Oh, hi there

Hello, let me introduce myself. My name is Howard Spencer and I am an avid strength training fan and a basketball fan. As a matter of fact, it was my love for basketball that got me to like strength training. Let me explain:

I like playing basketball. However, I found that I used to have a lot of problems playing in the post. I couldn't jump very high and I used to hate the constant pounding involved in playing in the post. This used to result in my shot getting blocked a lot, and my opponents getting their shots over me with ease because they could jump higher than me and were stronger than me. So I did some research about increasing my vertical jump. After some trial and error and some more research, I came across a great product called Vertical Jump Development Bible by Kelly Baggett.

In this book, the author laid out the principles of vertical jump training in a simple, blunt way. He emphasized the importance of being strong to increase vertical jump. This was an area which I found myself lacking in, therefore I followed one of the strength training routines from the book, which involved squatting and deadlifting. However, wrong squatting caused me to have tendonitis in my left knee. After 5 months, I started training again, using bodyweight exercises this time, for fear of using weights and reinjuring myself. In my search for using bodyweight exercises, I came upon the Dragondoor website. This website had a lot of articles on hard, effective bodyweight exercises such as the planche and pistol. It wasn't long before I came across a publication on the site which said that I can become really strong without adding weight using just a barbell. This opened my eyes because:

1. I thought this was impossible
2. Vertical Jump Bible stated that I needed to have a good strength to bodyweight ratio in order to have a superior vertical jump, which made this supposed type of training ideal for this purpose.

Oh, what was the name of the publication? Power to the People by Pavel Tsatsouline

I took the plunge, bought the e-book and the rest is history. I've been using the program for close to 2 years and I've never been stronger. My progress up to this point can be seen on this blog.

Lately, things have been pretty rough. I got laid off at the end of last month. I REALLY HOPE that doesn't affect my training. I'm so close to a 600# deadlift right now, to have to put it on hold because of lack of funds would really suck. So these days, I'm out looking for a job and trying to improve my credentials at the same time. I really don't want to stop training as I enjoy it so much. I like to be able to do things like these:




So I wish myself luck.