There's Always Something You Can Do

I’m a Filipino dude, and needless to say, I’m a shorty. Last time I checked, I was a shade under 5’6”. But I’ve always liked to jump, and surprisingly for a short guy I can jump pretty high. But not high enough to touch a basketball rim. For years I would always be an inch or two from touching it, but never closer. I stopped trying to touch the rim after I got into triathlons. And since getting vertical isn’t a priority for a triathlete, I stopped jumping. Although I could still jump high despite all the mileage I logged biking and running.

In the last few years I haven’t been racing and training much in triathlons, and I wanted get back to things I stopped doing during my pursuit of triathlons. So last year, I was tried a program to improve my vertical jump. What spurred on the interest was a previous program I was trying to help increase my strength. At the end of the program I decided to jump for the hoop for shits and giggles, and to my surprise, I touched it for the first time in my life. I thought “well shit, if a strength training program got me to this point, imagine what a specific jump training program will do for me.”

I got all gung ho about it. I was picturing myself flying through the air like Spud Webb and throwing down the ball. I wanted to bounce around like a kangaroo and leap tall buildings like Superman. Unfortunately, my dreams of soaring the skies died pretty quick.

It was week 2 of the program and I was performing deadlifts at the start of my session. It was at a manageable weight, about 205 lbs. I’ve pulled that weight many times before so I figured it would be a piece of cake.

Nope. Not sure what I did, I must’ve pulled funny because I felt a little twinge in my low back. But stupid me, instead of stopping right there, I decided to finish off the set and do 5 more reps. The next day I couldn’t bend over, even for the simplest things. That put a damper on my training. Deadlifts were definitely out of the question and squats couldn’t be done either, even front squats. The slightest bend forward with load would bring about pain in the lower back.

What was I to do? I love deadlifting and squatting, and not being able to perform them was kind of depressing. Most people in this situation would end up quitting. But I knew there was a way around it, so I experimented. Any kind of bend at the hips was out of the question, especially when under load. So I had to keep my torso upright the entire time. What exercise would allow me to do that?

Split Squats!

This exercise was a godsend for me. It allowed me to work my legs hard without putting any undue stress on my lower back. And I could do variations on it. Check out some of the variation below:

Dumbbell Split Squats

Bulgarian Split Squats

Barbell Split Squats (back)

Barbell Split Squats (clean grip)

The only variation I didn’t perform was with the bar on my back, as I still had a slight bend forward. Otherwise, I was able to work around my injured back. It took about 6 weeks until I was able to perform regular deadlifts again.

Anyway, the point of this article is that no matter what injury you have, there are ways to work around it. Injuries can happen to the best of us. Whether you strain your back like I did, pulled your hammy while running, sprained your ankle, or suffered a fracture, there’s always something you can do.

Obviously there are things to avoid, but it doesn’t mean you can’t train. Broke a finger? Work the other arm. Sprained your ankle? Focus on upper body training instead.

Yeah, it sucks that you can’t do what you want to do, but you can’t mope about it. Moping isn’t going to help you heal any faster. Besides, by focusing on something else, it will help expand your training vocabulary if you will. You’ll be trying things you’ve never tried before and just might enjoy it.

Oh, and if you’re wondering if I ever grabbed the rim, well I had to put that on hold. When my back felt better and I was ready to kill it in the gym again, my wife gave birth to our baby boy. And since then I could care less if I grabbed the rim or not. My boy, my family has got my attention. One day I’ll get back it, just not now.

Overcoming My Fear

What’s your greatest fear? Heights? Spiders? Water? Public Speaking?  They say that some people would rather die than to speak in front of an audience.

My biggest fear growing up was water. I know what you’re probably thinking, “this guy was scared of the water? The guy who races triathlons? No way!”

But it’s true. I never learned to swim as a little kid, so that contributed to my fears. I also watched Jaws one too many times, and anything where scary creatures came out of the water.

It was a fear that stayed with me until I was 9. At that time, I was on a sailing trip to Mexico with my family. Oddly enough I wasn’t afraid of sailing, what being surrounded by miles of ocean all around me.

We were docked in Puerto Vallarta, and my sister and I had met a few other kids during our trip. There was this one hotel by the marina that had a swimming pool, and we’d all go there to hang out and play and just do kids stuff.

At the pool there was a deep dive tank, and there was a shallow area for wading around. My sister and all our friends would all be in the dive tank, jumping off the diving board and swimming to the bottom of the tank. I was jealous.

I was jealous because I was stuck in the shallow end with get this....a lifejacket. That’s right. Even though I was tall enough to touch the bottom, I still had a lifejacket on because I scared. I was scared of drowning in a shallow pool.

I wanted to be in that dive tank with my friends too. I can see them having so much fun, and I was missing out on it because I was scared. That’s when my jealousy started turning to anger. I was slowly getting pissed. I got so pissed off, and so angry, that I ripped of my lifejacket, charged up to the dive tank, and dove right in.

It was sink or swim for me, and I swam.

I conquered my fear, and I challenged myself to take on a fear that had scared me for too long.

Now look at me. I was able to get into triathlons later in life. And my love for triathlons has taken me around the world. I’ve been to Switzerland and Australia for races. I got to explore parts of Canada I never would have gone to if it weren’t for triathlons. All because I overcame my fear of the water.

What’s your greatest fear? Why does it scare you? Whatever it is, don’t let that fear get in the way of living your life.

POPAT Vault Jump Instructions

The vault jump for the POPAT can be daunting for applicants. You’re jumping over a 3 foot barrier, with only your hands allowed to touch, and you’re doing it at the end of the test when you’re completely gassed. On top of that, you have to drop onto your front or back when you land on the other side, further fatiguing you when you feel like crap and your lungs and legs are burning.

I put together a quick tutorial when it comes to jumping the vault. I cover a few tips that you can take away and practice on your own.  I’ve also included a video to show how fast it can be. If you need a little more guidance, feel free to shoot me an email.

The Controlled Falls (PARE and POPAT)

During the PARE, you will be performing controlled falls after the vault jump and in between the push and pull. During the POPAT, the controlled falls are done at the end when you’re jumping the vault. When performed poorly, the falls can be your downfall (pun intended) during the test. I’ve seen people take up to 5 seconds or more getting down and up on their front or back. You add that up over the course of the test and that’s a lot of time wasted, all because you couldn’t get up and down efficiently enough.

You do need a certain amount of strength to get yourself up and down, but there is a technical aspect that’s needed to. You can be strong but if you don’t know how to fall efficiently, then all that strength goes to waste.

Check out the videos below on a short tutorial on front and back falls and how to be as fast as possible.