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How to get a basketball body

How to Get a Body Like an NBA Player (According to Trainers)

Basketball players are known for being tall, but there’s much more to having a basketball player’s physique than your height.

Basketball players are lean with well-defined muscles.

They have strong upper bodies and sturdy legs that provide explosive power.

Even if you’re not genetically gifted in the height department, how can you get a body like a basketball player?

To get the body of an NBA basketball player, you’ll need to do a lot of conditioning and develop strength and power in your legs and glutes. You should also incorporate agility work into your routine and train your arms and core.

You can’t really get any taller once you’re fully grown, but getting lean and toned along with lots of stretching and spine decompression can make you appear longer.

I spoke to a few fitness trainers and asked for their tips on how to get a basketball player’s physique. Here’s what they said.

What Are the Hallmarks of the Basketball Player Physique?

Let’s put aside the height of a typical basket player in favor of what anyone can achieve: the well-built body and skillset.

TJ Mentus, ACE-certified personal trainer with garagegymreviews.com, says, “Basketball players tend to be explosive athletes which means strong and defined leg muscles.”

The upper body muscles are clearly defined on a basketball player’s body, too.

However, you won’t notice the main hallmarks of a basketball player’s body just by looking at them.

Basketball players also possess superb agility and dexterity, strong joints, and impressive jumping power.

A combination of proper diet, strength training, conditioning, and agility training can all help you develop the hallmarks of a basketball player’s body.

9 Training Tips for a Basketball Player Body

Developing both the looks and agility of a basketball player will take a lot of effort. Two personal trainers weighed in on what you need to do to achieve this body type.

1. Lower Your Body Fat

TJ Mentus says, “Basketball players typically have low body fat which gives them overall good muscle definition.”

You can lose body fat by working out, but you need to eat well, too. Ideally, cut out all processed, fatty, and sugary foods that don’t benefit your body.

Replace them with low-fat dairy products, protein-filled meats, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy carbs.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, you need to eat in a calorie deficit.

This means eating around 500 calories under your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). You can find out your TDEE from an online calculator, or you can speak to a professional about it.

From there, evaluate your diet—with the help of a nutritionist if needed—to see what you can cut out to get 500 calories below your TDEE.

For example, you can swap out your fatty burger for a lean steak.

You can also trade your mid-afternoon bag of potato chips with a protein bar or replace your breakfast bacon with eggs.

If you’re in a calorie deficit, it’s important to eat enough protein to fuel your training and recovery.

Protein not only helps repair the micro-tears in your muscles that occur when you work out but it also aids in recovery and can help reduce muscle soreness.

Having a protein shake as an additional meal on a training day is a good idea, too.

Your workout will ensure you’re still in a calorie deficit, and you’ll need the protein as additional fuel as you push your body to its limits.

2. Build Explosive Leg Muscles

According to TJ Mentus, you need explosive power and defined leg muscles to get a basketball player’s body.

He recommends plyometric exercises such as box jumps and med ball throws to help with this.

You can start by doing them in alternating sets with 10–15 reps per set.

There are lots of other exercises that are fantastic for developing explosive leg muscles.

The nine exercises below are used by real basketball players.

Incorporating all of them into your routine will help you get stronger and more powerful.

Consider doing:

Goblet squats
Single-leg Romanian deadlifts
Isometric split squats
Glute bridges
Isometric lateral squats
Lunges
Snap downs
Marching plantar-dorsiflexion
Seated box jumps

3. Do High-Intensity Interval Training

TJ Mentus also recommends doing high-intensity interval training “with short bursts of max effort that alternate with just enough rest to recover.”

This will help to create a muscular, lean body.

HIIT will also help your cardiovascular health, and it’s fantastic for burning fat, too.

Going to a HIIT class will be highly beneficial for your training. You can also follow along with a HIIT workout online.

There are lots of videos on YouTube with workouts you can do at home with no equipment.

4. Become More Agile

Joshua Lafond, NASM personal trainer with healthygymhabits.com, says:

“The speed and especially agility of a basketball player is one of the things that separate the good from the great players.”

The weave and shoot is perfect for developing the agility of a basketball player.

Here are Joshua’s instructions for how to perform this exercise:

Set up 5 cones about 10 feet apart
Begin at cone 1 with the ball in your right hand
In an athletic position, sprint to cone 2 while dribbling the ball
When you reach cone 2, do a 180-degree turn and switch the ball to your left hand
Backwards dribble to cone 3
When you reach cone 3, turn back to forwards and exchange the ball back into your right hand
Dribble and sprint to any point between cones 4 and 5
Stop and set your feet, then shoot a two-point shot
For more variety you can also change which hand you begin this agility drill with.

5. Get Faster

As Joshua said, basketball players are fast, so you need to be quick, too.

To increase your speed, consider doing sprints on the treadmill.

Experiment with finding your max sprint speed, then set the speed on the treadmill to 0.2–0.5 mph lower than your top speed.

Run 100 meters at this speed, then rest for 2-3 minutes. Repeat this pattern 5-10 times.

You can also sprint at your local running track or anywhere that has enough open space for you to run.

Sprinting regularly will make you faster while also helping you build a defined physique.

(The first two expert tips in my article about how to get a sprinter’s body will also help with your speed and stamina.)

6. Build Your Arms and Shoulders

Basketball players have ripped upper bodies and strong arms.

Doing a variety of dumbbell and barbell movements will help grow your arm and shoulder muscles.

Incorporating some kettlebell exercises is good, too. The kettlebell swing is an explosive movement, so it will help you develop more power as well.

Here are a few exercises that are great for building strong arms and shoulders:

Wrist curls (palms up or down)
Bicep curls
Concentration curls
Triceps kickbacks
Overhead extensions
Overhead presses
Chest presses
Lateral raises (dumbbells only)

Start with weights that are challenging but manageable.

Push yourself to reach a certain amount of sets and reps. Doing three sets of 10 reps is a good starting point.

Pull-ups also work well for creating strong shoulders, so consider doing them as a warmup or finisher for your resistance workouts.

7. Work on Your Abs

Getting defined abdominals comes with the territory of having a well-built upper body.

You can train your abs by following a quick, equipment-free routine that you can do anywhere.

Below is an example of a bodyweight core circuit.

Do each movement for one minute as explosively as you can, and rest for 30 seconds between exercises:

Situps
Pushups
Crunches
Russian twists
One-minute plank

Rest for one to two minutes after the plank before repeating the circuit two to three times.

I recommend doing this workout three to five days per week so you don’t fatigue your core too much for your other workouts.

8. Improve Your Vertical Jump

Improving your jumping skills isn’t mandatory.

But if you want to become a better basketball player in addition to looking like one, you’ll need to work on your vertical jump.

There’s no one movement that’ll help you improve your jump. Instead, you should practice a variety of drills.

If you’ve built your leg muscles with explosive exercises, then you’ll likely make great progress with your vertical jump.

Here are some additional drills to try:

Jumping jacks
Burpees
Jump squats
Bulgarian split squats
Forward linear jumps

Do these in three sets of 10–15 reps or one at a time for a minute each with a 30-second rest in between.

9. Get Taller (Well, Kind Of!)

You can’t start growing again, but you can work on decompressing your spine to make yourself appear taller.

You can do this by performing exercises that stretch out your body.

Here are a few low-intensity exercises that you can experiment with:

Bar hang
Cobra stretch
Swimming and dry-land swimming
Pilates rollover
Forward spine stretch
Two straight legs up

You won’t grow several inches just from doing the exercises above, but stretching regularly can help you appear taller.

Plus, all that stretching has plenty of other amazing health and fitness benefits!

Wrapping Up

Getting a basketball player’s body is less about becoming sculpted (although that applies too) and more about developing speed, agility, and power.

This will ensure your body works the way a basketball player’s body works, and achieving the physique is just a bonus.

Getting a basketball player’s body will not only make you stronger and faster, but it will make you fitter and healthier, too.

Getting ripped and learning to look taller will also do wonders for your confidence, and you’ll end up being happier all around!

For more physique guides, check out:

How to get a football player’s body
How to get a swimmer’s body
How to get a distance runner’s body
How to get a boxer’s body

Hope this helps!

How to Build a Basketball Body

In today’s game of basketball, the level of athleticism is unmatched in history. Yes, many player are naturally gifted, but if you want to be elite, you must commit to your own basketball training program. You will be a step behind your competition, literally and figuratively, if you aren’t actively trying to improve your strength, quickness and vertical jump.

As a former collegiate and professional basketball player, I have seen my fair share of basketball workouts, some better than others. My goal is to help you develop a program that will not only help you match your competition, but get a step ahead.

As a basketball player, you want a workout that is specifically designed for your sport. Compare an NBA player’s body to an NFL player’s body. You will see a big difference. That’s because they train differently and have different goals. You don’t want a bodybuilder workout in which you are trying to deadlift 500 pounds. Your basketball workout plan should build the fast-twitch muscles you need to jump and sprint.

Below is a sample basketball workout plan. Adjust the sets and reps up or down for age or skill level differences.

Basketball Workout Plan

Monday – Chest/Triceps

Bench Press – 3×10
Incline Dumbbell Press – 2×10
Tricep Dips – 2×12
Tricep Pushdowns – 2×10
Burpee Push-Ups – 2×10

Tuesday – Legs/Abs

Squats – 3×12,10,8
Dumbbell Lunge – 3×2
Bounding – 3×10
Depth Jumps – 2×12
Jump Rope – 5×30-45 seconds
Plank – 2×60 seconds
Crunches – 2×30

Wednesday – Rest

Thursday – Back/Shoulders/Biceps

Pull-Ups – 3×8
Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 3×12
Cable Seated Row – 3×10
Dumbbell Front Shoulder Raise – 2×10
Dumbbell Lateral Shoulder Raise – 2×10
Bicep Curls – 3×10
Hammer Curls – 3×10

Friday – Legs/Abs

Knee Tucks – 2×20
Lunge Jumps – 3×12
Box Jumps – 3×8
Band Resisted Backboard Touches – 3×10
Speed Dribble with Harness – 3×15 seconds
Band Resisted Lay-Ups – 3×8

Perform each exercise as explosively as possible. Practice good form and always lift with a spotter.

READ MORE:

A Basketball Off-Season Workout Plan for Adding Size and Strength
How to Dunk a Basketball (Including a Training Plan to Help You Jump Higher)
The Best Conditioning Drills for Basketball Players
Here’s How to Warm Up for a Basketball Workout

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Basketball coaching hacks: how to score goals for beginners

Even if you are a novice basketball player, we will not give you a training plan, but we will tell you why the ball flies anywhere but into the ring and into your hands. It's all about technique: even with regular training and perseverance, novice adults and children often make simple mistakes. It's a shame, let's fix it. Below are 11 life hacks on how to hone your technique to increase the likelihood of a goal for your team.

Basketball Shot Rules for Beginners

1.

Hands up

In pursuit of the attacker, raise your hands, even if you are standing with your back to the pass, and even more so if the ring is in front of you. Your raised hands will increase the chance of intercepting the ball from the opponent by 2 times. Don't overlook this little thing!

2. Make shield rolls

Even Tim Duncan did not neglect them! A square is drawn on the basketball backboard. If you are standing opposite the ring, then aim at the middle of the upper part of the square, if you are standing on the side, then at the corner. If you hit this square, then the ball is at 90% of cases will fall into the ring. The law of physics and no cheating!

3. Look at the ring, not at the ball

Practice driving the ball with your hand, not your eyes, develop tactile control. Your eyes should be on the hoop while dribbling and be aware of the position of your body in relation to the hoop. Then you will be able to take the correct posture, and the throw will be effective.

4. Dribble with the balls of your fingers only

The palm should not touch the ball, only the pads of the fingers. Dribbling should become familiar to you, like an extension of your hand. Then you can change its trajectory at any time and you will have more chances to score goals. Practice with the ball constantly.

5. Throw with one hand

If you throw the ball with two hands, you reduce the chance of hitting the basket. All the efforts of the throw are in one hand (in the right for right-handers, in the left for left-handers). The other hand only holds the ball, the leading one holds it with the fingers, not the palm.

6. Do not jump when protecting the ring

Jumping is the main mistake of rookie defenders. To intercept the ball and block the shot, simply stick out your hands. When you are in a jump, the attacker will easily bypass you.

7. Don't look back

When you dribble, don't look back, but dribble and aim for the ring, focus on shooting (or passing to another player on your team).

8. Bring the throw to automatism

Incorporate the most basic basketball techniques into your training plan and bring the shot to automatism. Throw first from a distance of half a meter from the ring, gradually increasing it. Learn to throw the ball so that it hits the hoop without touching the edge.

Throw the ball with all fives and jump

Throwing Rules:

Head in the center of the body - if tilted, accuracy is lost.
Look at the ring: mentally build a trajectory. If you are far away, the ball flies in a curved curve with a maximum height of 2 meters above the hoop.
A strong hand is in front and throws, a weak hand is on the side and directs, only holding the ball. The elbow of the throwing hand must be in line with the ring.
The ball must rest on the fingers without touching the palm. The fingers are as far apart as possible and grab the ball.
Throwing arm bent 90 degrees, forearm perpendicular to the floor. If you bend less, then you get not a throw, but a throwing of the ball horizontally.

The main thing in the throw is the position of the body and its balance. Place your feet apart and parallel to each other: it is important to orient them in the middle of the basket. Then the direction of the body during the jump will coincide with the direction of the throw, and the ball will fly straight into the ring. When the feet are uneven, the ball flies in the wrong direction or does not reach (although the throw was normal).

Take a deep breath and release as you exhale.

How to hold the ball and shoot in basketball

How to throw correctly: straighten your arm, point your wrist up, and with your hand set the ball to rotate in the opposite direction from the flight. The ball should seem to "roll" off your fingers.

9. Copy masters and play as a team

Watch professional basketball games and try to copy the movements of your favorite players in training. And be sure to conduct game sparring - this will allow you to develop more techniques.

10. Do not throw in a straight line

The higher the arc of the ball, the greater the chance of a goal and the less chance of blocking by the opponent.

11. Do not throw the ball from a full height stand

This is the biggest newbie mistake!

Before the throw, bend your knees slightly and at the moment of the throw, straighten your body, making a jump. You need to straighten up and push off the ground at the same time. When squatting, keep the elbow of the throwing arm close to the body and towards the ring.

The jump will give momentum to the ball and will allow you not to make sudden movements with the brush.

***

And to be a long-term player, do not forget about your health: take care of your joints and muscles, use tapes, do a warm-up. And be sure to strengthen your arms, legs and shoulder girdle, develop coordination. Regular exercises on uneven bars and horizontal bars will help you with this.

Basketball exercises, indoor and outdoor basketball training

Every year we have the brightest event in the world of basketball - the playoffs of the United Basketball League. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the training of the world's top basketball players!

Athletes are already actively preparing for the upcoming matches and getting into better shape. What does it cost you to know how exactly the basketball players of the International United League train?

To do this, we turned to Evgeny Burin, who previously worked with the Russian men's basketball team, and now is responsible for the general physical training of athletes of the Nizhny Novgorod basketball club.

ADIDAS cycle - Self-improvement. Basketball

The program of the video cycle consists of 10 lessons to improve the various qualities of basketball players. As part of the project, Evgeny Burin reveals his professional secrets.

Lesson 1. Back Exercises

This is the first workout in the adidas Self Improvement Basketball series. As part of the project, Evgeny Burin, physical training coach of the Nizhny Novgorod basketball club, reveals his professional secrets.

Without a strong back one cannot imagine a healthy person, let alone an athlete. This is all the more important for a basketball player who has to jump and land many times in the game, push and push through the defense. In this video, Evgeny Burin gives exercises that help professional basketball players to have a strong back.

Lesson 2. Legs

This is the second workout in the adidas Self Improvement Basketball series.

Basketball players need strong legs not only to score balls or just jump above everyone else. Legs - this is the main thing due to which the player defends himself and is on the court at the right time and in the right place. Therefore, professionals never work only on the jump and are not limited to squats with a barbell. Evgeny Burin shows how to properly swing the legs of a basketball player.

Lesson 3. Chest muscles

There are a great many exercises for developing chest muscles. Which of them can be used so as not to get the opposite effect, enslavement and loss of mobility, you will find in this lesson. Evgeny Burin gives special exercises that professional basketball players use.

Find the right chest workout for you, just like Euroleague basketball players do.

According to Evgeny Burin, push-ups are one of the most effective exercises for chest muscles. To complicate the exercise, Eugene suggests using weights (dumbbells) and performing various types of push-ups with them: with lifting and with rotation.

To activate different muscle groups, you can take a different position relative to the fitball - it can be under the lumbar part of the back or in the area of the shoulder blades.

Lesson 4. Shoulders, arms. Balance cushion

Some might think that it is very important for a basketball player to have pumped up arms and wide shoulders. But even here you can not concentrate on one thing. Trainer Evgeny Burin tells how, while working on these muscles, at the same time develop the whole body.

Lesson 5. Complex exercises

What can a basketball player take from weightlifting? Yes, at least the classic exercises - a jerk and a push. Evgeny Burin tells how to use them to the maximum benefit for the player.

Lesson 6. Balance and coordination exercises

A basketball player must certainly have a strong and enduring body. But coordination of movements, the ability to land and correctly distribute forces during contact are also absolutely necessary qualities for a player. The trainer offers some simple but very effective exercises.

Exercises for VTB United League basketball players offered by Evgeny Burin seem familiar to you only at first glance:

I add the principle of unstable balance to my workouts. This helps to work out the muscles better. To create such conditions when performing exercises, we will use a fitball.

Lesson 7. Tricky rubber bands

Balance exercises become much more effective when you use resistance. Ordinary rubber expanders are a great help in the work of a fitness trainer.

Lesson 8. Ball out of play

Basketball players may use the ball for other than its intended purpose. With the help of the coach's advice, the most ordinary balls turn into effective simulators.

Lesson 9. Speed endurance. Running exercises

In preparation for the 2007 European Championship, the Russian national basketball team did not run a single cross. Why would an athlete performing on a 28-meter long track run 5 or 10 kilometers in training? Evgeny Burin tells how to make running work really effective.

Lesson 10. Training principles

In the 10th final video, Evgeny Burin gives the most important tips. How is work organized in the pre-season? How to distribute loads during the season? How to make sure that the work with the bar does not interfere with the game? How to use the exercises that you have learned from previous editions? You will find all the answers in this lesson.

How to get a basketball body

How to Get a Body Like an NBA Player (According to Trainers)

What Are the Hallmarks of the Basketball Player Physique?