Exercise Selection and Sequence
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If you regularly get in the weight room you’re on the right track to improving your basketball performance but simply being in the weight room isn’t enough to separate yourself from serious hoopers who are trying to make it to the pros. From what I see during my time spent in gyms and from social media, too many young basketball players aren’t using their time effectively. Lifting weight is one thing but knowing which exercises to do and how to structure your training session to make it most effective is what really makes the difference.
For basketball players, the weight room is a tool we use to become a better athlete. The goal isn’t to set a personal record in any given exercise for its own sake, or to train like a bodybuilder just to be as big as you can. The goal is to become stronger, faster, more explosive, and more resilient so that you can excel at the game of basketball.
With this in mind, exercise selection and sequencing within each training session become crucial parts of the training process. The exercises used determine which muscles, movements, and joint angles are being trained. The sequencing of exercises determines the effectiveness of each exercise and the training session as a whole.
Exercise Selection
As basketball players we need to jump explosively, accelerate in short bursts, decelerate under control, change direction instantly, and repeat all of it for up to 40 minutes over the course of an entire season without getting injured.
This broad range of skills requires a combination of many different strength qualities each requiring a different training stimulus.
Maximal Strength – Near maximal loads
Explosive Power – Heavy loads moved quickly
Speed & Agility – Near maximal movement velocities and task specific force production
Reactive Strength – Fast reversal of movement
Reflexive Strength – Rhythmic relaxation and contraction
Now, you might be thinking “what has this got to do with which exercises I do?”. Well, exercise selection becomes an important variable because not every exercise is suited to the different training variables. The desired training adaptation and subsequently the necessary training load, the type of equipment, the specific body position and joint angles, the direction of force application, the placement of the external load, training age, technical proficiency, and many more variables all determine which exercises should be used.
Training adaptation and training load
When deciding which exercises we should be using we need to first consider which physical quality we need to develop. In my previous post ‘Training Variables Part 1: Training Adaptations’ I discussed some of the strength qualities we can develop within the weight room. The adaptation we are chasing determines every other training variable so if you haven’t yet I’d recommend giving it a read (insert link).
Once you have a clear understanding of which adaptation you want to stimulate you can start to think about which exercise will be best. When the goal is to develop maximal strength it is necessary to lift near maximal loads. This means you’ll need an exercise which can be loaded with a heavy weight. If the goal is to develop speed it is necessary to move at high velocity and you’ll need an exercise that allows you to move extremely fast. Clearly these two adaptations will require different exercises. So start with the adaptation, understand what is required, and then select an exercise that is suited to the adaptation. But remember, just because an exercise meets the criteria for load and movement velocity doesn’t mean it is automatically the right exercise for you. You must also consider the following variables.
Equipment
The equipment used should result directly from the desired adaptation and the necessary training load. Barbells allow the addition of very high loads compared to dumbbells or resistance bands for example. Selecting a resistance band when training for maximum strength or power does not allow you to overload the system and provide a stimulus great enough whereas a barbell with a heavy load close to your maximum does.
Specific body position and joint angles
Strength is specific to the positions and joint angles it is developed in. So if you have a weakness when executing a certain skill within the game you can replicate the joint angles that occur within that skill while in the weight room to strengthen that specific position. What this doesn’t mean is that everything you do in the weight room should look like or try to replicate basketball actions. What it does mean is that you can use very specific exercises to improve the transfer of strength into real basketball skills.
Direction of force application
This ties very closely to training at specific joint angles. Traditional strength exercise like squats and deadlifts apply force straight down into the ground which is great for maximal strength but basketball doesn’t just happen up and down with the feet planted on the ground. Most basketball actions require horizontal force application; acceleration, deceleration, and changes of direction. When training to develop these qualities you must apply force in the direction they occur within a game and more often than not the best choice for these movements is outside the weight room altogether.
Placement of the external load
Where you place the external load plays a big role in how much weight you can add to a movement, how much force can be produced, which muscles are targeted during the exercise, and how safe the exercise is. Ensuring the load is in a position that allows you to lift the required load, at the correct movement velocity, while applying force in the correct direction is crucial for eliciting the desired adaptation.
Training age
Training age refers to how long you have been training to improve your performance and how much experience you have with strength training. This plays a role in determining which exercises you should use because when you are inexperienced with training even the most basic of exercises can lead to improvements in your performance meaning not everyone will need to use heavy barbells or very joint specific movements. Similarly when you have been training for years and are very experienced within the weight room you may need very heavy external loads and extremely specific exercises to continue to progress.
Technical proficiency
Just like shooting the basketball strength is a skill and is specific to each exercise within the weight room. Your strength in one exercise won’t necessarily transfer to another exercise and what might be the perfect exercise for one athlete might not be the best exercise for you. How well you can maintain position under load and execute a movement with the correct technique will determine whether an exercise is suitable for you or not. For example, if your torso falls forward during a back squat, the lower back muscles become the limiting factor and you are no longer training your legs effectively and instead are unnecessarily loading your hips and back. Instead you would be better off using a trapbar deadlift or leg press where the focus remains lower body strength.
It is important to consider each of these variables when deciding which exercises you should be doing to improve your performance. Although certain exercises might be suitable for most people you must still question whether they are right for you. The answer is to select whichever exercise allows you to move the most amount of weight, for the prescribed number of repetitions, at the prescribed intensity, providing your technique is one that challenges the correct muscles and joint angles, is safe, and is positively impacting your performance on the basketball court.
Exercise sequence
The sequencing of your exercises within a training session also has an impact on the outcome. As a general rule of thumb you should perform the most neurologically demanding exercises at the beginning of the training session and the most metabolically demanding exercises at the end of the training session. This means performing your fast, explosive movements like plyometrics and sprints first, and the slower, heavier movements like squats and deadlifts towards the end.
If you take an explosive movement like a trap-bar jump which requires rapid contraction speeds and perform it at the end of a hard training session, the fatigue you’ve accumulated will blunt your power output reducing how fast you can contract your muscles and subsequently how fast you can move the bar. Similarly, starting your session with 20 minutes of heavy conditioning before your lifts will dramatically decrease your ability to produce force. The order of exercises determines how much of your maximum strength you can actually express in each set.
Although you may not work on all of the different qualities within any one training session, below is a guide you should follow to determine how you should structure your training sessions.
1. Maximal velocity
Maximum velocity requires the fastest contraction speeds and places the highest demand on neuromuscular coordination meaning it must take priority over anything else within the session. The start of the session is when the body is well rested and primed for the fast, explosive muscle contractions required for maximal movement velocity. These exercises include acceleration drills, max velocity sprinting, and plyometrics.
2. Power
Power development still requires high movement velocity but also an external load. Placing power development towards the beginning of a training session allows you take take advantage of the central nervous system while it is still able to develop high force at high speeds. Power exercises include, olympic lift variations, loaded jumps, and medicine ball throws.
3. Maximal strength
Once the need for high movement velocity is done the focus shifts to maximum force production. Maximum strength development requires the use of near maximal external loads which inherently comes with a reduced movement speed. Any central nervous system fatigue from the speed and power training will not significantly impact the ability to lift heavy loads. In fact, depending on the volume of work done before heavy lifting, the faster speed training can actually have a positive affect on the ability to produce maximum force. Here is where you would perform squat and deadlift variations, and heavy presses and pulls.
4. Hypertrophy
Hypertrophy is the growth of muscle cells and any training aimed at developing muscle size should come towards the end of the session because it is typically high volume and very fatiguing on the muscles. The exercises here would be isolated movements like leg extensions, hamstring curls, dumbbell presses, and rows.
5. Energy system development
Energy system development is the most metabolically demanding training and should come at the very end of a training session. Due to the high levels fatigue any attempt at strength or power development after conditioning will result in sub-maximal neuromuscular output and an increase in risk of injury. Conditioning work includes high intensity intervals, small sided games, and specific on court drills.
Sequencing your exercises in this manner will ensure that you get the most out of each exercise and maximise your potential to make improvements to your athleticism.
Start to think about your strength and conditioning as more than just lifting a few weights to get stronger and build muscle. It should be a carefully considered, structured, year round programme that aims to develop all of the different qualities necessary for high level basketball performance. The adaptation you are chasing should determine the exercises you choose and the way that you structure your training sessions determines to what extent you will realise each adaptation. If you get these things right, every training session in the weight room is a step towards being a faster, stronger, more athletic basketball player.