Just found out about this, so let me post this up, updated so you guys can give me some better feedback and such...
AGE:21
HEIGHT: 5'8", 5'9" with shoes, 7'0" standing reach (yes my arms are short)
WEIGHT: 147~149 lbs
SLEEP SCHEDULE: sleep around 11pm~1am - 9am~10am
BODY TYPE: Before starting to really work out 10 months ago, I was just skinny and thin (140 lbs back then), but my mass was muscle and fat if you know what I mean. Now I gained some weight off muscle and lost some fat and weigh in around 148 with about 9% body fat. Now I guess I look kinda lean and athletic with muscles
GOALS: Main goal = DUNK. Other goals = Have very good relative strength, win the all campus intramural championship, improve my basketball game, more specifically handles, shooting, and with the vertical jump training I'm doing, hopefully it'll make me significantly more powerful, explosive, fast, and quick, which will help out a lot in basketball.
CURRENT ABILITY: SVJ ~30", Max 2 legged vert ~ 33", Max 1 legged vert ~36" (Although one day during halftime of my game, I just felt some adrenaline and got up 39"!!!!!!!, about 3 inches of my hand grabbed rim, never again though =[ )
Max bench press : 190lbs
Max deadlift : not sure but I do 185lbs for 5 reps
Max Squat: not sure but I do 170 lbs for 5 reps about parallel
INJURY HISTORY: some mild ankle sprains here and there, suffering from one that I sprained 4 weeks ago and I can shoot around but I can't run full speed with full ROM on my hurt ankle and I can't land on the ankle when I jump with effort. I currently have OSD (osgood schlatters) issues on both knees.
damn sucks.. i had OSD, sucked..
get those ankles real strong once you're healthy.
TRAINING HISTORY & ACHIEVEMENTS: Prior to 10 months ago, just trained here and there, nothing special though. Longest I trained was for 4 months lol. Mostly just some body weight work through life. 10 months ago, I lifted for mass gains on upper body only for 5 months. Gained 14 lbs on upper body. The next 2.5 months I dieted to shed off fat and get leaner, while working out for strength only. Lost about 9 lbs of fat. The next 2 months I stopped dieting and worked on increasing my relative strength on upper AND lower body. Since 2 weeks ago, became satisfied with upper body physique and strength, I just committed totally to lower body work since I am weak there.
CURRENT ACTIVITY LEVEL AND/OR TRAINING PROGRAM: M/W/F I do 5 sets of dips Or pull ups til failure. Then 5x5 Squats, 5x5 DL's, and 5x5 single leg leg presses until I heal my ankle then I'm deciding to switch leg presses with DB lunges or DB step ups (which do you guys recommend) and some plank work for core. After I get to 1.5x BW on squats and DL's I want to do some sprint training. M/W/F I practice basketball (shooting and dribbling drills), weekends I do some more shooting practice (usually I do pick up games here but my ankle....)
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF CURRENT DIET: College student, no money. This part I'm embarrassed of cause I eat like SH*T. I basically eat what I want, when I want, however much I want. Usually I eat 2 PB&J's for breakfast with OJ. Meals throughout the day til dinner include microwavable meals you buy at ralphs like spaghetti, chicken parmasan, hot wings, and usually one fast food meal a day (panda express, carls jr)... I drink soda.. I know I should be ashamed, it's times like these when I wish I was still living with my mom making me healthy delicious meals lol...
YOUR DIET _SUCKS_ heh....
protein powder helps when you have no money, it seems expensive, but, in reality, it's very cheap..
eggs/chicken are cheap, for example, 12 eggs = 3$, some chicken breasts = $4... microwave meals = ?
milk = $3, bananas = 69 cents a pound, and throw some green veggies on that, and you have a pretty cheap meal plan..
i guarantee you, you could spend that money from microwavable meals on better food.. just takes some getting used to, but you'd get alot leaner/more muscular.
IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES: Due to ankle sprain, no competitions or anything until end of March when new intramural season starts. Would love to really improve by then. Right now til then is basically serious training for me for significant improvement in basketball..
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very nice write up man.
Analyzing all of this, If I get to 1.5x BW on squats and DL's, and shed off some fat weight so I get to about 5-6% body fat, how many inches do you guys think I can possibly gain?????
not sure, those would have to be ACTUAL gains and not just form gains from learning the movement still
if right now you're struggling (putting alot of effort) into that 170 x 5 etc, then getting up to 1.5xBW will give you a few inches for sure, especially with the fat loss factored in, it would be guaranteed.
Of course it will just be an estimation, and doesn't mean I'm going to stop training after I can dunk, I wanna work to see what my FULL athletic capabilities are.
right, everyone needs a ~2.5-3xBW squat FOR SPEED to become elite.
I would also appreciate some good core workouts that are best for improving vertical jumps...
Thanks, and btw, love this whole forum..
ill get back to you on this but we don't have any actual core workouts on the site, core is pretty simple just kill it from all angles, in circuits, etc.. ill post something up though eventually.
Also, when doing squats, I'm not sure if I'm hitting parallel or not cuz of the view from my own eyes being higher than the legs, and I don't have a camera to record... Well I go down until I feel my glutes firing hard, is that good enough?
yup it is.. let your gains in strength guide you on whether or not to go deeper.. for now, hit that depth that feels comfortable and safe, perhaps down the road you will get a little deeper, that's yet to be decided, but, slightly above parallel, parallel, or slightly below parallel are ALL equally effective at improving strength/power for vert.
I heard if you don't go low enough you will only work the quads and you don't work the glutes and hamstrings, I feel it in my glutes a lot but not my hamstrings..
nah that's incorrect.. sure you will get MORE hamstring/glute the more you go down, but, if you're going HEAVY, glutes/hams will be recruited at any depth.. sitting back more will get the hamstrings better, but that isn't really needed at all, i just go straight down to half and let my knees shift forward, exactly how it happens when i jump, and i feel fine.. it transfers to my jumping perfectly.. i still get hamstring/glute soreness more than quad soreness and i never touch parallel.. so just using myself as an example.. the bottom line is, you have to go down (to whatever depth) and then explode up with speed (with heavy weight), doesn't matter as much about the form/actual depth.. the form has to be safe though and not be aggravating any issues, for me, allowing knees to shift forward is fine, for others, it could kill their knees..
Is this okay cuz my hamstrings get worked good from DL's and they're usually sore the next day?
yup, work hamstrings with deadlift/rdl/ghr etc, people who try working them FOR SQUAT are just ruining the movement imo.. makes squatting less specific to vert.. sitting back really far and keeping shins completely vertical the entire time, is just not my ideal version of squatting
bottom line though, listen to your body, safety/health first.. make sure you're breathing right on each rep to protect the spine etc.. inhale at the top, hold going down, hold going up, breathe out 3/4th the way to the top or at the top.
pc man
