I was asked by a major magazine for some tips on how someone jumping back into playing basketball should prepare in the gym. The content went unused, so I’m posting it here in case it’s useful to you. The intended audience here is sort of your mid-forties commercial gym-goer, but the concept applies to anyone. I substituted one of the magazine’s own strength programs for a solid program by my friend JC Deen.

The first thing you want to do when you’re preparing to play basketball, or any sport, is to have a solid foundation of strength to build upon. Think of this as the size of a glass. Once you have a glass you can fill it with sport-specific skills and abilities. The bigger the glass, the more you can put in it. One fantastic way to do that would be to use a strength based program like JC Deen’s great LGN365 program. [There’s plenty of free information on the Internet, but it’s awfully nice to have someone do the footwork for you and put together a comprehensive plan. If you do go ahead and purchase LGN365, remember to test everything.]

The next think you’ll want to do is up your jumping game, along with shoring up your knees and ankles (both the connective tissues and the musculature) to handle the stresses of basketball. Start out with simple box jumps to a height you are extremely comfortable with. Do no more than 5 reps per set, and make sure you are landing quietly every single repetition. As your ability to produce force in taking off as well as reducing force during landing increases, add height. Once you’ve reached a box height of about 20 inches, cut that height in half and do Depth Drops. To perform, you’re going to step up onto the box, and then step off the edge and fall to the ground. The goal is to land as softly and quietly as possible. No one should be able to hear you land – especially not in a busy gym.

Finally, to ratchet up your conditioning and improve your ability to change direction at the same time, stick with the old school Suicide Sprints (aka shuttle runs) you may remember from high school PE. In a gym or on a track, mark off 3 points about 15 feet apart in a straight line. Sprint from the starting line to the first point, then back to the starting line, then to the second point, and so on until you’ve gone to the farthest point and back to the starting line. That is one repetition. Rest as needed to maintain your speed. When you can’t perform another full repetition at the same level of overall speed, call it a day. Each training session, change the distance between the markers slightly, but there’s no reason to go long distances — the point is to get better at turning sharply, and trust me, you’ll get plenty of conditioning even if the cones are only five yards apart.

Recently, I posted an older video from last fall of me running through a deadlift medley at a strongman competition. The medley consisted of two lifts on a 2″ axle. A good friend asked how the 2″ axle compared to Fat Gripz on a standard barbell. I actually had no idea, so I set out to test it. A few months ago I had also posted a picture comparing the Fat Gripz and Fat Gripz Extreme on Facebook, but I think it would be useful to have archived here.

For the unititiated, Fat Gripz are cylindrical silicone grips that can be wrapped around a barbell, dumbbell, or any other equipment handle. The original blue Fat Gripz are approximately 2″ in diameter, while the new orange Fat Gripz Extreme are 2.75″, which may not seem like much but is an enormous difference in terms of difficulty. With the addition of these grips, a regular bell can imitate the strongman implements of yore.

They are, quite possibly, the cheapest and most useful thing you could possibly add to your gym bag. The amount of variety they can add to your training is hard to quantify. Want stronger and more healthy hands? Toss them in your gym bag, and rotate them into your normal movements on occasion.

I could go on and on, but I digress, because that’s not the point of this blog post.

Without further adieu, here are my numbers:

	2” Axle	Fat Gripz on Barbell	Fat Gripz Extreme on Barbell
Best Deadlift	305	265	225
		Fat Gripz on Dumbbell	Fat Gripz Extreme on Dumbbell	Sorinex Bosco Bell
Best One Arm Snatch		100	85
Best One Arm Clean		105	90
Best One Arm Deadlift		150	125	135-140

All the barbell lifts, and all the dumbbell lifts were done on the same day.

You can see that on the two-handed deadlift, while the diameter is essentially identical, the nature of the silicone grip makes it quite a bit harder than an actual axle. It’s hard to say what the transfer would be if someone trained exclusively with the Fat Gripz (whereas I have probably trained much more with the actual axle), but I think someone capable of a 300lb deadlift with Fat Gripz on a barbell would have at least another 20-30lbs in them on an axle.

On the single handed lifts, I think there is still a deficit compared to a solid handle, but it seems to be less. I don’t have Clean and Snatch numbers on the Bosco Bell (which is about 2.7″) yet because I’ve loaded it to 120, and that’s out of my reach for now. The Extreme size is every similar to the Bosco.

I hope this is useful to see how your training with the Fat Gripz compares to the implements they imitate.

 

Minnesotans are exceptionally good at taking advantage of nice weather. If it’s a sunny, 75° degree day you can go for a drive and see dozens of people running around the lakes, especially in Uptown where my gym is located. As someone whose eyes are finely tuned to observing movement, this can be a bit like someone with hyperacusis going to an amateur music festival.

This is what it seems like most people are doing:

I could probably write a half a dozen posts on what I observe with the vast majority of runners, but I want to focus on the very basics for this one. These tips are for the person running 10+ minute miles, not 20 minute 5ks.

#1 – Move Forward

This seems awfully obvious, doesn’t it? The goal of running is to create locomotion to move you from point A to point B. Why, then, are so many runners moving up and down more than they are forward? Or swinging their arms out to the side more than in the direction they’re moving?

There are probably dozens of reasons, all distinct to each person, but they don’t matter as much as the solution. Move as much as possible in the direction you’re going.

This may involve speeding up, or slowing down your pace. Try changing how you strike the ground with your feet, or how much you reach forward with each stride. Experiment with how much you “lean” forward into your stride.

The direction of arm swing is a big one. If your arms are not moving at all, that is a major inefficiency that is sucking up energy in NOT moving them. Think of the arms as a counter-balance to the movement of the legs and hips. As your left leg travels back into extension, your right arm should be moving backwards with it.

#2 – Don’t Run with Stupid Asymmetries

If you’ve been reading my work for any length of time, you’ll know that I am an enormous proponent of asymmetrical training. You are not symmetrical, and you’re  never going to be no matter how many movement screens, corrective exercises, or perfect reps you do.

That being said, running with a heavy water bottle in one hand is stupid. Or a dog leash. Running with your dog is awesome, so get the appropriate equipment for it.

If you test it and it tests well – awesome! Keep it up, just make sure you keep testing because it will change. It could even improve your function. But if you’re doing stuff like this in an untested fashion it will jack you up.

#3 – Run, Don’t Stumble

Most of the running I see can barely be called running. Stumbling repeatedly is probably more accurate. I don’t mean to be condescending to people who aren’t already amazing runners, but the fact is you’re doing something, often for the wrong reason, that isn’t good for you. With a few changes, you could be making progress at getting better and better.

The single biggest change I have people who run like this make is to run faster. Certainly, if you’re a 10-minute-miler they will be forced to take more breaks because they aren’t going to be able to sustain a pace that is minutes faster than what you’re accustomed to. That’s fine! No one is going to step out onto the trail and hand you a citation for walking instead of running. It doesn’t make you less of a runner, and in fact you’re going to get better quickly.

Running faster, for a variety of reasons, is also likely to reduce the incidence of injury. If you run fewer miles because running faster is more taxing, then so be it. That is another reason you’re less likely to become injured – you’re running less!

To put this into perspective, one of my Movement Minneapolis members qualified for the Boston Marathon this year with 8 minutes to spare. I had her run fast in her training, running an average of only 17 miles per week. At first her runs were shorter, but she quickly adapted and became faster and faster.

Last Word

Big picture, I want more runners to stop settling for plodding along at the same pace for the same distance over and over again. You’re already doing it anyway, get better at it! These tips are simple and effective ways to get more improvement and more enjoyment out of your running.

I think you can end up looking like this: