Basketball Training schedule - designed to avoid overtraining

Working 2 to 3 VJB sessions a week in with any other regular training/exercise you do is tough. In early stages of doing the VJB, I noticed I was feeling lethargic on court and had trouble playing out full games without being completely exhausted afterwards. This was because I was overtraining - on some days, I'd be doing plyometrics PLUS weight training PLUS playing ball - my leg and back muscles were being totally overworked and didn't have time to recover after my workout days, which then meant I wasn't training as hard, and of course, couldn't play as hard. So, I designed this new routine, and since using it, I'm seeing much better performance on court. It could probably still use some tweaking, but it ensures I have 4 days in the gym working on what I want to aswell as 2 days playing ball and a free day's practice, all without burning out.

MONDAY:
VJB Training
- Intermediate Balanced program
Shoulder and traps exercises
- Upright dumbell row
- Dumbell shrugs
- Dumbell shoulder press

TUESDAY:
Chest and arm exercises
- Barbell bench press
- Dumbell Bench Press
- Dumbell fly
- Dumbell bent-over row
- Bicep curls - wide grip (works inner bicep)
- Bicep curls - narros grip (works outer bicep)
- Hammer curls
Abdominal exercises
- Glut-ham raises
- Hanging leg raises
- Crunches on exercise ball
Basketball
- Men's D-Grade - easy league, but still fairly physical

WEDNESDAY:
No weight training
Basketball
- Men's B-Grade

THURSDAY:
Repeat of Tuesday, swapping hanging leg raises for bicycle crunches

FRIDAY:
Repeat of Monday

SATURDAY:
Light shooting practice

SUNDAY: rest

This program allows me a full 2 days rest after each VJB workout, which is required in the Intermediate Balanced program. I'm seeing better results from both the VJB training and upper body strength training by focusing on each 2 days a week, going hard, then allowing my body to fully recover. I have at least a full day of no leg work before each VJB workout day, which is working well for me so far.

I also changed my diet up a little. Sticking to these times is hard when you work during the day, but eating 5 smaller meals rather than 3 bigger ones has given me more energy when I get to the gym;

08.00am - BREAKFAST
10.30am - Morning tea - protein or good oil snack, such as can of tuna or a handful of almonds
12.00 midday - Lunch - 1/3 carbs, 1/3 vege, 1/3 protein. I try to eat at least 2 hours before a workout, because I'm trying to burn fat. Any less than 2 hours, and I'm just burning off my lunch, not body fat.
01.00pm - Protein shake before 2pm workout
01.30pm - Coffee (caffeine is a great pre-workout boost)
02.00pm -Gym.
03.30pm - Immediately after gym, I take another snack for afternoon tea, again focusing on trying to get some good oils or protein into me rather than carbs. You need to have this snack within 30 minutes of finishing your workout, because this is when your body is crying out for nutrients. A good post-workout snack will also help your muscles recover.
7.00pm - dinner.

If you have any questions, post them in the comments section and I'll get back to you.

Good Achilles tendon stretch: why is the Achilles important for jumping

In my last post, I wrote about how a persistent ankle problem is preventing me from making better gains with the VJB by limiting the amount of squat and deadlift work I can do. Long story short, poor ankle mobility has ALSO meant my leg compensates in weird ways when I play ball, and I have a noticably shorter Achilles tendon on the right leg than on the left. According to the VJB, this is going to be a problem for my vertical leap.



WHY IS THE ACHILLES IMPORTANT IN JUMPING: Kelly writes in the Vertical Jump Bible "Many athletes who can jump high and/or run fast have physical characteristics such as long lower legs, high calves and long Achilles tendons. The length of the Achilles tendon gives them a leverage advantage and enhances plyometric ability because it acts like a long rubber band. If you take 2 rubber bands of equal strength, the longer one will fly further".



Now, I don't pretend to be a sports physiology expert, but the point of stretching muscles is to make them longer and more flexible, so stretching the Achilles must be a good thing for jumping, right? I did some research online and found this to be the deepest, most effective Achilles stretch.



THE STRETCH:
1 - Stand facing a wall. Dig your heel into the floor right near the wall, with the ball of your foot resting on the wall itself so that your foot forming a 30-45 degree angle with the wall (see picture).


2 - Slowly, keeping your leg slightly bent, push your knee toward the wall without moving your heel or the ball of your foot at all. Your shin should get closer to becoming paralell to the wall. You'll feel the pull down the back of your lower leg - resist the urge to push hard. This should be a gentle stretch.



This is the best Achille stretch I've found - most of the other stretches I've been shown don't go deep enough or tend to work the calf more than the achilles. In alot of ways, it's very similar to the traditional calf stretch where you push against the wall, but I wouldn't recommend this stretch for beginners - the Achilles is a very painful tendon to damage and it is extremely tough to come back from an Achille injury, so make sure you know your stretching limits before doing this.

More progress: August 6th 2009

It's been a while since I posted here, since I've been travelling a little for work and also went on holidays for a week. I haven't had a chance to measure my exact vertical leap for a while, but some interesting things happened today and last night - firstly, I blocked 2 shots last night. In itself, thats not all that amazing - I block shots all the time - but these blocks were huge! I blocked one guy with my elbow (!), the other I blocked with 2 hands. My hops are really starting to help me shine on the court. I can also see a marked difference in my on-court speed. On the fast break, I'm getting down the court as fast as anyone else on the court - I'm now going for heaps more LeBron-style chase downs and blocking shots from behind on fastbreak defense.



The second interesting thing that happened is that I've noticed I nearly hit my head on the roof of the group-exercise-room I do my plyo's in. The roof is probably standard height (I guess it'd be around 9-10 feet high), but I can see a marked difference in how close I'm getting to hitting my head from when I first started, which is really motivating. In doing the Rim jump exercise, I'm now aiming to hit my head on the roof within the next few weeks. Just gotta get down to the courts this weekend (god willing) and measure that vert again to see what gains I've made.



In other news, I'm feeling a recurrence of an old ankle injury is holding me back from progressing faster - I have poor mobility in the joint after a number of prior accidents, and so squats and deadlifts are difficult since my ankle won't dorsiflex at all past 90 degrees. This also means that the elastic reaction that comes from my foot dorsiflexing and then plantarflexing when I jump is decreased, which effects my jump. Think of it like this - if you are throwing a punch and are able to cock your arm right back, you will hit alot harder than if you are able to cock your arm back 1 inch to throw the punch... I'm effectively doing the equivalent of throwing 1-inch punches when I jump (the problem is, I'm not Bruce Lee, so 1 inch punches don't really work for me) due to my ankle problems. As such, I've only been doing shallow squats to work the lower back and bum, and single-foot leg presses to work the quads and hammies - I cannot manage much more than this due to the injury. This seems to be working OK so far, but I still feel that this ankle problem could be a considerable barrier to further progress with VJB, since it will effectively limit how effectve my strength training will be.

No reports in the past few weeks - but I've added another inch

I can see from the blog's stats that I've got some return visitors... thanks to the both of you! :) As I type this, I'm laid up in bed trying to recover from a virus that's had me in bed on and off for 2 weeks. Needless to say this has interfered with the VJB training.

I think I'll start phase 2 all over again so as to recover any strength lost and then post results again. But in the meantime, I'll give you this - messing around with measurements in the gym a week into my second phase, I measured a standing double foot leap of 21 inches, meaning I've added a total of 2 inches to my standing double leg jump after 4 weeks on the program. Given that some ankle / achilles problems have prevented me from working out as effectively in the weights room as I'd have liked, 2 inches is great!!

N.O Xplode did nothing for my workouts for VJB

In a post a week ago, I mentioned I was starting on a supplement called N.O. Xplode as a 'Performance Igniter' (those are the manufacturers words, not mine) in addition to re-commencing my protein supplements. The idea behind this was that N.O Xplode would help me go harder in the gym and hopefully get gains in strength quicker by lifting more. I had high hopes for the product, as I'd read in forums that it had really lifted some people in the gym, but I have to say, I'm very disappointed.

I've followed the usage instructions exactly, yet on the workouts where I was taking N.O Xplode, I actually ended up feeling more fatigued than in the session I did today, where I had a protein shake about mid-morning, as I always do, but then hit the gym for weights at around 2pm without N.O Xplode. Maybe I'm one of the people who it doesn't work on, or maybe the benefits are all psychosomatic... I can't make that call.

At any rate, I'll keep using it for 4 weeks, and if at the end of that period I'm still not seeing positive results, I'll stop using it... and probably give it away to a reader if anyone's interested.

VJB Results: 3 Weeks In

OK, so it was actually 4 weeks in, as discusssed in a previous post. The results aren't exactly what I had hoped, but then again, I wasn't expecting large results for the first few phases, since I started on the Novice Plyo's and Weight Training program. I could probably have stepped right into the to start, so the gains I stand to make from doing a lower level of training are probably limited. Since I have had injuries in the past, I'm happy enough to take it slow and make sure my body is keeping up with the training.

It's also worth mentioning that results after 3-4 weeks of training mean nothing, as they are not representative of longer term gains - on my measurement day, there are a number of different factors that can effect the accuracy of my measurements of how much I've gained - did I have a heavier breakfast, did I have coffee instead of juice, am I a little dehydrated? Anyway, enough jaw flap - here are the....

RESULTS
Standing vertical leap: 20 inches
Running Vertical leap: 22 inches
Weight 213 pounds
Body Fat: ~10%

So as you can see, I've added 1 inch to my standing vert, yet my running vert remains the same. This tells me that my leg / back strength was probably the aspect that benefitted the most from the training. I've also managed to drop 2 pounds over the first phase, but again, this being the first measurement of the results from the training, the results don't really mean all that much yet - the true measure of success will come from being able to make great gains in my vert., so stay tuned for the results of upcoming months.

Week 3 - Starting with supplements for Vertical Jump Bible

This past week, I've been finding myself feeling a bit flat on the court during games. I originally thought it might be overtraining, but then again, I didn't the same feeling in the first 3 weeks of the program, when my conditioning would have been significantly less. I realised that the dip in my energy co-incided with me stopping using nutritional supplements pre- and post-workout, so now I'm going to be using the below as pre-workout primer / post-workout recovery aid to make sure I'm gettign enough nutrients to my body. Hopefully these items will give me back that energetic feeling:

Protein
I've chosen a soluble protein solution from Musashi, an Australian sports nutrition company. It's a bit more expensive than the bulk discount proteins you can get, but it comes recommended by a number of people I've spoken to, including personal trainers and my sister, who is a trained nutritionist and natural therapist. The protein in question is Musashi WPC blend. It's a high whey-protein, lo carb blend, which I'm going to be taking an hour before working out, then immediately after working out. This should help ensure my muscles have all the fuel they need to effectively finish my workout, aswell as all they need to repair themselves post-workout, and be ready to go for the next workout or game day. I chose the lo-carb blend, as I'd ultimately like to drop 2 or 3 kilo's of body fat to help with the hops. I'd been using Musashi's P30 formula prior to this which is much higher in carbs, so I'll see if reducing the amount of carbs consumed post-workout effects energy levels at all... I can always go back to the P30 :)

N.O-Xplode
In addition to the protein, I've chosen to go for a workout booster - NO-Xplode. This is the first time I've used one of these products - I've seen mixed reviews of N.O-Xplode online - it is effectively an energy booster, designed to help you mentally focus and have higher energy levels during your workout. BSN, the company who make it, call it a 'Performance Igniter' - after reading plenty of reviews on the web, many people seem to share that description of it. N.O-Xplode also has a whole bunch of synthetic substances in it too, and generally don't like the idea of using highly synthetic products, but I figure I'll give NO-Xplode a go to see if I can go harder during my weight sessions, and thus try for better results. I'll report back on the effects I see.

I've just finished the final week of Phase 1 of the Novice Plyometrics program and Phase 1 of the Novice Weights program - and I'm taking the weekend off before starting Phase 2 of both programs next week. You know what that means... time to measure!! I'll wait until tomorrow to measure, because my legs are thrashed, but be sure to come back tomorrow to see my gains from the first 3 weeks of training.