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Basketball Workout

November 1, 2005 Print This ArticleShare

Author: Michael Greeves

Basketball - The Sport

Between the two hoops at the far ends of the court are some of the world’s most conditioned athletes, playing in an exciting and physical sport that includes running, cutting, turning, jump shot take-off and landing, lay-up takeoff and landing and vertical jump take-off and landing.

Born in 1891 at a YMCA gymnasium in Springfield, Massachusetts, Basketball has become one of the world’s most popular sports, played by people of all ages and at all ability level. Around the world million of people play it; many of them even have basketball rims on their driveways or in their neighborhoods. The game is played for fitness, for stress relief, for fun, or for serious competitions. From the high school level all the way to the NBA, the physical demand on basketball players is tremendous, and the fast-pace nature of the game will easily leave you behind if you’re not physically prepared. So whether you’re playing the state championship or the NBA championship finals, you’re a serious athlete who needs a serious strength and conditioning program to help you and your team win the title. Read on!

Basketball - The Demand

On the professional and amateur leagues level, games are either played in four 12-minute quarters, or two twenty-minute halves. Throughout this period, forwards, guards and centers walk, run, and sprint similar distances, although forwards tend to travel greater distances because they tend to play at the baskets at both ends of the court. Guards and centers travel similar distances. The differences in distances traveled between all three positions are overall minimal, so the metabolic demand is similar for all positions. The game is a mixture of high-intensity movements, such as sprinting and jumping, moderate-intensity activities, such as running or shuffling, and lower intensity activities, such as walking and standing. The upper body contributes to overall physical work, such as shooting, rebounding, and maintaining position against opponents. This shows that the demand is high in basketball; in fact, elite basketball players spend about 75% of the playing time with a heart rate that is 85% of maximum.

Sprinting and jumping, as well as cutting and “faking” an opponent, require explosive power. Pushing and shoving are common elements in the game, even if they aren’t allowed, and they require power and strength. Although the game lasts either 40 or 48 minutes, in practice it lasts much longer because the game clock stops for fouls and errors. Athletes must last the duration of the game and be as explosive and strong at the end as they were at the beginning. Their focus must be sharp so that they not only perform at their best but so they can lower the risk of injury.

Basketball - Injuries

The majority of injuries sustained in basketball is related to overuse and are manifested in such diagnoses as tendonitis, sprains, strains and stress fractures (Henry et al., 1982). Overuse injuries are often the result of repeated force application exceeding the tissue's fatigue limits with insufficient time for the tissue to recover. In the case of basketball, the vertical jump generates an average force of 7.2 times body weight, and this jump is repeated an average of 44 times during a game. For this reason, basketball players should be made aware of ways in which stress on the musculo-skeletal system can be reduced when landing, such as encouraging landing with the foot neutrally aligned and ensuring adequate hip and knee flexion to help in the dissipation of ground reaction forces – in other words, land softly by bending the legs more at the instant of impact.

Ankle sprain is the most common injury in basketball. This sort of injury is usually acute in nature (when the force is greater than the tissue’s maximum tolerance for stress). Knee injury is usually serious in basketball, too. Muscle strain in the legs exists.

Today’s basketball is faster and more intense, and in order to be competitive, athletes engage in resistance training. As they get stronger, they play harder, and as a result the injury risk also increases. This is a “catch-22,” but the fact is that if you want to play at the highest level, you must train hard on the court and in the weight room, but you do this to also keep injury in check!

The Basketball Workout

The basketball coach typically maximizes basketball conditioning through the use of drills such as line drills or “suicides,” and conditioning can also increase through basketball practices themselves. These drills, done traditionally through the ages, are effective at conditioning the metabolic system for basketball.

Cutting, turning and jumping, as well as throwing, pushing and shoving, all rely on explosive power. This requires explosive exercises such as the Olympic-style lifts and plyometrics.

Plyometrics performed in multiple directions can strengthen ankles that would otherwise be prone to injury in basketball. A stronger body can also decrease the potential for overall injury, because stronger muscles, connective tissues and joints have a higher tolerance for mechanical stress; therefore, hypertrophy exercises should be used for part of the off-season training to increase tissue size, and then strength exercises should be used to increase their strength.

The game is fast, intense, and often violent. To play it at a high level, you must train off the court utilizing a serious strength program. Whole-body exercises are what the best athletes use to maximize performance, and they are what you should use, too, to compete with the best. At the same time, playing at such a high level also means that injury potential can be high, therefore you need to protect yourself with the best strength and conditioning training program possible! Train hard. Train smart.

Some examples of power exercises:

  • power cleans
  • power snatches
  • power jerks
  • box jumps
  • depth jumps
  • boundings

Some examples of strength exercises:

  • Back Squats
  • Front Squats
  • Deadlifts
  • Military Presses
  • Pullups
  • Bench Presses



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