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How to get basketball player shoulders

How Basketball Players Have Big Shoulders? Tips

Why do basketball players have big shoulders? What’s the reason for basketball players to possess bigger than average shoulders? To answer these questions, we need to first know what shoulder muscles are. The four main shoulder muscles include deltoids, trapezius, infraspinatus, and supraspinatus. These muscles help in lifting our arms and rotating them around our body. As basketball players regularly lift their arms when they shoot a ball or rebound it from the opponents’ side of the court, these muscles get strengthened over time and result in broader shoulders.

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How Do NBA Players Get Big Shoulders?

In basketball, the shoulder muscles are used to shoot a ball from a long distance. Doing this regularly builds bigger shoulders over time by strengthening these muscles. The players also perform many other activities that help them build their physique such as practicing day and night for years together, taking care of diet plans, etc. , which is why they end up with big muscular bodies.

The Shoulder Muscles

Deltoids

The deltoids are situated at the front of your shoulder and they help in lifting arms along with rotating them around. They comprise three different sections known as anterior, lateral, and posterior.

Trapezius

The trapezius is a flat, triangular muscle situated at the back of your shoulder. It helps in lifting and rotating arms as well as stabilizing them.

Infraspinatus

The infraspinatus is situated below the trapezius and helps basketball players rotate their arms.

Supraspinatus

The supraspinatus is found above the infraspinatus, which together with deltoids helps basketball players lift their arms to shoot a ball or pass it on to teammates after rebounding from opponents’ side of the court. Thus, these two muscles along with other shoulder muscles are responsible for making basketball players have big shoulders.

Now that we know about the muscles involved in basketball players having big shoulders, let’s look into some tips on how to attain such a physique.

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Exercises for Your Shoulders

People often wish they had a muscular upper body like that of a basketball player’s physique but find it hard to attain such a weighty look due to lack of time in the schedule as well as fitness motivation at times. But if you want bigger shoulders too, then here are some exercises that might help you out;

Shoulder Press

One of the best exercises for basketball players’ shoulders is the shoulder press. This exercise helps in strengthening all the four muscles involved in the shoulder region. You can do this by using a weight bench or even dumbbells to perform the presses.

Lateral Raises

Another great exercise for basketball players’ shoulders is the lateral raise. This involves lifting weights sideways and targets your deltoids specifically. You can do this by using dumbbells or a barbell. Firstly, you need to lift the weights from your knees and slowly raise them to shoulder level before lowering them back down.

Upright Row

The third exercise you could do is an upright row which also works on your trapezius muscles quite well. This is a perfect exercise to do to get a basketball player’s shoulders. You can use dumbbells or even barbells for this one too. Start with a lightweight and then gradually increase the number of repetitions as you get stronger.

Shoulder Shrugs

One can also perform shoulder shrugs which are beneficial for working on the trapezius muscle. This exercise is done by lifting your shoulders as high as you can and then releasing them back to the starting position. You can use either a weight bench or dumbbells for this exercise.

Rear Delt Flyes

Finally, rear delt flyes are great for working on the rear deltoid muscles. You first need to set up a bench in an incline position and then lie down on it while holding two dumbbells. Now, slowly raise the weights towards your chest and hold for a second before lowering them back to the starting position.

Overview of Exercises

There are many other basketball players’ workout exercises that can help in strengthening deltoids, trapezius, infraspinatus as well as the supraspinatus.

All these exercises should be done with caution though as incorrect form might lead to injuries. So, it’s always better to get professional help while starting with any new workout

Tips On Getting The Basketball Players’ Shoulders

Do weight training exercises that focus on these muscles groups such as lateral raises, front raises, bent over rows, etc. This will help you build bigger shoulders over time.

Use machines such as seated press and military press at the gym to isolate these muscles and achieve better results.
Take up basketball if you haven’t already and practice regularly.
Practice shooting basketball balls from a long distance every day for stronger deltoids.
Take care of your diet by eating food items that are rich in proteins and healthy fats such as eggs, fish, and nuts.
Perform basketball workouts with a partner to strengthen the trapezius muscles and gain an upper hand over others at basketball games.
Improve your flexibility by stretching out your shoulders for better results in every workout session you perform.
Practice shooting basketballs from various angles including underhand shots which help in strengthening the infraspinatus muscle of the shoulder area as well as supraspinatus muscle located above it along with deltoids and trapezius muscles.

These are some simple tips that can make basketball players’ big shoulders appear even bigger than they are! Through these steps, not only will one be able to attain those broad muscular shoulders but also improve their performance.

Biggest, and Broadest Shoulders in the NBA

Dwight Howard is often recognized as the basketball player having the biggest shoulders in the NBA. This is due to his tremendous dedication to weight training and basketball practice. The former 3-time Defensive Player of the Year’s shoulder measurements are measured at 36 inches wide. He currently plays center for the Los Angeles Lakers, and more recently closely missed out on the best 75 basketball players of the NBA list.

2021 NBA Finals MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo has also become famous for his broad shoulders recently due to his improved physique which has been attributed by many experts to weight training. His bodybuilding exercises involve a lot of focus on trapezius muscles combined with squats and bench presses along with other workouts such as dips or pull-ups etc. This helps him stay fit while performing strenuous basketball games throughout an 82-game season. No wonder they call him “The Greek Freak”.

Conclusion

In conclusion, basketball players have big shoulders because of the regular use of their shoulder muscles when shooting or rebounding balls. You too can build such a physique by including some simple exercises into your daily routine. Go get those broad shoulders now!

We hope you enjoyed this blog post on basketball players’ big shoulders. Be sure to check back soon for more exciting posts on the topic of basketball!

Here are Some of our Favourite Basketball Sneakers

Here we will be giving more of an opinion, rather than facts. Are the sneakers worth the price that they are being sold at? Should you upgrade from your current sneakers, depending on what boots you own? What features stand out on these sneakers? If any. Does it do the job? Speed, control, stability etc. Depending on your needs/preferences. We can also mention its durability, if we have collected enough data on the specific sneakers.

What did we expect vs. what we got. Is it maybe overrated/underrated?

Elite

Here’s our pick from the very best of the bunch.

Pro

On your way to the pro leagues? Here’s our pick.

Beginner

Want something to start with? Have a look at our pick.

The Basketball Super Shoulder Power Workout

Question: What’s a basketball player’s secret weapon for finishing at the basket, breaking a screen or winning the post position battle?

Answer: A fully developed set of strong shoulder muscles. (Bonus: You also need to be in great cardiovascular shape, see 8-Week Basketball Off-Season On-Track Conditioning Program.)

Shoulder strength is crucial if you want to dominate in the paint. But too many athletes lack the required tools and workout know-how. The following basketball shoulder workout will develop an intense set of shoulder muscles. Add it into your upper body-training day.

Basketball Shoulder Power Workout 

For each exercise, you will need a weight plate between 10 and 45 pounds.

Less than a year of weightlifting experience: Choose the 10-pound plate.
A year or two years of weight training experience: Choose between 25 and 35 pounds.
Three-plus years: Choose between 35 and 45 pounds.

These are guidelines, not rules. Make your selection based on your strength level. Very few people will be able to do this circuit with 45 pounds.

Before beginning, make sure you’re properly warmed up. (Try the Ultimate Basketball Warm-up.)

Front Raise

Sets/Reps: 2×12

Stand holding the weight in front of your body with both hands
Keep your arms straight; do not bend your elbows
Lift the weight up to shoulder height
Control the weight as you lower it to starting position.

Front Row

Sets/Reps: 2×12

Stand holding the weight in front of your body with both hands, palms facing in, arms straight (hand strength is key for keeping the weight in place)
Keeping the weight close to your body, bend the elbows and pull the weight up toward your chin until your elbows are higher than your shoulders
Control the weight as you lower it to starting position

Single Arm Row

Sets/Reps: 2×12 each arm

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent
Bend over to where your shoulders are parallel to the ground
Gripping the weight with one hand, pull it up, bending our elbow back without twisting at the waist
Control the weight as you lower it to starting position

Shoulder Press

Sets/Reps: 2×12

Stand holding the weight at chest level in front of your body with both hands
Bend your elbows and press the weight directly over the top of your head, fully extending your arms
Control the weight as you lower it to starting position
Be sure to move your head back as the weight comes up to avoid hitting your face, but do not arch your back or lean backward

Now that you have the tools to craft a set of strong shoulders, it’s time to dominate your competition. Read my Dominate the Competition Series:

Part 1: Basketball Strength Training Program
Part 2: Basketball Upper Body Plyometrics
Part 3: Basketball Jump Training
Part 4: In-Season Basketball Strength Training

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How to Build Broad Shoulders for a Man?

In 1996, McDowell Company, a large American real estate company, commissioned a market research study on which sellers were more trusted by customers. And it turned out that potential real estate buyers most of all trust broad-shouldered, athletic-looking men. Having received this data, the company immediately issued an order obliging all male employees to attend the gym without fail, and paid them annual subscriptions. In my article today, I will share my own experience of gaining trust from others and tell you how to build broad shoulders for a man. The most interesting about training and sports nutrition on my telegram channel https://t. me/bestbodyblog

About broad shoulders

But first, as always, I will try to dispel another persistent myth. A lot of people are sure that you can pump up your shoulders with the help of swimming. Since this is the best type of physical activity for expanding the shoulder section. In fact, broad shoulders are a genetic predisposition based on the size of the articular heads and the length of the clavicles.

Yes, indeed, most of the outstanding swimmers, such as Alain Bernard, have fantastic shoulders, a real oblique fathom. But it's foolish to think that these champions got so wide from swimming. The truth is that if they didn't have broad shoulders by nature, they would simply be rejected by the coach and they would never become professional swimmers. After all, no one thinks that basketball players are so tall because of their sport. No, they are naturally tall, and that's why they play basketball.

Swimmer Alain Bernard | The owner of incredibly broad shoulders

Of course, naturally broad shoulders are a real gift for any man. But what if genetics is stingy? There is only one way out - go to the gym and try to pump up your shoulders with the help of a specialized training program. My relationship with the deltoid muscles was pretty calm for many years. I am naturally tall and broad-shouldered. I pumped them along with all the other muscles, and they gradually grew. But the more I gained a lot of other muscle groups, the worse my shoulders looked against their background. And I didn't even understand why.

And the thing is that the deltoid muscle of the shoulder consists of three sections: anterior, middle and posterior. To pump up a man with broad shoulders, you need to purposefully work on each of them. Everything is very simple, right? But in practice, this turns out to be much more difficult, since it will not work to pump up deltas like balls with a “head-on” attack, and make them not only large, but also proportional. These are rather small, but extremely cunning and touchy muscles. And they need a special approach.

About training the front delt

I have not yet met people who would have problems with the development of the front delt. According to statistics, and according to my own observations, difficulties can arise with the middle and especially the rear delta, but not with the front. This segment of the deltoid muscle is the largest and strongest. He takes an active part in all exercises for the chest. All bench presses, sitting and half-sitting, load this segment of the muscle, albeit indirectly, but very strongly.

This is especially true for such an exercise as a bench press on an incline bench. In all bodybuilding textbooks, it is written in black and white that this exercise is for the top of the pectoral muscles. I have been doing this bench press for years, in the hope of gaining muscle mass in the chest in this particular place. For the breasts, this, however, did not give anything. But now the front deltoids have become simply huge.

Incline Bench Press is the best exercise for the anterior deltoid

When I read the results of recent studies conducted with medical equipment, I understand why. It turned out that during this exercise the upper segment of the chest receives only 5% more load than with a horizontal bench press. But the impact on the front delta increases by 40%. So the next time someone tells you the incline bench press is the best exercise for building the top of your pecs, feel free to spit in his face.

So it's cool, you say, it turns out that the front delta can not be pumped at all. Yes, it is, since bench presses or inclines with serious weights will have a much stronger effect on this small muscle than lifting a pair of small dumbbells in front of you.

Experienced athletes are well aware of this strategic trick and sweat over the front delt, as a rule, in the pre-competition period. Before participating in tournaments, they work on the separation of this muscle group (clear separation of all three muscle bundles from each other). And above the definition (separation of deltoids from other muscles, for example, from the pectoral and subclavian).

Front lift | Isolated exercise for the front delt

But for all its simplicity, the ease in building the front delt carries a great danger. The fact is that overgrown, from heavy presses on the chest, as it was with me, the anterior segment of the deltoid muscle visually narrows the shoulders, lowering them down. As he gets stronger, he begins to take the load off in exercises aimed at the upper chest. And it turns out that you are actively working on this stubborn segment of the pectoral muscles, but it does not grow at all. But the front deltas are getting larger, gradually turning from an advantage into a disadvantage. How can such a problem be solved? There are three options:

Quit Incline Barbell Press

The sooner you get rid of the regular, classic barbell chest presses (especially incline ones), the better. They can be successfully replaced with a dumbbell bench press. Such an exercise not only removes excess load from the front delta, but also allows you to pump your chest much more efficiently.

Use Front Delt Preexhaustion

If the Bench Press is a necessary exercise for you, use the Preexhaustion principle. It lies in the fact that before the bench press, it is necessary to perform 2-3 sets of any exercise for the front delta. It can be lifting dumbbells or barbells in front of you, or any other pump-style movement. This will tire the front delta a little, exclude it from work and direct the entire load from the exercise straight to the pectoral muscles.

Emphasize the development of the middle bundle of the deltoid muscle

In order to compensate for the development of the excessively growing anterior bundle of the deltoid muscles, they must be balanced by the proportional development of the middle, and especially the posterior bundle. The front deltas can really not be trained, focusing all your attention on other, more important parts of this muscle group.

But if, nevertheless, your front delta is lagging behind in development, and you can’t pump up your shoulders without it, then you should use a specialized training program. I advise you to pump this stubborn segment of the deltoid muscle twice a week. Once easy, after a chest workout, and the second time, hard during a shoulder workout. Moreover, a specialized shoulder training program must begin with exercises for the lagging beam.

There are quite a few varieties of exercises for this segment of the shoulder muscle: presses from the chest and lifts of a barbell, dumbbell or plate from the barbell in front of you. I advise you to watch a video on this topic, where a whole gang of iron sports fans, consisting of Bradley Martin, Rob Bailey, his wife Dana Lyn Bailey and Kai Green, are rocking the front delta.

Shoulder training video:

Pumping up broad shoulders for a man is not an easy task, but it can be solved. You just need to forget about the old stereotypes of bodybuilding and approach the process of gaining mass in the shoulder girdle from the point of view of common sense. Read about the development strategy of the middle and back deltas and about shoulder training mistakes, read in the second part of the article ...

About the author: My name is Stanislav Mikhailovsky. I am the author of this blog, personal trainer for bodybuilding, nutritionist, sports nutritionist, writer. I am 46 years old, almost 30 of them, I am engaged in strength training.

I develop individual training programs for weight gain and weight loss, make up diets, advise on the choice and use of sports supplements. Specialization - bodybuilding after 40.

Exercises for basketball players, basketball training in the gym and on the court

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 do you need 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 cycle. 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 cycle.

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

It may seem to some that it is very important for a basketball player to have inflated 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.

Strength training of basketball players

Evgeny Burin is sure that in order to achieve the best results, like the athletes of the VTB United League, it is necessary not only to engage in direct basketball training, but also to pay active attention to active work in the gym.

How to get basketball player shoulders