The March Madness Workout – A Basketball Workout

Hoopers, basketball players… Listen up. Yes, it’s that time of year when the world is buzzing about basketball… It’s March Madness.

At the time of me writing this, we’ve whittled down to the Final Four… The four best teams in college basketball with the best hoopers around.

As a celebration for this time, one of the best times of the year in my opinion, I want to share a quick workout for basketball players. A workout that would be just one piece of a bigger program that an elite ballplayer would do if he worked with me.

Let’s go:

Points of Emphasis

For this March Madness workout, we’re going to focus on overall explosiveness, jumping ability, and strength. To do this, we’re going to utilize corrective stretches, mobility, plyometrics, heavy strength movements that emphasize the lower extremity. We’ll follow those up with unilateral and bilateral auxiliaries that emphasize hip extension.

This is a great workout for point guards, big men, and everyone in between.

Stretching/Mobilization/Activation

To make it far into the NCAA, far into the Madness, you need to make sure you keep your imbalances at bay. This means taking measures such as stretching, mobilizing, and activating specific muscles to turn off muscles that are overactive, and turn on muscles that are under-active.

When you do this, you’ll find that you can run faster, and jump higher by stretching. Here are a few to do for the March Madness Workout.

1. Couch Stretch x 60 Seconds Each Side

2. Frog Stretch x 6o Seconds

3. McKenzie Press Up x 60 Seconds

4. Fire Hydrant Hip Circles x 5 Each Way

5. Monster Walks 10 Yards Forward/10 Yards Back

Power

Basketball is a game that relies on bursts of speed, vertical dominance, and all around quickness. The number one thing to support all three of these areas of the game is plyometric training. Plyometric training, or jump training, can be done in multiple planes of motion, and with multiple variations, to correlate better to different parts of the game.

Here’s your prescribed power for your March Madness Workout:

1. Pogo Jumps – 3 x 10 Seconds

2. Unilateral Broad Jump (Land Two Feet) – 3 x 10 Yards (Alternate Legs Each Jump)

3. Unilateral Box Jump (Land One Foot) – 6 x 1 Each Leg (Control on Eccentric)

4. Depth to Vertical Jump – 10 x 1 (Spend As Little Time on the Ground as Possible)

5. Approach Box Jump – 5 x 1 Each Side (Go for Max Box Height)

Strength

Strength is something that most basketball players overlook, as such an emphasis is put on bounce, dunking, and handles. However, strength is an important precursor to power, and as such, more strength can lead to more power when it’s trained correctly. Also, since so many basketball players DON’T focus on strength, if you have it, you have a huge advantage. (If you want to discover how to build strength that translates into power, click to join the Free Athletic Strength Series.)

During this strength portion, I’m going to follow the strength movement with a corrective movement that further activates one of the prime movers of the strength lift.

1. Trap Bar Deadlift – 5 x 4

2. Single Leg Glute Bridge – 5 x 5 Each Leg

Auxiliaries

In general, auxiliaries can be used to supplement the main lift, add volume, add strength, or be used for hypertrophy. In this March Madness workout, the auxiliary movements are going to be used for all of the above. We’re going to work hip extension (an important skill for any athlete) as well as extension of the knee.

1. A. Bulgarian Split Squats – 3 x 8 Each Leg

1. B. Romanian Deadlift – 3 x 10

2. Nordic Hamstring Curls – 3 x 8

Core

The core is one of the most important points of emphasis for a basketball player. Your ability to control your body, transfer energy, and be explosive is all affected by the strength and efficiency of your core. In the March Madness Workout, we’re going to emphasize stability and anti-rotation through the core.

1. Seated Dead Bug – 3 x 10 Each Side

2. Palof Press – 3 x 10 Each Side

Getting a Bigger Jump

I just laid out a complete basketball workout. And as you can see, increasing jumping ability is just a small part of training for basketball.

However…

If you believe that a higher vertical will take your game to the next level…

You should check out what’s inside the FREE Advanced Vertical Series.

Here, you’ll find four videos loaded with vertical jump gems. Gems that you’ve probably never heard… The reason for that is because most people either don’t know these lessons, or they overlook them.

Anyway, if you want to learn how to get a bigger vert for free, hit the link below: