Effective Basketball Training After 40

[W. Unseld]

Yes I know after 40 it’s best not to play at all but for this thread we are throwing that out the window.

I think I can get away to play 2 times a week and can probably find time to shoot around once per week.

Questions:

1)Workout wise what’s most important? Jumping rope? Lifting? Running sprints?

2)When shooting around w/limited time what would be the one thing you’d want to work on?
Finishing? Jumper? Post-move? (I kinda play point forward)

Basically assuming very limited time what’s the best bang for your buck?


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[pancakes3]

i'm only 32 and i've made it a rule to not play more than 3x a week.

1) I've read that a lot of joint pain, specifically male joint pain, is a result of weak hips. it just messes up the entire kinetic chain. after "thorough" research from instagram/youtube fitness gurus, it seems like the most effective exercise, are those lie-down, sideways leg raises that was ubiquitous in those 80s/early-90s fitness videos. it makes a certain amount of sense - the lateral movement, the lack of exercises that focus on that type of movement, etc.

lifting in general, is also just a good thing. you're getting your cardio in playing basketball anyway. lifting burns calories, strengthens your body, and is just overall beneficial to your health.

2) when I don't play, or even cheat my 3x rule by playing half-court or 21, i do an intensive shoot-around. start at the baseline, shoot a corner 3, chase down the rebound, dribble it to the other corner, repeat. it's not a full sprint, but i try to mimic half-3/4 game speed. i do this for 3-4 mins (duration of a song), take a breather and just get shots up while walking down rebounds, catch my breath and repeat. after 2-3 rounds of this, you're pretty much at 20 mins and feel like you had a pretty productive shootaround. sometimes i change it up to shooting around the world instead of just corner 3's.

basically a lazy version of steve nash's 20 min shootaround

Watch on YouTube

[nate33]

I'm 47 and I play full court basketball twice a week.

I agree with everything pancakes3 said.

I lift twice a week and I always do squats or leg presses as part of my routine. I warm up before lifting by putting on ankle weights and doing various leg lift and plank exercises on a floor mat. I also do back hyperextensions on the roman chair. Basically, keeping the hips, back and core strong is the most important thing. I eventually get around to upper body work, but it's usually late in my workout after first doing the core and leg exercises. I often finish up with some calf raises.

I run twice a week as well, one short run of 3 miles or so doing sprint work, and one long run of about 10 miles. The sprint work really helps me keep up with all the youngsters on the basketball court. The long runs are probably not all that good for me. Yes, when we get into the 2nd hour of ball I will outlast some of the guys, but I also accumulate nagging foot injuries from the long runs that can be a real annoyance. At some point, I should probably give up the long runs, but I really do enjoy them.

I stretch when running (after a 3/4 mile warm up jog), but I don't really stretch before or after basketball or lifting. If you do stretch, make sure you've warmed up first. As far as I know, stretching is somewhat overrated as a means of injury prevention. There is no correlation between flexibility and injury avoidance.

Like pancakes3, I do an abbreviated Steve Nash warm up for about 5-7 minutes before playing - mostly just 3 pointers from the sides and wings.

One thing that really helped me once since turned 40 was to take 2 Ibuprofen right before playing. It really reduces the inflammation and I find that I have absolutely no soreness the next day. I only take them before basketball though - not before lifting or running. Too much ibuprofen is not good for your kidneys. Also, there is some research that suggests that inhibiting inflammation after weightlifting also inhibits muscle growth.

[trast66]

This is good information. I had to stop playing at around 45, an endomorph. I do play tennis 2-3x a week and find a similar "high" as to playing basketball and similar training works. I ice knees and shoulder after each match. No more long runs once I got to 50 though a couple times a year I do the Marine fitness test for my age (53) to see that I can pass. I cheat on the pull ups.

If I could go back to my 30's I would do more "core" exercises as described above. That was not really I thing I knew to do.

[tontoz]

I would suggest half court. Playing full court is just asking for a major injury.

I quit playing at 40. I wasn't out of shape. I could still run 3 miles in just over 20 minutes. I just had a Danny Glover moment one day.... "Im too old for this sh..". I am a golfer which made it easier for me to give it up. I do miss it though.

It wasn't long after that i started having a series of injuries for different reasons. Nothing really disabling but if i had kept playing basketball i know it would have gotten ugly.

If you really want to keep playing i would suggest interval training runs. Not sprints necessarily. I think 100-200 yard intervals running fast, but not full speed with breaks 30 seconds to 1 minute. On grass.

If you start to have knee problems you need to be careful with it.

[W. Unseld]

Good stuff guys—Pancakes, I’m having trouble picturing the leg exercise that you said was popular in the 90’s

My team has a bunch of 3 point shooters & 1-2 guys that can drive, I won’t be able to drive well at this point & I’m a decent 3 point shooter but we have some marksmen so I’m trying to figure out what to work on to help on offense in addition to moving w/o the ball and getting away w/setting moving screens


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[pancakes3]

I meant this:

Watch on YouTube

gleaned from:

Watch on YouTube

[AFM]

Please don't let PIF post in this thread. Old ass motherfukker.

[montestewart]

Please don't let PIF post in this thread. Old ass motherfukker.

But WizD is a must

[bulletproof_32]

I came out of retirement recently after 5 years. Quit playing regularly (year round men’s leagues, 3-4x a week at a gym) at 39.

Now I’m 45, and joined a gym last November by my work where they have lunchtime runs. I eased my way back in and now try to play at least 2x a week. I have to listen to my body (particularly my knee (4 surgeries in my early to mid 30s)). Sometimes I skip a week or two, sometimes I play 4x a week.


I’ve got at least 20 years on most of the other participants but there still are some older guys that get out there (one regular guy in particular is 77!)

I do a lot more warming up, stretching, and core than I ever did in the past. And I try to lift on the days I don’t play.

At this age, there’s no part of your game to really focus on “developing”, but I will say for the first couple of months I got back out there, I just crashed the offensive boards for easy put backs on the regular. Easy money.

Good luck, W. Unseld. If you’re playing in a league with any of our mutual friends and need to bring in a “ringer” let me know.

[W. Unseld]

Pancakes thanks for clarifying

Bulletproof—ha—the JMUers tell me that you’re the John Riggins of rec league ball

77 is either really impressive or really crazy


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