Day 2 - Vertical Leap (n.) 🌞

Unhealthy person has only one wish (🌞 Sabbatical Series Day 1 - 7)

Jul 03, 2025

noun.

: the act of jumping upwards into the air. It can be an exercise for building both endurance and strength, and is also a standard test for measuring athletic performance

: The maximum height that a person can jump vertically from a standing position or with a running start.

On my journey to answer “What’s the purpose of life?”,
I need to answer these 3 questions:

Where to live for 5 years
How do I have freedom of time and location
What to learn for the next 5 years

But…These 3 are also really hard questions…

So to tackle the “Where to live” question, I asked myself more questions:

Where have I felt the best physically and mentally?

Austin, Texas

Why?

Sports & Fitness. Almost all of my friends come from sports activities. Whether it’s Beach Volleyball, Basketball, Hiking, Surfing, Running, Weight lifting - all of it involved being physically fit.

And yet, I was the most unfit that I have ever been.

This photo is from June 2023. June 2024 was arguably worse. 3 years without consistent physical training due to environment and work.

What does fit mean?

For me, it’s jumping high.
As a former competitive athlete that had 45+ inch vertical leap in my early 20s, I needed to get back to my standard. (Guiness World Record is 49.5 inch, I was close.)
So I started weight training. Everywhere.

Austin, NYC, Argentina, Brasil, Sweden, Lithuania - Wherever I went, I trained.

I was able to explore all the gyms in each city and came to a conclusion:

Where I live for the next 5 years must have good fitness culture and great gyms.

All of the traveling made it difficult to train and be healthy. After 6 months, it was time for me to get closer to the decision so I can stay in one place.

It came down to 2 places where the fitness culture is at the core of the city.
Almost everyone trains or play some sports:

São Paulo, Brasil
Bali, Indonesia

The complete opposite side of the world from each other. Both had great communities. Great facilities. Great learning opportunities (I will write more about). Ultimately, my trainers and the top tier facility at Nirvana won for Bali.

Timeline: November 2024

Bali, Indonesia - Cancelled flight to São Paulo. Booked a 1 way trip for 30 days.
Pererenan, Bali, Indonesia - Found a villa. Committed for 1 year.

What happened to vertical leap?

Well I started training several times a week with the top trainer Phil at Nirvana, and we bonded over our love for Japan / Anime. He fixed my knee pain, ankle weakness, and taught me olympic lifting properly.

And I jumped like this in the beginning. Which is already pretty high for normal.

But I took it up a notch. Most recently I’m closer to where I can jump before.

I’m proud to say that’s 54 inches - about 137 cm.

I’d like to jump over my own height before I leave this world which would be 175 cm and gets me close to the Guiness World Record…now that’s a story for another day.