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.

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.