Strength Training for Basketball

Basketball is a game of skill. But it is also a game of strength. An athlete’s power output in sprinting and jumping movements, both of which are pivotal to the game, are reliant on raw strength. By regularly and systematically increasing your strength with an ongoing weight training program, you will be able to build the strength you need, run faster and jump higher on the basketball court. In this article, we detail a foundational strength program that you can use year round.

Developing Strength & Speed for Basketball

The best way to build muscle is to focus on exercises that work your large muscle groups. That means doing exercises like bench presses, squats and deadlifts. You should also work on developing a strong core

When it comes to developing speed for basketball, you need to concentrate more on shuffling than on straight ahead sprinting. As a result, you should work on drills that develop fitness specifically for this movement. These include shuttle runs, shuffle drills and plyometric exercises to increase your lateral jumping power. Here are some good plyometric exercises for this purpose:

• Box Jumps
• Bunny Hops
• Cone Jumps

You shouldn’t, of course, forget about developing your straight ahead speed. Include speed and sprint drills a couple of times each week to develop this. Running stadium stairs and pulling and pushing a weighted sled are good options.

Weight Training Program for Basketball Strength Development

Perform this strength training program for basketball twice per week. Make sure that you space the workouts 3 days apart to give your body sufficient time to recuperate. So, if you workout on Monday, your next strength workout should be on Friday.

This program is based in the hugely popular 5 x 5 routine which has been proven as a basic strength developer for more than 50 years. It involves just three exercises that are each done for 5 sets of 5 reps. Precede each exercise with a warm up with 60 percent of your working weight for 12 reps. 

Your goal on this workout is to get stronger as evidenced by your weights going up. Make sure, however, that you do not compromise your exercise form in order to keep the weight going up. Make use of fractional weights to keep the total poundage moving. 

Give yourself a decent amount of time to recover between sets. We recommend between two and three minutes. A five minute rest between exercises will also be beneficial. 

Workout A

• Barbell Back Squat – 5 sets of 5 reps
• Deadlift – 5 sets of 5 reps
• Bench Press – 5 sets of 5 reps

Every six weeks, take a week off from strength training. Then come back with a new basketball workout program that focuses on more exercises and slightly higher rep counts. Here is one that has been proven to be successful for many basketball players:

Workout B

• Power Clean – 4 sets of 8 reps
• Incline Press – 4 sets of 12/10/8/6
• Step Ups – 3 sets of 60 seconds
• Lunges – 3 sets of 12 reps on each leg
• Bicep Curls – 3 sets of 10 reps
• Leg Curls – 3 sets of 12 reps
• Weighted Crunches – 3 sets of 15 reps

For more basketball gym ideas check out a few apps for working out.

Other Training

Basketball is a sport that demands high levels of skill, strength, speed, agility, power and endurance. It is a very fast sport, with players spending 75% of their court time with a pulse rate that is 85% or more of their maximum. In order to meet the demands of the game of basketball, your training program needs to include the following:

• Weight Training
• Plyometrics and Speed Drills
• Interval Training
• Sprint Training

During the off-season, the emphasis should be on basic fitness development. During that period you should also build up your endurance by regularly playing basketball, as well running and doing sprint drills. You can also do plyometrics in the off season but not too much or you will use up the energy that should be devoted to strength development. 

During the pre-season you shouldn’t need to work on your base fitness any more. Focus on low rep, high weight strength training on basic compounds exercises in the 1-3 rep range. You should also increase your high speed plyometric training during the pre-season.