Back at it!

The last few months have been crazy busy and among the most stressful of my life. My training has taken a back seat and it shows. But, all that really means... is it's time to get back to training!

I started on Monday of this week and I'm going to give everything I've got to reach my goal of dunking 2 hands over these next 12 weeks. Besides the workouts, I will be super strict on eating healthy, stretching and icing every day, and getting proper rest each night.

As far as workouts go, I'm doing a mix of Jump Manual and other exercises that have given me the best results over the last few years. That includes my "secret exercise" that I've mentioned in a couple of my previous posts.

Speaking of this exercise, check out this email thread from a few weeks ago:

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On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 1:23 PM, Derrick James <derrickjames330@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi I Am willing to try your secret exercise and share the results with you.

Could you please snend it. 

Thanks in advance 

On Friday, February 13, 2015, Andy Nicholson <andy@kalunaproductions.com> wrote:

Hi Derrick,

Here is the video of the exercise that has seemed to make a difference for me. Hope it helps! Let me know it goes.

my "secret" vertical jump exercise

On Sunday, February 15, 2015, Derrick James James <derrickjames330@gmail.com>wrote:

Hi Andy 

Thanks, I'll get back to you in 4 weeks 

On Thursday, March 19, 2015, Derrick James James <derrickjames330@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh hey

The exercises helped improve my quickness, I can dunk now thanks.

On Thursday, March 19, 2015, Andy Nicholson <andy@kalunaproductions.com>   wrote:

That is fantastic! Congrats! How much higher are you jumping now?

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:12 PM, Derrick James <derrickjames330@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, I am jumping about 2-3 inches higher now 

On Thursday, March 19, 2015, Andy Nicholson <andy@kalunaproductions.com> wrote:

Awesome! First time you ever dunked? How tall are you and what is your age?

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:16 PM, Derrick James <derrickjames330@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes first time I've ever dunked 

I'm 6,2 15 yrs old

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So that makes 2 people I know of who started dunking after they did this exercise for a few weeks. Pretty cool!

Happy training everyone!

Another year - What's possible?

Here we are in 2015 and I've had yet another birthday! I'm now 43 years YOUNG!

I have started training again after taking some time off the last few months. It feels really good to be working out again. 

For the next 12 weeks, here's what my workout schedule looks like:

Mon, Wed, Fri - play hoops and do my "secret exercise"

Tue - Deadlifts, chin-ups, and core

Thu - Upper body

Sat - Squats, Cleans, and a few plyo's

This is the routine (with a few minor changes) I was following about 6 months ago that got me jumping really well this past Fall. 

Anyone else try my "secret exercise"? 

And, you got to check out the progress my new YouTube and FB friend, "Mick Pick" has made! He's using the Jump Manual and also told me he's been doing my "secret exercise" as well. So fun to see people reach their goals! Inspiring stuff! Watch his videos and subscribe to his channel!

Happy New Year everyone! Let's get to work!

Anyone willing to try my "secret" vertical jump exercise?

2 posts in 1 week! Wow!
I had another pretty good dunking day this morning and wanted to share a new video:



These last 2-3 weeks, I've dunked the most consistently I have since I started vertical jump training 3 years ago. So what is the difference? I guess it's impossible to know for sure...but here are my thoughts.

• I'm training LESS in comparison to what I've been doing up until now. So leads me to believe I may have been over training or like Jacob Hiller likes to say, "under recovering".  I will be the first to admit that it is really HARD for me to do less. I am the guy who will kill himself in the gym and only feel like I got a good workout if I can't walk at the end of it. And, the only reason I cut back on my training was because of limited time. It is not easy to tell when you are over training...I would have told you that I was not over training. So, be very careful about it. 
• The last 2 weeks, I have iced and stretched almost every night for 30-45 minutes. My flexibility has increased and my body just feels better. Flexibility (and recovery) does make a difference.
• About 3 months ago, I started lifting upper body which I had kind of neglected for the most part until recently in terms of my vertical jump training during these last 3 years. My upper body strength has really improved and I'm very close to getting a PR on bench press. I'm also getting pretty close to being able to do a muscle-up on a bar which will be almost as cool as dunking. So why would upper body help my jumping? Arm swing? Or maybe just less fat? Jumping is an overall body strength exercise...so don't neglect or overlook the importance of upper body strength. 
• I also started doing an exercise I used to do back when I was 29 years old and was jumping the highest of my life. I don't know if you can call it a "secret" exercise but I don't know anyone else who does this exercise (the way I do it) and it was something I made up myself. What I can say for sure...is I was doing this exercise when I jumped the highest of my life (age 29) and I started doing it again a couple of months ago and I'm jumping really well right now. Coincidence?

In fact...I'd really like to know if there is something "special" to this exercise. If anyone reading this would be willing to try a new exercise 3 times a week for 3 weeks and share with me their results, I will tell you exactly what it is and how to do it. I'm dying to know if it will help anyone else. The exercise can be done at the end of a workout and will take less than 5 minutes.

If you are willing to try it, send me an email (andy @ kalunaproductions.com) or send me a message on FB (www.facebook.com/andy.nicholson.169). The only thing I ask in return is for you to tell me if it helped you jump higher!

Got some nice dunks today

Just a quick update. I got 2 really nice dunks today. The best one wasn't on camera (of course). But, the second one was. Here's the video:

My training is going really well. I am actually doing less vertical training than I have in the past. Lots of basketball and short workouts. Here's the training schedule I've been following the last few months in case anyone is interested:

Monday - play basketball, run 1 ladder at full speed, speed rope
Tuesday - upper body (weights)
Wednesday - play basketball, 10 pistol squats, speed rope
Thursday - upper body (bodyweight exercises only)
Friday - play basketball, run 1 ladder at full speed, speed rope
Saturday - squats, deadlifts, zig zags, medicine ball throws, etc.

Anybody still out there? I feel like my blog is dead! :)

I'm jumping higher!

I mentioned in my last post that I had a really good jumping day last week. Yesterday, I was hoping to have another day like that but unfortunately I wasn't jumping as well and actually missed every single dunk attempt I tried. I was pretty bummed out. But, then I watched one of the video clips of one of my dunk attempts and realized I was actually jumping pretty well.

Below on the left, is a freeze frame of the last dunk I got on video from December of last year. This is at the very peak of this jump before I dunked the ball. And, on the right is a freeze frame of one of my dunk attempts yesterday at the peak of my jump. I know the angles are a little different but I think this jump is definitely a few inches higher. 

What's more exciting to me is that I was definitely jumping even higher than this on Friday. So based on that, I've got to be really close to getting a two-hand dunk.

What do you think? Am I jumping higher in the second picture? Or is it just me?

Got my best dunk today in a long time!

Apologies again for how rarely I'm posting these days...but I have some good news that I wanted to share!

This morning I got the best dunk I've had probably in a couple of years! I threw the ball off the glass and caught it and dunked one handed similar to the last dunk in this video.

It felt so good! Most of my dunks in the last two years have been when someone tosses the ball up by the rim (which is the easiest dunk to do). Catching off the glass is a harder dunk and requires jumping higher too. I was jumping higher today than I have in quite a while. This is very good news because I'm not getting younger. But, more importantly...the training I have been doing the last 2 months (which is a little different than what I was in the past) seems to be working.

Next week, I will post a video with some dunks and some of the training my son and I have been doing together and share some more details about the changes I have made if anyone is interested.

Let me know!

My Dreams or My Son's? Or Both?

So over 2 months has passed and I've not posted any updates! So lame! I see I'm not alone as the other blogs out there that I follow for tracking vertical jump progress also have not seen much activity.

Are we giving up? Anybody still training? Does anyone still read this blog? :)

I used to get quite a bit of traffic. But, of course it helps when you are posting on a regular basis!

The last couple of months I have been training some but not consistently. I have been spending much of the time I used to train to workout with my 14 year old son. Sometimes I miss playing and working out, but I love working with him and seeing him improve. He's made so much progress and still has so far to go to reach my goals (I mean HIS goals! LOL).

So...summer is almost here and that should allow us to do vertical jump training together -- instead of just skill work. Maybe I will "outsource"this blog to him and he can start making the updates!

Post some comments and let me know what you guys are up to.