Before we get into my story about jumping higher, I want to recognize and turn your attention to the continuing struggles of minority populations, especially Black people, at this time, to seek justice and equality. Please check out what Trevor Noah has to say about current events; as a South African who has experienced South Africa's struggle with Apartheid, he brings a unique, eloquent, and bigger-picture perspective to current events.
This series will detail my journey to jumping higher; there will be some history, and some stories from college and grad school, but focusing on the work I am completing now through Matt Pieczarka's Flight Mode. It's an exciting thing to be working on a focused program to jump higher, and I'm excited to share that journey with you all.
This is my running jump pre-Flight Mode. At this point, most of my training has been strength work with some plyometric work once a week (sometimes once every two weeks). Other types of training beyond strength and power (cleans, explosive squats, and kettlebell moves) don't quite figure into my training at this point.
I really thought my dreams of jumping higher were done. After a freak knee injury (probably MCL, but never diagnosed) playing a pick-up game in my junior year of college, I couldn't even do any lower-body exercises without feeling intense pain as my left knee shifted in its socket.
Eventually, I got a brace, which helped to stabilize my knee as I exercised and played basketball. Constant reminders from other athletes and friends, though, let me know that wearing a brace constantly weakened the knee because it was coming to rely on the brace to support weight and manage impact.
As I did research on jumping higher and rehabbing, I continued to train strength exclusively. It made sense to me at the time: if my legs were stronger, I could power up higher towards the rim and beyond. What I was finding out, however, was that I had to take care of the downward trajectory as well as the upward one. When loading up to jump, for example, I have to coil my body like a spring, bending my knees, waist, and compressing to explode up. Landing works the same way, absorbing the force of my landing by bending knees and hips so that my knees don't take all the impact.
Training my lower body strength eventually gave me the confidence to attempt to play basketball without the brace, but it wasn't until I added stability work that I was able to really play and jump pain-free.
When I focused exclusively on strength training, the back squats and lunges were primarily focused on me pushing weight up in a single plane of motion, on two legs, with no side-to-side or front-to-back momentum. This absolutely did not prepare my body for the unpredictable jumping conditions of a basketball or volleyball game.
I've heard pain during sports compared to diverted messages from your nerves. When some of my neural capacity and attention is focused on the pain or the anticipation of pain, my body cannot focus exclusively on the explosive movement. This limits mobility and puts an artificial barrier on what I'm able to do, and what I'm willing to push my body to do, because it is protecting itself. So while my legs may have been getting stronger, I wasn't able to harness that strength outside the weight room because I was still worried about my knee giving out on me when I loaded or landed.
Once I was able to add some stability work to my routine, my ability to move improved dramatically. By adding single-leg work and different tempos, I forced my body to balance and manage tension and load appropriately, in multiple planes of movement. I was able to strengthen my tendons and ligaments through this work instead of just focusing on muscular strength.
Eventually, this work paid off when I weaned myself off of the brace. I was hesitant throughout as I tested my knee, knowing that if I wasn't ready, I could set my recovery back by weeks or months. What I found through this, however, was that stability was the foundation for me to build my strength and explosiveness. I had needed to build strength, but it wasn't the muscular strength I initially assumed I needed.
I needed to build a foundation where I could move freely and pain-free before I could harness any of my other work in an uncontrolled environment.
This process taught me patience, as well as a willingness to explore problems from a different angle. It would have been easy for me to get frustrated and give up on my goals, or to keep chipping away at my pain by trying to improve my squat numbers. Instead, it took re-evaluation and a willingness to learn a different approach that eventually helped me to get back on track.
We'll be looking at a stability move today. We've already talked previously about the deadlift movement, and will now add a stability element by completing the single leg deadlift, which can be done with bodyweight or with a kettlebell. This will build single leg strength, as well as work on your proprioceptive ability to be aware of your body's movements and balance.
Commenti