Stay tuned tomorrow for official release of the March Madness Hoops Soundtracks and Workouts featuring 15-45 power intervals to develop freakish explosiveness during the off-season and descending 30-30, 30-20, and 30-15 intervals to build elite in-season conditioning!!
As I write this manual we are about a week away from March Madness 2010. With all of the growing hoopla around this perennial hoops tournament, I felt compelled to explore sport-specific interval protocols for basketball to honor this month of “bracketology” as ESPN has so cleverly called it.
Basketball is an incredibly competitive sport that requires a true renaissance-type level of athleticism. You must be strong, lean, powerful, quick, agile, conditioned, and possess a lot of sport specific skills such as passing, dribbling, shooting, proper defensive technique, etc.
Surely, genetics can help you go along way when it comes to being a quality basketball player. The fact of the matter is that some of us are just born to jump higher and run faster than others due to possessing a greater proportion of bigger more powerful fast twitch muscle fibers than average. Furthermore, there is generally a built-in ceiling whereby we can only improve our natural ability to a certain extent without the use of illegal performance enhancing agents.
2 Born Performers
MJ on the left could ball, MJ on the right could sing, but neither could do both at the same level!
However, just like anything in life, talent and potential can only get you so far without the proper drive and determination. In other words, the more competitive the environment, the more naturally gifted the athletes, the more personal work ethic and proper training programs begin to separate the good from the great athletes.
For those of you who don’t know, I grew up a HUGE fan of Michael Jordan during the late 80’s and 90’s when I personally feel the NBA was at its best. What attracted me most about MJ was his uncanny ability to deliver when it counted the most. He would just have that “eye of the tiger” look that displayed a unique kind of intense yet calm confidence that I have always strived to emulate in my own personal endeavors. Furthermore, it was MJ’s intense competitive drive that I personally found to be most inspiring.
After all, though there’s no denying Michael Jordan was bestowed with exceptional athletic prowess, he didn’t become known as the greatest basketball player in the history of the world because of his natural ability. Most people know that MJ was cut from his high school basketball team. But he used this rejection as motivation to get better and better to prove his critics wrong, something he managed to continually do throughout his illustrious subsequent collegiate and professional careers respectively.
MJ knocking down a game winning shot to win the NCAA championship with UNC and then doing it again 14 years later to win the NBA championship with the Bulls
However, what many people seem to forget is that MJ had a personal work ethic, discipline, and competitive spirit that exceeded that of his opponents. In the end, this is what made him the greatest- he simply outworked and outsmarted the competition.
In the spirit of controlling what we can and maximizing our inner MJ, let’s examine the sport-specific demands of performance training for basketball. In addition, we’ll also consider the differences between in-season and off-season training.
Remember, even if you’re not a basketball fan, basketball is a natural interval training activity with intermittent short bursts of maximum effort mixed with lower to moderate intensity active recovery periods with lots of change of direction. In other words, there’s no better activity to boost metabolism and burn lots of fat as demonstrated by the lean, muscular, and athletic physiques that the typical basketball player possesses.
Section I- Power Training to Develop Freakish Explosiveness during the Off-Season
To excel at any sport or activity, you must be able to both effectively and efficiently store and release energy. Power is defined as the amount of work performed per unit of time. To become more powerful we must learn how to move faster (increase speed) in addition to being able to generate more muscular force (increase strength).
To express power the body depends on the alactate energy system that uses a limited-supply of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) and CP (Creatine Phosphate) stored in your muscles into instant usable energy without the presence of oxygen for all out bursts of high-intensity effort lasting up to 15 seconds in duration.
In basketball, examples of power activities that tap into the alacate energy system are driving to the basket, jumping, hopping, leaping, bounding, shooting, rebounding, shuffling, etc. The max effort level of intensity inherent to the alactate system requires full recovery for similar repeat efforts. You cannot properly train the alactate energy system in a state of fatigue. The work to rest ratio typically falls within a 1:3 to 1:5 work to rest ratio or greater or full recovery periods of 3-5 minutes.
Power training effectively provides a training effect to your bigger and faster Type II fast-twitch muscle fibers. Maximum power involves max efforts of low repetition elasticity exercises that engage the stretch reflex with long rest periods. Power endurance involves the ability to produce repeated fast muscular contractions over an extended period of time.
To be the best basketball player (and the best athlete for that matter) that you can be you must possess both maximum power and power endurance. After all being able to jump through the rafters is only valuable if it can be replicated through the duration of a contest.
What constitutes a power training exercise? The answer to this can be found in understanding elasticity. Your muscles and tendons are just liked coiled springs. When you perform the lowering/eccentric portion of any exercise, your muscles and tendons build up stored elastic energy that allows you to quickly uncoil or bounce back to the starting position. So you when sink your hips back quickly into a deep squatting position the muscles of your lower body are primed to pop you right back up the starting position just like a stretched rubber band would.
This rubber band quality is referred to as the stretch reflex, or the stretch shortening cycle (SSC). It describes the amount of time it takes for you to transition as fast as possible between the lowering/eccentric phase of an exercise and the lifting/concentric phase of a movement (also known as the Amortization Phase).
If your goal is to increase your explosiveness and speed of movement, you need to train your body to better take advantage of this stretch reflex. This is accomplished via elasticity training or plyometrics consisting of explosive exercises like sprinting, jumping, hopping, leaping, bounding, etc. It also involves performing basic exercises like push-ups, squats, and lunges as fast as possible.
In addition, contrary to popular belief, your quad and calf muscles are NOT the most important muscle groups to focus on if you want to improve your vertical jump and overall power output. In fact, most experts agree that the major determinant of your total power can be found in the relative and absolute strength of your posterior chain, collectively consisting of the gluteal, hamstring, and spinal erector muscles.
It’s also important to note the term “relative strength” as it describes how strong you are for your current bodyweight. The leaner you are and the stronger you are the more powerful you will be as you will have less mass to move around. On the other hand, if you possess excellent absolute strength, but you are very overweight, your power output will be minimized. In other words, it’s in your best interests to rid yourself of any unneeded body fat if you want to maximize your performance. This can be easily accomplished with sound dietary habits and by following the provided workouts in this manual.
The fact is that everybody wants to be able to jump higher, especially if you are of the Caucasian persuasion, ha ha!
See below for a quick outline of how to do just that:
The Top 9 Ways to INSTANTLY Improve Your Vertical Jump
1.) Position yourself directly underneath the target of your jump
2.) Fully extend your body with your arms reaching overhead before descending into your jump
3.) Strive to descend as fast as humanly possible during the descent phase
4.) Focus on pushing your hips back allowing for no more than 15-20 degree knee flexion to ensure maximum use of your powerful posterior chain
5.) Strive to reverse directions as fast as humanly possible for the ascent phase
6.) Be sure to drive your arms downwards as you descend and then drive your arms upwards as your ascend
7.) Focus on looking up to your target position during the ascent phase
8.) Remember to perform dynamic hip flexor stretching and ankle mobility work beforehand as this will allow the hip and ankle joints to move through a fuller range of motion to maximize power output by providing for a greater stretch reflex. In addition, proper hip and ankle mobility goes a long way to preventing the dreaded overtraining injuries like jumper’s and runner’s knee
9.) Focus on strengthening your posterior chain if you want to get some serious hops (or at least a lot more hops than you can currently muster)
BONUS TIP- Train your vertical jump with both countermovement and WITHOUT countermovement. Countermovement involves a rapid descent to best engage the stretch reflex for a more rapid and powerful ascent. In other words, countermovement trains power. Non-Countermovement involves performing the jump from a statically held position so as to take speed of movement out of the equation. Non-counter movement trains absolute strength.
Studies show that it only takes 4 seconds to eliminate this stretch reflex and discharge all of the potential elastic energy within your muscles. The less elastic energy within your muscles, the harder your muscles must work to perform any exercise and the greater the total muscle fiber recruitment.
How do you incorporate this 4-second time period to work non-countermovement and build more absolute strength?
One option is to perform an isometric hold in the transition period between the eccentric and concentric portion of an exercise lasting 4 seconds or greater. For example, perform a 4-second hold at the bottom position of a plyo push-up before explosively returning to the starting position.
Another option is to take at least 4 seconds in total before performing the concentric portion of the exercise. For example, if you perform a jump squat at a 3-1-X-1 tempo you will take 3 seconds to lower your body into the bottom of the squat and then pause for 1 second, a total of 4 seconds before you would actually jump as high as you can.
Finally, studies show that if you have the intent of performing the lifting or concentric portion on every rep of any given exercise as fast as humanly possible you activate the most total muscle fibers. More muscles worked equals more calories burnt and greater gains in lean body mass.
Now that we know how train for power, let’s move on to the conditioning component of basketball.
Section II- Energy System Development (ESD) to Build Elite In-Season Conditioning
All human movement and muscular activity is derived from the energy produced by ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). The human body has 3 different energy systems that are responsible for continually replenishing ATP stores to fuel performance for everyday activities. At any given time, all energy systems are active to some degree, but based on first and foremost the intensity of the activity and secondly the duration of the activity, one system is always more active than another.
Let’s examine all 3 energy systems and how they apply to the game of basketball.
You don’t get to hold a championship trophy or your own statue for being out of shape!
The Anaerobic Energy Systems: This energy system describes the body’s ability to perform short duration high-intensity efforts over a period of time lasting less than 3 minutes in duration. There are 2 different types of anaerobic energy systems:
a.) Alactate (ATP-CP Phosphagen System): The alactate energy system is responsible for using the limited-supply of ATP and CP (Creatine Phosphate) stored in your muscles into instant usable energy without the presence of oxygen for all out bursts of high-intensity effort lasting up to 15 seconds in duration. It activates at the onset of any and all activity.
In basketball, examples of activities that tap into the alacate energy system are driving to the basket, jumping, hopping, leaping, bounding, shooting, rebounding, shuffling, etc. The max effort level of intensity inherent to the alactate system requires full recovery for similar repeat efforts. You cannot properly train the alactate energy system in a state of fatigue. The work to rest ratio typically falls within a 1:3 to 1:5 work to rest ratio or greater or full recovery periods of 3-5 minutes.
b.) Lactate: The lactate energy system is responsible for the breakdown of carbohydrate into ATP via glycolysis (fast and slow respectively) to provide energy for moderate to high-intensity work periods typically lasting up to 3 minutes in duration. It’s also characterized by a large accumulation of lactic acid (the fatigue and burning you feel in your muscles) in the blood due to an absence of molecular oxygen. When blood lactate levels reach a certain threshold, it inhibits glycolysis and performance begins to decrease requiring recovery.
In basketball, examples of activities that tap into the lactate energy system are 30-60 second work periods consisting of fast breaks, defensive presses, continuous dribbling, and repeated locomotion with short periods of rest often equal to or less than the aforementioned work periods. The typical work to rest ratio typically falls within a 1:1 to 1:3 work to rest ratio.
The Aerobic Energy System: The aerobic energy system is responsible for converting carbohydrate and fat (and protein to some extent) into usable energy in the presence of oxygen for lower to moderate intensity activities lasting 3+ minutes in duration. For basketball, the aerobic energy system is used throughout the continuous play of a 48-minute game. The typical work to rest ratio falls within a 1:1 or negative work to rest ratio (e.g. 20-10 Tabatas is a negative 2:1 work to rest ratio).
Jordan took his conditioning very seriously. It allowed him to drop 37 points in the NBA finals with the flu on one occasion and also the ability to muster up the energy and focus necessary to be able to shoot a game winning shot many times throughout his career
Now that we have outlined the sport-specific demands of basketball, let’s cut to the chase with some killer hoops interval workouts I’ve put together for you to celebrate March Madness with a bang!
Whether you are a competitive basketball player, a weekend warrior, or a fitness fanatic looking to change it up, these workouts will surely take your performance AND your physique to the next level 
Stay tuned tomorrow for official release of the March Madness Hoops Soundtracks and Workouts featuring 15-45 power intervals to develop freakish explosiveness during the off-season and descending 30-30, 30-20, and 30-15 intervals to build elite in-season conditioning!!
Crank it!
BJ Gaddour, CSCS, YFS2
Workout Muse Co-Creator and Fitness Director
Perform Better Presenter for Expertise in Fitness Bootcamp Program Design and Business Systems
