A year of trying to dunk in a real game
An update on training, diet, and dunking a year after the calorie-tracking post.
A year ago I wrote about a 150-day calorie-tracking experiment that took me from 230 to 205 pounds. By the end of it I had visible abs for the first time and I could dunk a basketball in warmups, one and two hands.
It's been almost exactly a year since that post and I wanted to write an update on where things have landed.
I'm 227 pounds now. My body fat is somewhere in the 14-17% range on a Withings scale, probably closer to 16-17% based on what I see in the mirror. I'm jumping a little higher than I was, and warmup dunks have gone from "I can usually do it" to pretty automatic with very little warmup.
The thing I still haven't done is dunk in a real 5-on-5 game in traffic. That's still the goal.
How I've been training
The structure has been pretty simple, and stayed about the same most of the year.
- 90 minutes of full-court 5-on-5 basketball, three to four times a week.
- Two barbell sessions a week, rotating bench, deadlift, back squat, overhead press, and power cleans.
- That works out to five or six training days a week.
I also do box jumps and other vertical jump work. Every time I play, I get 10-20 max-effort dunk attempts in between games, which works out to 50-100 full-effort dunks a week. Most of the jumping improvement seems to come from being heavier, getting a little stronger, and that volume of attempts.
My lifts are up maybe 15% across the board. Not huge.
How my diet has changed
I stopped weighing my food a while ago. By the end of the cut last year I had a pretty clear sense of what I should be eating and what I shouldn't, and the rules don't really need to be looked up anymore.
What I'm aiming for now:
- Around 200 grams of protein a day. I don't track it, but I'm confident I'm hitting it from habit.
- Around two pounds of meat a day. This is more of a heuristic to keep me from snacking on things that aren't a proper meal.
- Carbs around basketball. Two or three bananas or a big handful of dates before I play. Almost none on days I'm not training hard.
The staples:
| Food | What it does for me |
|---|---|
| Beef shanks and other slow-cooked beef cuts | Wholesome, marrow- and collagen-rich, hearty meals |
| Ground beef and other beef cuts | Variety helps me keep eating it consistently |
| Boiled eggs and sardines | Shelf-stable backups I actually like |
| Whey protein, 50-60g in water | I really don't like this, but I drink it on days I can't cook |
| Bananas and dates | The pre-basketball carbs |
I still don't eat nuts, peanut butter, cheese, or most pork cuts. Same as last year.
One thing I figured out along the way: I can't get myself to eat reheated ground beef. The texture doesn't work for me. That means for about four days a week I need a different protein source that does reheat well, and that's how I ended up leaning on beef shanks and other slow-cooked cuts.
I mention this because the actual problem to solve isn't always "macros." Sometimes it's grocery shopping, or what you can stand to eat after a few days in the fridge. I spent more time on this than I expected to.
I stopped wearing my Apple Watch when I play
I started taking my watch off during basketball. The bulk on my wrist plus a wristband over it felt like a drag on my performance, and I'd rather not have it.
The side effect is that I stopped tracking calorie burn, and eventually I stopped logging calories in too. The food rules I described above do most of what the spreadsheet used to do for me.
Where the dunk is now
A year ago I went from not being able to dunk to being able to dunk in warmups.
Since then it's progressed in a few smaller steps:
- Warmup dunks went from "achievable with a long warmup" to consistent with almost no warmup, one or two hands.
- I started dunking consistently in 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 games.
- I started dunking on fast breaks in 5-on-5 when nobody is between me and the rim.
The next step is dunking in traffic. So far I've only gone up for the dunk when the path was completely clear. I've tried it a couple of times in 5-on-5 traffic and couldn't finish. That's been enough to give me a sense of where I am.
Part of the gap is physical — I need to be able to jump high off-balance, from different angles, from a little further out. Part of it is confidence, actually going up at the rim when there are bodies around me instead of laying it up safe. I think a few months to a year-plus of the same training, with more attempts in traffic, will close most of it.
Each step has come the same way: more training, more reps, and slowly it gets there.
Injuries are part of the training now
The thing I didn't really appreciate a year ago is how much of training hard at this stage of life is about training around small injuries so they don't become big ones.
Three I dealt with this year:
- De Quervain's tenosynovitis in my wrist, mostly from picking up small kids. It flared up any time my wrist got hit while playing and limited how much I could use my off hand for a few months.
- An Achilles flare-up that turned out to be from worn-out shoes. It took me a couple of months to make the connection. Now I notice the signal earlier and replace shoes before I think I need to.
- A mild hamstring strain that put me out for two weeks. I tripped on a fast break and caught myself. If I were weaker, the strain probably would have been worse. If I were stronger, I probably would have caught myself without straining anything. I came away from that thinking baseline strength is worth a lot for avoiding injury.
None of these were dramatic. But I've noticed that injuries I leave alone tend to linger in some small way for a long time, so the work has shifted to noticing them early, deloading or adjusting, and trying to build strength in the spots I keep tweaking.
I expect this to be more important over time, not less.
What I've taken away from the year
When I started a year and a half ago, the problem was "lose weight to jump higher." Then it became "build muscle without putting the weight back on." Then "actually dunk in a 5-on-5 game." Then "find protein sources I can eat consistently at this volume." Then "stay healthy enough to train hard for a whole year."
The problem keeps changing as I get closer to the goal. The actual answer to "how do I dunk in a real game" has involved a lot of cooking, grocery shopping, shoe choice, and learning how to live with whatever's slightly off this week. It's not only about basketball.
What I'm taking away from this is that my lifestyle, routines, and discipline are going to need to be at another level from where they are right now — maybe a level I can't fully comprehend yet — for me to actually get there.