For those of you Roundballers who are looking to seriously step up your game, we thought we might show you what the best player in the league does on a daily basis. We challenge the serious ballers to do half of Kobe's workout. This was provided by a Lakers personal trainer who posted it online. Check it out and Enjoy.
KOBE'S PLAN
Six days per week, Kobe Bryant does six hour workouts. Each workout consists of 2 hours of running, 2 hours of basketball, 1 hour of cardio-vascular exercise, and 1 hour of weight lifting.
RUNNING
Kobe varies his running, sometimes doing sprints or distance on the track or cross-country field course, and sometimes running on the basketball court. For court running, he does an incredible two hours of sprints and suicides (sometimes called "gut busters"). Suicide drills build explosive strength and quick starts. A player begins at one baseline, runs and touches the foul line, then back to touch the baseline, then to half court, back, to the opposite foul line, back, and to the opposite baseline and back. Ideally, the player runs at a quick but steady pace throughout the exercise.
BASKETBALL
It's important to be able to run swiftly and tirelessly, but it won't do much good if you can't sink a shot. So, Kobe shoots between 700 and 1,000 baskets per day. While shooting, he fine-tunes his form and technique, running over each type of shot from different court positions, until he achieves perfect muscle-memory.
CARDIO
As if all that running weren't enough, Kobe Bryant also does an hour per day of cardio-vascular exercise, such as jumping rope, boxing, or other high-intensity work-outs. This keeps his heart and lungs at peak performance, and improves his stamina.
WEIGHTS
Finally, Kobe finishes his workout with one hour of weight-lifting. This is his schedule, according to the Inside Hoops forum message board:
Days 1 and 4: Bench press, lateral pull-downs, incline press, military press, and abdominal crunches.
Days 2 and 5: Lateral dumbbell raises, bar dips, triceps press-downs, bicep curls, and abdominal crunches.
Days 3 and 6: Back and front squats, leg curls, leg extensions, calf raises, and abdominal crunches.
Note that Kobe himself says that he also does clean-pulls, snatches, and Romanian dead-lifts. In any case, he spends four days per week on upper-body strength, two days on legs, and he also does crunches each day for core strength.
This is Kobe Bryant's off-season workout schedule. During the NBA season, he has to be careful not to overwork, so he dials it back... to a mere 4 hours per day on top of team practices and games!
