19 purple thingies and a green plank
This was an experiment that started 3 months ago and is continually on the back of my mind. I’ve hacked away at it haphazardly but it’s been fun feeling that burn in my legs that I haven’t had in years. As a result, my first step is a bit quicker and my game time endurance is a better. But still no dunk.
In the process, I found that it’ll stress the weakest part of my body. Whether it’s a weak core (yup), less than strong knees (1 surgically repaired), or weak ankles (yup and yup), I found that I was hitting a plateau until these areas were addressed and working properly together. It probably doesn’t do any good to jump on shaky objects either (video below).
One day I’ll proudly be able to capture and post about a legitamite dunk. Until then…the quest continues.
yes, it’s not a true vertical test…i didn’t have a chance to gather final metrics, I’ll do that as soon as I’m back from HK!
wow good job!! and that stunt in the video looks dangerous ><
maybe you can consider using a bosu ball to strengthen your ankles. i think it helps with hips and knees too
http://www.livestrong.com/article/498098-bosu-ball-exercises-for-strengthening-ankles/
the power of the bosu ball is underestimated =)
have fun in hk!!!
Hey Diana! I like using Bosu balls. You can’t see it in the mirror but we got a stack in the new gym. Definitely will be using them more. thanks for the tip!
Nice hops Law! You can also try some jump downs from a lower height and work on landing softly. Gradually increase the height as you work on shock attenuation. Then progress to hop down, jump up (load and explode). Should only do a few of these -probably 2-3 sets of 5 reps. Work on those hips and keep the knees in good alignment (not collapsing in and keeping the hips back with knees behind/just over toes)!
I took your advice last time we talked. Prior to this video we were doing sets with a green plank before the higher stack (using a much lower height). Took a step off the green plank, landed and exploded to the higher stack. Didn’t realize I should lessen the reps, I’ll keep that in mind. thanks!
You’re like a super mario brother now! There are ton of exercises (including plyo) that you could do to help, but if you’re looking to just focus on leg strength CoachScottThom on youtube has a few good vids on his page.
Yeah those purple things look dangerous, should probably get boxes and a spotter instead.
Sets and reps gets kind of tricky. A textbook prescription for multiple-effort power is 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets, but that is supposed to be of an intensity between 75-85% of your 1 repetition max (1 RM means that if you did 1 rep with x amount of weight on the next rep, you’d fail so if you can squat 100 lbs max, you could do 5 reps at 75lbs). Plyos are tricky in that there isn’t necessarily a set intensity and it can vary from exercise to exercise. In general, you should progress from high volume (hi-reps), low intensity to low volume (low reps), high intensity to improve power.
Appropriate volume for beginners to plyos is 80-100 foot contacts per session, 100-120 for intermediate, and 120-140 for advanced. Foot contacts = # of time the feet (or foot if landing on 1 foot) touch the ground. So in addition to the hop down, jump up (which is high intensity), you could do lower intensity skipping, ankle hopping, squat jumping, etc. Medium intensity exercises would be split squat jumps, double leg hop forwards, and jumping over a hurdle with 2 legs. High intensity exercises include single-leg hops, single-leg vertical jumps, and the hop down, jump ups.
Anyway, this is too much information 😛 Take what you may and experiment! I’ll see you some time in SD!
i got something for you 🙂