 lbs for 4 reps before. My right wrist was hurting and I was probably a little fatigued from doing squats and deadlifts so I still feel pretty good about getting 165 lbs. I don't have a video for this one.

• Bench Press: 185 lbs

This is really embarrassing! I don't bench anymore so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I know about 12 years ago my best ever on bench press was 225 lbs x 3 reps. I've clearly lost a lot of upper body strength since then and I've definitely got to hit my upper body harder. This is why you need to evaluate your strength and see where you need work. I don't have a video of this and wouldn't show it to you if I did! :-)

• Pullups: 1 rep with 50 lb weight

I thought about testing how many total pullups I could do but figured that has more to do with endurance and I was already pretty tired by this point. I thought a better test would be to see how much extra weight I could do for 1 rep. I started with a 30 lb dumbbell between my knees and did it easy. Went up to a 40 lb dumbbell and was still able to complete. I then went for 50 lbs and barely got 1 full rep so that will be my new PR. I have never maxed out on this before. Very curious to see how high I can go on this in the future. No video for this one either.

So since Jacob asked me...now I will ask you! Are you getting stronger? How do you know? Can you prove it? What are your 1 rep max lifts? If you don't know, time to get in the gym and find out. Tracking is critical to your success!

Jump Manual - Week 12 Recap of "40 at 40"

I have finished another 12 weeks of Jump Manual training. Time has gone by so quickly. In fact, today (April 11) marks one year since I started my training and began chasing the dream to dunk at age 39.

I set some big goals to reach by today. And, unfortunately I didn't reach them. My gains have slowed down and I have not made much progress in a while. The easy thing to do at this point would be to give up on my goal to dunk two hands. But, there is no way I'm going to do that! I'm just going to make some adjustments to my training, set some new goals, and get back to work.

One thing I should start doing again is making videos. Those seemed to provide some extra motivation and it was fun to see all the comments from people even from the "haters" out there.

So...I hope you will continue to follow along as I continue to chase my dunking dreams. Post some comments and let me know how things are going with your training. What is working for you? What isn't working?