The Real Life Diet of Russell Westbrook, Who Uses Push-Ups to Wake Up
For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to high-performing people about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.
GQ: What time does your day usually start?
Russell Westbrook: Well, given that I have little children in the house, it starts pretty early. 6:30 or 7:00. That varies if I’m in season, so that can change, but normally about 7:00 AM.
Was it later before the kids?
No, it was about the same. I’m an early bird, I like to get up early, get my day started early.
What’s the first thing you usually do in the morning?
Sometimes I do push-ups to wake my body up. That’s how I start most of the time.
How many push ups will you usually do?
That varies too, based on how long I’ve been up that night. But I try to knock out anywhere between 25 and 50, get my blood flow moving.
How many hours of sleep are you aiming to get?
Probably about five or six. If I get more than that, I’m very grateful.
That’s not a ton of sleep.
Yeah, you know, I feel like when I sleep longer, I don’t feel the best. Going nonstop, that’s kinda how my life is. That’s kinda how I function.
Did you used to sleep longer?
I’ll get seven or eight hours of sleep every once in a while, but that’s not my norm by any means. I’ve alway been kind of like this: stay up late, but I’m up early.
What’s breakfast?
That’s my favorite meal of the day, so I usually eat a really big breakfast. Fruit. Green juice, orange juice. Breakfast can vary, I pretty much eat anything: omelette, avocado toast, pancakes, waffles, hash browns.
As the day progresses, what are you eating for lunch and dinner?
Fish for lunch. Salad for lunch. Snacks I like to eat are peanuts, parfaits, yogurt, smoothies when I can. Dinner, lots of veggies, pasta. Right now I can only eat fish, no meat for awhile.
Why only fish?
I wanted to change up some things. I wanted to lose some weight, but also keep my strength and body together. So I am trying something new. Especially throughout the season, as I get older, I have to figure out better ways to keep my body in the right shape and healthy, to be able to do what I want to do, especially while playing.
You’re obviously still playing at an incredibly high level. It sounds like you’ve had to tweak your diet and workout to maintain that endurance as you’ve gotten older?
I wouldn’t say that’s the case. I was fine before, I just wanted to lose some weight because I felt like I was too heavy. It was a personal feeling for me. That was kind of the only reason behind it, honestly.
If you have a late game, will you eat after?
It’s tough for me to eat after games. I’ll eat when I can. I’ll do smoothies or shakes, just to recover. It takes me a while to wind down, and eat. But eventually I’ll get some food in my system, for the next day.
Do you have any guilty pleasures when it comes to food?
I have a lot of those! But I haven’t been able to do it much now. I know that I’m able to cheat a little more, just because of my body and how many calories I burn. But yeah, I have a lot of those, I don’t necessarily take advantage of it, especially now during the season. I love candy. Snacks. Probably like everybody else. Desserts.
What’s your favorite candy?
PayDay.
I feel like people divide candy into categories: chocolate, and then fruit candy, like Starburst, or Skittles.
I eat it all. Sour. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Depends on the mood I’m in. I can always go for a Reese’s, Skittles, pretty much anything. But I haven’t been eating candy in awhile. Every once in a while maybe I’ll grab one, but not as frequently as I was before.
Is there anything you do now that is pretty vital to your routine that you wish you’d known about earlier in your career?
You know what’s crazy is, I’m pretty consistent on my routine since I started playing, as it pertains to dieting and timing, in terms of what I eat. The only thing that I would say I’ve learned more about… [is] what I drink. Me being an ambassador and partner in Flow, that was an important thing, and having alkaline water and seeing how it’s better for your body, for recovery, being able to use that. I love drinking juice, but I don’t drink hardly any juice, only water pretty much all day. I’m drinking Flow all day long just to stay hydrated. That’s kind of the new thing for me, I’d say.
Are you still running sand dunes in the summer?
Yup, same old, same old. [laughs]
Has it gotten any easier, or still painful?
I’ve been doing it for so long, so I know how to manage it, and how much I need and how long I need to be there. So it’s not painful at all. It definitely helps—in my legs, in my endurance.
How does your energy level now compare to ten years ago?
Fortunately, I still have a lot of energy. But that’s why my diet and how I take care of my body is very, very important, because of how I play and how I operate. So to keep this up for as long as I can, that’s the main goal.
Given how hard you go, what are some tools you have for recovery?
I think recovery is based on what you like—for me, I like to drink shakes and smoothies, peanut butter, but I love peanut butter. Something to kind of give me replenishment right away. Something that I’ve used for recovery.
What usually goes in your shake or smoothie?
Peanut butter, some type of protein. Banana. Nothing crazy. It’s something that works for me.
Were you always this intentional about your diet and fitness? As a rookie, were you thinking about it this hard?
No, no, no. But I didn’t eat terribly either. I was never the guy like, Aw man, I need to make sure I eat this, I eat this way. I’m lucky and blessed to eat what I want to eat, because of the way I play and how many calories I burn. But obviously as you get older, you want to be at an elite level for a sustainable amount of time, you have to do different things.
How did you learn that? Seeing other guys?
Just learning. You just learn and, like everybody else, do research, and do different things that come up that people think are better for your body, what works for you, because there are so many things that could be better for your body than others, so you just gotta figure out what works for your own personal body.
Do you switch up what you eat on game days?
I eat the same thing on game days. That never changes. I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich—two of those—some fruit, just plain pasta, no sauce.
How long have you been doing that?
Since I was in high school [laughs]. The pasta came a little later. The PB&J has been like that since I been in high school.
Do you remember what got you eating it?
I just like peanut butter. It creates a consistency on how your body feels, that’s the most important part. At least for me, I know how my body is going to react to it, I know how much I need to eat to feel like I’m in a good position. A peanut butter and jelly, to me, holds on to your body throughout the game—you don’t feel hungry and you don’t feel like you don’t have enough energy. It’s something that works for me.
And what workouts are you usually doing during the week, in season?
I don’t lift a lot of weights. A lot more movement. Stretching. Stability. Strengthening. That’s kind of where I been throughout the week, just making sure my body is up to tune, consistently working on things that need to be worked on so that I can perform at the level that I feel like I’m supposed to perform at.
Last question: what takes more energy, getting all those triple-doubles or being a dad?
Dad. For sure. I don’t mind that being more energy, because that’s where my energy need to be anyway [laughs].
Russell Westbrook
.jpg) Westbrook with the Houston Rockets in 2019
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| No. 4 – Washington Wizards | |
|---|---|
| Position | Point guard |
| League | NBA |
| Personal information | |
| Born | November 12, 1988 Long Beach, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Listed height | 6Â ft 3Â in (1.91Â m) |
| Listed weight | 200Â lb (91Â kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Leuzinger (Lawndale, California) |
| College | UCLA (2006–2008) |
| NBA draft | 2008 / Round: 1 / Pick: 4th overall |
| Selected by the Seattle SuperSonics | |
| Playing career | 2008–present |
| Career history | |
| 2008–2019 | Oklahoma City Thunder |
| 2019–2020 | Houston Rockets |
| 2020–present | Washington Wizards |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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Stats  |
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| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |
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Medals
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Russell Westbrook attends the Public School fashion show during New York Fashion Week on September 10, 2017 in New York City.
Russell Westbrook III (born November 12, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a nine-time NBA All-Star and earned the NBA Most Valuable Player Award for the 2016–17 season. He is also an nine-time All-NBA Team member, led the league in scoring in 2014–15 and 2016–17, and won back-to-back NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player awards in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, the year he won the league MVP award, Westbrook became one of two players in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season, along with Oscar Robertson in 1962.
He also set a record for the most triple-doubles in a season, with 42. He went on to average a triple-double the following two seasons as well as lead the league in assists and become the first player to lead the league in points and assists in multiple seasons. After ending his triple-double season average streak in the 2019–20 season, he achieved the feat for the fourth time in five seasons in 2020–21. On May 10, 2021, he passed Robertson for the most career triple-doubles in NBA history.
Westbrook played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins and earned third-team all-conference honors in the Pac-10. He was selected with the fourth overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, who then relocated to Oklahoma City that same week. Westbrook has represented the United States national team twice, winning gold medals in the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Olympics. In 2019, he was traded to the Houston Rockets, playing one season for the organization before being traded again to Washington in 2020.
2021, Russell Westbrook takes the Washington Wizards to the playoffs, in DOUBLE-DOUBLE FASHION!!!!!!
