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.

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.