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IMO, I think you're too hard on yourself. You're not a lost cause by any means. Anyone who can train themselves to full squat nearly 400lbs has got something to work with. You could comfortably go from 25% to 15% in a few months of 2x/week tempo sprints (fartlek or 400m repeats). That's what I'd be doing right now along with strength maintenance. Sprint repeat sessions are fat furnaces. Even just HIIT sled pushing with light weights, only takes 10mins of a gym session at the start, and you'll see big gains. Counting cals is boring, just train harder!
What is "fartlek"?
Anyway, if you reach 37" rvj, mad respect to you, and even if you don't reach it and get 34-35" in a year, still mad respect, I'd guess the majority of athletes don't even have >32in SVJ.
[100 sprint:100 jog]^n or similar (alternate 100/200m distances etc.)
It depends on the sport I guess. I'd be stunned if most competitive club-level olympic lifters had a SVJ of less than 32''. Your average weekend pick-up basketball player probably is much less though. IMO, basketball at recreation levels is a pretty horizontal game. Smaller guys aren't jumping for rebounds that much, and big guys don't need to. Before I started focusing on it, my jump was pathetic even though since I left school, I played basketball 2-3x/week.
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Had two weeks of solid training. I've found the best time for me to hit the gym nowadays is 10-11:30PM, this works really well as it's usually empty and I can sprinkle in some squat jumps/SVJs/DSVJs to the roof. The ceiling is a standard 9' height so I know if I'm getting close to hitting it = ~35''. I changed what I wrote a few weeks ago a little bit so there's a bit more volume:
Warmup: rehab exercises (ham levers for 45sec/leg, banded hip abduction, light pallof press, banded pull-apart, BSS, box pistols) // 400m @>15km/h
Day 1 (heavy): Squats (10-7-5-5-7, currently@80/90/100kgs for 10-7-5 reps) // GHRs (3x10) // banded hip thrust (2x20@20kgs) // Farmer's walks (~40m x 2@40kgs) and 80kg front squat rack holds (3x15-20sec, in between squats)
Day 2 (very slow eccentric, full RoM exercises): RDL (3x5@70kgs) // SL squat (2x6/leg@8kgs // BSS (2x10/leg@15kgs) // wood-choppers to pallof press (2x10/side@15kgs for both) // hanging leg raises (3-4x10)
+ 5-6 squat jumps (no countermovement) in between exercises wherever there's room. Mostly bludging UB, just doing seated rows, light bench press, DB shoulder press, pullups.
I changed some of the core exercises. The excessive weighted window washers and weighted situps were really stuffing my neck up. I have a longer torso so the leverage is quite a lot to overcome, and lots of reps leads to my sub-occipitals getting jammed up, usually giving me headaches 24hrs after. The farmer's walks and front squat rack holds are isometric and can be loaded up pretty good. Then on the light day it's anti-extension with the pallof press (good for back) and regular hanging leg raises, neither of which involve the crunch movement, which suits me better I think. The heavy weighted eccentric core exercises that T0ddday recommended are dynamite, but I just can't keep getting headaches - writes off whole afternoons/evenings.
This squat jump is about 28-29'':http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6dnm1b-FUQ
and my SVJ is a couple of inches more with the countermovement, so no real improvements yet. Looking at that thumbnail, I need to straighten up! Will work on that. Once I'm hitting good squat numbers I'll start doing SJ+SVJ, then SVJ+RVJ in blocks. For this experiment, I'll stick to weighted squat jumps and jumps practice for plyometric activity, no stuffing around with Olympic lifts, bounding or depth jumps etc. yet.
Squat-
60x5
80x5x3
Bench-
barx12
60x8
75x5x3
Chin Ups-
9x2
I've also been doing some cardio on the treadmill, which I don't log. However, I'm not going to use the treadmilll anymore as I feel like I've got turf toe on my largest toe on my left foot. I remember this always happens when I use the treadmill I develop foot problems. I'll stick to running on natural surfaces and just have to limit the amount of walking I do until my toe is better.
pharmaceutical cheat codes are dangerous. if you're even considering that, at this stage, i'd say you've definitely stumbled on to the "wrong track".
if you were already in "peak athletic condition", and were contemplating PED's/pharma to push yourself past your limits, that would be more understandable. That's when you contemplate something like that (if you aren't anti PED), not when you can make tons of gains the simple way.
losing fat is easier, the more you have.
gaining muscle is easier, the less you have.
improving fitness, is easier the less you have.
improving vert & speed, is easier the more detrained you are.
you have most of those things in your favor right now .. focus on the basics & make progress. People look towards everything but the basics, when trying to make progress. It's really incredible when you think about it. I'm on another forum where there's tons of "bodybuilder" types, and it's incredible how much sh*t people consider without first considering proper training. They are interested in all kinds of pharma when simple cardio or high frequency lifting in comnination with a proper diet, would do the job. It's mind blowing to me.
I personally would never take anything that risks my health or threatens to shorten life span, just to gain muscle, lose fat, or improve performance. To me, that is "disordered". It's interesting to me that the "substance abuse bodybuilding" crowd is not considered disordered - I think because it's such a huge money making market. Here, people are shortening their life spans by many years, dealing with all kinds of adverse health effects, taking all kinds of crazy chemical concoctions, just to change their appearance. Most of these people utilize this stuff way too early - hard training & proper diet would have given them the same & better results. It's incredible how many people fall for this pharma garbage IMHO. I mean to each their own, but, I personally respect natural bodybuilders & such who achieve their physics by just eating clean, lifting hard, and staying healthy. Somewhat of a rant, but, I just feel like resorting to things like TRT/hGH & such is usually considered way too early, which sounds all kinds of alarms to me.
Same thing goes for the performance crowd. You just have to be so careful. What if taking steroids/hgh caused you to really grow fast, but your tendons lagged behind & you end up wrecking one? That's the age old story about PED use and performance: muscles grow fast, tendons/ligaments don't .. injury risk sky rockets. So that's a major concern, among many others.
Also, "will not stop until 425 or injury" sounds self destructive. That was basically my advice/warning to you in your journal, I can see you doing stuff like this. Everyone on here admires determination, but if determination is really kamikaze self destruction, it's not determination. It's hard to snap out of this mindset, so not sure how to convince you to be more patient and/or work on weaknesses while dealing with your current injury. I mean in the end that's your decision. But, I guess I also speak with alot of experience in that department, so it's easier for me to recognize when people are going down that path.
One thing I think more people need to realize is, the "want it now motivation" is *usually* a recipe used by those who are unsuccessful. These are usually the people who want to transform themselves at some point, but are just so impatient, they want to achieve it as soon as possible. The flip side is the elite/pro/dedicated athlete who seems to understand it's a very slow grind that will take many years of extremely hard, focused, dedicated training.
beyond that, health #1
this is the simplest way i tell people why anabolic steroids for accelerated muscle growth is a very big health risk- your heart is a muscle. your heart will grow. there is not a lot of space inside your chest cavity for an overgrown heart. you will have a big heart with little chamber volume because its collapsing to itself. your heart will be under a lot of stress. the heart has no rest days. you will die sooner.
Scooby that was awesome! You and Kingfish are my role models on this site tbh.
Both have reached 40in whether SVJ or RVJ....
You can definitely dunk, it's a matter of something very small or different that will get you over the hump and throw it down legit.
QuoteI contacted the Vertical Jump Coach from Taiwan, and going to pay him a monthly fee to get personal training and guide.
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That guy in the last post in jumping approx 7m with little difficulty. He would do well in long jump.
The prone/lying down version of pigeon can really wreck me - very risky for my knee. The standing variations can feel good, but has still proven risky for me.
This stretch is deadly for my hip, believe it or not:
I can probably go perform that stretch and F my hip up instantly.
This is the only hip/glute stretch I still do, it seems to be the safest for me. Also, instead of flexing the off knee more to bring the stretched leg closer to me, I just twist towards the off leg a bit. If I bring the stretched leg closer to me, seems more risky for my knees.
When I get annoyed that a stretch is risky for me, and try to improve that mobility/flexibility, I always get hurt.
Man i hate that top stretch - it feels like my pubic symphysis is gonna snap in half...it's awful
^Lol.
Most track fans would know this guy, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey. He's the probably biggest sprinter going around today:
Also, there's this picture of him jumping before a race:



