Update Week #1

Finally, I have finished all my basketball in-season teams and finished on a good note with us winning the finals. Anyway also this week I went back into the gym (after a decent hiatus) to introduce the specific movements I'll be doing for the next couple months. Not the brightest idea since I felt muscle soreness for the finals game but once it got warm and I got lost in the game things went well. The muscle soreness is positive as it shows there is a lot of room for improvement. This also made me realize how important active recovery is in training. So I'm looking further into the best methods of active recovery and timing for these sorts of workouts. Another recovery method I've decided to imply on a weekly basis for the lower body is self massage with castor oil. This is really good for moving lactic acid and getting healthy nutrients into the muscles, especially the ankles which take a beating during vertical training. So I worked out twice this week only as it took me a lot of time to recover. On each exercise I performed 2-3 sets with about 10-15 reps just to get my body used to weighted movements. Also I stretched most days and only foam rolled the first 2 days of the week instead of daily, as it would have been extremely painful due to the delayed onset muscle soreness. Basically this week and next week I'm getting back into the gym, next week I'm going to also introduce some plyometric movements into workouts. After this next week I will be officially starting the Jump Manual program. Next week this time I'll post my before Jump Manual measurements and will look to also include a video.

Recovery

So, an important part of my time spent the next 6 weeks will be on recovery as it helps you stay motivated and can be the difference between getting that last half inch you need to dunk. So the following methods will be the several ways I'll approach my recovery:

• Nutrition

Firstly and most importantly nutrition is the key and I really try to keep this in check because its really easy to do and offers a huge reward.  To further improve my performance and efficiency I choose to take three supplements which are a whey protein post-workout (ON Gold Standard), a pre-workout supplement (UspLabs Jack3d) and a fish oil (NutriMedicine Omega 3). I like taking supplements for there added placebo effect of knowing you've got that protein post-workout or that extra focus from a pre-workout. The fish oil is really important for joint health due to all the stress caused by all the jumping and lifting. Apart from those three supplements the rest of my nutrition I get from whole foods. Another vital key to nutrition is hydration and for this I carry a bottle of water wherever I go and post workout I might drink some natural fruit juice for the simple sugars. 

• Foam Rolling/Lax Ball

Soft tissue therapy will be really critical early on now in my training as the intensity of my workouts will be high and my muscles will be pretty sore so it should help me improve recovery times. I use the lax (lacrosse) ball on smaller areas or areas that need more pressure eg. the feet or hip capsule. I plan to eventually move up to using the RumbleRoller instead of the foam roller as it seems to be an advanced foam roller. Foam rolling will be performed pre and post workout and in the mornings if not that then once a day at least.

•  Contrast Therapy/Hydro Therapy

I have done some research on the best types of contrast therapy for different types of training. The three main types of hydro therapies I will use are ice baths, contrast baths and contrast showers.  I have decided to do ice baths after plyometric workouts, contrast baths after gym workouts and whenever I shower I will do contrast showers. The intervals for my contrast baths will be 2 minutes hot and 1 minute cold and repeating that cycle 3 times. For the ice baths it will be a ten minute session. Lastly for the contrast showers it will be about 1 minute hot 1 minute cold and finishing on 2 minutes of hot.

•  Ice

Icing is usually a post game staple for most basketball players even more when undertaking a program that puts alot of stress on your joints like your knees and ankles. So basically I will use ice packs post plyometric workouts, off days when I play basketball or whenever I feel I need it.

•  Massage

This is a form of recovery I've never done and have decided to undertake for my training and it will be a weekly 30 minute deep tissue massage that should help get those knots out of muscles that I miss or that are simply harder to work properly with the foam roller. Not to mention it should add further benefit as I can concentrate on just relaxing the muscle rather then trying to foam roll it myself.

• Sleep/Rest

Lastly when you sleep and rest is when your body is doing the majority of its recovery so I'm going to aim for 9 hours sleep every night and will try to maintain a consistent body clock. On training days I will also attempt to fit in a nap in the afternoon as I've read a few articles that naps really promote muscle growth and recovery.

So these will be my recovery methods which I may alter and narrow down to the methods I prefer. I'm hoping that they will help me stay focused on achieving my goal. Next I will post my basic workouts schedule for the next 6 weeks soon.

These are few blogs and articles I read that helped me decide upon some of these recovery methods
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3

The Beginning

Recently I've been reading a few other blogs, watching dunk videos and playing ball. Combine this with all my basketball in-season teams coming to an end this week. I came up with this self appointed challenge to dunk in 6 weeks or less. The reason and motivation comes from always wanting to dunk and having the right to say it, and more so the right to show it. To further my motivation I told a friend, who then laughed of course. So I was inclined to bet him 20 bucks I'll jam it by May 6th and he thought wise investment(we'll see) and took my deal. So anyway I have decided that the program that's going to help me achieve my goal is the jump manual. I have previously done the jump manual about 2 years ago. From what I can remember I gained about 3-4 inches and I don't think I ever finished as my motivation was lacking and I was fairly inconsistent. This time I have decided to use this blog to document my lifts, measurements and everything else that I need written down. I also wanna make a shout out to Candyman from myjumpmanual for the inspiration to start this blog.

My general stats at the moment are
Height: 6'1, 183.5cm
Weight: 170lbs, 77kgs
Running Vertical: 30 inchs (estimate)
Standing Vertical: 28 inchs (estimate)

At the moment I'm hanging off the rim with two hands with ease. That's where my estimates are coming from.
Anyway I'll update this soon when I further sort out my gameplan.