Timing Basketball and Lifting

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I’m trying to bulk up. I’m in the beginning of Phase II of Scrawny to Brawny. I love basketball and play on an intramural team and once a week with friends. I’ve been separating the days for my weightlifting and basketball as indicated below but I read another post indicating that it’s better to combine high intensity work (e.g., lifting and basketball) on the same day. I’m interested in people’s opinions on this. I try not to play basketball for too long a duration because I know that gets your endurance muscle fibers activated. Below is what I’ve been doing the past 2 weeks. Any suggestions about changes to my routine would be great.

Monday Evening: intramural basketball (2 20 min halves)
Tuesday: 5x5 deadlift, 5x5 dips, 2 sets of cable rows, core work
Wednesday: Off day
Thursday: 5x5 front squat, 5x5 incline bench press, 2 sets of bulgarian split squat, 2 sets of one arm rows, core work.
Friday: Off day
Saturday morning: 45 min of 3 on 3 basketball
Sunday: 5x5 chinups, 5x5 Hang clean & press, 2 sets of cable pull throughs, core work.

Is this too much leg work because basketball works the legs? I sometimes skip out on the Sat basketball (even though I want to play) because I don’t want to interfere with my bulking goals.

I’m 5’5", 135 and I eat at least 3500 mostly clean calories a day. I know I have to eat a lot to make up for the calories I lose plaing basketball. Note that I have all the core work listed because I have a pretty weak core. That was the only part of the S2B assessment that I got 2 points on (the worst possible score).

2

Nope, I wouldn’t worry much about the volume you’re doing right now. Hardcore body-builders do way, way more cardio than you’re doing. It’ll help keep you from adding too much fat while bulking.

Just monitor your wieght carefully, and adjust your eating accordingly.

A bigger worry in my opinion is getting a knee injury and getting laid-up for 2 months. Make sure you’re warming-up properly for both the lifting and basketball.

3

Dont worry so much. You can easily gain size while playing 2 times per week. Its only 45 minutes each.
Working out is supposed to be fun. So dont stop playing basketball!!

I also dont think you need to worry too much about this being too much lower body work. You might get tired sometimes, but suck it up!

4

Thanks for the replies. I’ll play ball twice a week without worrying about it then!
S8, you’re 282 pounds @ 18%? You must be HUGE (in a good sense)!

5

I’ve gone from playing football, transitioning to basketball and still worked out hard in the weight room. Play more basketball if you like, it will help and you do need some endurance for basketball so…

The WSM competitors work on endurance as well :slight_smile: