Adarq.org

WEIGHT: ???
SORENESS: none
ACHES/INJURIES: none
MENTAL STATE: very good

- warm up

- DLRVJ x ~10-12
not great but that's to be expected after such a long layoff (>2 weeks) from ME jumping. reinforced the need to practice multiple times per week, i was floating the first couple steps until i took a break and watched vid (will post later). corrected the float and attacked a bit better after that.

- squat 275 x 3,3,3
short rests. solid but not explosive.

- superset x 3
-- DB OHP 50s x 6
-- pull up +10 x 6

- DB shrug 65s x 12,12

- stretch

i need to squat and jump multiple times per week to feel good and jump consistently. unfortunately, i'm heading to tajikistan and afghanistan later this week for a couple of weeks. i'll be in dushanbe for part of that time with access to the meh gym in the hotel, but for a lot of the trip i'll be out in the mountains and will have to resort to bw stuff and SL pogos and the like. guess i'll use it as a conditioning block.

i dunno man, being able to turn a 90 mph forehand around with power and control seems like it'd require an iron grip, no matter how relaxed it feels. the racket can't be loose in your hand or the ball would just spray off somewhere.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x474y3tab8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x474y3tab8</a>

good old rutgersdunker, still a beast.

sounds like you had a fever?

hahahaha i have the same RVJ as vince carter. sure would be nice to reach 17" higher than i do.

took my dad to the gym today because him falling and breaking his wrist at the beach finally threw the light switch that getting stronger is gonna be pretty important as he gets older. was great, i took him through a warm up, some basic lower bodyweight stuff and a couple of machines and then we stretched. his wrist is still much too fucked up to do much upper stuff but that's okay. wouldn't call it a workout but i got an hour of moving around and doing some mobility and stretching in.

my right knee felt fine all day until, after he left, i went back to do shoot around and do some jumping. it started hurting as i was walking back into the gym.

i'm starting to wonder if these intermittent pains are psychosomatic somehow. the damn thing still hurts as i type this. wtf.

EDIT 10/1:

RE: psychosomatic. thought about it more last night and this morning. my knee still hurts today, although not as badly. but i wonder if a lot of the lifetime of odd, apparently idiopathic aches and pains that i've had since i was a little kid is somehow related to fear of athletic inadequacy or underachievement. this is related to the realization i had toward the end of college that i'd really coasted through most of my life to that point: school was easy, tests were easy, i'm naturally "smart," without trying, in ways that society rewards, i'm good-looking, and to some degree i'm funny and personable. also white, straight, middle class, and a dude. everything is easy.

athletically, getting good enough to compete (but not win very much) at a high level of fencing was easy in middle school and high school. same for ultimate frisbee, at which i got competent but never great, despite having the basic tools to do so.

BUT.

but.

all that shit made me feel like a wuss. i got good enough grades, but my friends who got straight A's in college because they worked hard absolutely awed me. there is something special and amazing about putting your ego on the line to get really good at something, to try really hard and accept the possibility that your best effort might fail. that is why i started trying to dunk in the first place: it seemed hard and i was very far away from being able to do it. sticking with it all this time, even through all the wheel-spinning and dumb injuries and whatever, feels good even though i haven't gotten there yet.

some of y'all who've been around have heard this story before, but i'm coming back to it because i wonder if all the aches and pains i've had since i was a little kid have been a way for my body and brain to make an excuse for themselves. my shoulder's messed up. back's killing me. i'm getting a sharp pain in my knee on the swing phase. to be fair to myself, i have had my share of certifiable injuries -- separated shoulder, 5-6 ankle sprains, etc., plus arthritis for the past 5+ years -- and so i know what that level of pain feels like and i know that i don't just have a super low pain tolerance or something. but the random aches and pains, the idiopathic injuries like the one i've had the last few days in my right knee, are still beyond my ability to explain. so i wonder if at some subconscious level they're just from a place of fear, of excuse-making for not trying harder.

i doubt that that's the explanation. but it's a thought that's been with me for a long time and one that won't go away.

mess around with it and find a distance that's comfortable, there's no hard-and-fast rule. but the farther out the front foot, the more emphasis on your butt.

also it's hilarious that they're calling rich froning the fittest man in history. child, please. ashton eaton is the fittest man in history.