The NBA Slam Dunk Contest (Where Nothing Happens) And Weekly NBA Power Rankings

I’m not going to speak on All-Star weekend very much here. Despite it being a glorified pickup/exhibition game with little intensity or defense (until the last 2 or 3 minutes), it’s still probably the most fun to watch of all the major sports’ all-star games. Can we agree that the dunk contest is officially lame though? It’s basically devolved into a 30 minute circus act of guys jumping over people and objects of various heights while changing jerseys several times in between. Just about everything that could be done seems to have been done, and aside from the occasional year where a Vince Carter, Dwight Howard, or Blake Griffin participates there’s little to no star power either. You can make the argument that the best dunkers in the league are not necessarily the best players if you want, and there are guys like this year’s winner, Utah benchwarmer Jeremy Evans, who are probably up there with other more household names who have in-game throwdowns regularly, but I’m not really buying it. These guys are the outliers, the exception to the rule in my opinion. Evans’ 2 ball, jumping over teammate Gordon Hayward, alleyoop was pretty cool. It took tremendous athleticism and skill, and I had never seen anything like it to be honest, but it didn’t exactly get me hyped. It was a parlor trick. It reminded me more of the weird guys you see at halftime shows who can spin 5 basketballs at once on their head, hands, and feet (or whatever) than a dunk contest clinching jam. And yes, maybe everything that is possible has already been done (thus the seemingly never ending parade of props), but I’m pretty sure I saw 4 or 5 dunks in the actual All-Star game that were better than anything I saw on Saturday night. You don’t think a dunk contest featuring LeBron, Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, and either Durant or Russell Westbrook (let the teammates play H-O-R-S-E or rock-paper-scissors or something to decide who goes) would be electric? The NBA and its sponsors need to figure out a way to make this happen next year at all costs. On that note, on to this week’s power rankings…the All-Star break made for a lack of games and changes, but maybe that will be cause for some brevity on my part…maybe.

Come on, man (and by "man" I mean the NBA).

1. Miami Heat (PR=1, 28-7)…Eviscerated Jeremy Lin and the Knicks prior to the All-Star break, and rattled off their 9th straight in Portland last night, where LeBron showed he is the ultimate Swiss army knife.

2. Oklahoma City Thunder (PR=2, 29-7)…Like Miami, the Thunder don’t appear to be going anywhere unless KD or Westbrook suffers some type of catastrophic injury. Have won 7 straight themselves, and started off a tough East coast road trip right by beating Philly and Orlando.

3. Chicago Bulls (PR=3, 29-8)…Gutted out a tough win in San Antonio on Wednesday, and it’s hard to be critical of a team that has the 3rd best record in the league and has won 4 straight, but they just seem to be missing something on the offensive end (much like last year). Rip Hamilton doesn’t appear to be the answer.

4. San Antonio Spurs (PR=4, 24-11)…The Spurs stay here almost by default, as the top 3 in the power rankings seem to be a class ahead of everyone else (as shown by the Bulls coming into their house and beating them).

5. Indiana Pacers (PR=Not Ranked, 22-12)…Much like the Spurs in their loss to Chicago, the Magic kind of showed why there’s a top 3 and then there’s everybody else in their home loss to the Thunder last night. Even though the Pacers lost 5 straight prior to their current 5 game winning streak (in which the schedule has been kind), they are owners of the 5th best record in the league right now. They might need 1 more year of experience to really challenge Miami and Chicago in the East, but I like what I see.

26. New Jersey Nets (PR=28, 11-25)…I’m telling you, man…the Nets are by no means “good,” but they are not terrible either. They’ve won 3 of their last 5, and those 3 wins all came against teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. If Brook Lopez never got hurt, this would be a borderline playoff team (for what that’s worth in the East).

27. Toronto Raptors (PR=26, 11-24)…Have won 2 of 3, beating fellow bottom-feeders Detroit and New Orleans, but the Raptors may be perpetually stuck in the rankings anywhere from 26-29 for the rest of time.

28. New Orleans Hornets (PR=27, 8-27)…Eric Gordon is still technically their leading scorer on a points per game basis for the season. What could be sadder than that?

29. Washington Wizards (PR=29, 7-28)…Can I just say I’m all for Randy Wittman’s recent benching of JaVale McGee and Nick Young? And it’s not like Wittman’s going to be back next year anyway, so it’s no skin off his back, but it’s a big fat (and deserved) “f*** you” to GM Ernie Grunfeld for doing his job in an exceptionally stupid manner…bravo.

30. Charlotte Bobcats (PR=30, 4-29)…The Bobcats might not ever be moving from this spot. Maybe next week I will think of some commentary for their entry, but for this week I’ve got nothing!

Rising: we’ll give the Lakers a mention here, as they’ve steadily climbed to only a game out of 1st place in the Pacific Division

Falling: Philadelphia and Dallas (both losers of 3 in a row)

I'll Never Be A Weightlifter

"Don’t pay attention to what other people are doing." "When you enter the gym, leave your ego at the door." "If you're not using proper form, then you're not doing it at all." These are the mantras that are always hyped up in fitness magazines, so anyone that has ever frequented a gym and got at least somewhat serious into training knows these catchphrases well. I think I have even written similar things in this forum, and yet it’s one of those things where it is tough to follow your own advice. I wrote on here a week or 2 ago that I had felt myself start to plateau (in the upper body at least…I feel like my legs have a lot of room to grow still). I’ve come to the conclusion that the main reason for this is 1 basic premise: my form is crap. If I’m being honest with myself, as I’ve started to lift heavier (for me), my form has started to break down in most of my lifts.

I 1st noticed this when I lifted with Krissy’s brother, Mike, in New Jersey over the holidays. Mike is built like an action figure, and he took me through the most difficult chest workout of my life. Going into the day, I felt pretty good about myself. I had gained some size and strength since the last time he had seen me in the gym, which was a few years before this. It wasn’t long before my confidence (and upper body) was completely shot. I was getting scolded for cheating in most exercises by using too much shoulders and arms. My main takeaway from that workout was that my form wasn’t good, but there were other things that Mike was saying that just didn’t register at the time. For example, when benching, he told me to try to not even thinking about pushing the bar, and instead focusing on "squeezing," or contracting, my pecs all the way through the motion of the exercise and to try to let my shoulders and delts overpower my chest. I basically ignored/didn’t get that part of the advice until I watched the following video earlier this week.

The monstrous dude from the clip’s name is Kai Greene, a pro bodybuilder, and for some reason a lot of the little tidbits (which I had probably heard a million times before) stuck with me when I heard him say them. "I’ll never be a weightlifter." "How much do you lift? It’s really not important to me." "This stuff, this will make you feel good, but it’s not going to benefit you." And what he kept repeating over and over throughout the clip was, "Full stretch, maximum contraction." It should be noted that in the video, Mr. Greene is using the same weight that I use for that curl move, but I’m obviously not seeing the same benefit he is (so, I must be doing something wrong). I’m not saying I want to or ever will look like him, but to say there’s room for improvement is the understatement of the century. Now, some will say that bodybuilders only care about looking pretty with their shirt off, and the real beasts in the gym don’t necessarily subscribe to a bodybuilder philosophy. However, it also should be noted that there’s another video of Greene on YouTube benching 495 for reps, so I think it’s safe to say that the top bodybuilders are beasts too. Anyway, aside from the goofy narration at the end of clip, I would say this video is worth a peek. I am going to try to, as Kai said, lower the weight and clean up the quality of the exercises. I have made some strides from when I 1st started training, but crappy form and poor lifting execution may have taken me as far as it can. Maybe it’s time to try something a little different…doing it the right way.

Week 4 NBA Power Rankings Served Up With A Side of "Boring"

Man, did I pick a terrible NBA season to do a reoccurring power ranking post. So far, this condensed schedule has produced a very top and bottom-heavy league. Consequently, there has been virtually no movement from week to week in my top and bottom 5’s. Through the 1st 3 weeks, both my top and bottom 5’s have alternated between 6 teams each, and the order of my top 3 has been exactly the same every week…boring! If I had time to rank teams 1-30, there would be a lot of movement in the middle, but 1 man can only do so much. A little heads-up: don’t look for that trend to change too much in week 4 either. However, we do have 1 new face in the game this week, so bear with me…on to the rankings!

1. Miami Heat (PR=1, 26-7)…Another week without a blemish, another week (4 for 4) atop the rankings. New additions and improved chemistry between The Big 3 aside, the real reason for the Heat’s dominance this year: LeBron and Wade’s shot selection. James and Wade are both on pace for career highs in FG% and career lows in 3-point attempts per game.

2. Oklahoma City (PR=2, 26-7)…Are tied with Miami for the best record in the league, and just finished another perfect week as well, but Sunday night’s OT thriller against Denver may have showcased why the title might run through OKC for the next 5 years or so. In an off shooting night for James Harden (2 for 12), KD netted 51, Westbrook 40, and Ibaka not only had a triple double but clinched the victory with a game-ending block as well.

3. Chicago Bulls (PR=3, 27-8)…Ho-hum, the Bulls finished another strong week and rounded out the top 3 for the 4th consecutive time. More important than any game results though, the Bulls got back a certain reigning MVP by the name of D-Rose, and he doesn’t seem to be showing any effects of those lingering back and toe issues.

4. San Antonio Spurs (PR=4, 23-10)…Let’s make it 3 weeks in a row for my top 4 while we’re at it. I wanted to drop the Spurs just out of spite for playing their JV squad and losing by 40 to Portland the other night, but just couldn’t do it in good faith after they had reeled off 11 straight W’s. Love it or hate it, Coach Popovich knows what he’s doing.

5. Orlando Magic (PR=Not Ranked, 22-12)…Lookout, everybody! We have some new blood! It’s still inconceivable to me that the Magic can challenge Miami or Chicago (or a young and hungry Indy or Philly team for that matter) in a 7 game series the way their roster is currently constructed, but facts are facts, and following that ugly 4 game losing streak in late January Orlando has won 10 of 13 to get to the 3rd best record in the East. Despite some truly awful free throw shooting and having 1 foot out the door already, Dwight Howard (averaging 20 and 15 a night) is putting together another All-NBA type season.

Not a bad core-4 to have.

26. Toronto Raptors (PR=27, 10-23)…Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming of “boring.” Once again, I really, really wanted to drop Toronto further down. They are responsible for nearly 20% of this year’s wins for the 3 Eastern Conference teams below them in these rankings.

27. New Orleans Hornets (PR=28, 8-25)…The Hornets climbed another spot in the right direction this past week. They have as many wins (4) in their past 6 games as they did in their 1st 27. The bottom of the East is clearly worse than the bottom of the West (as evidenced by who’s populating these rankings), but New Orleans recent stretch seems to support that notion too (4 of those last 6 opponents hail from the East).

28. New Jersey Nets (PR=29, 10-25)…I watched some of that Nets-Knicks game from this past week, and the Nets shouldn’t be this bad. They also beat a Rose-less Bulls team in Chicago, which is still no easy task. They have a top 3 point guard in the league (Deron Williams), a good shooter (Anthony Morrow), 1 of the steals of last year’s draft (Marshawn Brooks), and a guy who is a serviceable, professional starting NBA power forward (Kris Humphries). Other than Humphries, I guess they are pretty weak on the interior, but there is no reason these guys shouldn’t be a borderline 0.500 team in the East. They finally got Brook Lopez back last week, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens as he works his way back into shape, but I expect the Nets to crawl out of the bottom 5 in the coming weeks…just saying.

29. Washington Wizards (PR=26, 7-26)…After climbing to their highest ranking of the year so far last week, the Wizards showed they can’t handle any form of “success,” and promptly dropped to the lowest position in these rankings this week. This team just has so many people that would be not fun to play with. For example, Nick Young and Jordan Crawford played a combined 69 minutes in Wednesday’s loss to the Kings, took a combined 42 shots from the floor, and together they only had 3 assists. Crawford did score 32 off the bench, but I’m sure that will only encourage him to keep gunning when he’s already 4 for 19 from the floor in the 4th quarter in their next game.

30. Charlotte Bobcats (PR=30, 4-28)…Do I still have to keep writing about this team? At least they ended what was a 16 game losing streak, but they celebrated that win by losing 2 straight to the Pacers by an average of 24.5 points per game. Their average point differential this year is a staggering -14.3, and if you’ve watched them play, you might be surprised it’s not worse.

Rising: Indiana (after a 5 game skid, the schedule helped them out with games against NJ, NO, and twice against Charlotte, and they’ve won 4 in a row) and Houston (sneakily rising in the Western Conference standings)

Falling: Atlanta (usually fake their way to a good regular season record at least, but key injuries may be too much to overcome this year), Milwaukee (seriously, what’s good about this team?), Utah (2-8 in their last 10), and Denver (would be on the outside looking in if the playoffs started today)

My Guilty Pleasure: Going Streaking

Going for a personal record here: 8 posts in a month. And it’s a short month (February) to boot…not too shabby. So, I’ve written before that one of my guilty pleasures is ESPN’s Streak for Cash. Actually, it’s more than just a guilty pleasure…it’s a full blown addiction or sickness or whatever you want to call it at this point. Some people say that insanity is when a person repeats the same task over and over, but still expects a different outcome from that action every time. Well, a quick little look at my Streak for Cash history shows that I’ve been playing since August of 2008. That’s like 3 and a half years of the little monkey pushing the lever expecting to get a food pellet when he gets hit in the head with a mallet instead. My record is far from stellar. A quick little Excel spreadsheet shows that I am 796-701-40 all-time in Streak for Cash. That’s me picking the correct outcome only 53.2% of the time. If that was me betting with a bookie, 53% would be making me a lot of money, but when the object of the game is to pick as many correct games right in a row as you can, 53% isn’t going to get it done.

Now, you play Streak for Cash for free, so it’s not like I’m betting away our mortgage or anything, but it still seems like an exercise in futility most of the time. Whoever decides what games to put up on the site to allow you to pick from (much like the oddsmakers in Vegas) know what they’re doing. These games are legitimately hard to pick, and even if they weren’t hard it doesn’t matter…only 1 person wins every month (each month everyone’s streak gets reset, and the contest starts over). What the difficulty level does do though is weed out even more pretenders. To build a streak, you have to be lucky and knowledgeable (which I like to think I am), but just like in regular gambling you have to have restraint too (which I don’t have much of at all). Know when to fold ‘em, and all that good stuff…thankfully, I never really got into gambling or sports betting because I think I would be terrible at that aspect of it. Even if I get a streak going, I inevitably will try to pick some Euro-league soccer match that I know nothing about, and ka-blam-o…there goes the streak.

My all-time best streak was 14. I was pretty proud of it at the time, but realistically I wasn’t even close to winning. The average winner from month to month has a streak in the mid to high 20’s. Take my picks this month for example: 17-14-1 with a monthly best of 7 in a row. Not bad, but the current leader is already up to a streak of 22. That’s not even a third as long as this month’s current leader, and the eventually winner will probably have a streak even greater than that. And yet every morning (often multiple times a day) I point my browser or mobile device app to Streak for Cash and make a pick, alternating right and wrong picks on average. Sometimes I wonder if this is all just some elaborate psychological experiment, and we are all the willing participants. Think of all the free data some dorky guy in a lab coat would have for a study! Maybe one day this monkey will finally get his food pellet…or maybe he will just keep getting whacked in the head with that mallet…my guess is the latter though. Either way, I don’t see himself not pushing the lever anytime soon.

Straight To Week #3 of the Weekly NBA Power Rankings

No little intro/throw-away paragraph this week…let’s get right to the rankings!

1. Miami Heat (PR=1, 23-7)…I said this week would be an interesting test, as they played 2 good teams (Atlanta and Indy) and a team responsible for 2 of their 7 losses this year (Milwaukee). How does becoming the 1st team in 3+ decades to win 3 straight road games by 15 or more sound? They’ve won 7 of 8 overall since these rankings began, and they look to be on a mission as of right now.

2. Oklahoma City Thunder (PR=2, 22-7)…Only went 2-2 this week, and they seem to be in the process of figuring out how to play with a target on their backs every night. Still, they are helped by Chicago not making a move this week either. Doesn’t it just seem like they are on a collision course with Miami in the Finals this year?

3. Chicago Bulls (PR=3, 24-7)…You could make an argument for them at least leapfrogging OKC in the rankings. They went 2-1 this week, and finished a 9 game road trip at a very respectable 6-3, most of which they didn’t have the services of D-Rose…but that’s just the problem. It’s hard to rip them for being deep and resilient enough to chug along without their reigning MVP, but this team isn’t going anywhere long-term as long as Rose continues to be on the shelf.

4. San Antonio Spurs (PR=4, 21-9)…They might be doing it with smoke and mirrors, but hard to drop a team that has won 9 in a row overall and their 1st 5 games on a 9 game road trip. Tony Parker has been playing great and (along with LeBron) carrying my fantasy team, but we’ll find out more about the Spurs leading up to the All-Star break as they finish their road trip at the Clippers, Jazz, Blazers, and Nuggets.

5. LA Clippers (PR=5, 18-9)…How boring can I be? No movement at all among my top 5, but they went 3-1 this week to finish 4-2 on their road trip along the way. Losing Chauncey for the year was tough, but K-Mart (and possible J.R. Smith later on) should help shoulder that burden. The Clips look to be here for the long haul.

Oui, oui!

26. Washington Wizards (PR=28, 7-23)…Went a surprising 2-2 this week and have won 3 of 6 overall. In light of that coupled with a win over Detroit, I had a notion to move them ahead of the Pistons and out of the bottom 5, but that seemed a little premature. That was probably the right move, as Nick Young and Jordan Crawford followed a stellar combined 21 for 33 shooting night in Portland by shooting 10 for 33 the following night in LA.

27. Toronto Raptors (PR=27, 9-22)…I wanted to drop Toronto further down the list, but there are some truly bad basketball teams below them right now. However, even though the Raptors went 1-3 since last week’s rankings and are 2-8 in their last 10, they followed a win against Boston with back-to-back heartbreakers delivered by Kobe and Linsanity. I guess they get a pass for now.

28. New Orleans Hornets (PR=29, 6-23)…Hold everything, the Hornets won 2 in a row! We’ve had a Chris Kaman sighting, as Kaman averaged 22.5 ppg during those 2 games…just in time for nice road trip with stops in NY, OKC, Indy, and Chicago.

29. New Jersey Nets (PR=26, 8-22)…The Nets are definitely trending downwards. They have gone from not even being in the bottom 5 in week #1 of the power rankings to 26th in week 2 to 29th this week. They extended their losing streak to 7 and have lost 9 of 10. A new arena in Brooklyn and a Russian billionaire owner with access to G-5’s are nice, but it’s going to be hard to attract any big-time free agents to a team that stinks this bad.

30. Charlotte Bobcats (PR=30, 3-26)...They haven’t won a game since these weekly power rankings began. Need I say more? I’m not even going to mention the 16 game losing streak…oops, I just did. How do those Tyson Chandler and Gerald Wallace trades look now?

Rising: New York (have gone from a laughing stock to being in the playoff mix with 7 W’s in a row), Orlando (winners of 3 straight, but this team’s Jekyll and Hyde act is wearing thin), and Dallas (the champs might be hitting their stride)

Falling: Indiana (after getting a lot of love as one of the East’s up-and-coming teams, have lost 5 straight)

Some Linsanity To Cure Your February Doldrums

February has to be the dumbest month in the whole calendar year. 28 days, leap years (and this year is a leap year for the record)…seriously, where the hell does February get off having at least 1 but usually 2 less days than any other month? Also, if you’re living in a Mid-Atlantic state (like Maryland), the weather is garbage. There is just as much a possibility for snow as there is for it to be sunny and 70, but what you’re probably going to get is temps in the mid-40’s and rain. Cripes…wake me up when March is here. But let’s move on to the story de jour that Sportscenter is bludgeoning to death: Jeremy Lin.

Leave it to ESPN to turn a great story into something I can’t stand looking at or hearing about, but it’s undeniable that Lin is a great story. The guy was lightly recruited, played his college ball at Harvard, went undrafted, and has been cut by NBA teams multiple times in his 2-plus years since finishing his college career and spent time in the D-league…and he’s Taiwanese-American, AND he’s doing it all in the Mecca of all basketball to boot! It’s pretty incredible stuff. And it’s not just New York fans though…checkout the Toronto crowd’s reaction to him hitting the game-winner last night.

The reason Lin’s story is so compelling is because it basically follows the script of any sports movie (and even “bad” sports movies are usually pretty good): a guy or a team who has been overlooked because they’re too small/too slow/not skilled enough/a skin color we’re not used to comes from obscurity to make good. We all like rooting for the underdog deep down. We’re used to watching professional athletes with a sense of entitlement who have had nobody do anything but tell them how great they are from the time they’re in junior high. It’s refreshing to see someone succeed through hard work and perseverance against all odds. That’s basically the American Dream in a nutshell, isn’t it?

I’m hard-pressed to think of someone as unknown as Lin reaching his level of success right off the bat. Someone on TV mentioned Kurt Warner as being comparable to Lin in terms of coming from anonymity to immediate success, but aside from that it’s hard to come up with an example like it. Lin’s game does have flaws. He always wants to go right, and even if he does go left initially he will usually use a spin or some other move to get back to his dominant hand. He’s not a ballstopper or a black hole on offense, but he’s definitely more of a shoot 1st point guard who has the ability to pass than the other way around. He turns the ball over a little too much. He has somewhat of a hitch in his jumpshot that looks funny at times, but all of that almost seems to just further endear him to the fans at Madison Square Garden, as if to say, “Yeah, he doesn’t look like everyone else, he can only go right, and his jumper isn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but he’s ours.” Knicks fans seem to love that kind of stuff…which is why I always thought it was funny that they seemed so desperate to win the LeBron sweepstakes or land Melo the year after. Superstars just don’t look right in a Knicks jersey. Give them John Starks, fresh off the street from bagging groceries to D-up MJ. That’s what they want. So, Jeremy Lin and the foibles in his game should feel right at home playing at the garden. Oh, and did I mention his teammates seem to love him and have rallied around him as well?

Linsanity will probably face stiffer tests than D-Fish prior to season's end.

It’s likely that Lin will eventually level-out to being consistently good rather than spectacular on a nightly basis at some point. Defenses will begin to figure out the best ways to attack him, and he will have the opportunity to play against better defensive point guards than Derek Fisher, Ricky Rubio, and Jose Calderon as well. In his 5 starts, Lin is averaging 27 points and almost 9 assists per game though, and the Knicks have won 6 in a row overall…hard to argue too much with results like that. Even if by season’s end his averages dipped to, let’s say, 18 and 7 (and the Knicks continue winning), that would place him with some of the better point guards in the league. Either way, he doesn’t just seem like some flash in the pan. My main question is this: since he appears to be legitimately good, what the hell were coaches looking at when this guy couldn’t get on the court before? Even in Golden State where Curry and Ellis are going to get the bulk of the run, how can this guy barely crack the lineup? What’s Houston’s excuse? Even the Knicks, who had struggled with their point guard play all year, had this guy on their bench for 20-some games before playing him. You’re telling me he wasn’t killing Tony Douglas and Mike Bibby in practice every day? Makes you wonder sometimes…but for now, let’s all just sit back and enjoy. Linsanity is in full effect.

Training Update

I feel like I’ve made some decent gains when training my chest over the past few months, but sometimes it’s hard to tell. Because the gym Krissy and I have belonged to didn’t originally have a standard flat bench, I didn’t really know how much I could bench. I knew that I’d been lifting heavier on the Smith machine and with dumbbells, but I never really knew what that translated to. Well, as I’ve mentioned on here before my gym added a few pieces of equipment several months back, and thankfully 2 of those pieces were real bench press stations (a regular flat bench and a power rack). Having not benched in a few years, the 1st few times I trained chest on those stations were definitely a shock to the system. Keeping decent form and trying to balance the weight was a challenge in and of itself, but a few months later I eventually worked myself up to a 1 rep max of 220 lb., which is probably laughable to many (NFL combiners bench 5 lb. more than that for seemingly zillions of reps), but it was 25-30 lb. more than my 1RM was at any other point in my life. I still haven’t been able to truly hit the mythical 225 lb. mark yet…I failed once, and had a really shitty spotter the 2nd time I attempted it. (I got the weight up, but my spotter probably touched the bar too early and assisted me in the bottom portion of the lift…so, I’m not sure if I really "got it" or not.) That was probably 3 or 4 months ago, and I haven’t tried again since. I may try again in a few weeks just to see where I’m at.

Anyway, what 1st made me think to write this is that I think I may be beginning to plateau for the 1st time since I started benching again. Last week in my progressive overload cycle, I was scheduled to bench 3 sets of 5 reps at 200 lb for a total of 15 reps. Instead, I could only do 1 set of 5, then 2 sets of 4, and a final set of 2 just to make 15 reps. (I actually tried it earlier in the week, and after my 1st set of 5 I felt really weak…weak enough that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to muster out 2 more sets of 5. Ironically, I thought I was just having an off day or something, so I pretty much bagged the rest of my workout, only to suffer the same fate at the end of the week as well. With a looming plateau on the horizon, I instinctively looked to the almighty Google for answers…only to be overloaded with information, per usual. My main takeaways are that I need to take lifting legs more seriously, and I need to incorporate some type of dynamic lifts or rack lockout lifts into my chest routine. I normally dread leg day, as I feel my 40-time and dunking potential has probably been reached at this point, but if working my legs will help strengthen other weak points in my body that could be the extra source of motivation I need. Apparently, given the fact that your legs make up basically half of the muscle mass in your body, training them naturally boosts your body’s testosterone levels, which in turn helps strengthen all of your other muscle groups as well. Specifically, squatting is an essential leg exercise because it shocks your entire central nervous system. As for dynamic lifting, it requires the use of chains or bands when you lift. They are supposedly great for working to break through a plateau, but I’m not sure I’m willing to pony-up for them just yet. Floor presses and rack lockouts may be the way to go because both can help you work on pushing past your sticking point, which seems to be my problem (as opposed to the lockout or upper portion of the lift). Anyway, that’s all for now…more progress updates to follow.