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.

John:

What's up, guys? Welcome back to the THP Strength podcast. My name is John Evans. I am the best jumps coach in the entire world. I'm gonna start owning that.

John:

This is Isaiah Rivera. He coaches also a lot of people at

Isaiah:

the tell them why, though. Every marketing book I said says talk about them. They don't care about you, John. Tell them why you're the best.

John:

Tell them why I'm the best? Okay. Yeah. I will what

Isaiah:

does that mean for them?

John:

Alright. So I I have interned all over the country with coaches from all over the world. So for all intents and purposes all over the world to learn as much as I possibly could about track and field. Ended up getting very, very, very good at coaching track and field underneath all of these great coaches. Then I moved home and started studying after I'd partially tore my patella and fixed it.

John:

And then I helped Isaiah fix his ruined patella tendon. He was my second athlete I ever coached after improving his best run vertical, Austin Burke, from, like, 40 to 46. I don't know. Something like that. Isaiah got his knees better, tested forty four five, and then trained him for about three, four months, tested 50.5.

John:

And since then, I have helped three other athletes break into the 50 fold, if you will, and no one else in the world has done that. So that's the only way I can show myself to be the best.

Isaiah:

Train normal people. Actually They

John:

increase their vertical on average.

Isaiah:

End of week three, Moses jumped ten eight, a four inch gain on his vert since we started. By the way, he started three weeks ago.

John:

Yeah. That's that's crazy.

Isaiah:

You take when you take a high schooler or a old guy who has a low training age and use the same methods, it goes crazy. So that's why

John:

It works.

Isaiah:

Makes him the best. Alright?

John:

Yeah. That's what it

Isaiah:

means for you.

John:

I've been obsessed with this for many years and studying and reading everything, so I can help you guys get better. So we leave no sterns no stones unturned over here at teach me strength. We use all the different methods that the world has to offer to help our athletes get better. And on that note, Isaiah, what what happened to you today?

Isaiah:

I came home from the training session and I knocked out. Like, I literally so I'm not someone that takes naps. I took a shower. I laid down and closed my eyes and fell into the deepest sleep. Like, I was so relaxed.

John:

Did you sleep well last night?

Isaiah:

Yeah. I got, like, nine hours of sleep last night.

John:

Oh, yeah, baby. This is what I'm talking about.

Isaiah:

Yeah. I was I just fell asleep.

John:

Did you take protein at least?

Isaiah:

Yeah. I ate. I

John:

ate. Okay. That's good.

Isaiah:

Came home, ate, took a shower. I actually, when I laid down because I was thinking, was like, should I work? Blah blah blah. And I was like, nah. Let me just, like, rest my eyes.

Isaiah:

And then I set an alarm just in case I did fall asleep, and the alarm rang. It was right before the, like, we said we're gonna podcast. It rang and, like, I was in shock. It's like, woah. What just happened?

John:

I just slept two hours.

Isaiah:

Yeah. Because usually, if I if I, on purpose, try to take a nap, like, I won't ever like, I won't truly fall asleep. It's just, me, like, laying with my eyes closed or something. So that was like I was out within five minutes, I was out. So it was just like I was not expecting that, dude.

John:

I yeah. I was coaching Donovan, and I got back. Yeah. Pretty much just want ready into doing that. And it's funny.

John:

So I I know I don't know if you guys know this, but when Isaiah trains immensely hard, I'm talking, like, really, really, truly hard, his brain function starts to decrease, and this is good. This is what we like to see. I like to see his nervous system start to downregulate a little bit, and that's when I know it's time to pump the brakes. So as I've said, I've been wondering whether it was time to start kinda reeling in a little bit some of the volumes and intensities and stuff like that. And I think today, plus this nap, confirmed that you are very fatigued.

John:

So his numbers, for those of you that that don't know or didn't listen to the last podcast, his power numbers on Monday were pretty good. Today, we saw a a pretty significant drop off. We're talking, you know, five plus percent, which is about the point when I would pull the plug on a cycle. And I was talking to Rolf, and we had a a conversation last night about Who's Rolf? Fabian.

John:

Rolf Oman is one of the best string conditioning coaches for track and field, but also just an amazing track coach. He's a world class decathlete at one point. And his son's staying here, so I've had the luxury of kinda talking to him a little bit more about training and stuff like that. And it I mean, he just he loves to talk about it too and so do I. So it's always really insightful.

John:

And I was talking to him about Fabian and kind of explaining, like, you know, this is what I'm thinking. I'm one of the the direction I wanna go. And, you know, I guess people have asked him before, like, do you endorse what the guys over at THP does? And he's like, well, I mean, it works, and I think we can all learn from that. But in the same way, I try to learn a lot from Rolf.

John:

So what he usually does is he goes two weeks where he really kind of accumulates, you know, volume and intensity and then unloads and then kinda repeats it and intensifies it before he unloads again. So it's three week cycles. He usually progresses the exercises slightly in the second three week cycle, and then he also has a lot more rest built in. So for Isaiah, might give him forty eight hours. For Rolf, those guys, as elite sprinters, they'll have seventy two hours.

John:

And I've said this before. I'll say it again. Elite sprinters are very, very sensitive to fatigue. I think Donovan has a nervous system that's very similar to this. I think you you have a a really good nervous system.

John:

I don't think you're gonna run ten one in a 100. So I don't know. You think you can run ten one in a 100? I don't know. I guess, but with Rolf.

John:

But so, yeah, I I was kinda taking some notes from this, and I've been tracking a lot more during this cycle because I needed to know what was happening with the velocities on some of this power work. And what we've seen is week one was the best, and then we've kind of maintained pretty close in week two. And then, you know, now that we're to the latter half of week two, we're starting to see numbers drop off, but other indices are still increasing. So your eccentric max strength is is going up a lot. Like, today, you did two up, one down on the leg extension at was it two twenty?

John:

Is that what you hit?

Isaiah:

It was no. I had it at 02:20 plus the the little fives on two thirty. Two thirty on each leg.

John:

Did a 100 kilos plus on one leg in eccentric leg extension, which is really, really good. I mean, we're talking something highly, highly isolated where it's really just the quad, and then we paired it with a double dip plyo. And when I was watching the double dip plyos, I was like, oh, the the these guys are thrashed. Like and it wasn't just you. Like, Josh's metrics got better at, you know, as well.

John:

He started to fall off as well in some of those those power metrics and stuff like that. And it's like, okay. We're we're on the I always say this. We're balancing on, you know, a a fine edge of a blade. And if you go too far in one direction, you're you're gonna tip over.

John:

So we're kind of at that tipping point where we need to start pulling away the work or pulling away the workload. You know, your work capacity should have gone up a bit, should have got better at some of these capacities. And, hopefully, this next week, I'm gonna test some different stuff with you if you're healthy. So here's the thing. If you guys think Isaiah should jump on Friday, comment comment what you think.

John:

If if you think he should, say Isaiah should jump. If you think he shouldn't, no way, then go ahead and comment that in the comment section below because I wanna know what you guys think. If he should, I don't wanna say bury himself, but this cycle was it it would be interesting to see where you're at. That that's kind of the caveat. Yeah.

Isaiah:

Yeah. I'm starting to get scared, but I also think about where I was at on

John:

Last week?

Isaiah:

I think I'm actually in a bit of a better spot. So

John:

I mean, I think that I you're definitely gonna play ones with Dom.

Isaiah:

Oh, I actually would love that.

John:

Yeah. Either ones with Dom or Josh because Josh is also, you know, pretty

Isaiah:

Oh, that would be perfect. Just, like, some, you know, court type thing.

John:

Yeah. And just like twenty minutes of that, call it. I think that would be really, really good for you guys. And that way you can get some, you know, elastic loading. If you wanna do a few dunks, can, but it's not gonna be like a proper dunk session, but at least you get to scratch that edge, go to the court.

John:

And if you feel incredible, then Yeah. You know? But tentatively, that's that's what I'm

Isaiah:

leaning towards. Two, baby. Magic rule. Work up to a two.

John:

Yeah. For those of you who don't know, if Isaiah goes above a two in any jump, it usually takes him the other direction. If he stays below that or cuts it as soon as it goes above that, it's usually good to go. So we've been following that rule for, I don't even know, probably, like, eighteen months to twenty four months now, maybe longer. And It always works.

John:

Consistently helped you trend upwards. I think when we get away from that, it doesn't work. The other thing that we realized today is that when you do a lot of this power training, and I would say one of the things that I learned and can I'm always continuing to learn, is the warm up is really important, especially when you're moving those really light loads. Today, we did counter room of jumps and box jumps, basically, onto, like, a 24 inch box just out in front of the house. And I would say that that considerably upregulated your nervous system, you know, before the session.

John:

I think if you hadn't done that, the numbers would have been horrible, way worse, like way worse. Yeah. Like, we went to the gym and he's doing the the plyos. I'm telling you, I saw it. And if you looked at my story, you probably saw I don't know if you saw I tagged you in my story.

John:

I said or I don't know if I tagged you, but I put you on my story. And I was, like, in the background talking, and I'm like, oh, yeah. We're done. This looks like absolute shit. Like and I I wanna next week, what I'm tempted to do is bleed in very, very low volume depth jumps.

John:

I'm talking, like, five reps, super sharp, super bouncy, super elastic of shock loading, like, a Wednesday or Tuesday or Monday or Tuesday, actually, and kinda mix it up. Maybe Monday if you can handle it. I don't know how you're gonna feel coming out of the session on Friday. And then we're just gonna work up to, like, two fifty maybe on a power clean and just one rep singles, go super fast, no more than seven reps, and then do some some triples or whatever on the on the belt squat, and then cut it. You know?

John:

Like, just keep it super short, super sharp, get you in and out, and then see, you know, how you feel on Wednesday. And then, hopefully, you're, you know, a little bit fresher. We'll probably just work up to, one eighty five to two twenty five on the cleans. Maybe I'll have you do jump squats on that day. I don't know.

John:

If you can handle it with your back up to two twenty five and see what your VLOs are like, see what your wattages are like, and then cut it. Because next cycle, that's where the work's gonna be. It's gonna be at these lighter loads. It's not gonna be, you know, at the at the crazy stuff on the Olympic lifting side, but it's also gonna be high, really, really high. I'm not sure exactly how I wanna do it yet, but I wanna try to get, you know, the wattages pretty pretty crazy.

John:

Rolf was saying that his son or Patrick was saying he did 9,000 watts on an exercise, which I'm baffled that that is possible. So I wanna see what you can get on it, doing something somewhat similar. And I also wanna see what happens when we start to move, you know, light loads really fast. Like, the counter movement cleans, really light. It's gonna feel easy.

John:

That's the point. You know? It's not really it's meant to address some rate coding and then touch on max strength at the end of the week. That's kinda what I'm leaning towards. We've talked a lot about how we wanted to do that, and that's that's what I'm thinking.

John:

So what are your what are your thoughts?

Isaiah:

I think, I'm just curious what this is all gonna do. That's my thoughts. I Yeah. I mean, like, I wanna test after this, but I'm very, I have such low hopes if I'm not in a crazy, like, adrenaline environment, but, I mean, I've always said this. Like, I I would wanna be able to PR in an empty gym.

John:

Yeah. I would like that too.

Isaiah:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

John:

I mean, that's around, are you gonna be home for Christmas?

Isaiah:

Yeah.

John:

Oh, I think Donovan's staying too, I'm staying. So maybe we can we wanna spend Christmas together.

Isaiah:

Yeah. This would be great. Yeah. I'm I'm just really curious. I'm really curious how I jump.

Isaiah:

I'm curious how my tendons are gonna feel. That's always, a limit or two when I'm testing. Mhmm. Just being able to try hard, but the training's been so hard. I don't see how I wouldn't jump higher.

Isaiah:

Yeah. And then knowing I I was jumping around 49 last session, like, I don't know. Guess we'll

John:

see. It's gonna be interesting.

Isaiah:

I I I'm I'm glad

John:

we're only doing two weeks because I think if we did an another one, it would be

Isaiah:

We'll get buried probably.

John:

I see your bronze sexual book in the background. Never noticed that before. You're you're you're you're a bronze sexual?

Isaiah:

Yeah. I am.

John:

Yeah. I'm not a bronze sexual.

Isaiah:

And I'm

John:

Ejaculator. Ejaculator. That's the word I

Isaiah:

was looking for. Are you more

John:

of a bronze sexual or an ejaculator?

Isaiah:

I'm both. I'm definitely both.

John:

Fifty fifty.

Isaiah:

I'm more of an ejaculator.

John:

Really?

Isaiah:

Yeah. You can see

John:

Zip it up when you're done.

Isaiah:

Where is Michael Jordan somewhere up there? Wait. Magazine's gone. Did it fall? Oh, wait.

Isaiah:

I have this.

John:

There you go. Yeah. Put that in the frame. There we go. That's good.

John:

I like that. So, yeah, that's really all I have. I just wanted to go over kind of where we're at, what happened with the session, and kinda give you guys some insight because, you know, as Isaiah is going through these cycles, they are I don't wanna say novel in a sense. They're actually, this cycle is truly novel. We've never done this before.

John:

I've wanted to do this before, but we've never been able to do it. So he did successfully get through plyos and eccentric work, which I almost never do. I put in very long rest periods on the accentuated eccentrics. There's some evidence that indicates that you can get some, you know, true potentiation. JC Ditch actually did a lot of work on this.

John:

He used weight releasers and did it with a different protocol. The way we did it probably wouldn't have it happen, but if there's a little bit of evidence for it, then I'm gonna do it, you know, the right way or as close to as close as possible to that. I mean, if we used weight releasers and we did a true test, it would be different. I think that would be really fun, but we don't have weight releasers. I mean, I don't think we can get away with using those at the the LA Fitness.

John:

Maybe.

Isaiah:

We need to buy them freaking flat. I believe you.

John:

Like a four fifty lower and a three fifteen up phase on, like, a six count and you do one rep.

Isaiah:

That'd be crazy.

John:

I think it would be good. Raw fax should have something similar with that.

Isaiah:

Really processing at a very slow speed.

John:

It's okay. It's okay, buddy. I'll take over. I'm like

Isaiah:

wow. I'm Hey. Hey. Crazy.

John:

It's it's good. This is good. You should treat yourself to a nice steak dinner tonight or something. Celebrate the end of the cycle. We should get dinner tonight.

John:

Oh, wait. You can't. Yeah.

Isaiah:

It would be a little tough today. Dang. I'm pretty muddy. Bro, I'm like, yeah. I'm I'm slow.

Isaiah:

Like, I'm really slow today.

John:

It's alright, man. You know? We all have those some days, and I appreciate when I say it's like this. You know? It makes me feel like like I did my job.

John:

But if you guys are interested in coaching and you wanna end up in a brain fog like Isaiah, you click the link in the description. If you purchase the annual plan, it's half the price if you paid for the month to month for a year. So it'd be $8,900 versus paying $1,800, and it takes time to get better, make people better. If you wanna get better, click the link in the description.

Isaiah:

That's the show. Baby, take the risk. Jump. That's right. No pun intended.

John:

Alright. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Ciao.