Do all NBA players lift weights intensely?

[12footrim]

Basketball is mainly an endurance sport and if you look at endurance athletes most of them are rail thin (Gebremariam). That's why you never find jacked guys like Corey Maggette have long careers in the NBA. Today's game is more about finesse, endurance, and skill than it is about being ridiculously strong. That's why I think the NBA has the least to worry about PEDs out of all of the major sports.

Karl Malone played for 19 seasons at an extremely high level. Is he just an outlier?

That's exactly what I was going to say. Some question if he was clean as well later in his career.

[12footrim]

Yeah and it's also because he evolved his game later in his career. Lebron is probably going to do the same thing and start living in the post as he gets older.

Just about all players move in closer to the post as they age even if they aren' t already there. Hell Derrek Fisher was even playing SF in the playoffs.

Even 40 year old Jordan was playing 81% of his minutes SF after he lost his foot speed and to take advantage of his more noticeable bulk. Today he'd probably be playing the PF. You can add weight and strength as you age, you can't really add speed. You could lose weight and maybe regain a little.

I think both Lebron and Durant's future is at PF in their mid 30's. I also think they will continue to be top 10 maybe even top 5 players just about as long as they want because of their size and skill. Sure they will lose athletisim but you can be hid at PF on defense and still have more speed and skill than most PF's.

[Luigi]

I've seen players getting winded plenty of times. I'm not saying endurance is the key factor in basketball, but I'm saying that it's a very important aspect.

The kind of endurance you need for basketball is exactly what you get in the weight room. Repeated explosive effort over an hour or two is what you do on the court, and in the weight room.

Endurance training can also help a player's speed as well. I guarantee you that Kenenisa Bekele (the best distance runner ever and the guy with the most endurance) is faster and quicker than 99% of the NBA. He obviously can't jump as high as a guy like Westbrook, but if I had to bet between Westbrook and Bekele in a 200m dash I'm taking Bekele.

Elite distance runners have pretty excellent foot speed. This is what makes them elite: they can stick and kick on all the other chumps, blowing them away in the last 400. But all those miles don't help their 40 yard dash time. They'd even be a lot faster at 200m if they traded their 100+ mile weeks for weights and speed-work on the track.

And even then, 200m is way, way too long to be what you want in the NBA. 100m is too long. You need bursts. Great 100m athletes burn everyone with their top speed from 70-100. NBA players never get to that speed on the court. They need acceleration, and that's it. And they need to be able to accelerate repeatedly over the course of the game without getting winded. Weight training mimicks this better than anything. A long weights session, with focus on explosive movements, is a great way to condition themselves for the game.

[stronglikebull]

high weight low reps is beneficial..not the other way around..high weight low reps means strength goes up faster than you gain muscle mass relative to a standard lifting scheme..this means you can be the guy with explosive power squatting 405 at 180 pounds..that is beneficial for ball because you have all this strength and no extra weight.

[Joseph17]

Karl Malone played for 19 seasons at an extremely high level. Is he just an outlier?

Yeah and it's also because he evolved his game later in his career. Lebron is probably going to do the same thing and start living in the post as he gets older.

To live in the post, strength training is all the more important. How can you back anyone down or hold your ground defensively without it?

In fact, I'd also argue that slashers who lived at the free throw line like maggette, wade, young VC, etc were all extremely strong which helped them immensely at finishing through the contact or being able to draw fouls without being treated like a rag doll. Sure, if all you want to do is be a catch and shoot player, strength and size probably isn't too important. But anyone who wants to make a living putting their head down and barreling to the rim will need to get in the weight room a bit.

As a previous poster mentioned though, training for power is the most important thing in basketball, which is a game of quick, explosive bursts. Not easy on the joints though, hence the injuries

Shaq and Wilt who were two of the strongest players ever and had two of the best post games to ever play didn't really have longevity on their side. Maggette, Wade, and VC are horrible examples because all of them were injury prone. A better example would have been peak Kevin Martin who weighed in at 185 pounds. He was basically a faster and quicker version of Corey Maggette with a more consistent jump shot and he was always injury prone. He was actually treated like a rag doll when he drove to the rim with contact and that was the main reason why he was so injury prone. Now he's pretty much strictly a shooter and he gets injured a lot less.

[Joseph17]

I've seen players getting winded plenty of times. I'm not saying endurance is the key factor in basketball, but I'm saying that it's a very important aspect.

The kind of endurance you need for basketball is exactly what you get in the weight room. Repeated explosive effort over an hour or two is what you do on the court, and in the weight room.

Endurance training can also help a player's speed as well. I guarantee you that Kenenisa Bekele (the best distance runner ever and the guy with the most endurance) is faster and quicker than 99% of the NBA. He obviously can't jump as high as a guy like Westbrook, but if I had to bet between Westbrook and Bekele in a 200m dash I'm taking Bekele.

Elite distance runners have pretty excellent foot speed. This is what makes them elite: they can stick and kick on all the other chumps, blowing them away in the last 400. But all those miles don't help their 40 yard dash time. They'd even be a lot faster at 200m if they traded their 100+ mile weeks for weights and speed-work on the track.

And even then, 200m is way, way too long to be what you want in the NBA. 100m is too long. You need bursts. Great 100m athletes burn everyone with their top speed from 70-100. NBA players never get to that speed on the court. They need acceleration, and that's it. And they need to be able to accelerate repeatedly over the course of the game without getting winded. Weight training mimicks this better than anything. A long weights session, with focus on explosive movements, is a great way to condition themselves for the game.

I hear what you're saying and I don't necessarily disagree with it, but it wouldn't surprise me to see Bekele beat Westbrook in a 40 yard dash. Even Raymond Felton ran faster than Westbrook in the 40 yard dash so there's no doubt in my mine that Bekele could beat him. The guy is just ridiculously fast in any distance. The only person in the NBA that I think can beat him is Nate Robinson.

[510TWSS]

Tayhaun Prince looked at weights once.

[pr0wler]

Yeah I forgot to mention Kevin Martin, perfect example. I wouldn't expect him to be jacked like Maggette or anything...but he's rail thin with very little muscle. You're telling me he couldn't add another 5-10 lbs of lean muscle when you're getting paid 7-8 figures to play basketball? Would definitely help him absorb contact and prevent injuries.

[Fred Williamson]

Adding muscle is overrated in basketball. Lifting weights does not translate to strength on the basketball court. Quickness and explosivness are still the most important factors as far as athleticism goes, and adding muscle mass in most cases will actually hurt you more than benefit. Especially if it's a lot of weight within a short time frame.

Apart from that, guys like Bosh, Garnett ,Prince, etc have proven that you can easily keep up with the buff guys after you have adapted and matured. You body control improves, you learn how to absorp contact better, etc. etc

Therefore, the aim to gain more mass should only be approached slowly in basketball, if at all

[Golden Angel]

Of course they do, everyone seems to follow the same program that allows them to gain the golden standard "15 pounds of muscle" every summer

It's true. According to that program Anthony Randolph would be tipping the scales at about 400 pounds by now.

[Risk101]

It always surprises me how Glen Davis can run up and down the court as fat as he is. He's really quick for his size.

[Dark Faze]

They all do--even Durant and Tayshaun.

Part of the reason why most guys don't really start breaking out until their third season is because it takes a couple of summers worth of bulking to actually get on fair ground with the opposition.

[ATTL]

Some guys don't have the body type to put on a lot of muscle (ectomorph). I remember Bosh saying that he tried to gain weight but he just couldn't

BS...everybody can gain weight/muscle mass, you just got to put in the work. Bosh doesn't seem like a guy who wants to be pushing weight in the gym though, sounds like an excuse.

Ugh you should like a mesomorph who says that anyone could put on pounds and pounds of muscle with the proper dieting and training. I have the same body type as Chris Bosh and yes I put on about 10 pounds of muscle, but going from 150 to 160 pounds at 5'10 isn't anything to write home about. I was also constantly stuffing myself with food and protein shakes to get to that which isn't the kind of lifestyle that I want to live with for the rest of my life. Bosh is also an NBA player who does a lot of cardio as well which makes you burn fat and lose some muscle as well. It'll be very difficult for him to have a muscular physique given all of those circumstances. Most of the transformations I see are former fat guys that became fit. It's rare to see a guy who was rail thin to form a muscular aesthetic physique. It is possible, but it's not going to look as good as a former fat guy (not talking about skinny fat guys) that has the proper genetics to build a muscular physique.

Former fat guy (mesomorph) who became fit:



Skinny guy (ectomorph) who became fit:


I'll let you be the judge of who looks more muscular.

The ecto was taking tons of supplements (not steroids) to get that look and the meso only takes vitamins and protein powder. Now that the ecto is off all the stuff he was taking he's back to being skinny. It's just not natural for a skinny guy to become muscular.

This is just as bad as fat people saying they can't lose weight due to genetics.