Adarq.org

WEIGHT: ???
SORENESS: lower traps a little
ACHES/INJURIES: head
MENTAL STATE: frustrated

- warm up

- DLRVJ x a couple
crap SVJ, barely 30, then good off one step (33), meh off two (~33.5), crap off three (33-34) and i stuck at three for most of the time. did a couple of full run-ups but they suuuuucked. my head hurt.

- DB jump squat 35s x 3,3,3

- ME pogo x 8,8,8

- stretch

just so bad. my problem is this: i have no progressive overloading in my program right now. i'm literally not progressing on anything. i'm just doing a bunch of stuff and trying to do it "explosively" every time. that is a recipe for wheel-spinning, and sure enough i'm back spinning my wheels or even regressing. i need a damn coach, someone to just force me to into a path with a clear progression. where is lance.

just applied for second job. this one in nepal.

so. progressive overload. i've been spinning my wheels on microcycles for too long. need to think better about mesocycles and macrocycles. this ain't power lifting, where you can pretty much follow a system someone else developed because 8 bajillion people are also trying to be better at squat/bench/dead.

my current DLRVJ PR, repeated on 3-4 widely-spaced occasions over the past 18 months or so, is about 36 inches. that is, i've gotten all but an inch of my palm up over the rim. to dunk, even off a lob, it's generally understood that you need to have your whole palm over. for me, that means 37 inches. so i need a one-inch improvement on my PR in order to dunk. i'll leave aside for a second the need to also have someone throwing me lobs because my hands are too small to hold onto the ball during a full arm swing.

on an average day, i can hit between 34 and 35 inches. bad days more like 33. good days are 35+.

jumping is a combination of strength, power, elasticity (or bounce or reactivity or springiness or whatever you want to call it -- i'm talking about tendons and ligaments and how well they store and release energy), and skill. here is my self-assessment of each of these abilities on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is a fat alcoholic smoker who's never worked out, 5 is an average, reasonably in-shape 28-year-old, and 10 is a world-record holder:

• strength: 7 (have squatted 2x bw, around 1.9x last time i tested after an extended period of de-emphasizing squats, still could be better)
• power: 6 (SVJ is comfortably 30-31 and PR is 32 -- pretty good but not great)
• elasticity: 5 (13.0 100m)
• skill: 7 (i think that at this point i've grooved a pretty efficient, consistent approach that would, with improvements in one or all of the other areas, lead to dunk-level jump height)

elasticity is my weakest point. i'm just not that "bouncy," i'm average in terms of sprint speed and my single-leg jumping lags way behind double-leg. it's also pretty hard to improve: you're stuck with ligaments and tendons you're born with. strength is the most natural component for me. with a bit of dedicated time and some culking i'm pretty sure i could total >1000. power is somewhere in the middle. i can't do oly lifts at my gym (no plates or platform) so i need to find another way to work on this in a progressive and measurable way. skill i've rated more highly than i should, maybe, because i really only care about dunking at all. i've found an approach that enables me to jump consistently and relatively smoothly from an LR approach. being able to dunk from the other side, or do any kind of tricks, or even approach from a different part of the court: not important.

one other thing that's not listed here is conditioning, which isn't needed for a single ME jump but which contributes to ability to train well. i'd rate my conditioning as a 6. probably a shade above average for a 28-year-old, but not good. with proper conditioning (and other factors like sleep, diet, and alcohol consumption under better management) i should be able to increase the share of average-to-good jumping days.

next post will consider what my goals should be and how i should try to get there.

first: constraints.
1. the golden age i've been in where the basketball court is free almost every night is coming to a close. the league has started up again. that leaves saturday and sunday mornings as the only near-certain times to have access, in addition to very early on weekday mornings.
2. doing ME work in the morning is not an option, because my body simply doesn't wake up fast enough to make that feasible before work. i have in the past and could conceivably in the future do submax or conditioning work in the mornings. that could include jumping skill work.
3. i work 9-6 (or, often, later) five days a week.
4. i am a social person and unwilling to commit to an ironman-style training schedule. hanging out with friends is important to me and i can turn down booze as needed (did it two nights ago in fact) but if a good friend is in town for one night only and i don't get to see him or her that often, i have to work around that for my own sanity.
5. i'm going to move overseas at some point this year. would be great to end up in a city with basketball courts and gyms but there's no guarantee. might be forced to switch tacks for a while and, i dunno, turn into a poor man's ross enamait.
6. gym closes at 6 on fridays.
7. i really shouldn't sprint, given the weird knee tracking thing. i want to get that figured out at some point because training for a 400 would be a fun next goal. but for the time being it's not worth the effort because the knee doesn't bother me doing anything else.

second: goals.
1. increase DLRVJ by enough to dunk a basketball.
2. dunk a basketball.
6. DB OHP 60s x 10
7. pull ups +15 x 10
8. push ups x 30
9. inverted row x 30

third: deadline.
i think it's time to set myself one. that will help give shape to my training and give it a sense of urgency that's been missing for a long time. so, how about this: i will add 1 inch to my running vertical jump by august 15, 2015. that gives me nine weeks and change. plan starts tonight, although for the upper stuff i'll test tonight because i don't have good baselines. will use squat 1RM of 330, which i hit fairly recently.

fourth: priorities.
1. improve power
2. improve elasticity
3. improve strength
4. improve skill
5. improve conditioning

fifth: plan.
nine weeks, conjugate periodization. i went back and looked at some old KB articles and i think i'm just gonna lift something he put out there as a sample conjugate plan, with a couple of tweaks for my own purposes.

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LBSS'S DUNK GOD DAMN IT TAKEN PRETTY MUCH LITERALLY FROM KB EVEN THOUGH HE SAID NOT TO TAKE IT LITERALLY BUT IT LOOKS OKAY TO ME PLAN

workouts within each block are on a weekly cycle. inclusion of morning workouts means i need to get better about going to bed earlier. that is doable. warm up and cool down/stretching go without saying. also, i'm going to start counting calories and macros again. i'm pretty lean but it wouldn't hurt me to be a little leaner. i've never tried to cut before but i'm thinking about it for the explosiveness and elasticity phases. the morning sessions will be very submax, mostly just to make sure i maintain some time on the court, practice jumps in a very chill and relaxed way, and get my blood flowing more often.

block 1: strength focus, 4 weeks
workout A (evening)
- depth jump @low x 10,10
- jump squat 45 x 8,8 (add 5 lbs/week)
- squat 5x6; add weight for first three sets then maintain (top sets add 5 lbs/week)
- DB OHP
- pull ups

workout B (evening)
- depth jump @low x 10,10
- jump squat 45 x 8,8 (add 5 lbs/week)
- squat 8x1; add weight first 4-5 sets up to a heavy but solid single, then reduce by 10% and do 3-4 more
- push up
- inverted row

workout C (morning 2x/week)
- layups and submax DLRVJ, conditioning-style x 30 mins

workout D (saturday OR sunday morning)
- layups and DLRVJ, AREG effort, i.e. if i feel good go for ME and if not keep it submax
- maybe some beach work
- feldenkrais

block 2: explosiveness, 2 weeks
workout A (evening)
- depth jump @medium x 10,10
- rhythmic jump squat 6x5 @15,20,25,30,20,15% of max squat
- squat 6x1 @90%
- DB OHP
- pull ups

workout B (evening)
- depth jump @medium x 10,10
- rhythmic jump squat 6x5 @15,20,25,30,20,15% of max squat
- squat 6x2 @60%
- push up
- inverted row

workout C (morning 2x/week)
- layups and submax DLRVJ, conditioning-style x 30 mins

workout D (saturday OR sunday morning)
- layups and DLRVJ, AREG effort, i.e. if i feel good go hard and if not keep it submax
- maybe some beach work

block 3: elasticity, 2 weeks
workout A (evening)
- depth jump @high x 5,5,5,5
- jump squat x 5,5 @ 15% of max squat
- squat 6 x 1-3 @85%
- DB OHP
- pull ups

workout B (evening)
- depth jump @medium x 5,5,5,5
- feldenkrais

workout C (evening)
- depth jump @high x 5,5,5,5
- jump squat x 5,5 @ 15% of max squat
- squat 3x3 @5RM
- push ups
- inverted rows

workout D (morning 2x/week)
- feldenkrais

workout E (saturday OR sunday morning)
- layups and DLRVJ, AREG effort, i.e. if i feel good go hard and if not keep it submax
- maybe some beach work

block 4: peak, 1 week
workout A (evening)
- depth jump @low x 10,10
- superset x 2
-- jump squat x 5 @15%
-- squat x 5 @50%

workout B (morning and/or evening 2x/week)
- DLRVJ @submax

workout C (saturday OR sunday)
- pray for a motherfucking PR

thoughts? anyone? bueller?

Overall the plan looks good. I like your thoughts on the conditioning aspect. Something I struggle with myself and I think it will give you more above average jumping days and more above average training days too.

Also one thing which may be rubbish or too simple but it used to be a golden rule to stretch the shit out of your hip flexors prior to actually jumping. I've not used this myself and don't know if it applies to a running jump but if you're searching for cm's then it might be worth a try.

^^^i always stretch hip flexors prior to jumping.

Excellent.

Good luck mate. 1" in 9 weeks sounds doable with a concentrated effort.

WEIGHT: ???
SORENESS: none
ACHES/INJURIES: right knee once i started full run-up jumps
MENTAL STATE: good

- warm up

- DLRVJ x a few
PR-tie off of one step (33) and two (34+) but three and four-step approaches sucked and then my knee started acting up. did some submax jumps but not too many. fuck.

- superset x 2
-- DB shrug 80s x 20
-- DB curl 25s x 10
-- DB kickback 20s x 10

- superset x 2
-- ab pull down 120 x 15
-- cook hip thrust x 15

- stretch

last night:

- glute raises x 12,12,12

- glute march x 10,10,10

- four-way hip extension x 12,12/side

- shoulder dislocates

- joint circles

- calf stretching