Bryan Johnson spent five months training to dunk at 49, mixing heavy lifts like trap-bar deadlifts up to 405 lb with explosive plyometrics. He found that strength alone doesn't create vertical jump, and that landing forces hit 6 to 10 times body weight. After five months, explosiveness became the limiting factor.
Most people say I can't dunk at 49. Here's exactly how I'm training to prove them wrong. Every workout I do starts with a 5 to 10 minute dynamic warmup. It's to get my knees, ankles, and Achilles ready to lift heavy. While I'm fresh, I do an Olympic variant, which helps train timing, rhythm, and rate of force. Then I'll dive into strength training. My 2 biggest lifts are the front box squat and the trap bar deadlift. Over the past few weeks, my deadlift has gone from 365 to 405 pounds. But being strong does not mean that you can jump. So in between heavy sets, I'll go straight into explosive movements like snappy jumps, loaded jump squats, and other plyometrics. I mix in other strength movements like split squat, glute bridges, and rows depending upon the day. Then I'll typically finish with leg extensions and calf isometrics to build tendon strength because landing creates a load equal to around 6 to 10x your body weight. After 5 months now, strength is no longer my biggest problem. It's explosiveness. Do you think I can do this?
