After diving into months of calorie tracking like it was my side hustle, I had a revelation: I was chronically underfeeding myself carbs. Shocking, I know. Here I was thinking I was on top of my diet game, but in reality, I was cruising through workouts on half a tank of gas and wondering why my engine kept sputtering.
I’m 200 lbs, I train hard for 2 hours a day, and I’m generally more active than a caffeinated toddler. I should be eating around 400g of carbs a day to support all of that. Wanna guess how much I was averaging? Around 200g. That’s not “no bueno,” that’s carb neglect.
The Protein Bias
I’ve always been focused on protein, and rightfully so—it’s the golden child of macros. Every fitness influencer, bodybuilder, and probably your mom’s chiropractor tells you to “hit your protein.” So, I did. Religiously. Unfortunately, that always came at the expense of carbs.
Carbs are tricky. Everyone agrees they’re important for training, recovery, and performance—even in fat loss. But tracking them sucks. Why? Because carbs are delicious and unforgiving in small doses.
“They bake fresh chocolate chip cookies, let you take one bite, and then rip the plate away.”
That’s what it feels like trying to stick to moderate carbs. It’s not even hard to track—it’s just emotionally devastating. But this week, I made the commitment to fix that.
Fueling Performance: Carbs Matter
Carbohydrates are the primary fuel for high-intensity training. A review in the Journal of Sports Sciences (Jeukendrup, 2011) emphasized that adequate carbohydrate availability is essential for maintaining training intensity, delaying fatigue, and promoting glycogen resynthesis.
Research shows that during resistance training and explosive movements, muscle glycogen is the dominant fuel source. Depleted glycogen levels impair performance and recovery (Kerksick et al., 2018).
Even among bodybuilders, carb manipulation plays a big role. Carb cycling—alternating high and low carb days—is a common strategy used to support training on high-volume days and manage fat loss on off days. Studies suggest that while carb cycling doesn’t magically boost fat loss, it helps maintain training intensity and muscle glycogen on key days (Campbell et al., 2020).
In short: carbs aren’t just good for energy. They are vital for performance, especially when you’re pushing yourself in the gym or on the court.
Clean, Boring, Beautiful Fuel
So how do you get 400g of carbs while keeping everything else in check? With the cleanest, most disciplined diet ever. I’m talking pressure-cooked chicken, rice, broccoli, fruit. That’s right, I’ve essentially become a walking meme—the chicken and broccoli guy.
I mapped out a perfect day, meal prepped the entire week, and ate the same meals daily. Exciting? No. Effective? You bet.
The Outcome? PR City
- Day 1: Nothing major
- Day 2: Meh
- Day 3: BOOM. PR Dunked @—10’ with a dodgeball. That’s a 30” vertical for those keeping score.
“Talk about getting a little taste!”
And I’ve gotta say, I felt more energized in the gym, more focused, and my training intensity went up. Even post-workout, my legs felt fatigued—which is good. Before, I felt more systemic fatigue, like I’d just tried to outrun a bear while hungover.
Training Adjustments: Some Good, Some Not
Contrast training continues to be my bread and butter. I pair heavy lifts with explosive plyos, keeping it tight and effective. Still doing:
- Isometrics at jump angles
- Core work
- Hip mobility on recovery days
But I made one change that didn’t quite hit the mark: I tried doing my heavy contrast training BEFORE my plyos, then wrapping up the session with more lifting. The idea was to prime the muscles for better explosive output.
Did it work? Kinda. But I also gassed out quicker. I got fewer quality jumps and needed more recovery. So, back to the drawing board.
The Warm-Up Wake-Up Call
Now let’s talk about mornings.
My alarm goes off at 4:30AM, and I’m on the court jumping by 5:00AM. That’s not normal. That’s what you do when you have a family, a job, and a dream of dunking on your brother by the end of the year. “Merry Christmas Mother F#$&*@!”
But your body? It doesn’t care about your dreams. It cares about circadian rhythms. There’s research suggesting that performance varies based on time of day due to chronotype differences—aka early birds vs. night owls.
“It is somewhat genetic. Everyone has different tolerances and preferences toward their periods of activity.”
Anthropologists have even theorized that humans evolved with diverse wake/sleep schedules to maintain 24-hour vigilance in tribal groups. So, when I’m crawling out of bed to hit the gym, it’s not just hard—it’s literally fighting evolution.
Waking the Beast
To get moving, I use a tried-and-true cocktail of:
- Pre-workout (duh)
- Fast carbs (banana or rice cake)
- Dynamic warm-ups: jump rope, bounds, hops
- Music that convinces me I’m in an action movie
But moving forward, I’m shifting my warm-up to be lower intensity, higher volume—just doing more of what I’ll be doing (but chill). Less pre-fatigue, more nervous system prep.
Final Thoughts: Fuel the Machine
This week confirmed a few things:
- Carbs are not evil, they’re just needy.
- Prepping your food = prepping your success.
- You can’t out-jump poor fueling.
- And PRs feel way better than being slightly leaner.
So I’m staying the course, riding the carb wave, and looking forward to more vertical gains.
More to come. For now, I’m off to eat more rice.
References:
- Jeukendrup, A. E. (2011). Nutrition for endurance sports: Marathon, triathlon, and road cycling. Journal of Sports Sciences, 29(Suppl 1), S91–S99.
- Kerksick, C. M., et al. (2018). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: Nutrient timing. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 14, 33.
- Campbell, B. I., et al. (2020). Intermittent dieting: theoretical considerations for the athlete. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 42(6), 25–32.
