Core and basement jumping for high reps today. Easing into it. Will do more explosive jumps this week, still deciding which program to follow.
Single leg jumps 2x25 each
Weighted crunches
kb swings 53# 2 x 25
Hang knee tucks
Lunge jumps 2 x 25 each
Palof press
Double leg bunny hops 2 x 100 (real fast springy hops)
Stir the pot
Keeping it straight to business, want to jump tonight
Power cleans
2 x 4 [2-2] 165
3 x 3 [1-1-1] 175
Box front squats
1 x 8 205
2 x 5 225
10 min SS bike
Bar just flies up, box squats are really starting to improve the 2nd pull. I’d have pushed weight but want to focus on speed of the movement.
Just basic jumping, now with both feet instead of single leg.
2 x 10 max jumps
2 x 10 long jumps
1 x 5 each lateral jumps
2 x 10 iso jumps (drop to low hold for 3 sec then jump)
Bounding
Broke a sweat, took 25 min
I saw his post today
Such good internet
Back day yay
Chin ups map - 18, 13, 12
Low back extensions 3 x 25
Meadow rows 4 x 8-10 70#
Lat pull 3 x 10 200-220#
RG bench 3 x 12 115#
Bb bicep curl 6x6 75#
Tri push down 6x6 130#
Forearms - plate pinch, thors hammer
LBE map 3 x 30
Straight to business, I feel a cold coming on… When I lift too frequently I can feel it coming on. Gotta eat more and scale back the intensity somehow. Have been Staying up late reading, think it’s catching up with me. Staying flexible.
Heavy squat day
Front squats 5 x 3 185-190# - could have pushed weight but opted to crush the 5 sets.
Core work
Cold is there, powering through
Seated military press 4x6 125#
Y A No $ 6e
BB Incline Bench Holds 135# 4 x :45
DB Bench 4 x 6-8
BB dips (new, love) 2 x map
SA lat raise 2 x 12 15#
Push ups MAP 1x
Pull aparts
ISO holds = huge pump
Cold still there, didn’t get to test my jumps yesterday will do on Monday. I want to jump more.
Hang Clean above knee
5 x 4 (2+2) 170#
Will take it easy this weekend to recover, hit the jumping hard Monday.
Long recovery weekend. Lots of relax and good eats. Had a scratchy throat the whole time. Gonna deload a bit this week in all the ‘accessory’ work
Power cleans
5 x 3 (1-1-1) 175-190# (190# is a new PR)
Box front squats
2 x 10 225#
10 min bike
Shitty sleep, got up for the kid 4 times. Who doesn’t like sleeping with daddy hahaha oh wait I don’t
Random upper body pump day. Trying some new exercises like the BB dips and neck press. Did some push-pull supersets as I’ve split them up the last 3-4 weeks. Finished with a 6x6 bicep curl and triceps Push down. Trying to give the upper body the muscle synthesis stimulus without overtaxing. The big goal is the Oly and heavy squat day so I’m trying to prioritize that.
Jumping will gradually increase as weather and health improve. I simply don’t have the set up necessary to train the jumps and the weights simultaneously. I’ve been doing jumping in the PM when at the weight room but that’s probably why I’m under the weather. We just got a bunch of snow so outdoors is not an option (safety).By May I should be fully transitioned.
We’re having another baby too, just found out…
A little double stimulation upper and core/low back today, heavy squats tomorrow. Nothing noteworthy.
Feeling better today, got decent sleep. Will jump later tonight
Got in a few jumps tonight, no progress still about the same. Had a bunch of chilli for dinner right before so just a few jumps had me gurgling. Have been sick and lazy and ravenous lately. This weekend I will be traveling and taking a few days off. After the break I will be putting much more effort into the actual dunking a basketball aspect.
The lifting has been great this year. But we’re like 10 weeks into the year and when you work out 5-6 days a week like I do I’m at the 50 work out mark this year if not more. Not boasting but it’s a huge concern to prolong my lifting career. I want to be lifting and dunking long term, into my 40s and 50s. Taking care of my body is a priority. I’m not some steroid or hormone user who just used drugs to reach all my goals. Fuck that. As a natural person my entire life I’ve learned to listen to what my body is telling me. Right now I feel I need to change or I’ll revert to a powerlifter or Oly lifter, and move further away from dunking. I’ll just put on more mass if I’m not careful.
I also think I’ll be using all this jumping and lifting decreceneo to lose some more body fat. More metcon. Also want to jack up my arms I never commit to arms but it feels right. Plus they’ll look awesome in a basketball jersey while I’m dunking motherfuckers!
Heavy front squats
3x3 195-205#
215# single
Calf raises
Hamstring triple threat
Ankle mobility 12e
Hip Bridge :60
Fuck yeah, gonna jump later too
Busy day yesterday, got in some jumps but not what I wanted. Very quick jump session. Started depth jumps from about 6" off the ground, felt great.
Today was an upper push with some pull
Military press 3 x 5 125-130#
Weighted crunch 3 x 20 130#
Meadow rows - slow and with dead stop 2 x 10 50#
KB OHP 2 x 8 35#
BB bench low Inc Hold 135# 3×:45
Y A No$ 3 x 10e
TRX Push Ups 3 x 10
TRX row series (high, regular, OH Raise) 3 x 8e
Chest Fly to Press 15# 2x12e (wow!)
Inverted rows 2x15
Felt great, good pump, some hang cleans tomorrow maybe not if I’m just wiped out.
Checking up on your progress. Where’d you go? I finally started a lot and one of my goals is to increase my vertical a bit. Something is missing. I’m struggling to get up when I’m on the move or get the slightest bump. It’s irritating because I thought my hops were back. I think it’s due to a decrease in my power clean training. 5/3/1 doesn’t work for me on that lift so going back to my creation.
There’s not much actual jumping in this thread. It’s something I notice alot; people want to jump higher but just don’t actually jump enough. Sure squats, oly variants, single leg hops, bounds, box jumps, depth jumps, drops etc can be effective & are basically essential as part of a well rounded routine, but they are all supplementary.
For some reason, many people who want to jump higher, avoid ME jumping. If you want to jump higher in a movement specific to dunking - running vertical jump, you need to perform max effort RVJ’s at least 2-3x/week. Dunk obsessed people who make alot of progress improving their RVJ often end up RVJ’n ~5x/week, and even do so when they feel fatigued. I’m not a fan of > ME RVJ 3x/wk, but, you usually see 5-6x/wk among people who have already developed appreciable vert and instead are trying to improve their dunk skills/trick dunks.
Even if your technique (run-up, plant, arm swing, jump) look good to the naked eye, there’s usually still a large capacity for skill improvements. In dynamic/explosive movements, skill training itself is a form of strength training. Refining the motor programming of movements through volume of repetition, creates real physical changes that improve the efficiency of movement, rate of force development, explosive strength, muscle fiber composition etc. And these improvements feed back into the system and prime it for yet another round of improvements/gains. These things take time, that’s all I know. How much time? Who knows. But it might help to think of it in terms of a programmer, having to add/modify/remove hundreds of thousands of lines of code within your brain, spinal cord, muscle tissue, etc. You can’t just copy & paste this code directly into your body, at least not yet. So just like everything else, it’s a slow grind.
A ME jump session should usually be performed until considerably drop off, utilizing adequate rest periods (full recovery, ~45-90s) between jumps … so simply 4 x 5 etc, might be too little/too much volume. Sometimes it may take 50 jumps, or even 70… Sometimes it may happen after 20 jumps. This “value” depends on your current “state” which itself is dependent on too many values to list (psychology, sleep, nutrition, weather, accumulated fatigue, etc etc). Dropoff can be measured in inches, but, from my personal experience, it’s just as accurate to measure it based on feel: when your legs finally just “give out” and you feel fried, that’s our CNS tapping out, and he will try and learn to defend the choke for the next fight - which is what we want.
That brings me to another issue. Most everyone who gets into jumping, is expecting gains in inches, cm’s, etc… No one ever thinks about gains in “nanometers” for example. An inch on a jump is like 30 seconds off your 5k times. So our perception of “gains” is just completely distorted when it comes to jumping. We can shave 1 second off of our running time and be happy, hey it’s a PR. We can shave 1 tenth of second off of our 100m sprint and be ecstatic. But for jumping, we are only happy if it’s 1+ inches … This is a major psychological pitfall of the vertical jump crowd. Beyond that, performance training is just so “sinusoidal” - everything can go temporarily haywire even if you make some kind of “gain” in one of the hundreds of thousands of variables or branches that make up the control flow of one simple movement. One small change can make the whole thing “wobble” until it readjusts. I guess the only thing that remains constant throughout, is effort.
dno, just my 2 cents.
peace.
3 month bump.
Solid.
Zack Morris got decapitated by an angry rant of mine in a thread called “At What Point Do You Think You’re Qualified to Give Out Advice?” that went a little like this (it’s post 172 in that thread):
Thanks.
That is some decent scathe. I don’t know Zach, nor do I know how hard (or not) he worked. Nor do I know if those are good numbers for him; I mean he could possibly have a handicap or pre-existing injuries, weird limb lengths, or hyperalgesia for example. But it does potentially outline two components of the formula that are often forgotten: consistency and consistent of hard effort. Those two components cannot be bought or ingested. Being consistent is important - that in itself seems to be the hardest thing for most people to implement. Then, in addition to that, one can be consistent yet never push themselves. So most people who end up being consistent, don’t actually consistently push themselves, and just end up in a lifelong period of stagnation - at least it’s better than nothing. For the minority of trainees, who are both consistent and consistently push themselves, that’s where we see the real transformations IMHO. In addition, gains are made almost regardless of the effectiveness of the training system - though optimal gains will be made on a more effective training system, gains will be made nonetheless.
I would imagine that most coaches, Ph.d exercise science folks, B.S/M.S exercise science folks etc fall into the majority of trainees, lacking one or both of those components. To make things worse for “intelligent people”, they often suffocate themselves in over analysis. They are often in search of “the perfect program”, “the perfect exercise”, “the perfect supplement”, “the perfect coach”, “the perfect shoe”, “the perfect aerodynamic running short”, “the perfect nutrient timing”. Other than PED’s, it’s mostly just an excuse not to bite down on the mundane and perfect it. The monotony of “true” performance training can be a painful grind. Most everyone looking to “mix it up” and “have more fun”, are really just subconsciously implementing speed bumps in order to slow themselves down. People love to get stuck in the “newbie gains” phase, because it’s not a mental grind (war) yet. Once you get to the point where adding 1" to your jump may take 12 months, or 10 lb. on your squat 6 months, or 5 seconds off your 5k 6 months, with consistent hard effort, one is now in the real battle. From what i’ve experience and witnessed, human minds & bodies will do everything possible to avoid this stage & convince you to take your foot off the gas pedal.
It’s definitely possible to be able to give good advice, write a good training program, offer sound nutrition advice, even though you haven’t done anything impressive yourself. I mean, nearly the entire s&c community falls into this category. Unfortunately, lots of “failed athletes” turn towards coaching - unfortunate that they were failed athletes, not that they turned to coaching. If we were to all of a sudden just turn to elite athletes to give us advice, we’d get alot of really shitty advice: just use jump soles and stretch! However, I think it’s MUCH HARDER to help someone who was never particularly athletically impressive and/or “physically gifted”, but always dreamed of transforming into “something else”, transform. So that goes back to the post of yours you quoted - alot of people coming to online forums are just “normal people who want to transform into freaks” (athletically, physique, etc). I mean it’s not like we see tons of professional & collegiate athletes on these forums, it’s mostly dedicated “enthusiasts”. So definitely agree there, lead by example. FWIW, we can also learn alot by “fail by example”. 
Regarding the idea of “finally putting the knowledge I paid for to use”, IMHO that could be a red flag. Acquiring knowledge is very important, it forms the base upon which we build experience. That quote itself implies a major lack of experience though.
Edit: As far as elite athletes go, it’s hard to find ones who lack those components. So many different training systems, coaches with different ideologies, nutrition plans, body types, leverages, yet so many similar performances at the elite level. It really speaks alot for how consistent & how hard they push themselves, IMHO. It’s easy to find people “shitting” on elite athletes and attributing most of their success to “genetics”, but to be successful on the elite level, it’s hard to find elite athletes who aren’t consistently driven for literally decades. IMHO, it really speaks highly of being consistent & the ability to push yourself.
/ 2 cents.
peace