The Secret Workouts That Made NBA Legends Unstoppable..

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To make it in the NBA takes extreme dedication, both physically and mentally. But to make it to the top of the NBA, that takes it to a whole other level. And you won't believe what these stars did to keep themselves in peak condition throughout their career. Being known as one of the biggest, most dominant players in the NBA doesn't come without a hardy workout routine, and Shaq is no exception. With Shaq being known for constantly shifting his weight through his NBA career, it's hard to pinpoint what his go-to workout routine was. However, going over his years in the league, there are some workouts that he never left out. Starting out with his days with the Orlando Magic, Shaq was trained by coach Brian Hill, who saw potential in Shaq. He believed if Shaq was not only taller than every other player in the post, but also heavier, there'd be no chance that any player could stand a chance at stopping him. It was at that moment that a young and thin 290 pound Shaq began to hit the weights hard. Hitting the bench press became the staple of Shaq's workout regimen. Now retired, Shaq talked about his max bench press days, saying, my max was 475 I'm up to 415 now. I got a bad shoulder. I'm trying to get back to that. My prime, I did it twice. Compound workouts like the bench press, squats, deadlifts, were the key to gaining that muscle mass. Shaq could gain 40 pounds during his 1999 season with the Lakers. Shaq at 340 pounds suddenly appeared a whole lot more menacing than his early days with the Magic. Realizing that he could get even heavier, Shaq ballooned up to 380 by the 2004 season with the Lakers. And as with any NBA player with age, came injuries. Specifically for Shaq, his age plus his ridiculous weight wasn't doing him any favors. By the time he set out to Miami during the 2005-2006 season, Shaq had completely abandoned weightlifting and just focused on cardio. Now in Miami, Shaq began to work out there in practices with his team, and at night, he'd head to a 24-hour fitness to get some late workouts in. Shaq's regimen at the gym at night included 45 minutes on a stair master and a mile or two in the treadmill. Shaq talked about leaving the weights behind in LA, saying, When I was in LA, I used to lift and get really big. Of course, when you get big, the numbers get big. People get really intimidated by the number. 7'1, 365 Coach said I was too big, so I had to stop with the weights and just work on my cardio. Right now, the number is 325 Since his days in the NBA, Shaq has weighed as much as 400 pounds. However, he's back on a diet, and the cardio workout routine he adopted, he kept after his time with the Heat. Before LeBron James became known for his no-nonsense work ethic and preparation for games, it was Kobe Bryant. The former legend was known by trainers to be easily motivated all throughout the day when it came to putting in time for his workouts. The Mamba mentality, as has been commonly known, could be traced all the way back to his days in high school. Kobe would show up to his high school gym at 5 a.m. to play for two hours before class started at 7 a.m. While training with his fellow varsity buddies, he'd often ask them to play one-on-one games, up to 100 It goes without saying, Kobe obviously did his time in the house of games with fellow trainers. But what made him most unique was his training on the court. One of the things that gets brought up most by fellow teammates of Kobe was his obsession to play basketball without a ball. The legend went off to be seen running drills, doing crossovers, and even busting out jumpers without a ball. Shaq talked about seeing Kobe do this for the first time when he said, he'd walk in there and he'd be cutting and grunting and motioning like he was dribbling and shooting. He said there was no ball. I thought it was weird, but I'm pretty sure it helped him. Playing for as long as he did, Kobe was extremely self-aware when it came to what his body was telling him, more specifically his knees. When the 2012 Olympics came around, Kobe felt that his knees were starting to give him trouble. While he did go and see therapists and doctors who offered help, Kobe figured the best way to help his sore knees was to quickly drop 16 pounds. Aside from Kobe's seemingly innate drive to want to get better in every way possible, Kobe also became known to participate in rather strange rehab therapies. He was truly ahead of his time when it came to the art of recovery, especially considering many of the therapies that were once considered voodoo when he did them, are now commonly used amongst players. One of them was cryotherapy that helps with inflammation. Kobe, for all intents and purposes, was pretty much a pioneer in the technology for athletes, which has now become fairly widespread amongst professional athletes. Another example of this took place back in 2013, when Kobe was still continuing to struggle with his knees. Desperate for another solution, Kobe flew all the way to Germany to use what's known as PRP, or plasma-rich palace. The fairly primitive procedure involves taking out a patient's blood three weeks in advance as the blood gets curated with a variety of substances to help with body recovery. When the blood has been purified, it gets injected back into the body of the person in the affected area. Everyone from Steph Curry to Alonzo Ball is now known to use the same therapies today. With all the success that Michael Jordan experienced in the court throughout his playing days, it makes you wonder just exactly what his training routine was. Jordan's story of taking his body to the next level in training begins five years into his career in 1989 By then, Jordan already proved himself to be a valuable superstar that we'd end up coming to see in the 90s. However, he had little accolades to show for it. 1989 was around one of the last years that Jordan was going to allow himself to get pushed around by the Celtics and Lakers. Jordan went to see his trainers to see if there was anything he could do that he hadn't been doing already. Tim Grover, Jordan's personal trainer, was able to provide some solutions. Grover's solutions focused more on core strength rather than brute strength. The idea was to get Jordan's core stronger so that he could not only jump higher, but run faster, and even help him stay away from injuries. Grover set up a plan that involved the super starter workout on his core for two days out of the week. The other days focused on conditioning and light weight lifting. Throughout the weeks, Grover tracked his core workout abilities and compared them to how he was performing during his conditioning workouts to ensure the results were coming in as they theorized. Fellow Bull teammates interested to see what Jordan was doing joined him in on the workouts. One of the regulars to Jordan's early morning workouts was Scottie Pippen. Following the workouts, Jordan's personal chef would cook up a hearty breakfast for Pippen and himself. They later called the post workouts the Breakfast Club. Jordan talked about the importance of conditioning, stating, conditioning and nutrients is very important to participating in any athletic event, not just basketball. You have to take it very seriously. It takes a lot of dedication. I think it may vary from player to player. In terms of what I used to do, I used to work out every single day, some with weights, some without weights, just aerobic exercises. In terms of getting in shape and running, I used to run a lot of sprints. And Grover talked about Jordan's work ethic saying, After every game, I used to ask Michael one question, five, six, or seven, as in what time we were hitting the gym tomorrow morning. And he snapped back time and that was it, especially after a loss, when there wasn't a whole lot else to say. No discussion, no debate, no lame attempt to convince me he needed the morning off. Are you good? I'm good. See you in the morning. And the next morning, or whatever time he decided, he'd awaken to find me standing outside his door, no matter what happened the night before. Good game, bad game, soreness, fatigue, he was up, working out every morning, almost to the guy's slab. Interesting how the guy with the most talent and success spent more time working out than anyone else. Looking at Steph Curry's slim 190 pounds, six foot three figure, it's hard to imagine him spending a lot of time on the bench press. It's hard to imagine because it's not a workout that he really focuses on. Instead, Curry finishes team practice and immediately picks up another basketballer too, to work on his hand-eye coordination. He's taken his natural reflexes and trained them to a level that no longer appears even possible. One of the things Curry trains on to improve his handles and coordination is a drill that involves him dribbling a basketball on one hand, while the other hand tosses a tennis ball on his other. Another one of Curry's drills involves him wearing these weird space-age goggles that distort his vision and make it even harder for Curry to dribble and shoot. Curry claimed the goggles are in large part responsible for his success of the three-point line and beyond. He talked about the goggles when they first surfaced saying, It just distorts your vision. It gives you another variable to go through when you're handling the ball. So I'm focused on just trying to see what I can while the shutter is going crazy. When you're out there playing, there's so many things you have to think about. Where your defender is, where your teammates are, where the angle of attack is. The last thing you should be thinking about is where the ball is. That should be second nature. Even during his days at St. Vincent St. Mary, Lebron James was an absolute unit. As a 17-year-old junior, he was sent out of the body of a seasoned NBA veteran. That was when Lebron worked out at high school gyms. Since hitting the NBA, Lebron has enjoyed the luxury of personal trainers and nutritionists that all wire his workouts down to a science. For starters, Lebron has a workout mentality that requires him to do some form of exercise every day. Because during the season, much of that workout regimen includes at least three days of time in the gym where he bulks with a variety of compound workouts, stretches, and does yoga daily. And finally, mixes in either Pilates or spin classes for his extra cardio off the court. All of his exercises and workout preparation have all been specifically selected by Mike Mansus, who's been training the king for 16 years. Mike advises Lebron to focus on five key elements that get implemented in his training. That includes strength of training, sports medicine, and athletic training, nutrition, recovery, and finally, mental preparation. And mental preparation plays a big role in workouts for Lebron. In addition to training Lebron, Mike assures any issues outside of the court that affect him mentally, stay at the doorstep of the gym. Mike talked about Lebron's drive, stating, I'm lucky he's a strong-willed individual, but he cherishes his parallel with what I do. You never really work if you love what you're doing. We're all about longevity, number one, and how we can prepare. We always have to be cognizant of that. Like, we're about to embark on three games in four nights, or four games in six nights, or whatever, finding the right balance. That focus needs to consider the five pillars that hold up the Lebron anatomical and biological throne. At the end of the day, he's gifted with the combination of athletic ability, IQ, and a strong will. It makes it easier to handle the strength and conditioning. Training as much as Lebron does requires that he recovers as much as possible to avoid unnecessary injuries off the court. His recovery plays a big role in Lebron's dominant presence on the court. He spends nearly 1.5 million a year in various therapies and machines. One of the more expensive therapies Lebron uses is cryotherapy. Cryotherapy is a relatively new form of recovery that involves an athlete going into a chamber that gets as cold as negative 250 degrees. The chamber has been proven to help with Lebron's inflammation, increased range of motion, and help with lactic acid buildup that causes muscle soreness. Most important bit for Lebron is the range of motion. As a player that regularly plays 30 plus minutes a night throughout a rigorous 82 game season, it's important to ensure his muscles aren't weakened to avoid injuries. Of course, not every part of the body can be exposed to such harsh temperatures. Before getting in the chamber, Lebron's equipped with thick gloves, socks, and sandals to avoid literal frostbite. As new as the therapy is, early versions have been used by Kobe Bryant and Jason Terry, when they had just been starting out their careers. A Western Conference coach talked about the therapy, stating, The cold tub has been around forever, but now the cryo chamber has taken it to the next level, and everyone's using it. We used to have guys go in the cold tub for three minutes, and then go in the steam room for three minutes, and then keep alternating. Some guys still do that. Crowd therapy is a game changer, because it's only two and a half minutes, and some experts say you get the equivalent of being in the cold tub for an hour. It's so effective. By the time Paul Georgia left the Pacers to play in Oklahoma during the 2017-2018 season, Georgia decided it was time to take his workouts to another level. Like most players in the NBA, Georgia long conditioned with his Pacers teammates, and also instituted off-the-court workouts to supplement. Unlike LeBron or Shaq, who looked dominant on the court through power and brute strength, Paul wanted to work on his cardio to help move quickly around and to the basket. Paul talked about taking his workouts to the next level during the summer before going to Oklahoma, saying, Contacting my guy Ryan, immediately after losing the playoffs, and told him I'm on a mission this year to be the best. I wanted him to challenge me and push me harder than I've ever been pushed before. I knew I wasn't good enough the past year, and I wanted to give my team more. Didn't know I was going to be traded, but what happened happened. Now I'm faced with the same mission, to be the best, playing alongside the best. And damn, I'm excited about that. I got better and stronger for sure. Only time will tell. One of the workouts that he added to his portfolio was the Sand Dune Run, which as the name entails, involves Paul running up a hill of sand. Not only does running up hills help build explosive power in the thighs, doing so in sand builds even more resistance, which can help further in building powerful legs. If you've ever seen videos of Paul working on his dribbles on the court, you see that he often likes to wear a mask that covers nearly his entire face. George has first started using the mask in 2015 to help with his breathing during his conditioning workouts. The mask goes by the name Elevation Mask, and it makes it harder for you to take in oxygen to simulate working out in high elevations. Training in higher elevations forces your body to work a lot harder to do the same task. As a result of wearing the mask for some weeks during workouts, you start the show and do the same workout without the mask. Many who have used it, including Paul, claim to do the same exercises faster and more efficiently than they had ever been able to do before. Paul talked about using the mask saying, it's just to make it a little tougher. So I try to use it during practices. I try to help with my endurance and stamina. It works. I was able to practice hard and go for longer today. It'll make games easier. It's making practice easier, so I know it'll translate to the game. As a player who regularly plays over 35 minutes a game, any edge Paul could take to make him that much more lethal on the court is an advantage he'll take any day. Hey, yo, dog, if you don't click on this video on the screen right now, bro, I'm going to dip your foot in a cryo chamber, and I'm not going to let it out. Your foot's just going to get frostbitten and fall off, bro. And I'm going to take your falling off foot and slap you in the face with it, bro. That's what's going to happen. If you don't click on this video on the screen, I'm sorry, just click on the video, bro.