Thanks for visiting dunkbonds.com, the dormant Rails app I built to gamify charitable contributions toward personal goals, piloted around my goal to dunk. You'll notice I have made zero effort to update its style, so it still harkens back to its original 2011-era mint.com inspiration, when it was likely already looking pretty dated. Have a click around!
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February 07, 2013

Reinjury?

I felt great going into Tuesday night's trip to the court, until about two steps into my warmup, that is. Maybe it's the shoes.


(I can ironically make that juxtaposition, right?)

Two steps in to some silly looking skips on soft ground and I'm getting that nagging pain from the inside of my left calf (medial soleus strain?)  I'm like, "Self, what the hell?"

I finished warming up and proceeded with my on-court technique work, trying to learn the proper penultimate step in my approach, but there was no ignoring my calf pain.  It made itself known on nearly every step.

The jumping itself went well, when I could get the steps right.  Unfortunately, I couldn't justify making many attempts due to injury risk.  From a pure vertical standpoint, my ups are better than they've ever been, actually.  With one hand, I can now grab rim off of two feet.  It's just a shame the left leg doesn't seem up for the ground pound.

The left hip flexor/groin has been tender and sore as well.  Clearly it is not 100%.

Hopefully I can get into a state where I can make more attempts soon and that this isn't a deflating ending to the last 21+ months.  Contemplating hitting the ibuprofen pretty hard just to make a final run before DUNK deadline, even if it runs me into the ground.  We'll see.

Stay tuned.
January 28, 2013

Jumping Again

Quick update.  November's hip-flexor/adductor strains have improved with the last few weeks of rest to the point that they seem to be no more aggravated by running and jumping, so this morning I actually got out and performed some jump drills.  Workout went well.  Let's hope they cooperate down the stretch.
January 04, 2013

Final Two Months

It's January.  Less than two months until DUNK deadline.  This is the final stretch.  Some updates:

DUNKbonds have been on sale for 8+ months, but this is actually the 20th month that I've been training.  The first phase was to get my base strength up (to around 1.5x bodyweight squat).  Strength is obviously a good way to leave the ground, but explosiveness, elasticity, and power to weight ratio are all important.  That's when the plyo and technique work come in.

Power is one thing, but getting lean is just as important.  If you haven't followed the DUNKblog, I feel that during these last few months my best shot at improvement is to cut fat and work on explosiveness and technique, as my strength isn't going to improve as quickly at this point.

Nutrition, Fat Loss, Diet

I'm experimenting with a mix of what I'll call carb-burst diets, drawing from Tim Ferriss' Four Hour Body and John Keifer's Carb Nite and Carb Backloading techniques.  So far I've been very, very strict:


This chart counts cheat days as compliant, but I still need to tweak the cheat days to get the right amount of carb intake and right duration of carb refeeding.  I think I went overboard a few times, and that might explain why at the moment I'm only down about a pound from my starting weight.  Still, I'm learning a ton.  Interesting stuff, nutrition.

Injury Report

What would an update be without an injury report?  In December I saw my sports med doc about my hip flexor, and we determined it is indeed a strain.  I've been to one PT session so far, and we came up with a rehab plan.  Of course, to truly heal a strain takes about 6 weeks, which pushes into early February, but we are going to reevaluate on January 9th.  I'm currently finishing a week of 600mg ibuprofen 3x/day, and I'm prohibited from impact and jump drills, but I'm cleared to exercise in any way that doesn't hurt it, which includes biking, HIIT, squats, deadlifts, calves, abs and core, etc.  Honestly, recovery is coming along really well, and I hope to be back to jumping near the end of the month--hopefully with better calves and a much stronger, more stable core.

DUNKbonds 2.0 Coming Soon

You may not know, but I've been spending a large portion of my free time working on a complete rewrite of the website.  Soon (within weeks?) I will be opening it up to a select few beta goalsetters so that they can get all public about their goals and sell some DUNKbonds, and, their counterpart (drumroll...) the DUNKswap.  If you've noticed, DUNKbonds are a bet against a goal completing in time.  A swap is a way to bet for it.  With bets both for and against a goal, we will have a much cleaner prediction market, and I believe that will provide a ton more fun and gamesmanship for everyone involved.  

Reevaluate Your Target Pledge

With less than two months to go, DUNKbonds have paid back all but two bucks of their face value.  This means if you own some DUNKbonds, your original pledge amount has dwindled to $2/bond.  Please log in and check your pledge amount, and if your pledge amount has dwindled to an amount lower than what you'd hoped to donate, you might want to buy yourself some more bonds.  ;)

December 14, 2012

Injury Update


Following up on prior injury update.


Left adductor (pectineus?), hip flexor:  

This is still around and prone to aggravation.  Currently, it's quite aggravated due to yesterday's jump drills.  Appt with sports med doc set for 12/18.  

    Hip pain, tightness:  

    The break in training helped.  I'm feeling pretty loose and have been building back in some medium-heavy squat and deadlift.

    Shin splints:  

    Absent, but so has been aggravation.   

    Strategy post mortem:  

    What I said I'd do:
    I'm taking a week off of training, which is well timed to coincide with having wrapped up two four-week training program phases.  Reevaluate on Sunday.
    Myofascial release minimum of three times a day to hit the TFL, QL, and hip flexors, when socially acceptable to do so.
    I'm going to shoot for a minimum of 20min of yoga per day, and optimally 45-60.  Shout out to yogadownload.com and their audio & video podcasts, classes, and iPhone app. 
    Week off:  check.
    Myofascial release 3x/day:  Foam rolling, targeted with lacrosse ball, etc., probably only 2x/day on avg. 
    Yoga:  Got maybe 5/7 days, but some 2-a-days. That's ok, it was a stretch goal (boooooo).
    December 07, 2012

    Initial DEXA Results

    17.8% bodyfat.  


    This seems a bit high considering I feel pretty slim, but the higher the better.  The higher it is, the more I have to lose, and the easier (relatively) it will be to drop.  I weighed in at 169.4 today, and the machine calculated 29.8lbs of fat (not counting bone marrow fat, I believe.)

    Here's where it all is.
    Because images are fun, and apparently I have a fat crotch.

    Think a 160-162lb Aaron can DUNK?

    Aside:  DEXA is pretty amazing.  My bones weigh 7.3lbs.  This is apparently normal.  Skeletons are amazingly light!