NBA’S muscle men
Basketball has never been more physical. In fact, there is a move to increase personal fouls to seven before one fouls out in the NBA, maybe because overtimes and double overtimes are quite common. There are also too many who are sidelined by injuries, and experts say it’s because players now are faster and bulkier than they were in the ’70s and ’80s. Every year, someone else is faster, stronger, and better.
If you find the NBA play-offs exciting, watching it live is truly a memorable experience. The whole stadium vibrates with energy not only of the players and their acrobatics but also the thousands of fans, all wearing the same shirt provided free with a towel, as they are cued by huge electronic billboards on what to chant.
My family and I chanced upon a Philadelphia 76ers versus Boston Celtics game two weeks ago. Getting tickets is as hard as snatching one for an Ateneo-la Salle game, but fortunately they have a legitimate online reseller of tickets from fans, www.stubhub.com. This is a cyber marketplace owned by ebay for buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater, and live entertainment.
Stub Hub! founder Eric Baker was quoted saying “I’m probably the one person from business school who decided to take his MBA and become a ticket scalper.”
What I like about it is after paying online, you print your tickets and show them directly at the gate! We were a group of six and it wasn’t really easy to be seated together. I had to divide our group into two, but as soon as we got the tickets, it was easy to convince my husband to brave the two-hour drive from New Jersey.
Muscle Prodigy makes an annual list of the 50 strongest and most muscular NBA players while www.nbaplayerworkouts.com provides fans a peek of how the players train especially off-season. This year, Ben Wallace from Detroit Pistons earned the number one spot. Towering at 6’9”, the 240-pound center focuses on his chest, arms, and abs on Mondays and Thursdays, and then his legs, shoulders, and back on Tuesdays and Fridays.
On Mondays and Thursdays he does eight sets and eight reps of bench press, six sets and 12 reps of tricep pressdown, dumbbell lying tricep extension, dumbbell fly, barbell curl, and dumbbell curl. On Tuesdays and Fridays he does five sets and 20 reps of leg extension, leg press, leg curl, calf raises, and six sets, 10 reps of lat pulldown, machine shoulder press, dumbbell shoulder press, and bent over rows.
Fourth on the list is Philadelphia 76ers’ Andre Iguodala who is 6’ 6” and 207 pounds. He shared his vertical routine, which includes jogging for a minimum of 45 minutes thrice a week. He also skips rope 100 times thrice a week. He said jumping rope, simple as it may seem, not only gives you explosiveness and calf strength, it also builds stamina while working on overall leg strength.
Iguodala combines weight and jump training. His weight training twice a week consists of exercises like calf raises, squats, lunges, and leg presses (two sets of 10 reps per exercise). Jump training twice weekly consists of exercises like lunge jumps, calf hops, and rim jumps (two sets of 15 reps per exercise). Fellow 76er Elton Brand, 6’9” and 254 pounds, is number 33 in NBA’s 50 strongest.
Making it to number 6 is Serge Ibaka of Oklahoma Thunder at 6’10” and 235 pounds while teammate Russell Westbrook (6’3,” 187 pounds) made it to number 45. At number 8 is play-off opponent Lebron James of Miami Heat, 250 pounds at 6’8” while teammate Joel Anthony (6’9,” 245 pounds) is ranked 30. Lebron’s workout routine includes two supersets on Monday. First, maximum reps of push-ups and 10 of pull-ups, followed by a second superset of five dumbbell snatches for each arm and 10 reps per arm of cable row.
On Tuesdays, his first superset consists of 12 dumbbell squats and 12 Swiss ball hamstring curls, followed by 10 reps for each leg of dumbbell step up and 12 reps each leg of dumbbell calf raises. Thursday’s superset: 10 dumbbell incline bench press and 10 lat pulldowns plus eight single arm dumbbell overhead presses and 10 single arm dumbbell rows.
On Fridays, first set includes five reps each of single leg squat and 10 reps each of single leg Swiss ball leg curl, followed by a second set of 10 reps each leg of dumbbell side lunge with 45 seconds unstable jump rope on a soft surface.
Number 15 strongest is Brandon Bass of Boston Celtics at 6’8” and 250 pounds with Miami Heat’s Dwayne Wade as number 29 (6’4” and 220 pounds). Wade’s workout includes training sessions with Tim Grover (Michael Jordan’s trainer).
Wade works on these drills for 45-60 minutes: one-dribble pull-up shots, two-dribble pull-up shots, change-of-direction dribbling, free throws, full-court dribbling, drives to the hoop.
His weight training consists of explosive supersets aimed at improving hip fl exibility, lateral and vertical explosion, and strengthening his shoulders. The workout is a blend of explosive movement and endurance movement to simulate a basketball game where a player runs one minute and explodes to the rim the next minute.
Superset 1 includes two to three sets, 10 reps each leg of alternate single-leg hamstring curl plus two to three sets, 30 seconds each Power Plate glute bridge. Superset 2 is three sets of six reps depth box jump with three sets, 20 reps each leg of slideboard dynamic hip/glute stretch. Finally, superset 3 combines three sets, 15 reps each leg, alternate explosive leg press with three sets, 10 reps slideboard jackknife and abduction.
Boston Celtics’ Rajon Rondo is ranked 36 while another Celtic Ray Allen, at 6’5” and 205 pounds, is ranked 32nd. Rondo is 6’1 and 186 pounds, which is small by NBA standards. He found out how to improve his vertical jump and he shared it in a 2009 interview. He described his vertical jump training program as simple and focused on some core principles.