Topic: AA3 and WOD

[Bubblemaker]

Hi I wanna start the WOD instead of my own workout cause it seems much better.
However, I'm also doing the Air Alert 3 programme (in case you don't know it: http://www.home.no/slominski/Air%20Alert%20III.htm) Can the WOD and AA3 be combined, or will the WOD itself train my vertical leap just as good, or should I start the WOD after I finished AA3 (i'm now in week 8 )

[Gearsighted]

It depends on how much energy you have each day. If increasing your vertical is your #1 priority, then some added plyometrics a few days a week won't hurt. I've never been a huge fan of AA3 just because the massive amount of volume towards the end would seem to negate any realy power training. The WOD does feature a lot of lower-body plyo, but increasing jumping power isn't the main goal, so it will come slower (since it will stay in par with all other aspects o fitness). I think that you could easily get away with adding an abreviated AA3 program 3 days a week, doing it in the evening and the WOD in the morning (or vice versa).  If you get into it and feel like you could be doing a lot more, bump up the volume or the intensity a bit. On the other hand, if you start to feel really beat up, cut it back a notch and get more rest.

Let me know how it turns out!

[Bubblemaker]

Cool thnx, I don't think energy will be a problem but time will probably be. So I'm gonna start the APK WOD and finally add some reps to the 13 max pullups I can do now 

[Vertical]

AA3 has been rumoured to have very, very bad effects on your knees.

It may look like its helping at first, but 10 years down the line, who knows.

I was going to start AA2 and AA3, but when i was doing some of the excercises, I noticed a painful cracking in my knees, so I instantly stopped.

It was only a few months after that then I heard that it may cause problems with your knees, so a little light went off in my head that told me 'Ah, so I was right!'

My advice; don't dont Are Alert.

(Just incase you want to know, my knees are fine now, i found some very good light excersises that have reduced the cracking considerably. Funily enough, my knees only got to that state from doing too many big jumps, into landing or badly excecuted rolls, a lesson about rolling I learned the hard way.)

[Parkourdan]

Vertical youre on a Parkour board. Parkour is worse for your knees then plyometrics will ever be.
When I played highschool basketball I lived on AA3. I combined it with squats and lunges and it worked wonders.
I could stick my whole arm into the basketball net back then, so I could obviously jump and it was doing its job.

This program is bad though for anyone with "par level" and lower knees. It will ruin them fast.

With any joint problem (ie your cracking knees), plyometrics is usually a bad idea and proper strength training around the joint should be done well before the thought of power/explosiveness comes into play.

[Vertical]

Yeah, it might work for some people, but its gotten itself a very bad reputation from others.

[Gearsighted]

plyometrics is usually a bad idea and proper strength training around the joint should be done well before the thought of power/explosiveness comes into play.

And this is exactly why. Nobody ever listens to recommendations like these, thinking instead that they are plenty strong and that they can easily skip the strength training. Then they end up with knee problems and blame it on the program. The Bulgarian Olympic team (who pioneered much of the plyometric training studies) used to require track athletes to have a double-bodyweight squat before they were allowed to work on plyometrics. Even then, they would start slow (jump squats, laterals, broad jumps) and work up to the higher-impact movements such as depth jumps, etc.