Week 1 – Day 6

A light day today so it felt good to ease the legs back into action. I was still sore in the morning but by this evening I felt a lot better.

Today was a repeat of a previous day I did earlier in the week and things felt a tiny bit easier, so that’s good. Tomorrow is game day so I hope the old legs are back to being pain free in the morning.

After the game I will have a few exercises to do but it is mainly my own upper body routine, so it shouldn’t screw up the legs to much after already having run hard.

I will report back to say if almost one week of the program has made any noticable difference in anyway, be it jumping, speed or anything else, tomorrow.

Week 1 – Day 5

Today was a day off, thank god. My legs are still sore, sitting down and standing up are a struggle. Hopefully this a good sign of things working. We will see.

Week 1 – Day 4

Today was another big training day and this time I had to go to the gym as I just don’t have the equipment myself.

In short – it was tough. I learned that my leg strength isn’t as great as it needs to be by quite a long way

I will add more tomorrow, just had to put my daughter to sleep and it’s pretty late now.

OK today is tomorrow and my legs are sore. Stairs are a more painful experience, that’s for sure. I thought my legs were pretty strong but I was obviously wrong, they need a lot of work. At this point I’m doubting whether 12 weeks will be enough!

I am looking forward to stretching out today, I need it.

I hope to be able to increase the weight I am lifting considerably by week 12 but at least I feel that this program is really doing something.

Week 1 – Day 3

An easy day to in terms of the program as it was a day off, although there are still a couple of light exercises to do but it only takes about 15 minutes.

The program permits upper body work during these days off and I have my own little routine using some light weights (2 x 5 kg) and doing some fast movements. I designed it to build up some explosive power whilst also working on some endurance by doing 3 rounds of all the exercises split up by my stretching routine and some ball handling drills.

I also do pilates on Mondays and Wednesdays but it is 99% stretching so I don’t think it goes against any of the programs rules and in fact it should benefit it.

The session eased out the deltoid soreness I was feeling yesterday. Tomorrow is the big gym day and I feel ready for it, legs feel energised and I feel motivated. Lets hope I remain as positive by the end of it.

Week 1 – Day 2

Today was harder than yesterday I think. Although marked as a rest and recovery day I think this only applies to the legs as the core work today took it out of me by the end. Day 1 was definitely more tiring but Day 2 hurt more.

The program says that if you can’t complete an exercise then go as far as you can and try and improve every time until you can complete the exercise. If you haven’t done much core work before you will find this section difficult, but hey if you are doing this then it is to make gains so difficult is good.

I managed to complete the session as specified but I did find that the lack of a pull up bar did hinder one exercise. I improvised by using a brick doorway, but it really hurt my fingers so I am going to have to find a better alternative for next time.

I ate as prescribed post work out again and felt good for it too. I am feeling good over all and my legs already feel a little different but maybe some of this is more mental than any real gains made through training at this early stage.

Week 1 – Day 1

I am writing this after the first day if I am honest as I didn’t finish work until 10pm and I fell asleep writing it.

First impressions.

I read through all the material and watched the videos on Sunday and then on Monday morning I wrote up my on schedule on Excel so that it would be easier to carry the information with me (I don’t have a smart phone and I prefer reading things on paper anyway – perhaps that’s my age showing).

At first I thought that the work outs looked a little on the light side, especially to what I had been putting myself through in the prior weeks, but I want to believe that it has truly worked for others, and I understand the problems of over training so I accepted that Jacob Hiller probably knows more about this stuff than me so I will just do what he says.

I don’t have all the equipment suggested in the program, all I have is a set of free weights and bars, and a leather skipping rope so I have had to improvise. As such I am using a suitcase I found where I train as an obstacle to jump over as required in one of the exercises and I am using a bedside cabinet to jump off as required in another of the exercises.

Also I have  my own stretching routine that I go through between each group of exercises that takes about 1-2 minutes to complete

OK, so Day 1 thoughts. Even though I am pretty fit I still felt tired by the end of the seesion, which took me about an hour to complete. Not all the days are this hard, in fact there are only 2 really tough days each week, which I have to be honest I am fairly pleased about at the moment. My body really does need to rest and recover.

All the exercises have to be competed at 100% all the time so you really have to be mentally ready to do this as well I think. I f you are planning to do this program then understand there are no half measures to success.

After competing in the session I ate as recommended and my body really seemed to appreciate it. I don’t usually eat after working out as I don’t have an appetite but as I said I am just going to do as I am told here.

Physically, I didn’t and haven’t felt sore at all, but you may do if you are not used to exercising, or even if you exercise but at a low intensity like only jogging for example. My legs did feel a little shaky which I wasn’t expecting as I have been working them out, I believe harder than this over the prior month. this probably means that the exercises are using muscles that my other training methods haven’t, which can only be a good thing.

I got about 8 hours sleep that night, eating again as prescribed by the program  before bed and next day, or today as I am writing this, the only soreness I have is in my pectoral muscles by my armpits from one of the few upper body exercises. My legs feel light and ready to go, although I can tell they have been working.

On to day 2, which I am about to go and do now.

Introduction

Welcome to my Jump Manual experience.

I chose the Jump Manual as it seemed to be popular on the internet and the price was reasonable. I have never done a jump program before so I am excited to see what the results will be!

I decided to do this blog for two reasons. First, I couldn’t find a Jump Manual testimony that wasn’t also trying to sell the product, which makes me skeptical about the testimonies. Secondly, this blog is to help me track my progress and keep me motivated.

I will be posting everyday of the program (hopefully) so anyone interested can get a good idea of what to expect.

If you have any comments or questions please leave them in the comment section and I will do my best to help out.

However please note that the Jump Manual is a paid for product and I am guessing that the information in it is subject to some kind of law which would prohibit me for giving away any of the information in the product, and even if it isn’t I don’t think it would be ethical of me to giveaway any of the training methods prescribed in the course, so please don’t ask for any of the specifics about what is in the program.

A little bit about me:

I have been playing basketball since I was about 11 and now I’m 33 and I’m trying to believe I am not to old to dunk. As I have got older I have slowed down too so dunking is not my only goal. I would like to improve my overall quickness too.

I finished do a general 2 and a half month fitness program before I started this and lost about 5 kg doing that and improved my aerobic ability immensely.

Currently my statistics are as follows:

Height:                            182 cm (5′ 11.5″)
Weight:                           ~77 kg
Standing Vertical:           ~24″ (2 legs)
Running Vertical:           ~28″ (1 leg)

My goal:

I can currently dunk a small ball with one hand but I have difficulty with an official size ball, I don’t really have big hands, so ultimately my goal is to be able to put down two handed dunks consistently.