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Quote from: adarqui on August 23, 2016, 01:58:56 pm

dunking as old as possible sounds fun too .. for me i'd need to have at least a ~34" SLRVJ or DLRVJ to be able to dunk.. so i'd need to maintain that into old age. Imaging dunking at 70 etc. Sounds awesome tbh ... i've watched a few people "fail" as they get older - systems just shut down slowly. Getting old scares me quite a bit. I need to make sure i'm very light yet very strong going into old age.

Yeah scares me too.  Especially because I need  more than a 34'' vertical and I'm very heavy...  Def notice that heavy athletes don't age as well and it's part of the reason I know I have to finally get serious about transforming into a lighter athlete.  I like being over 200lbs and still dunking but I don't think it will hold up like you will.  I feel like I need far far less vertical to dunk off one leg than two but maybe it's cause I dunk off the dribble and plant left-right... One footed dunking seems to allow a maximal stretch and reach I can't get off two legs..  I haven't lifted upper body at all and I have made some diet modifications and returned to the track so I am losing weight... But it's still the easy stage - I went from 226 to 209 in the last month or so, but it's always easy to get near 200...  If I get dip below 190 and sustain it that would be an amazing accomplishment - I probably can't get as light as you but I need to at least get light for me if I want to go 40/40...

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also, i've never performed high rep calf raises OR high rep RDL for any extended period of time.. that's why this time it's very different. I plan on adapting to these two exercises - with heavy high rep work eventually, but still safely, in the hops that I trigger more adaptations in my calves and hamstrings. High rep heavy squatting has always caused my quads/glutes to really "grow" and adapt. So this time I plan on making sure I hit more musculature, especially since i'm now more interested in sprinting & middle distance running.

Yeah, as far as RDLs I do think you can perform them safely but I do think hamstrings are just a harder muscle to hit as far as performance goes... I think squats for your quads will work excellent and I think the high rep calf raises will be a huge success...  However, hamstrings seem so hard to functionally build... The thing is we use them dynamically so differently than we use them when we lift weights.  When sprinting the hamstrings act as a hip extensor with a straight leg and then as a stabilizer and a knee flexor but not in the plane that everyone thinks.  The most success I have had with hitting them this way is with high rep band work - it's harder to do with free weights.  I do like weighted prone leg raises and prone glute raises.  There is a device you can use to add dumbells to your foot - it really makes a difference with sprinting...

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ya that "transformation switch" is flicked on quicker than normal from my experience.. great point. I used to call high rep squatting "PED's" on here; because you just feel different once you start doing heavy high rep work somewhat frequently.. the body seems to just be accelerating it's adaptation processes.

Lol, the PED thing is spot on.  Cause they are a powerful tool but one that has side effects and needs to be used cautiously!  I wrote a post in Entropy's journal about this - going through training camp for football and track showed me this as well...  Camp involved some sprinting and lifting but was just working till exhaustion and then being so tired and hungry at night that we were in this zombie mode where it was a battle between hunger and exhaustion and we couldn't eat enough to get full cause we were so tired... Then repeating the same thing in the morning.  There was certainly a drop in performance after a few days but after about a week the transformation was amazing - it's like you body tries to fight it and hope you give it a rest and when it realizes your not it is like "fuck it ok fine, let's do this" and then you see these athletes that recomped - losing fat, gaining muscle, and running faster and playing with a higher motor than they thought was possible...

This is why high rep squats, band work, etc.  is so powerful. 

One tool that I don't think you have unlocked is weight vested jumps.  Also highly effective for a similar reason.  Again, we would think weighted jumps are just poor submax jumps that won't lead to performance...  But again I think it's all about making your brain adapt... Initially you lose a bunch of inches when you try weighted jumps, then if you keep wearing additional weight your body eventually goes through a point where it is like "ok I guess this is how much I weigh and this guy is gonna wanna perform like this so time to make some adaptations so I can still jump as high..."

I think that's the key.  For beginners any training is shocking and leads to gains.  After they level off you realize that your body is really good at keeping you alright.  It's not great at making gains.  There is a lot of reasons why it tends to keep you around where you are rather than adapt to make you better...  However, if you put it through some substantial stimulus it will adapt to make you "alright" despite it.  This could be still jumping "alright" (say 36 inches instead of 38) despite the fact that your wearing 10% extra body weight...  This could be not being completely wrecked for a week after doing high rep squatting...  The fact is this "alrightness" in light of this new stimulus is only possible because gains are hiding underneath it... Gains for us to find and eat.

^^^ He claims he recently started lifting weights and he credits it with his sustained success as he has gotten older...

That spotter though....

He handles that weight pretty easily...  Although, to be fair if she was spotting me I think I could easily squat 1000lbs.  Or maybe get distracted and get injured.  One of the two for sure.