One of the things needed to be athletic is mobility.  Athletes need to be mobile in the right spots in the kinetic chain.  To be a great athlete you need to be mobile in the hips and ankles.  This is what I am hoping to get out of yoga.  Hopefully by being more mobile I will feel better and it will positively impact my strength and speed training.

What prompted me to start yoga?  I always do a little dynamic stretching and foam rolling prior to lifting, yet I am still extremely tight and sore.  I figure I need to work on this more and what better way than adding in a little yoga.  I did my first session on Monday and it was tough.  My next one is tomorrow.  We’ll see what kind of impact it has on my training.  I plan to try and add in a little more foam rolling as well.

Well, what gives is the conditioning that I am doing is completely non-specific to basketball.  All one must do is give some thought as to what it is you do during basketball and one can see how they must condition themselves to play the game.

First though, for my hill sprints, I basically sprint up a hill for roughly 6 to 8 seconds then walk down slowly and sprint back up again.  I do this 5 times, rest for 3 to 4 minutes, then do 5 more.

How does this conditioing relate to basketball?  It doesn’t.  When during a basketball game do you sprint for 6 to 8 seconds then walk for a minute, then sprint again?  You don’t.  Basketball is a continuous game.  In order to be prepared and conditioned to play the game, you must prepare specifically for it.

This is where heart rate comes into play.  You must condition and prepare yourself at the heart rate that the game is played at.  Time motion analysis will let you know where you should be.  A study on elite basketball players in Greece (I think, I will have to see if I can find it…) found that the average heart rate is between 169 and 171 beats per minute.

Comparing this to my hill sprints, my average heart rate is much lower, as the heart rate is only elevated for 6 to 8 seconds at a time.

So how should one prepare for basketball?  One should condition exactly as a game is played.  One should work in the heart rates that elite players do so that they will be ready for the demands of the game.  An example of how this might be done would be to split conditioning into 4 15 minute quarters (just like a basketball game).  Work on specific basketball skills for the 15 minute quarters keeping the average heart rate around 170 bpm.  During the 15 minutes, take one or two 30 second to 1 minute breaks to simulate timeouts.  After a 15 minute quarter is up, rest for 2 minutes, then move on to the second quarter.

So a sample workout might be like this:

First quarter: 15 minutes.  Work on jump shooting, getting your own rebound then running to get another shot off.  Keep the heart rate around 170 bpm, monitor by wearing a heart rate monitor.

Second quarter: 15 minutes. Work on defensive technique, defensive slide drills, etc. again keeping the heart rate at 170 or so.

Half time: rest for 10 minutes

Third quarter: 15 minutes, pick new skill or go back to shooting.

Fourth quarter: 15 minutes, pick new skill or go back to defense.

I will be implementing something like this about a month or two out from the tournament next year.

Basically, the plan is this:

Heavy Workout Days: On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I will eat a lot of carbs, moderate amounts of protein, and low fat.  I will eat my first mean around 4:45 PM, do a heavy weight workout around 6:15, then continue to eat until 11:oo PM.  I then fast from 11 until I eat again around 4:45.  Calories will be high on these days.

Cardio/Off Days: On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, I will keep my carbs low, up my fat intake a bit and continue with moderate protein.  The schedule is the same, break the fast at 4:45 or so.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays in the morning I will be doing 20 minutes on an inclined treadmill with a weight vest.  Around 6:15 after I break the fast I will be doing hill sprints.  Saturdays, I will do lower volume of hill sprints then walk for about a half hour.  Sundays, I will just hit the treadmill, probably for about a half hour.

I need to get some pictures up so I can track my progress.  My last weight I was 183.2.  It’s fair to say I have probably gained a bit.  I will take some pics this weekend and get a weight on Monday morning.

The training will largely be similiar to what I have been doing, in that I will still have one day dedicated to the Push Press, Bench Press, Squat, and Trap Bar Deadlift.  Those lifts will be periodized utilizing the 5/3/1 rep scheme.  The major change will be in the form of assistance work.  On Upper body days, I will pick 2 or 3 movements and perform them rest pause.  On lower body days, I will be trying to get stronger in the posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings, mainly). 

I am going to be playing the next two weeks by ear and will have a more detailed plan after my planned deload coming up.

1: I need to play more.  I am going to try and organize an open gym type thing for an hour or two during the weekend.  Not sure when though…

2: I am not in basketball shape at all.  I should have known this as none of my conditioning has been sport specific, which if I have learned one thing, it is that conditioning should be specific to the sport you are training for. 

So going forward, I need to play more basketball and the next time a basketball tournament comes up, I will need to start preparing about 8 weeks in advance, conditioning wise.

I plan to get a post up on diet and one up on training as both of those will be changing this week.

First, my legs were not exactly fresh since I have been hitting the cardio type work pretty hard.  The goal right now is to lose fat and if my vertical jump takes a hit in the short term, then that is fine by me.

Second, I recognize that there will most likely be wide swings in my vertical jump from any given measurement based on many factors.  Things such as whether my legs are fresh, what sort of state my central nervous system is in, and on and on will impact what I actually jump on that given day. 

Third, I don’t have access to a great measurement device, so my measurements are approximate.  I don’t see a huge problem with this, since I am not looking for an exact measurement, I just want to see the trend. 

My plan going forward it to measure towards the end of deload weeks where I cut my lifting volume drastically to recover some.  My next deload week will be in about two weeks, so I will measure then.  The measurements will then come every month or so.  Like I mentioned above, I just want to see the trend moving up over the long term.

Ok, now for the numbers.  My standing, no step vertical was about 18.5 inches.  My one step vertical was about 22.5 inches.  This was weird to me because last summer I did 24 inches standing and I am much stronger now than I was then.  However, I haven’t done any actual jumping work in awhile, so that could explain some of the loss.  Right now, these are the numbers I am working with and they indicate that I have a lot of work ahead of me!

Yet none of this kept me from removing the deadlift from my program.  You have to deadlift to get stronger right?  In planning my next training cycle, I decided to swap out the regular deadlift with my trusty pal, the trap bar deadlift.  For those unfamiliar with a trap bar deadlift, check out this video.

This is not to bash on the regular deadlift.  I think it is a great lift, however for me and for what I am looking for out of my training, I like the trap bar deadlift for a few reasons.  First and foremost, my form is much tighter when using a trap bar rather than a regular bar for deadlifts.  I am not lifting with my back, the stress is shifted in greater proportion to my legs.  Which is my second point, in wanting to gain in my vertical jump, I felt like the trap bar was better suited to hit my leg muscles than the regular deadlift.

I just did trap bar deadlifts on Monday for the first time in a long time.  I really felt it in my hamstrings, which was a real nice feeling.  I hit 325 for a big time rep PR of 10.  Hopefully I notice some results in my vertical jump, which I plan to test tomorrow. 

Which deadlift variation do like best and why?

Training Resources

www.elitefts.com - This is, by far, the best site on the web when it comes to training information.  Just reading and researching on the Q&A brings a wealth of knowledge.  If you are ever looking for something to do, just search the Q&A for posts by The Thinker, Mark McLaughlin, Joe Defranco, Jim Wendler, Angry Coach, Zach Even-Esh, and more.  There is just a wealth of information over on that site.  Definitely check it out.  Also, if you have a few bucks in your pocket and want a manual that will get you strong as all hell, check this one out by Jim Wendler.  It has been working wonders for me thus far.

www.t-nation.com - T-nation is actually where I started learning quite a bit about training and nutrition.  They have a lot of good writers over there, including Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, Dave Tate (who owns elitefts), and others.  T-nation seems to be a little more slanted towards bodybuilding, but there are still some good articles and sometimes some good discussions in the Strength Forum

www.higher-faster-sports.com - This is Kelly Baggett’s web site.  Kelly is somewhat of a vertical training expert.  Definitely read his articles and check out his vertical jump bible if you want a book to purchase that is dedicated to jumping higher.

www.ericcressey.com - This is Eric Cressey’s site and it has a ton of great information on keeping bones, joints, and muscles healthy and functioning properly.  Eric is for sure a great resource on training.

www.whitemencanjump.com - Haha, of course I am going to say my own site, right?  I plan to get some articles and opinions I have on what has and has not worked for me in the past and in the future.  Hopefully you can glean some information from my opinions and my training.

Diet Resources

www.bodyrecomposition.com - This is Lyle McDonald’s web site.  Lyle is for sure a nutrition “guru”!  Lyle definitely knows his stuff, his books are a great resource (I think I have almost all of them), and his forums are a wealth of great knowledge as well.

www.leangains.com - This is Martin Berkhan’s site where he gives some information about his Intermittent Fasting approach.  Again, a ton of no-nonsense information here.  Martin also posts on both of Lyle’s forums and from time to time he will pop into this thread in the nutrition section of www.bodybuilding.com.

www.elitefts.com - elitefts gets mentioned in the nutrition section as well, mainly for two or three of their writers on the Q&A.  I have found immense help from Shelby Starnes and Justin Harris.  Shelby put out a Carb Cycling guidebook that is a fantastic resource.  Eric Talmant also regularly posts interesting things on the Q&A regarding nutrition from his metabolic typing viewpoint.

www.t-nation.com - T-nation is not only a good resource for training info, but they sometimes have some pretty good articles with respect to nutrition as well.

Hopefully, between all the info in the above mentioned sites, you can keep yourself busy for awhile learning from real pros in the game.  There is so much terrible information out there, however by regularly reading the trusted sites above, you can seperate fact from fiction.

I typically cycle my calories and my carbs.  Right now, as I wind down on the diet, I only have one day where I up my calories and get most of those calories from carbs.  The other days are low carbs.  So here is my low carb days for the last week:

Low Carb Meal 1:
1/2 can of Tuna with a touch of Mayo
4 long celery sticks
500 mg Vitamin C
3g Fish Oil

Low Carb Meal 2:
1/2 can of Tuna with a touch of Mayo
7 ounces of Brocolli
500 mg Vitamin C
3g Fish Oil

Low Carb Meal 3:
Something for dinner with my wife.  Sometimes an omelet, sometimes chicken and veggies, sometimes beef with avocado, pepper, onions etc.

Throughout the day, I drink green tea, about 8 cups total.

Then on Wednesdays, I open up and let loose.  I don’t restrict calories at all.  Typically I will have honey nut cheerios, two turkey sandwiches on wheat, red skin potatoes, chocolate milk, a banana, and pretty much any other starch or grain until I am nice and full.  This day replenishes my glycogen and typically gives me a great pump.  Plus, it gives me something to look forward to during the week.

So that is the general overview of my diet for the next week.  After this week is up, I will be cycling calories and carbs even more.  I will have all of my main training days be high carb (and calorie) days and all other days will be low carb (and low calorie) days.  I will continue to structure my eating according to the Intermittent Fasting style.

I know my last few posts have been kind of scattered, but I think that is due to me wrapping up a diet.  Once I move on to my next phase, I hope to have a more detailed and better organized plan for posting.

For the first 3 months of the year, I have been trying to take off body fat while maintaining and even increasing strength.  I have been able to increase my strength a bit while dropping from 202 to 186.2 (as of this morning).  My approximate maxes, taken sometime in January are as follows:

Squat: 410 pounds
Deadlift: 405 pounds
Bench Press: 280 pounds
Push Press: 195 pounds

To finish off March, I am dieting pretty hard.  I plan to transition into a maintain/get slightly bigger phase in April and maybe through part of May.  This week my training will be simple, I will try and hit prescribed weights according to Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 method of training.  As an aside, this is a fantastic ebook about getting strong and the method works as advertised.  You can pick it up here.

That said, this is this week’s training:

Monday
Trap Bar Deadlift 3×5
Kroc Rows 1x as many as possible
Foam Roller and Stretching back and chest and legs

Tuesday
15 hill sprints

Wednesday
Push Press 3×3
Kroc Rows 1x as many as possible
Foam Roll and Stretch back, chest, legs

Thursday
15 hill sprints

Friday
Squat 3×3
Foam Roll and Stretch back, chest, legs

Saturday
Basketball tournament, so I will get to see about where I am at right now.

My training will then change going forward, which I will post sometime.  Basically, I will be eating more food and doing a higher volume of assistance work to try and put on some muscle.  I will post my diet in a seperate post.  I will try and keep diet and training seperate.  I also plan to post some videos of me lifting and hopefully jumping also.