Lifting Weights for Basketball

I've played basketball for 19 years now at a purely domestic level and have performed some kind of strength training for the past 3-4 years (which, of course, does not make me an expert), and in that time, I've had a number of ideas on how to get a domestic-level basketball player better, stronger and faster. This is not for the D1 college player.

Disclaimer: None of this is authoritative. I am not a coach or even a great high-level player, but I have noticed a big difference in my game in recent years, and occasionally wonder how I would train if I were solely doing it for basketball instead of strength sports, and I wanted to get some thoughts down somewhere, so here goes.

Exercise Selection

The cardinal rule about doing something outside of the sport to get better at the sport, is to not get hurt doing it. Getting hurt in a game? It's bound to happen, especially in a high-intensity finals game. But getting hurt from bench pressing mid-season is pretty stupid.

So what exercises are useful, and why?

• Squats. Strong legs are beneficial to sports, and life in general, so these are essential. Front squats can also be used.
• Kettlebell swings, hyperextensions and reverse hypers. Hip hinging movements are also great for athleticism, and these are my favorites.
• Strict military press, push press, incline bench and close-grip bench press. I'm a strongman, so maybe I'm a little biased, but strong shoulders and triceps are great for athleticism. I've also recently become a big fan of dips.
• Chin-ups and rows. I noticed when I played basketball multiple times per week that my shoulders would get a little sore, and we need to balance out all of the pushing exercises we use with some pulling exercises to keep the shoulders healthy and strong, so these will supplement the above pressing exercises. Doing a lot of band pull-aparts and face pulls is also a great idea.
• Power clean. Great exercise to build explosiveness and muscular coordination, but it has a learning curve, so this could be replaced with some basic plyometrics, like box jumps or broad jumps.
• Power jerk. Another great exercise for building explosiveness. If your gym doesn't have bumper plates or jerk boxes, you could probably do some medicine-ball throws instead to save damaging any equipment.
• Conditioning. Super important. I'll talk more about this later.

No deadlifts? Yes, the strongman decided against deadlifts. Deadlifts are awesome, there's no doubt about that, but too many people suck at it, and because of that, the risk of getting hurt is higher, so the heavy squatting, hip-extension exercises and upper-back work will build the musculature and the strength that deadlifting usually would.

No unilateral work? The conditioning options I mention below should be enough one-legged work at this level.

Training Frequency

How often should you lift weights? If playing three or more games per week, it may only be viable to train once a week, and that's fine, because lifting weights isn't your sport. But if, like me, you only play once or twice, at most, a week, you can probably get two days in the gym.

Because most domestic leagues around here just go from one season to the next with very little time in-between, there isn't really an off-season, so training volume and intensity will remain pretty constant throughout the year, and maybe only taper off when finals comes around, or, if you didn't make finals, the volume may increase.

Example Templates

Taking a leaf out of Jim Wendler's book, the general template every athlete should follow:

1. Stretch
2. Lift
3. Condition

Stretching and mobility work should be done with a foam roller and a few dynamic stretches. Figure out what you need to do by watching MobilityWOD videos, but chances are your back, hips and legs need foam rolling and your hip flexors need some massage and some stretching. Get yourself a solid foam roller, a solid massage ball and a resistance band and spend some time out in the sun, or in front of the TV, working on the tight parts of your body. Being able to move with ease is a very understated thing in basketball.

Conditioning. Assuming, skill-wise, you are competitive in your division, then getting some kind of hard conditioning in a couple of times a week will do more for your game than anything else here. This could be as simple as sprinting up a hill multiple times, or done in the gym with a sled or a prowler or farmer's walks, or, in a more sport-specific fashion, it can be done on a basketball court with suicides or some other sprinting drill. For anyone who is unable to go to a gym, but still wants to get better at any sport, conditioning is the key.

I would highly suggest doing a tiny bit of research on energy systems, or even just reading the footnotes of an article, because not all conditioning is created equal, but essentially you want to be doing sprints (or intervals) that last from 20-40 seconds and you are only partially recovered between efforts. Examples would be interval training (by running/sprinting or kettlebell swings/snatches, for example), pushing a prowler for 30m with 60 second rests between pushes or a few suicides with a 1-2 minute rest between suicides.

The heavy strength training and basketball games/practice will help develop the other energy systems.

On to the lifting part:

I'm a huge fan of triumvirate training, i.e. three main exercises per training day. It's by no means a cut-and-dry rule, but it helps me think about what exercises will give me the best bang-for-buck.

These are just examples. There are many ways to skin a cat.

Upper/Lower Split

I'm more likely to recommend this to the guy who only plays one, or maybe two, games a week and can hit the gym twice a week. Place the lower body day as far away from game day as possible, so that your legs are as recovered as possible.

Upper Body

• Main lift. Push press for sets of 2-3 reps, adding weight each set until you fail to get the reps.
• Supplemental. Dips, close-grip bench or incline bench. 3-4 sets of 5-10 reps.
• Supplemental. DB rows or chin-ups. 3-4 sets of 5-15 reps.

I would recommend starting with this basic template in the beginning, but, if you're like me and it's never enough, for more explosive work, the power jerk can be used in place of the push press or some kind of explosive push-up or medicine ball throw can be done before push pressing. Or you can alternate each of these ideas each week/month/whatever.

Lower Body

• Main lift. Squat. Work up in sets of 3-5 reps until you fail to get all reps.
• Supplemental. Hyperextensions or KB swings. 3-4 sets of 10-20 reps.
• Supplemental. Ab wheel. Either on your feet or your knees. 3-4 sets of 5-10 reps.

Again, I recommend starting with this basic template for a while, but for explosive work, you can either power clean or do some kind of plyometric work (like box jumps or broad jumps) before squatting.

If you'd prefer to use the upper/lower split while playing more than once a week, you will probably want to drop the volume on the squats, so I'd cut the squat reps down to a max set of 2-3 reps.

Full Body Split

I'm more likely to recommend this to the guy who plays multiple games per week, or plays and practices during the week, or is just damn busy with life, and therefore only has time to hit the gym once a week without negatively affecting their performance on game day or in their general day-to-day life.

• Squat. Work up to a heavy set of 2-3 reps.
• Push press or close-grip bench press. Work up to a heavy set of 2-3 reps.
• Chin-ups or DB rows. However many total reps you did on the push press, do about double that number here.

Although, as in the upper/lower split, there are options for more explosive work here, I'm less likely to recommend so if playing multiple games per week. The great thing about basketball is that it, in itself, is explosive work, so you'll probably be getting all the explosive work you need just from playing games and practicing.

The same goes for conditioning. If you're playing/practicing 2-3 nights per week, you're probably not going to need any extra hard conditioning sessions of sprints during the week. However, if you wanted to use the full body split while only play one game per week, feel free to add the explosive work and the conditioning in their appropriate spots, and push the sets of squats and/or presses up to 5 reps per set if you're feeling fresh.

Autoregulate

One thing about any sport is that each game is different and you need to account for that in the gym, but this is up to the player to decide. Was Saturday's game or this week's practice brutal? Are you feeling really beat-up and sore? Then take it easy in the gym that week so you feel better for the next game.

How do you "take it easy" in the gym? Don't go as heavy as usual, e.g. instead of pushing to a really heavy set of 3 on the push press, do 2 sets of 3 with 85-90% of what you had originally planned. Do less sets on your supplemental lifts or just use a lighter weight and push the reps up a little. Maybe skip any hard conditioning this week. Spend more time on recovery work like stretching, foam rolling, or do a yoga session. This is why there is no rigid periodisation attached to the example templates above.