Adarq.org

I'm having a crisis of faith. I don't think I can ever be considered athletic no matter what I do. It's to do with CNS, tendons, build, things I can't control. No one will ever call me quick. Have probably reached my ceiling with what I can do on and off the court. If you look at where i started, a legit 20" vertical, i'm not going to one day attain a 40". That's probably impossible and i don't want to keep thinking i can somehow get there by wishful thinking. Yes i can dunk ok at 90kg bodyweight but so what, doesn't mean i'll jump 5" higher when i weigh 10-15kg less? In fact it probably wont make any real difference to my jump PR; what it will do is make what was a max effort jump into a sub max one, and possibly my ME would be slightly, if negligibly higher.

What does everyone else who realises they're mediocre athletes do? Become mediocre powerlifters? That doesn't appeal. I need a new hobby.

Well, you just have to ask yourself this: have you really reached your peak? Do you already squat 2.5x for 1RM or 2x for 5RM? Have you practiced jumping and playing and sprinting enough at the right intensity with the right mindset? Have you had a clear-cut goal that you managed to attain? And so on and so forth.

I'm having a crisis of faith. I don't think I can ever be considered athletic no matter what I do. It's to do with CNS, tendons, build, things I can't control. No one will ever call me quick. Have probably reached my ceiling with what I can do on and off the court. If you look at where i started, a legit 20" vertical, i'm not going to one day attain a 40". That's probably impossible and i don't want to keep thinking i can somehow get there by wishful thinking. Yes i can dunk ok at 90kg bodyweight but so what, doesn't mean i'll jump 5" higher when i weigh 10-15kg less? In fact it probably wont make any real difference to my jump PR; what it will do is make what was a max effort jump into a sub max one, and possibly my ME would be slightly, if negligibly higher.

Lol.  Yes it does.  All things considered weight loss is the one thing that almost always leads to better performance.  If you jump X inches at 90kg bodyweight and 15% bf and you get to 8% bf without losing tons of strength... You most definitely jump higher on your max jump and sub max jump.  It's the only training "promise" I make to athletes.  Everything else can be false for some people (eg not everyone who raises their squat jumps any higher...).     Keep it up and lose 10kg and you WILL jump higher.  That's a promise.  Maybe 3 inches, maybe 6 inches.  Hard to put an inch number... but significantly higher.  For myself my jump approaches 40'' when I am close to 180, between 33-37 when I am 190-200 and remains above 30'' when I am 200-215.   BIG difference.

What does everyone else who realises they're mediocre athletes do? Become mediocre powerlifters? That doesn't appeal. I need a new hobby.

Getting good at anything involves feeling mediocre.  Unless you are the best in the world.  But even that is fleeting.  Haven't you seen Karate Kid???  Mister Miyagi outlined this wisdom for me when I was about 7 years old.   That's why you have to compete primarily with yourself.  You have to make you goal to run 2 tenths faster or jump 2'' inches higher than a few months ago.  Anything else and you will always find someone to make you feel mediocre.   If you can go from 20'' to 36''...... That's fucking incredible.  Adding sixteen inches to your vertical is amazing. 

Training
FSB 1x132.5
BS 1x137.5, 2x132.5, 3x120, 3x127.5, 3x125, 3x122.5
AbW 2x15

FSB notes:
Just fuck off. 132.5kg right now feels harder and uglier than my PR of 145kg only 2 weeks ago. Ridiculous..

BS notes:
I failed 142.5kg, i think that kind of sums it up. My PR is 157.5kg at the end of RSR2. Do the maths.

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Such a shitty session even though warmups felt absolutely brilliant, i just didn't have the juice to do anything with worksets. Not much more or to say, going to slowly rebuild up the volume and see where it goes, i think i've just been trapped in a low-volume weak phase which I need to dig myself out of.

I am also going to stop with fasting on training days, i think that might be contributing to horrors in the gym.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYAWIZYUqn4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYAWIZYUqn4</a>

Something went off in my brain today appearing as a genuine spark of inspiration after watching Craig Simmons last night brutally destroy Sydney. It reminded me what all of this training is about, destroying the arch enemy Sydney. I'm going to raise my game to another level now, I have found faith in the purest of all emotions, hatred. I don't care about adding an inch to my PR, I want to live to see Sydney demoralized and obliterated the way they left us last year. This changes everything. Go hard or go home!

I hit a new bodyweight low of 91.1kg yesterday, that's 200.84lb. Not long before I get into the 80s/190s now.

Training
FSB 1x130
BS 4x122.5, 4x127.5, 3Fx125
DUNKZ ~ 30

Squat notes:
Volume is good, i'm back on the right track. The thing killing me right now is core fatigue. I know it's a temporary hit i'm taking from working my core hard but it will pay off eventually. Then i'll be able to push my squats into new territory. In the meantime it's disheartening to be humbled by such light weights, my only fear is my legs will detrain in the mean time..

Dunks notes:
As hard as gym was, on the court was another story. I felt strong and explosive, dunking hard and felt i was jumping as high, if not higher than I ever have before. And this at a bodyweight over 90kg! It's crazy.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fredJ6s2PgE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fredJ6s2PgE</a>

i'll ask vag to estimate my highest jump today, i might have gone on the good side of 35" but i can't be sure, i don't know for sure, which is frustrating.

It seems the best exercise i am doing for my legs right now is dunking overweight, really puts a burn in my quads lol. Whatever i have been doing in the gym has been paying off, i couldn't even dunk at all at this bodyweight before, and now i'm dunking so effortlessly, something is clicking, i dont know what but i'm slightly optimistic. I'll put it down to a combo of heavy calf raises, ab work, and being slightly lighter.

I must say a good intense dunk session is an excellent conditioning workout. Full body one, hits all your muscles, legs all the way up to arms, and gets a good sweat going with a pumping heart rate. I should do this more often.

those are good-looking jumps but i just can't quite believe they're 34". his feet don't look three feet off the ground. i could just be envious that the 6'3 guy with long arms jumps as high as i do with less apparent effort.