PLEASE DON'T REMOVE

nov 20 2010 modified by adarqui: start of rip's template: http://www.adarq.org/forum/progress-journals-experimental-routines/joejoe%27s-journal/msg22175/#msg22175

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AGE: 29 (30 in Dec)

HEIGHT:6'1"

WEIGHT: 205 lbs

SLEEP SCHEDULE: Normally go to sleep between 930 and 10 pm and get up at 5 am.  I typically pop out of bed (thank you Army) and have no trouble falling to sleep either.  I never take sleep aids and can drink a red bull 5 min before I go to sleep and have no problem passing out.

BODY TYPE: Athletic, I was a little skinny in high school but have filled out.  I have about 14% BF and any extra weight I have I carry in my trunk.  I have pretty long legs and arms.

GOALS: Long term goal=DUNK A BASKETBALL!  I also want to injury proof my knees and ankles.  I've had recurring ankle injuries since HS and had ACL/MCL/Meniscus surgery in July 09.  Feel good now, as long as I maintain my flexibility.  Dropping some body fat and gaining some speed would be nice as well.

CURRENT ABILITY: I can currently get my fingers above the rim to my palm.  So I can grab the rim pretty easily off of 2 or 1 foot.  I used to be a 1 foot jumper, but I would like to be a 2 foot jumper because of my knee and ankle issues.  I feel like I have a little more control off of 2 feet.  I can touch the rim with both hands but can't hang on it.  I also jump about 3 or 4 inches lower with a ball.  I think some of that might be technique though.

INJURY HISTORY: Torn ACL/MCL/LCL and Medial/Laterl Meniscus.  All were repaired (except LCL), I had a patellar graft and arthroscopic surgery.  I also had a very severe ankle sprain in college (ended college basketball) which took over a year to recover from (continually reinjuring).  By then I was comfortable not being an athlete.  Strained my back last year pretty bad, but haven't had any problems since.  Dislocated shoulder in a MMA fight about 2 years ago, but no problems after about 3 months.

TRAINING HISTORY & ACHIEVEMENTS: Well, I was in the Army for 5 years and I'm currently in the AF Reserves.  I'm an officer and pride myself on PT excellence.  I've never scored less than 90 percent on any PT test I've ever taken.  My most recent achievements have been to get my Squat over 300 after my knee surgery.  I'm very proud of that because I couldn't even do that before I hurt my knee.  I also can do pullups pretty easily now, could always kill pushups but sucked at pullups, I can knock out 10 no sweat.  I've done several triathlons (sprints mainly) and lots of road races.  I've been Crossfitting for about a year and I have a lot of fun doing that but it seems sort of aimless sometimes.  I want to be a little more focused on a specific goal.

CURRENT ACTIVITY LEVEL AND/OR TRAINING PROGRAM: OK, typical week= Mon: Strength Lift (Bench, Squat, Dead, Press), CF Workout, Tue: AM=1 hour basketball, PM=Run (sporadic), Wed: Strength Lift (Bench, Squat, Dead, Press), CF Workout, Thurs: AM=1 hour basketball, PM=Run (sporadic), Fri: Strength Lift (Bench, Squat, Dead, Press), CF Workout, Sat: Makeup strength if I missed it earlier in the week, Sun: 2 hours of volleyball (almost everyweek, but probably more like twice a month).  I love time in the gym but I'm pretty limited to 5 to 6 am for my workouts.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF CURRENT DIET: I eat pretty well.  I do drink sodas, but only diet and rarely more than a 20 oz a day.  I occasionally have a "Big Grab" of Doritos and normally eat at home with my wife.  We cook usually.  If we eat fast food (maybe once a week) it's either subway or chick-fil-a.  I'm trying to go lighter on the carbs but it's hard for me.  I also take protein, fish oil, and a multi vitamin, almost every day (probably like 5 days a week).

IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES: I work full time as a structural engineer.  Typical 40 hour work week.  I do travel occasionally with work but rarely more than a couple of days at a time.  I have drill once a month for the weekend but I have gym access there.  I am going on a cruise after thanksgiving but just a couple of days.  Also, my wife and I are having a baby in Mar so I imagine I'll have to learn how to workout at home when that happens.

That's about it.  Anything else?
(Through that in there because it's freakin awesome!)

welcome man!!!



wtf? first i ever heard of that, that's nuts (the redbull + sleep comment).. haha





sounds like you are very close to dunking consistently, you'd be able to catch lobs nearly every time with 3-4" down the base of the palm. Eventually being able to dribble up and jump with the ball, getting ~2" of wrist over would yield some consistent dunks.





damn..... pretty impressive that you are back on track, those are some serious injuries. Was your mma fight pro? How many mma fights have you had?




impressive man, congrats on hitting that 300 after such injuries.. Yea, crossfit definitely can become aimless, but it definitely draws that PT/train til` you puke mindset, which can be pretty fun if you're just looking at busting your ass training.




Is sat a rest day if you hit those 3 strength sessions? That routine is going to create a layer of fatigue pretty much all week, which i'm sure you are pretty used too and don't even notice it. How long has your jumping stayed where it is currently? If you've been making progress recently, I wouldn't change much right now, I'd ride it out until you stop making gains completely after 3 or so weeks... but I'm guessing your jumping has been about the same for a while now, if so, you might want to make some changes to your routine. Are those basketball sessions also at 5-6am? I take it all of those lifting/basketball sessions are at 5-6am? What kind of set x rep ranges are you using on the strength session's lifts, bench/squat/dead/press?

I have a few ideas if you want them, but get back to me on that so I know better how your training is going.




that "but it's hard for me" comment is something that, once you overcome it, physique will change rapidly... You definitely need carbs given your activity level, but it's not so major that you need them to be a vast majority of your diet. If you upped the protein a bit & dropped the carb intake, sure you'll have those cravings but eventually they will disappear and you will be alot leaner for it. The best way to do it is to cycle your normal carb intake one day, and lower carb intake the next.. you'll want to eat more carbs on mon/wed/sat, because that will help store those carbs as glycogen for the next day's activity, which are more energetically demanding (bball/volleyball/run).





congratulations on the baby, that's awesome.. there will be plenty of things you can do at home, and eventually you might even want to purchase your own power rack/weights, which can actually be quite cheap if you find a 'powertec' rack online, cheap but very durable. Many workouts can then be done at home very easily, going to the gym less often, but still going nonetheless, to break up the monotony.






not much, just have those few q's i listed regarding your training.. i'll throw you some ideas then, but really, it comes down to picking a day during the week where you would really like to be primed, less fatigue, and getting some big jumps in... all it would take is one day a week for a dedicated jump session, because you will be getting in very beneficial movement work with basketball/volleyball/lifting/run etc. But you definitely want that jump session to have a rest day prior or work the schedule around a little bit to try and be 'more fresh' during that session.. the sets/rep ranges you're doing could be a problem, reducing your power, but not sure yet i'll get that in your feedback.


peace man! glad to have you here.

in that case, my suggestions are not much right now, because it sounds like you are still gaining.. the only thing I would do is alternate a normal week (like the one you are doing), with a week that has one less lifting session or splitting a session in half.. for example:




Two different week B's, one is with 2 lifting sessions, the other is with 3 total, but one is split in half, so again two TOTAL.. week B needs reduced volume, to really focus on that max effort jump session on wednesday etc.. you could shift those days around of course if it doesn't fit, but the idea is to get in a dedicated max effort jumping day.









Reactive work would help you get more spring back, but, you don't want to overdo it, so, I would only implement one reactive exercise prior to each strength session, for example:


Mon: REACTIVE-EXERCISE, Strength Lift (Bench, Squat, Dead, Press), CF Workout,

where REACTIVE-EXERCISE =
- MR tuck jumps: 4 x 10
or
- MR pogos: 4 x 5
or
- Quiet depth drops from < 30" (~18-24"): 4 x 5

Just one exercise, it should help.. pogos/tucks/drops are very good, no need for dj's right now..


If you want to keep your same schedule instead of the rotation I suggested, that's cool too, but I would definitely throw in one reactive exercise per strength session, that I highly recommend.



nice man, beastin`.




cool man, see you monday back to work.

pc

ya man natural GHR's are hell for me too, I was getting pretty good at them but stopped, but before getting good at them I was cramping so hard.. shit was brutal.. then finally I started getting stronger on them and everything felt much better, would hardly cramp. The key to those is consistency, like anything else, but the hamstrings get weak very quick, more so than other muscle groups imo.

pc!

yup probably, could also be do to leverages/arm length/form etc, but from the ghr's, hams definitely need work.



nice man! ya it's interesting how, when you are getting more explosive, the rim looks "lower", i've had that also.. when i'm feeling very crappy the rim looks 11'.



very good for recovery/flexibility, nice..

peace

14 Nov 10
Took a rest day.  I wanted to play volleyball but my group couldn't play cause the gym had an event or something.

15 Nov 10
Half Assed attempt at a workout this morning.  LAZY B-otch~!

Squats
5 x 135 lbs Warmup
5 x 185 lbs Warmup
5 x 200 lbs Working Set
5 x 230 lbs Working Set
5 x 270 lbs Working Set

Squats were tough, but I felt good about the form.

Was going to do 3 x 8 x 135 lbs hang cleans and 3 x 8 GHR but I just didn't feel any drive or push so I called it a day.  F-ing weak!

I will now punish my self with 100 pushups and 100 situps. 

True, but if you only have 2 min for each, it makes it more interesting! 

Anyhow, I didn't really do any working out on Tues and Wed.  I was traveling in Florida doing inspections and was pretty tired after diving all day.  However, with my BC and Wetsuit on I weigh like 250, and getting in and out of the water at all the bridges made my legs pretty sore afterward.  BTW, I like doing the reactive drills prior to the strength days.  I feel like it helps.

I need to get refocused.  I need to set a schedule or something, or do some type of periodization.  I don't do well just training continuously.  Any suggestions as to what might be a realistic timetable to set for me to dunk?

18 Nov 10
Basketball this morning.  Played 3 on 3 and 2 on 2 for an hour this morning.  Got a good sweat on.  I'm jumping pretty well now, I don't know if it's a confidence thing or what but I can easily get the bottom of my palm on the rim, every time. 

I freakin rolled my ankle a little bit though.   Not too bad but it's pretty tender.  I'm gonna ice it today and tonight, and I think I'll be able to lift tomorrow. 

Also I was thinking that I would make my ME Jump day Sunday.  It's after an off day, and doesn't change up my current schedule, that I'm comfortable with.  I'm gonna post the workout I'm planning for tomorrow in a bit, so yall can check it out and let me know what you think.

So that would mean my workout tomorrow would look like:

GPP BLOCK: STRENGTH session lower A:
- WARMUP

- REACTIVE-ASSISTANCE: Stiff Leg Ankle hops: 3 x 5

- PREHAB: SHOULDER + VMO + LOWBACK - Band Work??

- BB SQUAT: Work up to near 5 rep max - Goal=275 lbs

- WALKING LUNGE: 2 x 5 x 50 lbs DBs

- WEIGHTED RFI-EXERCISE: Lateral Line Hops: 3 x 25 each side (max speed)

- CALF RAISES: BB Standing Calf Raise 4 x 5 x 225 lbs

- CORE: Hanging Leg Raise: 3 x 10 with last one for max static hold

Full rest between sets.  I'm assuming the prehab is just mobility kind of stuff, but I'm not sure.  Anyhow, I'll give this a shot and see how it goes.