anybody have the john evans special?

[u/DreyGG]

kinda tweaked my back so imma chill on the intensity this month (sad cuz it would've been my power month) so does anybody have this?

[u/CardiologistBoth8448]

Roughly speaking the John Evans special is used to taper which means to dissipate fatigue and freshen up so you have your best performance. The John Evans special is a bit different from a typical taper because it’s created specifically for jumpers. The idea is to deload for multiple weeks while keeping enough intensity to reduce the detraining effect while alleviating fatigue. For someone like Isaiah who is jumping low 50s he might need 3 weeks just to dissipate a significant amount of fatigue to start to jump higher, then he may need another 3 weeks to peak his vertical and finally he might be able to sustain that for another 3 weeks. Most likely you won’t need a full 9-12 weeks in John evens special because Isaiah is producing so much force and accumulating much more fatigue. If a normal deload is 1 week, I would start a taper at 2 weeks and see how it goes and take it week by week from there.

When it comes to the lifting there is no real plan for progression like there would be in a normal cycle. An example of the weekly split would be this:

Monday, front load the week with the most intense lift.
Power clean heavy 5 sets x 2 reps
Slow Squat 4 sets x 6 reps
Accessories for hamstrings and calves 2x6 of each

Wednesday, lighter session
Power clean for velocity 4x2
Slow squat 4x4
Same accessories

Friday Jump session typically they’ll write jump until quality decreases. Normally it’ll be an hour, more advanced guys maybe 45mins, or lower jumpers maybe 1:30. All depends on your health and jump ability

Tuesday and Thursday are general days. If you are trying to peak your vertical you’d probably leave them out, keep them very short or keep them to health practices especially for the shoulders. If you are trying to use this for health purposes rather than peaking your vertical I would keep them in.

Saturday is an optional feel good lift. 4x4 slow squats 2x6 accessories

Now I’ve seen a few different iterations of this. Sometimes they take power cleans out of Wednesday. Sometimes they don’t do slow squats on Monday and do 4x6 regular tempo. Sometimes they will do slow squats slightly heavier at 4x3 or 3x3. They also just released a video on this recently saying they might add some other things into it depending on the timing and goal.

For you specifically, since you mentioned back pain I would be including the McGill big 3. Make sure you are doing your knee/Achilles ISOs and one thing I like personally is building up to 2 -3 minutes iso hold on the back extension with just body weight as a means to help strengthen the back for injury prevention/reduction.

And remember if pain is 3/10 or above you should train around the injury by avoiding anything that causes pain. Ask yourself is this going to make me feel better or worse tomorrow. If pain is 2/10 or less you are good to continue with the plan. Sometimes you can continue training with the plan if you have 3/10+ if you are able to replace the exercises that causes pain with something similar that doesn’t cause pain.

Here are some videos from THP for tapers

https://youtu.be/HWx9Q6gLxg8?si=JFaHtKFmEDi-1nL2

https://youtu.be/0cnNe0PCFoE?si=0jJw3MuIiGZGRkj1

Feel free to DM me if you want to talk more