Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Hitting the weights

After touching it for the first time on thursday, I touched it again on sunday, and then five times on monday.

So today I was obviously very keen for a leg workout to get even higher.

6 sets of squats (8 reps) superset with jumping (straight knee's) onto a 20inch bench until fail
4 sets of leg curl (including a new pb with weight)
4 sets of leg extension (10reps)
4 sets of calf raises (15-30 reps)
I also did 8 sets for shoulders and neck

I went home and had some creatine monohydrate and as solid 550g ( 1.25 lb) steak and some vegetables. Im at a very motivated stage at the moment, one thing I've learnt from past goal setting exercises is that I go too hard and burn myself out. Its great at first when your having all these amazing gains but that success leads to eventual failure, atleast in my case because as soon as the gains stop my motivation plummets.

Tomorrow I'm giving my legs a break, and then on thursday I'll do some light plyometrics ( in terms of contacts) and then on friday do some more leg weights. Currently I weigh 72-73kgs (160lbs) with about 8% body fat. Although its alot of work for my legs I am going to try and do 2 weight sessions and 2 plyometric sessions per week. The plyo's are far less intense then my weight sessions so I feel that the 4 sessions will add up to 3 reasonably hard sessions a week and I'm giving my legs atleast a day rest. Another benefit to doing 4 leg work outs a week is that its halving my upper body workouts. Although 160lbs doesn't sound like much I look like weigh alot more, so any excess meat I lose off the top meats less weight I have to hurtle into the atmosphere.

It will be an interesting few weeks

Saturday, February 21, 2009

A day that will live in infamy

17th February 2009.

10 FT BABY!!!!!!

It happened 4 days ago and I still cant stop thinking about. I only did it once, but now I know I can get there, it will be happening ALOT more often. I remember the moment exactly. The metal rim springing to life with vibration as my hand went higher than it ever went before. The twang induced by the sheer power of my slap and my legs catapulted me into the sky.

Melodramatic I know but after wanting something so bad for so long I think I am allowed to over-indulge alittle. For 3 years (20 technically) I wasn't good enough, always falling ever so short. I've learnt through schooling the difference in effectiveness between positive and negative motivation and reinforcement. My current motivation???? The only thing needing reinforcing is the rim when im tearing it down in the calendar year. With each recollection of the moment I am possessed by a ferverous urge to start jumping. This is christmas. I haven't been so excited about something so simple in a long time.

My friend who is a little taller than me touched the rim about 2years ago for the first time and all of a sudden he had all of his fingers above the rim.

Im giving my self 8 weeks to get there.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

A few physical "short"comings

120inches, 305cm, 10ft, all the way up there. Yeh its easy for Yao: he's 7'6

Im 5'8....and a half
And I've only got a 5'9 wingspan and a 7'3 reach :S
Dont blame it on my arms, they're fine. Its my mums fault, I've got the hands of carny, they're atleast an inch shorter than they should be and I throughout my youth its led me to always be "this close" to touching the rim.

Oh btw, I cant touch the rim......... another fact that probably discourages a few of you from thinking I'll get there. But I will. I've been getting VERY close recently and thats been when I'm training like a lazy shit. Despite my desire to get up there my devotion has not been up to par. When I have trained I've only been doing body resistence exercises. As someone who is a certified personal trainer, half way through a bachelor degree in health and exercise science at university and probably most importantly, someone who once gained 35lbs in under 6months by going to the gym 2hrs a day, every day; I know I need to hit the weights again if I'm ever going to get the results I want.

Right now I literally am an inch or less from touching the 10ft rim. With my 7'3 standing reach that means I have a 32 inch vertical leap, which considering how much smaller my legs are compared to my bodybuilding phase leads me to believe I can get the extra 8 or so inches I need to dunk.

Having a 40inch vertical leap and the ability to dunk will literally bring me tears on the day I succeed. Beyond my obession with those who can defy gravity between the ages of 10-14 I was pretty heavy (I'll try and find a photo and post it in the next few updates) and to be able to call myself an elite athlete or atleast an elite jumper is a major source of pride for someone who at one time did not have much.

Please support me because it will be a long road. Any positive comment, no matter how short will serve as motivation because if I know there are likeminded individual interested in my success my will will be that much stronger. Just knowing you are there will make it that much easier.

And now I need to get some power and that means lots of squats. Fuck

Best.Present.Ever

I will celebrate christmas day 2009 by dunking a basketball. My name is Tim and I'm 20 years old. Since 2002 my ADDICTION to basketball particularly NBA basketball has seen me devour every piece of content I could find on the beautiful game. That may sound like poetic fabrication but I assure you it is not. While this is an obsession I enjoy I do conceed they extent of my obession has not been the wisest investment of my time. From skipping school to watch a game live rather than the replay 8hrs later to scouring backdated boxscores for nearly 3hrs after one extended holiday. In 2005 I knew I could name every NBA player, their height-weight, college/origin and their PT/REB/ASS/BLK/STL within 2 integers(for the first 3 catergories)
.... And I did.

My love for basketball developed a deep admiration for those who can defy gravity. While I would not consider Vince Carter in my top 50 favorite NBA players, I have (and made many others) watch his aerial displays many times. I have searched at times with great feutily to find unequivocal evidence of truly great pure vertical leaping. Youtube is a hit and miss affair. While you do see amazing examples of jumping such as Kadour Ziani, Javier Sotomayor and TFB's T-dub, there is sadly a library of video's 10 times longer of people "writing cheques with their mouth that their ass can't cash".

My love affair with gravity defying leaps has spurred my to challenge to dunk a regulation size 7 ball on 10ft ring. And I will dunk a basketball on ther 25th of December 2009 but it will not be easy......