Click Here For Free Muscle Building Magazine
Basketball Calisthenics
Basketball body weight workout
A basketball player needs a general overall conditioning that is not an easy thing to achieve. A single play in basketball can involve sprinting, jumping, changing directions and lateral movements. If you are a basketball player and you want to improve your condition to improve your performance you need dedication, discipline and regular exercise.
To maximize your performance with basketball, you must use sport-specific exercises in your strength and conditioning program. Along with general strength and speed, you must also possess power and endurance that can be improved through strength-training, power endurance exercises, metabolic conditioning and flexibility exercises.
The definition of power is a combination of speed and strength but when talking about power endurance then we are talking about the ability to maintain a high power output for an extended period. There are many variations of exercises that you can do but probably the best is Plyometrics.
Performing power endurance exercises such as plyometrics can improve your overall basketball skills by allowing you to play all four quarters at a high intensity level. The best plyometric exercises for basketball players use jumping movements or medicine ball exercises such as squat jumps, bounding, box jumps or medicine ball throws.
As a basketball player you should focus on performing power endurance exercises during the late preseason training phase with two to three workouts per week. In order to be able to run faster you are going to need calisthenics that are designed to improve your explosive power.
It is exercises like jump squats where you squat down to parallel and then jump off the ground from that position and land on both your feet. Repeat this by going back down to the squat position and then jump up as high as you can again getting your feet off the ground.
This is just one example of the type of calisthenics movements that will not only increase your explosive power but will also enable you to increase your explosive endurance over time. If you would like a list of movements that can be used with plyometrics and calisthenics you will easily find them on a quick search online.
An important aspect of basketball overall conditioning is what is known as Metabolic conditioning which refers to the specific anaerobic energy systems used during physical activity. Basketball players use primarily the phosphagen system for short, high-intensity exercise and a small portion of the glycolytic system for moderate-intensity exercise.
What this means is that to accommodate to the specific metabolic demands of a basketball game you should do conditioning exercises such as running. The running should last from 10 to 30 seconds followed with 30 to 90 seconds of work repeated for 25 to 30 rounds to train the phosphagen system.
When training the glycolytic system you should perform conditioning exercises for 30 to 120 seconds followed with 60 to 240 seconds of rest repeated for 10 to 20 rounds. The last important consideration is flexibility which is going to avoid getting injuries in the long term.
Flexibility and stretching exercises are an essential component to well-rounded basketball strength and conditioning program. Include flexibility exercises into your normal training program at least three days per week with any workout.
Although there is a wide range of stretching exercises the best flexibility exercises include static stretches in which you hold the stretch for a specific amount of time. Dynamic stretches are movements like calisthenics and form running drills.
In my book "The Muscle Experiment" I talk about how I was able to put on a solid 39lbs of solid muscle in less than 6 months with bodyweight training, and exactly how YOU can do it as well. In case you haven't downloaded The Muscle Experiment, I suggest you download it immediately and start implementing the little known techniques. This alone should put you on the road to massive size and strength.
To your success,
Mike Thiga
Click Here For Free Muscle Building Magazine
