End Week 6

Wow, half way through the scheduled Jump Manual program so far. Man, that went faster then I was expecting. Overall I've had mixed feelings with the Jump Manual.  I really think it needs an update.  Hopefully 2.0 is still coming out sometime soon. But overall I have really enjoy it. My results have been decent, not as much as I was hoping, but I am still happy with what I have achieved so far. I'm definitely going to continue the program and go even harder this last 6 weeks because I think results are really going to start stacking up now.

I think I have been stressing the loosing weight thing way too much that it may have had an impact on the rest of my training.  I think it has to do with the fact that for the last 2 years of my life it's all been about lose weight, lose weight, lose weight, so when it came time to go for gains, it's been hard to wrap my head around.  So no more focusing on weight, I will be aware of what I'm eating and my weight overall, but not stressing about it.

One thing I have really neglected talking about in this blog is my strength and explosion days. (specifically squats)  I mention I did them, but never mention specifics, so I think I will do a post every Saturday/Sunday to talk about that briefly as well. I've been bumping up my squat #'s about 10 lbs per week.  Didn't do hang cleans cause my elbow is still bothering me.

My squats were 1x8 @ 215, but it was too easy so I bumped it up to 2x8 @ 225 for the next sets.  I raised it up to 1x8 255 for the 4th set. I meant to do 245, but added the numbers wrong. For the pyramid set I did 5 @ 245,  6 @ 235 and then 8 @ 205.  my pyramid set was messed up because I kept miss counting the weights, haha. But I really focused on reaching that 90 degrees and exploding up on the first 3 sets. I'm going to try to get some video of this next time.

I used the squat rack with the guide bars for this workout because all the other racks were full.  How do you guys feel about that one?  It's better then the leg press cause I feel like I am pushing up real weights, but I'm locked into that position so I don't have to worry about falling backwards, so I wonder if I'm not working all the muscles I could be with a normal free squat.

Played basketball twice this week. After the first game, when I am warmed up, I always do my jump tests at the rim. I've felt really good about my jumping on the court.  I'm not jumping a ton higher, but now I can do it every day, every time I try.  Today I was able to get the top of my palm over the rim on a two step two foot jump. maybe an inch or 2 higher than the video in an earlier post, but not running and off one foot.  I also have been trying to touch this rim with two hand and off the two step I was just about an inch short on 3 attempts which is the closest I have been in a long time. I really want to grab the rim with 2 hands again.

So I really don't think the Jump Manual is for one footed jumpers. I used to be a one footer, but as you can see in the last paragraph and when I post my vertec numbers that I have converted to more of a two footed power jumper now.  Jumping off one foot just feels wrong and I can't get very high anymore, it's actually getting lower. So that's interesting. My numbers are back up overall though.  So I am feeling pretty good.

All these numbers are tested jumping at the same time of day on the same day each week and off the exact same surface.


End Week 5           End Week 6
Standing: 25"          Standing: 25.5"
One Step: 27"        One Step: 28"
Running: 28"           Running: 28.5"

It's amazing to me that my standing vert is only 3 inches lower then my running when I hear some people say they have a 7" difference between the two. Does that mean that my running approach may be bad? Or just how I am because in high school my standing was about 35-37, but my running was just over 40 (just a guess, never actually measured) so not much difference there either. Not that it's an issue, just think it's interesting and if it is my form I need to work on it.

Overall improvement so far (6 weeks)
Standing:     +0.5"
One Step:   +1"
Running:      +1.5"


These numbers don't do justice to the difference I'm noticing at the rim now, maybe I need to test at a better time of day.  I test at the rim at about noon, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I test at the vertec at about 11:30pm - midnight on Wednesdays after working for at least 12 hrs. But they have always been at the same time off the exact same surface.

Sorry for the long post.  I may have to start posting more times through out the week to make them not so long. Thanks for reading.

End Week 5

Seem's like it's been forever since I posted last. Was a little longer in between then usual because I took a few day break between week 4 and 5 to get my schedule back on track.  I'm all back on track now and didn't miss a single workout this week.

Took measurements today and  I knew before I took them that today was not going to be the greatest jumping day. I had about 6 hours of sleep last night, worked about 12 hours (2 jobs) and decided today of all days would be a good day to run 2.5 miles during lunch at work today.  I decided to run because I really need to shed this last 20 lbs and the Jump Manual has not been a very good weight loss program...

I've been stuck at 200 lbs for about 6 months now.  I really don't know what to do.  I know how to loose weight.  I've lost over 60lbs in the last 2.5 years, why is it so hard now? I need to find a way to break through this plateau. This last week I've been on a downward trend so we will see if I can maintain that. Wondering if I should finish week 6, which would put me half way through the program, and then take a while of and do Insanity and start running again to see if I can burn off 15-20 of these lbs in the next 2 months. I would still measure my vert every week and play basketball at least twice a week and try to track my progress there as well.  Last time I did insanity I lost about 15lbs and gained about 3 inches to my vertical. It's amazing how much a little weight can affect your jump.

The other option would be to finish out the 12 weeks as planned by the program, see where my weight stands and then determine if Insanity is still necessary.  I don't know, what does everyone think? Either way I will keep posting and tracking my numbers.  Thanks for reading and any advice you may have!

End Week 4           End Week 5
Standing:26"           Standing: 25"
One Step: 28.5"      One Step: 27"
Running: 29"           Running: 28"

Overall improvement so far (4 weeks)
Standing:     +0"
One Step:   +0.5"
Running:      +1"

End Week 4

Sorry, about the late post. Once again I was not able to get my Strength and Explosion workout done on Saturday so I had to push it to Monday. This time though, instead of skipping some workouts and getting back on track, I decided to finish the rest of the week out as stated in the program and then start week 5 next Wednesday.  That will give me about 5 days off.  I'm still going to workout a little and maybe do the off day stuff as well, but I really need to let my legs recover and I want to get back on schedule.

This week went really well workout wise and pretty good diet wise as well.  Got all the workouts in (even though timing got skewed) and I lost another 2 lbs or so.  So I'm down about 5 lbs in the last 2 weeks.  The Strength and Explosion workout killed me this week.  I went as hard as I could, with as much weight as I could, and my legs are finally feeling better today. Took me about 4 days to recover fully.  Don't know if that's normal or not. I feel good now though.  For some reason I am still so self conscious about doing hang cleans at the gym.  It seems as if I put myself on display and everyone else is watching me because it's a workout not a lot of people do at my gym.  I feel like they are either thinking I'm trying to show off or they are judging me cause my form is wrong or whatever.  It's really weird to me that I feel that way, haha.  So usually I go home and do those afterward...

While playing basketball this week I decided to test on the same rim that is in my video on the first post and it's really weird.  I am so much lower now then when I took that original video. I don't know if that was a crazy high jumping day or if yesterday was a crazy low jumping day because of tired legs.  If it was tired legs that doesn't really make sense cause I went home and tested on my vertec and got great results.  I finally gained 1" to my standing jump. Gained 1.5" to my one step (I think this jump is mostly due to more rested legs).  And I gained about .5" to my running jump. All these jumps I use the vertec to get the height then I mark down what the machine says and I measure with a tape measure for accuracy sake. I can't figure out why these gains don't seem to translate to when I'm testing at a rim.  They are at very different times of day, which could play a factor I guess. Hope to see the translation to the hoop soon enough.

I should be picking up my new HD camcorder on Saturday, so I will record video when I go play Tuesday.  This will be on very fresh legs since I will have not done the Jump Manual for about 5 days. Hopefully with the rest I will finally see some of the results transfer to the court tests. I will also be testing my verts at home again that night to see if the 5 day rest changes anything. I will post new results and the video either that night Wednesday night (or whenever I get the video editing done).

End Week 3           End Week 4
Standing:25"           Standing: 26"
One Step: 27"        One Step: 28.5"
Running: 28.5"        Running: 29"

Overall improvement so far (4 weeks)
Standing:     +1"
One Step:   +2"
Running:      +2"

End Week 3

So I'm not really even sure where to start with this update.  Had a lot of different things going on this week, busy days, some observations, changing diet and adjusting all kinds of thing.

I guess I'll start by saying, last week I was really down on things.  I knew I was making progress, just really was hoping for quicker results. As hard as it is I am only playing basketball twice a week again for a while, but while doing so I have made some observations that have made me feel much better about my progress. This last week while playing I have noticed just how much more explosive on the court I am.  Beating guys of the dribble, blocking shots, getting to the basket. So while I may not have been jumping as much higher as I have wanted I am getting off the floor quicker and more consistently. And that alone makes me feel pretty good about things so far.

I decided that me loosing the extra weight and getting my body fat % down was just as important to the process as the training. So I made some tweaks to my diet. I eat more protein. I tracking every single thing I eat or drink on www.myfitnesspal.com, which helps me stay on track and lets me know how I'm doing on my other nutrients as well. I also just eat less overall. While doing so I have already lost 2 lbs this week.

So this Saturday, which is the day I normally do my Strength and Explosion workout, I had a really busy day and didn't have time to get to it, same with Sunday. I ended up, instead of skipping it, pushing it clear to Monday which screwed up my whole workout schedule. Normally I do my vert tests today (Wednesday) and then do the plyo workout right after that.  My legs were still a bit sore so I decided to postpone the workout until tomorrow and skip an off day sometime next week to get back on schedule. I really pushed myself on the strength workout, making sure I was hitting the numbers I thought I should, then I wrote down every rep and weight to make sure I can up it next time. It felt really good.

Don't worry, I still did do the vert test since that is probably what most are here to see. Today's test was an interesting one.  Because of the sore legs and the poor results last week I really wasn't expecting much.  I was actually expecting a loss... Standing vert and one step stayed exactly the same, while somehow my running went up a full inch. I even reset the vertec re-measured everything and did it again just to make sure and I still got it. Not sure what to think about that. I'm hoping that the sore legs somehow made my more stationary jumps more difficult while it did not affect the running jumps so when my legs are more rested I will see more gain there. Though I'm sure that's just wishful thinking.

End Week 2            End Week 3

Standing:25"             Standing: 25"

One Step: 27"          One Step: 27"
Running: 27.5"          Running: 28.5"

Overall improvement so far (3 weeks)
Standing: No Gain
One Step: +.5"
Running: +1.5"

Also, I will eventually get more and better videos to post.  Ordered a new camcorder that I should get soon that will really help.  Thanks for following.