People around here are getting really passionate about the NBA playoffs, and are praising certain stars in all kinds of aspects. So I’d like to get a better picture on one of those aspects: how strong are large players, such as Lebron, Carmelo and Howard, exactly. I am talking about weight lifting strength exclusively, not how fresh and vibrant the player appears to be in the 4th quarter or how many people he can dunk over, therefore I expect some of the responses to be speculative, which is cool.
NBA Players’ strength.
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Participant
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Participant
I have an article about Dwight Howard somewhere saying he benches 365 lbs.+
I got a pic of a 90’s player power cleaning around 130kg. I’ll have to find it.
I’m sure Lebron is very strong.
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Participant
I have an article about Dwight Howard somewhere saying he benches 365 lbs.+
I got a pic of a 90’s player power cleaning around 130kg. I’ll have to find it.
I’m sure Lebron is very strong.
Oh yeah, I’m sure he is. **3-pointer at the buzzer last night**
The only somewhat useful video is the last one, and I still can’t tell how much weight is on that bar. Boy was that bar fast on the way down. Oh, and the pyramid (endurance, strength power???) does not increase fast twitch muscle fiber, lol.
Don’t mean to threadjack, but what could increase fast twitch muscle fibers in the arms?
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Participant
I have an article about Dwight Howard somewhere saying he benches 365 lbs.+
I got a pic of a 90’s player power cleaning around 130kg. I’ll have to find it.
I’m sure Lebron is very strong.
It’s very hard for me to picture Howard benching more than 300lbs at the time that 3rd video was taken. Lebron should be very strong, he played football.
Don’t mean to threadjack, but what could increase fast twitch muscle fibers in the arms?
I don’t have deep knowledge on muscle fiber type conversion, but the way I understand it it is the demand for certain modes of activity that trigger the conversion. Hence, it is not due just to a certain exercise or a rep scheme, but also (and I think primarily) due the way you perform that exercise. I doesn’t seem that the muscles arms would be different from other muscles, except maybe the forearm muscles would require a different approach, similar to the calves.
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Participant
I was actually pretty surprised at how much difficulty they all appeared to have with relatively light weights. I’m sure Lebron is pretty strong, but he didn’t look that sharp on the Kettlebell presses or the light RDL, and Kobe appeared to be having a hell of a time on Incline with what couldn’t have been more than 55#.
Bear in mind, they are probably stronger than their lift #s show. At their height, that is a lot further to push every weight.
I’d think you could develop fast twitch arm strength using some sort of upper body plyos. (I’ve never read or tried that, but would stand to reason)..
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Member
Regarding fast twitch development, from what I’ve read trying to induce a conversion isn’t worth worrying about. If you increase your lean-body mass then you’re going to have hypertrophy of your muscle fibers, and if you are training specific to your sport then odds are you’re going to get the changes you want.
Kelly Baggett:
Yes, you can train IIB fibers to endure more, but they adapt by transforming to IIA. The difference between type IIA and IIB fibers isn’t worth worrying about from a power/tension standpoint. In fact, if you’re only measruing the ability to generate peak force (or maximum strength), fast twitch vs slow twitch ratio doesn’t even matter. Rather, it’s the total cross sectional area of ALL available fibers that correlates with success.
But anyway, when the IIB are recruited they almost immediately transform into IIA. Athletes don’t express IIBs to much of any degree but sedentary people do.
As an athlete, what you really want is a greater proportion of all IIs over type I, since the type IIs do generate more force than type Is in explosive activities.
Someone with more types I’s naturally excels at more enduring activities whereas someone with type IIs doesn’t. The guy with more type IIs can just engage in more endurance activities, which will transform his IIbs into IIAs, and he’ll then have all the benefits of greater type II fiber but with more endurance.
The guy with more type I’s can really only increase his type IIs through hypertrophy. Take someone with a 50/50 ratio of slow to fast muscles in the thigh. Say he has a 20 inch thigh. Get his legs up to 25 inches and that extra 5 inches of muscle will all be type II fiber. So, now his thighs might be 65% FT and 35% slow twitch.
Which I believe is supported by this study- https://www.springerlink.com/content/x843378082314861/
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Member
If I could jump/run/ball like any of these three I would care less how much I could bench/squat/clean as long as I wasn’t getting hurt.
In Kobe’s case, if you look at his transformation since the beginning of his career, his work in the weight room has had a significant impact on his ability to be the player he is now. With the physical abuse he receives from defenders he needs that extra mass and strength to help get his shots up and fight through contact to get to the basket. I’m not sure what Kobe does for his lower body but I would like to see him work on his explosiveness and get his vertical jump back up a little. Not that Kobe isn’t an explosive player but honestly he doesn’t get up like LeBron does or how MJ did, and he has had to make up for it with superior outside shooting. A lot of it probably has to do with aging and having had knee surgery, but if he could elevate his athleticism any he could stay at the top of the league for almost another decade.
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