THPStrength

What is THPStrength?

Isaiah Rivera, pro dunker, and John Evans discuss anything related to maximizing athletic performance, and in particular, jump training. Strength and conditioning, jumping technique, weight room practices, and general fitness and health tips and advice are shared on this podcast.

Isaiah:

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the THB Strength podcast. Today's podcast is brought to you by THB Strength online coaching, the premier coaching program for jumping higher and getting rid of knee pain. If you are an athlete that wants to add at least three inches of vertical in the next six months, we have a guarantee that if you don't do that we're gonna coach you for free until you do. So go to tspshrint.com take advantage of that deal and without further ado let's introduce the topic which is how to listen to your body.

John:

Which this this was inspired by, I think, a conversation that we had on the last week's one of the last week's podcast. And then also one of

Isaiah:

our

John:

athletes, Nasir. Nasir is one of the guys we've coached for probably, what, I don't even know, on and off. Technically, we coached him in 2020 and then he came back this year because he was having knee pain. So he's a basketball player in New York, pretty talented player, has potential to be really, really freaky if he can get his knee a 100% healthy. And went through the whole season, was able to play, I think, every game outside of a couple because he was sick, not because of his knee, which is a huge accomplishment.

John:

He wasn't able to walk down stairs initially, and now he is actually training on pretty what is considered pretty high training loads. And, yeah, he's doing really well. So he today was talking about, you know, this bone bruise that he has, and Isaiah and I got to talk and we're like, know, it's probably one of the most under undervalued or underestimated skills that super elite guys have comparatively. Like, if you're looking at 2024 compared to like 2012 or 2008 even, those Pro Dunkers at that time. Like, what separates the guys now is their ability to listen to their body.

John:

Like, Kilgannon, Chris Staples, Isaiah, Jay Clark, like, one of the reasons that they've been able to continue to improve over the course of, I don't even know how many years, is because they listen to their body. And I think some guys just especially in our training, they just fucking suck. Like, they're really bad at it. And if you're one of our athletes and you're like, yeah, I suck at this, this is probably an under underrated skill that if you develop over time is really gonna help you make adjustments to your own training or even communicating things or not being up our ass and still knowing what you need to do. Mhmm.

John:

Because that can, you know, increase autonomy, which increases compliance and will increase your consistency over time. So without, I guess, further ado, what are a couple ways that you, I guess, practice this

Isaiah:

on a I day to day mean, I guess first we have to define what do we mean by listening to your body. I think this skill specifically is listening to your body. Because your body is basically is it's constantly communicating to you. Specifically with pain Yeah. I believe is the and discomfort.

Isaiah:

Your body is giving you signals. Right? So the skill that we're specifically talking about is listening to those signals and then making the correct decision based on those signals and that skill in of itself is low key one is probably the most valuable thing for long term athletic development. Like if you don't have that skill doesn't matter how good your training is eventually a hiccup will occur, an injury is gonna I don't know it'll be up.

John:

That I've coached at a high level that has never ran into an injury.

Isaiah:

Yeah. Not one. Inevitably

John:

athlete I have coached Yeah. That is at that elite level and wants to be world class. And even the ones that that don't that wanna try to be world class, but, like, maybe don't have a talent level.

Isaiah:

And I would even go so far as to say, and not just us, every coach ever Yeah. Will have their athlete eventually run into an injury.

John:

If they're telling you that that's not the case, they're lying to you. They're yep. Lying to you. Their athlete has gotten so good at listening to their body that they don't get hurt because they know better. But that's a really, really difficult skill to develop because you have to know what thresholds to cut certain things off.

John:

And specifically, we're talking about pain levels. Right? So, you know, if Isaiah's doing a jump session, I'm doing a jump session, what we're paying attention to and it's a fine line between being hyper conscientious or over like, hyper vigilant and being able to push the limit of the whatever session you're doing to allow for adaptation. And that is really the skill of it. Right?

John:

You need to know what is an okay acceptable level of discomfort and what if what is gonna cause long term damage if I push through it. And so for me, if I'm doing a session and I'm a one foot jumper, I'm paying attention to what my my left patella is telling me because I need to warm up appropriately and slowly so that I don't push through a certain level of discomfort or a certain effort level too soon that is going to send me back the next week of training. For Isaiah, you know, we talk about tracking all the time. He's a tracking evangelist, at this point. The number one number one worldwide evangelist of tracking.

John:

If he, doesn't do that appropriately or correctly, I. E. Listening to his body, which is just a function of listening to his body, then he will trend downwards week to week or even month to month to where it will lead to him potentially tearing his IT band or, you know, he hasn't torn his patella or anything else. But, it's led to to major setbacks that ultimately have cost him, you know, twelve months of high quality training. Because we're good at our job, we've been able to work around it and still get him better.

John:

But if he wasn't if if he didn't have that skill at all, we probably never would have gotten back to him testing 50.5 or hopefully 51 this summer.

Isaiah:

Yeah. If I didn't have that skill at all, I probably wouldn't be a dunker.

John:

Yeah. So what I guess here's here's a question for you. What are the I guess when you're when you're training and you're you're going through a session and you're trying to quote unquote listen to your body, what are you paying attention to?

Isaiah:

Alright. I am paying attention to right now or at like at the specific moment?

John:

Let's say like you know during last cycle we were going through the lunges and really really intense training workload was super high.

Isaiah:

I'm brutal. Okay. So I'm gonna start by saying that I guess what exactly do we mean by tracking? Tracking is really just noting down your pain scores for different injuries. So every morning I wake up and I have pain provocation provocation is that how you say it?

Isaiah:

Provocative test. You have a pain? Think there's a there's a the words provocation like provocation test.

John:

Provocational? You do a pain provoking Yeah.

Isaiah:

Something

John:

that hurts. Whatever you do. Provocative activity.

Isaiah:

Yeah. And then I will write down exactly how I feel. So the different injuries or I guess body parts, I'm not gonna say necessarily injuries is left knee, right knee, left hip. That's basically it. And then I'll do my test and then I'll I'll write down, oh, left knee I pushed a 100% at a two out of 10 pain.

Isaiah:

Right knee I pushed 70% at a three out of 10 pain and my hip fell a two out of 10 pain at 70%. And I do that every single day. So when I say tracking that is exactly what I'm talking The injury might depend on the person so it could be your back that you're tracking, it could be your patellar tendinopathy, it could be PFP that you're tracking, ankle sprain, literally anything and everything. It used to start, I used to do it with the injury that was the most messed up for lack of a better word, but now I've gone on to track every single body part, every place that I've had injuries in the past before because I found as soon as I stopped tracking even if it's not an issue as soon as I stopped tracking I tend to push my body too hard. So like John said if I'm like when I'm not tracking, tend to have a downwards trend in my health.

Isaiah:

When I am tracking, I have an upwards trend in my health. And the reason that is so important is because you get data, and you're able to make decisions based on that data.

John:

And you can't change what you don't track. Yeah. Is that the saying?

Isaiah:

Yeah. If you can't if you don't track it, you won't change it. Yeah. Because the data is what allows you to make informed decisions. If not, you are making very subjective.

Isaiah:

You're making decisions on information that isn't very reliable. I was gonna say subjective information, but technically the pain test is subjective. Yeah. But it's giving you data and it's very it has a high rate of inter reliability. Right?

Isaiah:

I know Intra rater. Intra intrarater reliability? Yeah. It's such a

John:

weird So within yourself, it has a high level of reliability. Yeah. So day to day, if you're tracking it yourself, then it's relative to you, it's it's very accurate.

Isaiah:

Because for me meaningful. A three out of 10 might be different from John's three out of 10 but that doesn't matter. What matters is that you have a month month's worth of data you know exactly how your pain trended during that month and you know exactly what you're doing. So the other thing is I write down what the high the most highly intense thing that I did the previous day was. So today, for example, I'm gonna be doing asymmetrics and panda pulls.

Isaiah:

I'm gonna write set of six at two ninety five front squat. That was probably gonna be the most provocative thing I do today.

John:

Set of five?

Isaiah:

Set of five.

John:

And something heavier than that. I think it's like 2.5% boost.

Isaiah:

Yeah.

John:

It's gonna be great.

Isaiah:

So, and then tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and I'm gonna write down what my pain levels are. And typically, you wanna see that improving or staying at baseline week to week. So normally we tell athletes a three out of 10 pain is acceptable and that's okay as long as you're staying at a three out of 10 Monday to Monday and your training load was the same or even went up that means function is improving or staying the same. We never what we never want to see is a downwards trend in those pain scores. So a lot of people might look at my pain scores right and I might I might pull it up today and here I'll read it just because it looks crazy.

Isaiah:

It might say right knee three at 50%, left knee two at a 100%, PFP one at bodyweight squat, TFL one at a 100%. You might see that and be like damn he's really injured every body part has an injury but that's not what doesn't matter is the pathology. What matters is function increasing, is pain stable. Right. And if those two things are happening you will make long term progress in your health.

John:

Yeah, you're really looking at the symptoms of what you're feeling. So for me, I really look at my left knee, either PFP on that knee or patellar tendinopathy, and then I pay attention to my Achilles tendinopathy on this leg right now. On the right knee, I was having a little bit of PFP. I tracked it for a day, and we have so much data because he's so good at tracking that it resolved itself within two days. Right?

John:

I was loading it too frequently, and I was listening to my body. I was deciding, hey. I wanna do this two times a week of jumping, but I'm seeing that I'm turning downwards by tracking. And so

Isaiah:

I wanna pull up the message I sent you.

John:

Yeah. Coach Isaiah. I'm definitely doing that this week, by the way. I'm gonna, like, coach you as if I'm an angry basketball college coach. It's gonna be hilarious.

Isaiah:

So John, he he told me how he felt. And then, like he said, I've tracked so much that I kinda it's made me better as a coach now.

John:

It's funny to see Mitek's not in blue.

Isaiah:

Yeah. But John John said, I wanna lower him. Can I lower him Monday and Thursday? Monday Mondays and Thursday, please, dad. I said, no.

Isaiah:

And then he said, but dad and I said and I quote, you have PFP, you fuck.

John:

Which I was like, oh, yeah. I guess you make a fair point. That would be double down the load and because he could.

Isaiah:

He technically could, but I know from my experience having PFP and and having coached other guys, there would be a downwards trend. Might be able to handle it a week, two weeks, three weeks, but there's gonna be a downwards trend and and it's the trend that we know. We always just wanna see upwards trend, and vertical, and health. And health.

John:

Yeah. Exactly. And we know that I'll be able to load today and Wednesday. Maybe I maybe I get 10 jumps in after I do my my power cleans or squats or something. I'm feeling really good.

John:

I'm not gonna go have a a fifteen minute session. Know, we both tell guys try to jump more if you can. This is also me trying to convince Isaiah to let me jump a couple times today because I'm excited. But you you know, even that is is an example of like, Say we tested today and I feel like shit tomorrow or Wednesday, then I know that I can't do that. And maybe I jeopardize me having a session on Friday by testing that.

John:

But the ability to listen to my body and and make those those judgment calls over time consistently and correctly is gonna allow me, like we said, to have upward trajectory in my health and my performance. And so for those of you that are listening to this, if you're one of our athletes, start tracking, a, and b, make sure that you do it consistently and that you're not you you know that fine line of is this gonna make me better tomorrow or next week? Yep. And is it or is it gonna make me worse? Is it am I gonna go the other direction with this stuff?

Isaiah:

That's what I was gonna say is the second part of it. So there's tracking, and then just answer the question, is it gonna make me feel better or worse tomorrow? Answer that accurately and then adjust your training accordingly. And if you're one of our athletes, if you feel like you're about to do something that's gonna make you feel worse the next day Don't fucking do you need to don't one, don't do it and then ask us what to do. Because we'll give you if you

John:

feel like your back hurts and and I put in six by five back squats last two sets at 80% or 85%, don't do that. Don't do that. You know you know that it's probably gonna make it worse. Like that's just a bad idea.

Isaiah:

And as you get more experience you can make the adjustments yourself. For Yeah. Example

John:

100%.

Isaiah:

Those are I might have

John:

Those are

Isaiah:

Wednesday. Wednesday I have I'm gonna have whatever, five by five back squat at 85%.

John:

Let's see that. Austin's weaving behind us, by

Isaiah:

the way. So let's say that's the that's the lift. If my back is sore, and then I ask my so my back is gonna be sore. Right? Then I'm gonna ask myself, am I gonna feel better or worse tomorrow?

Isaiah:

Most likely worse. If the answer is worse, now I'm gonna say okay what can I do to have the same stimulus as a back squat as close as possible to it but I'll feel better tomorrow? For me front squats boom. Let's say you let's say for you oh and then cut depth. I do front wheels and cut depth, guess what?

Isaiah:

I'm on my back's gonna feel even better, and I'll have you been able to load heavily in a specific muscle group. Now a different athlete, those two things might be provocative. So we might say, get on a leg extension machine, get on a leg press machine, don't go as deep, or maybe just do the bottoms up part. A lot of different different ways to do it, but you can only get good at that stuff and get that experience if you start tracking. Because tracking is gonna give you that data, oh, I felt worse.

Isaiah:

What did I do the previous day? Oh, I felt better. What did I do the previous day? If you do that for a month straight, you're gonna be better at listening to your body than ninety nine percent of athletes out there.

John:

And what I don't want, what I do not want you guys to do is to be obsessively hyper vigilant about paying attention to every little thing you feel in your body. This is not a meditative practice.

Isaiah:

We're not telling you to be to neurotically be testing. Yeah.

John:

It's just once a day, you

Isaiah:

say In the morning.

John:

Three minutes thinking about it. And do not think about it, don't overly assess it, or anything else. If it's if it's less than a three or a four, I pretty much don't wanna hear about it. Okay? Now if it's a three or four and it's getting worse, if you're moving into five or six, which is like it kind of fucking hurts, then you need to pay attention to it.

John:

Right? But you know, some guys are like, oh, felt a three and I'm like, dude, I wake up every day and I might feel a three or something like that. Yeah. You know, ideally, don't want that to be the case. But after dunking, I I might feel a five or six.

John:

I might feel kinda shitty. But by Monday, I probably feel fine. So please do not hear what we're saying is tell us every little scratch. If you get a scratch from

Isaiah:

You're gonna note it in the morning.

John:

Gonna note it in the morning like that's not what we're looking for here.

Isaiah:

Right? It's like track track it, don't think about it, and then anything that's above a three or there's been and I would say above a three and it's gotten worse week to week, that's when it's like, I need to make changes. Yeah. But aside from that, keep freaking training. Yeah.

Isaiah:

Don't change don't change things around and then yeah. Just data. Separate yourself emotionally from the data. You gotta be with this stuff, you almost have to be a robot.

John:

Yeah. Facts don't care about your feelings. Okay? So try to remove your emotions from the equation. That said, I don't have much else to add.

John:

I feel like we've covered that pretty thoroughly. So this is probably one of those unspoken skills that elite guys have. I've seen it at every level or every sport, I guess, from track to dunking to to basketball. I'm sure these guys are Lebron is probably incredible at it. That's probably why he's able to play at the age he is.

John:

So, yeah, take that for what it is. And if you guys are watching this on YouTube, make sure you like and you comment. That's the least you can do for us. It helps the algorithm and the infamous algorithm is what determines our success in life. So if you wanna see more content from us, then make sure you do at least that.

John:

If you're listening on a streaming platform, if you can give it five stars or subscribe if it gives you the option to do so, make sure you do that. And obviously, if you're looking for coaching, go to thbstrength.com to get the absolute best training in the entire world.

Isaiah:

Alright. See you guys. Catch you guys in the next episode. It would be really it would be really cool to talk to LeBron about his body. Like not about basketball, but just like what injuries have you felt with?

Isaiah:

What what what would you

John:

do? Exposure is when I sit over here actually?

Isaiah:

Has your knee ever hurt?

John:

What is the exposure? Am I raising the exposure or lowering the exposure today? It's

Isaiah:

plus 1.7.

John:

Let's go. Alright. If I wear white and black, the exposure level was more appropriate. Cool. See you guys.