Sports Profiles: Basketball

Basketball requires you to work closely with others on your team, anticipating and responding quickly to their moves. In this way, basketball is a very sociable sport, and one that will help you to know your teammates better. If you’ve read the first article in this series, profiling soccer, you might have already considered combining your existing workout with a team sport. If you haven’t, read on for some good reasons to give basketball a try.

Basketball was invented in the late 1800s by James Naismith, a Canadian gym teacher looking to develop an indoor sport that could be played by his students. However, the sport has come a long way since Naismith’s original game involving peach baskets and a soccer ball. While the basic principle has gone unchanged – shooting the ball into an elevated net on your opponent’s side of the court – the rules have been updated, and peach baskets are a thing of the past.

Why you should play – The game of basketball is goal-oriented, a perk for the fitness-minded individual who may find it difficult to plug away on a stair climber with no reward in sight. Like many team sports, this one is all about working towards the next basket. It’s this combination of many short-term goals that can help the game pass by quickly. And if you’ve ever experienced the exhilaration of witnessing a clean, 3-point shot from halfway down the court, you’ll probably agree that this sport is not only fun, it’s also exciting.

A game of flexibility and dexterity, basketball contains a variety of motions repeated at irregular intervals – dribbling, throwing, passing, and more. Each move will work and tone different parts of your body – for example, throwing and passing can help to develop the muscles in your arms, and going in for the slam dunk can work your leg muscles.

Basketball’s not the ideal place to start if you’re looking to get in peak physical shape quickly. This is simply because the sport doesn’t involve a lot of sustained activity, and because it’s best played with a team. However, if you can incorporate this sport into your regimen of physical activity, it can be a fun variation to solo time at the gym. Basketball is also inexpensive equipment-wise, and can be played indoors or out – wherever you can find a hoop and a court.

As mentioned previously, the preferred amount of physical activity you should be getting weekly ranges from 20 minutes to 1 hour a day, 3 to 5 times per week. With this in mind, setting aside one or two of those days for a game of basketball shouldn’t be a problem.

What you need - One of the more convenient aspects of basketball is the lack of expensive gear required. There’s no major protective equipment in basketball, such as elbow pads, and certainly no helmets (although if you’re playing on a recreational team, nobody’s going to stop you from wearing one). All you need in your average casual game is comfortable, loose-fitting clothing that won’t easily get tangled around your limbs, and a good pair of quality shoes. A staff person at your local sports or fitness store can help you find the best pair of shoes for basketball specifically.

That said, protective gear can be used if you prefer, especially if you’re a beginner. If you’re looking to put safety first, consider picking up a mouth guard or a pair of knee supports.

How to prepare – As with any sport, stretching before hopping into a game of basketball is always a good idea. Pay careful attention to stretching your legs, arms, and shoulders, since all can be put at risk due to the quick and sudden movements of basketball. When stretching, do so slowly – pushing the stretch by bouncing, for example, can put your body at risk of strain. As well, never stretch to the point of pain. Each time you stretch, try to go slightly further than the time before – this will help increase your flexibility, which will in turn help you to improve your basketball game.

After stretching, and before playing a game, get your body accustomed to the court – practice shooting the ball at the basket for a while, or dribble/pass back and forth with your teammates. This will loosen your muscles, and hopefully prevent them from being tensed during the game.

The muscles that get the best workout during a game of basketball include those in your legs and arms, such as the hamstrings, calves, biceps and triceps. With this in mind, there are exercises you can do to work out each of these muscles. If you aren’t familiar with the machines mentioned in the following paragraphs, talk to someone at your gym and ask for a demonstration.

To give your biceps a workout, you might try doing free weight curls, or checking out your gym’s arm curl machine, which operates on much the same principle. Triceps can be worked easily with the tricep pushdown machine, or by doing a barbell curl, with the weight raised over your head in both hands, and extended behind your head.

An easy calf exercise involves placing the balls of your feet on the edge of a raised and level surface, such as a stepping platform. You might want to keep your hands near a wall to stabilize yourself. Push the weight onto the balls of your feet and lift up your heels, holding this pose for a few seconds before repeating the process.

Hamstrings can be honed in on easily with a lying hamstring machine, which involves lying stomach-down on a bench with your lower calves and ankles under a heavy bar, which is then lifted upwards with the help of your hamstring muscles.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to an ideal basketball workout – gym employees and sports guides can help you train further and hone in on other important muscles, such as your glutes and quadriceps. And don’t be afraid to check your local gym for intramural basketball teams. At the very least, get that lazy coworker or friend of yours off the sofa and onto the court for some one-on-one.

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