Kathleen Ekdahl of Personal Best Personal Training discusses the importance of strength and conditioning for athlete success.
Noting that it takes about six weeks to build an athlete’s fitness level, athletes should participate in strength and conditioning for 45 minutes at least two times per week during preseason. Kathleen recommends body weight exercises to get started such as bridges, plank holds and push-ups. After the initial week or two, athletes can add bands, dumbbells (5-8 lbs for youth and 10-20 pounds for high school athletes) and medicine balls (2-4 lbs for youth and 6-10 lbs for high school athletes) to their routine.
Some basketball specific strength and conditioning exercises include:
- lunges
- jump squats
- push-ups
- dead lifts
- the shoulder press
Research shows that women are two to eight times more common than men to rupture their ACL. In fact, one out of 50 women will rupture their ACL. ACL injuries can be minimized by hip and hamstring strengthening through exercises such as lunges and squats.
Other noted injuries common among female athletes are ankle sprains or breaks and shoulder injuries.
Strength and Conditioning resources: