Back on Track

Just a quick update.

Things have been going really well so far. I've been staying on track with my diet, while tracking it all on myfitnespal.com. In about 3 and a half weeks I am down 7lbs and dropped 1% body fat (according to a hand held device). I just measured my verts today and had fairly good results there. I gained an inch in all three verts (Standing, One-Step, Max) So I am very happy with those results for 3 weeks worth of excercising. Also my squat #'s have been increasing steadily, about to where they were at my previous peak. I'm positive with losing some weight and body fat I will be back to where I was in no time at all and have room to grow from there.

We also measured Andrew's verts and he had fairly similar results. He gained an inch on his Standing and his Max vert (now at 10'4"). And he stayed steady with his one-step with no gain or loss.

Good News and Bad News

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that I have gained a lot of weight back (mostly over the holidays and had trouble getting back down). It was about 15lbs in total. What's worse is my body fat % jumped from 18% to about 26%, which means I've not only gained weight, but lost a considerable amount of lean mass. I haven't been doing any of the workouts, though I have been doing cardio. I have lost all the jumping ability I had gained from doing the program. It's really frustrating and kinda surprising how bad and how fast I lost it.

When I said I have lost everything from the training before... it's honestly even worse then that. I'm starting at a much lower point then I did last time I started. Pulled my homemade vertech out and somehow my standing vert has dropped from 26" to about 21.5" in about 6 months. I'm positive most of it is the weight and fat I've gained. But with a lot of work, I will gain it back quickly I hope.

The good news is that I have dropped about 5 lbs over the last few weeks and have decided to start back on the Jump Manual and have really tightened up my diet. What's even better, is I have talked a buddy of mine into doing the program with me. That has made this whole process so much easier to stay motivated. He is moving away at the end of the summer and I promised him I'd have him dunking before he left. His max reach is already 10'3", so I didn't think it was too outlandish. Now if I don't stay focused I'm hurting him as well which really helps me.

Anyway, thanks for all your support, motivation and advice, It' really helps me out.

Started Rec League

I haven't posted in a while so I figured it was about time for an update. I have started preseason in a city rec league so I've kind of slowed down on my Jump Manual progress. I don't want to wear myself out and not be able to play. I still do squats every Friday and a light plyo day every Monday. I still do upper body every Wednesday and I play basketball twice every Tuesday (lunch time with work guys at Gold's and night times are our games) and Thursday.

I'm playing on a new team this year mostly with people I didn't know so I took the first game to see what my role was going to be and played a little too passive. I had only 4 points a few rebounds and assists, but 2 of my points came off of clutch free throws that put us up by 3 with about 15 seconds to go. It's a good thing too cause they hit a half court 3 to put it into overtime. We ended up winning that game by 12 in overtime though.

We lost the second game by 2 which sucks cause we went like 1/15 in the first 8 minutes of the first half and got behind by like 15. We shouldn't have lost to that team I felt we were a much better team. I did end the game with 17 points, but I should have been in the mid 20's at least. I missed 4-5 layup/close jumpers. Really frustrated with that. I probably shot about 50% from the field, but I was getting good shots...

In January I am going to start playing for another team also. So that should be fun, but is really going to make it hard to make much progress in the vertical jump area. I am still at exactly the same point I was last time I posted measurements and expect to stay about the same until basketball is over. Though it's possible with all this activity I should loose some more weight. Going to watch my diet as well. That will hopefully help.

Thanks for reading and sorry if this was poorly written. Was in a big hurry trying to get this out.

--JWD

Long Time

It's been a long time since I updated last. Mostly because I haven't really had any notable progress to speak of. My jump #'s are still the same and I can't really feel a change. I haven't stuck to the Jump Manual well the last few weeks. I'm finally done with my second job so I am hoping to hit it hard next week. I'm going to focus on diet and overall fitness for the next little while. My weight is for sure holding me back. I haven't had the motivation I had the first month and a half been frustrating myself. I have still worked out 5 days a week and done at least squats once a week. Which is why I think I am at least maintaining. Trying to get back motivated again.

Finally a Little Video

Still haven't done the Jump Manual by the book for the last couple weeks. I'll get at least next week in because I'm not teaching much that week. Then I only have one more week of teaching then I am done for a long while so I can get back to training hard. I did measure my jumping on my vertec last night and there was no change from the last time I measured.

I was able to film a little video while in between games this week. My jumping was not all that great, but it does show quite a bit of progress, I think. I was able to notice though just how weak my approach is. I really need to work on the speed of my approach. I really just take a two step approach instead of running as fast as I can. This explains to me why my "running" vert is not much higher then my standing or one-step.

Compare the approach to the following vid of StevenDunks who has so much more speed and explosion.

At least that hopefully means I have a lot of room for improvement. Well, I'm about to head off to attempt my 315# squat. I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully I get video of that as well. Thanks for following.

Another Good Day

After all that talk yesterday about not feeling well the last few weeks, I was able to do something I haven't done since college. I was able to touch the rim with two hands. Nothing real impressive, but with how tired I felt from being sick, I thought it would be much worse. During the games I was getting good air and was able to et some rebounds over the taller guys that I haven't been able to yet. so that was nice. Just thought I'd share. Thanks for reading.

Still Alive

Sorry about the lack of posts lately.  Things have not gone well the last 2 weeks.  I hurt a foot really bad a couple of Tuesdays ago.  Then when that got better I got really sick, it's been about a week with that. On top of that all I have two jobs, two kids and a wife in school full time.  It's been really hard to stay healthy and motivated. I've still been doing some squats, dead lifts and ham curls about twice a week, but almost no plyo.  I've seen no loss in jumping luckily, but haven't seen any games. I'm hoping to get back on track soon. I'll keep you updated as much as possible.

Even through all this my squat #'s and form are looking pretty good. Rising pretty rapidly. I plan on doing a max rep next week sometime, probably Friday (was going to do it last week, but got sick and had no spotters.) Based on previous exercises and looking at some charts I plan on trying for 315#. May not get it or it may be to easy, I have no idea.  I guess I'll find out soon.