Finally decided to start a log in here since GKA kept telling me he'd read it, so i know i'll have at least one loyal reader!

Background I'm 25, played soccer/bball/golf all throughout my youth and on my high school teams, however i never did any lifting whatsoever for any of these sports or for staying in shape/getting stronger. since h.s. i've played bball and golf intermittently (quite a bit of bball the past few years thanks to bobbofitos wanting to play 24/7/365). we started playing in a rec league this past fall and despite getting bent over on all three of our teams, i thought i played pretty well and was getting better/more in shape as the season went on. we then played a winter league and our teams actually got a few wins with one of them finishing 3rd or 4th/12 in the reg season. i think i played a little better in the winter and was more aggressive offensively, tho i'm still working on getting my 3pt and FT shooting to be more consistent (it was kinda difficult to keep a rhythm going throughout the season with all the lifting i was doing). i avg'd~ 10pts 5reb 3ast 1stl .5blk/gm (playing 30 of the 40min games) over the 2 seasons and 6 diff teams.

i also live with Doug Funnie II who has been suggesting i start lifting with him for the past 5 years or so...i finally gave in this past december and have been doing SS/whatever doug tells me to do since then. I was ~5'10 between 155-158 lbs when i started 6 months ago, i'm now 168-172 lbs, still 5'10 unfortunately . i started off in december doing ~ 115 squat, 155 deadlift, 115 bench and 75 ohp. i was able to move up pretty quickly (+5lbs min each time) in all of these w/o failing til i got to ~230 squat, 145 bench and 115 ohp. i'm still improving basically each lift with deadlifting, however with the others i've had to slow down a bit and it sometimes takes a week or two before i can move up in weight.

My PRs are 240x5x3 for squat, 312x5 for deadlift, 120x5x3 for OHP, 160x5x3 for bench. due to injuries and being away from a good gym for weeks at a time due to poker, i have had to drop back in weight before and haven't been progressing as fast as i wanted to. i was also set back in squats a little bit because of knee pain that developed from playing too much bball+ "heavy" (for me) lifting on it.

as far as diet goes, i've been trying to eat more protein, tho i dont cook very often so sometimes that's tough to do. i have a protein "shake" everyday i'm home, which is whey protein+milk (basically muscle milk afaik) to help with the protein intake.


Goals i want to continue getting stronger as well as improving my conditioning thru pick up bball and possibly some occasional running. i'm going to only play on two teams in my rec league next fall because playing three nights/week + random pickup bball + lifting 2-3x/week was just too much and i started developing those knee problems. i usually lift with doug funnie II so he can help me with my form, but i'll probably post some vids in here eventually to see what other people think too. i'd love feedback or opinions on my routines too, i'm still kind of a noob so i dont mind when someone tells me so

My current workouts go something like this- some combo of squats/bench/ohp/DL, then one or two auxiliary exercises (back extensions, cable rows, chinups/pullups, leg raises) 2-3 days/week. as far as bball goes, i play ~twice/week now, i'll try to maintain this throughout the summer in vegas and until rec league season starts again in the fall.

5/11
squat 230x5x3
bench 155x5x3
deadlift 307x3
chinups bwx7 +10lbs x6 x7

i think i had food poisoning for 4 days until saturday so i didn't eat much and didn't lift at all for like a week. i decided to drop down in weight for all my lifts on sunday in my first lift back doing squats, OHP and cable rows. then again dropped down today for bench (also because no one was there to spot me), deadlift (not by enough apparently) and went easy on the chinups. i'm pretty confident i can move up in all of these next lift (except deadlift which i'll probably just stay at 307 or drop down a little if i'm not having a good day)

Yo, glad to see you start a log man. We played ball a bit about 2 summers ago at the Leggo Party. I recall you moved pretty well, but I couldn't really see as I was constantly hunched over with Bobbo's elbows in my ribs. (J/K Bobbo).

Anyway, I was in the same boat about that time as I'd decided to pack on some pounds for a really tough rec league I'd joined. Do SS man, and stick with it. It's a pretty great feeling when you start packing on some solid muscle, and can finish with contact better and / or just turn your back and lean on your defender.

The points that I'd emphasize for you right now are
A) Eat everything in sight. Don't worry about what it is, just eat eat eat. Hooping and lifting with your build is gonna use a LOT of calories, and you're gonna need the excess to take full advantage of all your hard work.

B) Get a good PWO Shake down within 30 min of finishing your workout. Something with like 50g simple carbs (dextrose, maltodexterin), and 25 - 50g Whey. From the pre mixed products I've used, I found Optimum Nutrition's After Max to stack up pretty well to anything out there. Since I'm talking supps, I'd add a good multi and some fish oil.

C) Don't be afraid of the Power Clean. I'm no expert for sure, however the one thing I wish someone had told me when I was starting, wast that the PC is a great exercise for hoops as it builds explosive power in many of the same planes that you'll use while balling.

Other than that man, just stick with it for a while. You'll love the results.

It's about time. A couple points to add:

-Gary's squat progress from December through January was unreal, especially in the squat. It basically took him 10 workouts to go from 115 to 185, then he took 10 days off for Christmas, then 15 more workouts to get to 240 in the beginning of February. Since then consistency has been the issue because of poker, bball, and the knee thing, but I think he could get to 265+ without too much difficulty or a change in programming.

-The high bar squat was very natural for him from the get go, so that's what he does (without oly lifting shoes). I tried to get him to buy the VS dynamos when they were like $45 a month or so ago, but he passed. He currently just lifts in soft-soled sneakers.

-The knee issue he's been having appears to be in the quadriceps tendon. He's been icing but has not foam rolled yet. I'm pretty sure foam rolling will take care of it, since the quads usually respond well to SMR.

I noticed that mr Aragon no longer espouses a postwork shake at all - far more important to hit your macros/cals. I agree with Doug on both the stuff your face stuff (heh) and postworkout nutrition. It's definitely important to get some food in PRE-workout though, otherwise it's easy to feel sluggish. As someone who went way overboard on the See Food diet and has paid the price with greatly reduced progress, I'd advise caution here. Especially given that he's already put on a good amount of weight.

Anyway, good luck and just listen to Doug - you'll be in good hands if you do that.

Subscribed! This seems like it may have a lot of similarities to my log, .

Is there anything you plan to do for basketball that doesn't involve pickup or actually playing in games? Like skill or shooting drills?

Also, out of curiosity, what position do you normally play and what style of offense and defense do you employ currently and/or want to get better in?

Dude, if your gonna punch me in the arm you aren't allowed to lift weights before hand.

Halo 3 has improved my squats. I just hold that bottom position static for hours on end.

GL

thanks for the replies so far guys. as far as learning powercleans, i think i was a little intimidated from learning all the other SS exercises at the beginning so i didn't really want to add another one if i didn't have to. i'm heading to vegas in a couple weeks so i wouldn't be able to get much done in that time working with doug, however when i get back in july i'll probably give PCs a try

-yugo, sometimes i'll go to the gym and just shoot for an hour by myself or with bobbo, but that's basically the extent of my "drills". i play PG for our rec league teams and i have pretty good handle imo, especially for the leagues we play so i haven't really felt the need to do ball handling drills. maybe at some point down the line if we think about moving up a division or two i'll start doing more drills to improve specific skills.

lolx2

Cooking is easy.

not for the lazy kc

Gary!

1. your erratic letter capitalization style tilts me

2. are the Vegas 10/20-25/50 games going to be as awful as I think they will be this summer?

3. pretty cool that you have an advanced lifter to learn from. I would definitely take advantage and learn proper power cleans since everyone loves them for basketball.

haha, sorry. i was actually thinking that might be annoying when i read over it, but i figured no one would notice. i'll try to keep it all lowecase from here on out.

i haven't been out to vegas since last summer, so i dont have any first hand knowledge yet, but i dont think they'll be THAT bad. i did hear from gobbo that the 10-20-40 game that's been going regularly at bellagio has been pretty good, but of course that might change come wsop time. remember, online/live fish need to get their fix too and now there's basically only one place to do that

I will follow this log religiously as well, of course. A couple of notes:

1. I am bringing cones w. me to Vegas, as Assani Fisher, Aejones, and I plan on doing drills to supplement our 5on5s. (Primarily handling drills) I heartily invite Gary to participate!

2. Gary is more of a combo guard. Offensively he plays PG for us largely since he has the ~best handle of anyone on our teams (with the exception of 1 team). He can take it aggressively to the rack both ways and is a positive finisher around the rim. His pet shot has been a hard dribble drive left and midrange pullup. He's a good midrange shooter off the dribble. Never takes pull up 3s (like Chauncey) or creates them off the dribble, instead will spot up off post ups or off of someone else's penetration. Pretty good in transition, and generally makes smart plays on a break.

Defensively Gary has been one of our better players for sure. He's fairly well conditioned, (we ride him for a lot of minutes) and one of our quicker players, so he matches up against any opposing points pretty well. In terms of style of defense, he's 100% containment. Never really forces turnovers or harasses the opposing ball handlers, and I think this leads him to not contesting better 3pt shooters. That said, people will not blow by him, he has a good defensive stance and quick hands, so aside from the best players in the league, he's keeping them in front of him and only really allowing them ~light contests if they pull up on him. He's gotten better as a rebounder, as he rebounds fairly well even though he's on the perimeter. Pretty good leaper.

In 4on4 or 5on5 he's never asked to play in the post or defend the post (would be a waste) but from all of our 3on3, 2on2, and 21 games, I can say he's gotten a little better at guarding post ups. The best thing I can say is Alex blocks my shot a fair amount. (That said, I get the rebound and go right back up 80% of the time...)

As far as getting better, Alex has good handle, is a good shooter, gets to the rim, etc etc. Basically, he has no obvious holes. I suppose I'd like him to work on his creating for others, since it seems like SG is his more natural position. His style is def more low variance, in terms of ball protection > creating high % shots.

Edit: I know Gary mentioned his FT and 3pt, league average in the leagues we play is ~30 on 3, ~55 on ft. Over the 6 player seasons or so I think alex is ~33 and ~60. we play the middle divisions, there are ~5 different leagues. Competition is mixed, some very good players who played in college, some not as good.

You trying to hype him up for a potential trade Bobbo? Really building some verbal value there.

As far as the diet stuff above that DF2 regarded as unnecessary, I'd def go with his (and Soul's) word over mine as they're two of the best posters in this forum IME. That said, from our limited interaction, and what you wrote above, it seemed to me that you might be a hard gainer like me, so I thought I'd offer what worked for me in a similar situation.

Fwiw, I do stick by my assertion that protein / malto / dextrose shortly after workout is the way to go as it's cheap and easy, and I've read a good amount of lit supporting the benefits / have good emperical evidence.

GL!!!

5/13
squat 235x5x1
OHP 125x5x3
cable rows 10x 100 110 120
pullups (wide grip) bw 5x1 4x2
back extensions +25lbsx10x2

was hoping i could do squats every lift, but it seems like i'm gonna have to do them every other. tried them today after doing them on wednesday and my knees were killing me. everything else felt good

oh and i played pickup bball yesterday for ~2hrs, probably the best i've played since h.s. knees felt great and my teams went undefeated

post some vids. knees shouldn't hurt. Knee cave usually the leading cause of knee pain.

k, i'll try and get some video up. at the very least i'll get DFII to take a look next time we go. does the knee cave mean the knees aren't going out enough? does changing my foot angle help this?

Yeah you want your knees angled outwards about 30 degrees. Also important that your knees track over your feet. The knee cave often happens on the way up when the knees come inward towards each other. You lose tightness and can get some weird forces acting up on the knee.

Are you still lifting in running/basketball shoes? Go to Target and buy some converses for 25 bucks.

yea i've been wearing these [IMG]http://www.4nike.com/images/M/AirMaxLTD/*********-Max-LTD-Mens-White-Black-TMTf_3.jpg[/IMG]
i guess it's about time to get better shoes, will report back with results.

Better to lift in your socks than those.

That's what I've been doing and it's way better. But I really gotta get some Chuck's soon!

That's like a built-in Bosu ball in the heels

+1

Once I started to learn to cook, I was very surprised at how easy it was, and I'm one of the laziest guys you'll ever meet. Just buy a grill and load up on food every time you go the supermarket, and you'll actually save time not having to drive to a place to eat for each meal.