So many times in a gym you will see someone doing endless bicep curls, trying to get “massive guns”. While curls may get the girls, squats get the blocks. For basketball conditioning, you need to engage in exercises that are going to make you stronger, faster and let you jump higher.
The most efficient way of training at all levels is to perform compound exercises. Compound exercises are exercises that work a variety of muscles. This is opposed to isolation exercises, that work only one or two muscles. As an example, bench press is a compound exercise, where as pec-dec flys are an isolation exercise. There are a few compound exercises you should be doing if you are not already. They will really explode your strength gains. If you are still doing isolation exercises and not doing them with heavy weights, you are wasting precious time that could be spent out on the court playing basketball.
1. Press
There are a few options for a press movement – choose one or two that suit you best. The military press, standing push press, seated dumbell press and incline bench or dumbbell press are all excellent. For beginners I recommend the military press to begin with.
2. Squat
Not many people like squats. Some outright hate squats. I personally dread my workout day where I have to do squats. I do them anyway, and you should too. They are the best basketball workout you can do. They will improve your overall strength, including all of your legs and your back. Per minute spent, they are the most effective workout for increasing your vertical leap.
3. Deadlift
The squat’s compound leg exercise cousin. It involves picking a heavy barbell up off the floor, pulling up to your hips and putting it back down again. Whilst keeping your arms straight.
4. Pull up
Perhaps the only exercise in this post that will be impossible for some to perform. You may be lucky enough to have an assisted pull up machine in your gym if you cannot – it looks like a pull up bar but has a seat to kneel on that provides some counterweight assistance when you pull up. Excellent for your upper back and shoulders.
There are various other compound exercises but for me, these are the most important for basketball conditioning. It is very important to do these exercises with correct form as you may risk injury if you do not.