NBA.com has just released a new video of superman’s workout routine. And like everyone else, I was quickly excited and proceeded to uncover the mysterious secret which sculpted superman Dwight. After watching the video, I have come to a serious realization: Dwight Howard doesn’t work out like a beast.
Before any of you start to curse me and navigate away from this page, allow me to explain myself. I have no doubt that Dwight Howard is a beast and has the one of the best body in the NBA which actually makes him one of my favorite players. When watching the video, you see Dwight doing warm-ups and mobility drills which is actually fine in my opinion and as this is not in my area of expertise, I do not feel that I can comment on it.
“The stronger the muscles and the more forceful the contractions, the faster the athlete will run, higher he will jump, further he will throw/kick, and harder he will hit.” Joe defranco, world-famous strength and conditioning coach for athletes and owner of Defranco’s training systems LLC on training for athletes. Athletes should concentrate on bringing up their maximal strength and lifting heavier weight in relation to their bodyweight.
It’s not a really heavy weight, but it really taxes the core and the range of motion.” Says Bryan Meyer on Dwight Howard’s strength phase of the training. In a strength phase, what you really need to focus on is to improve strength, especially in the off-season. If you do an exercise which does not tax your nervous system into increasing its neuroefficiency, you are not training for strength. Concentrating on the core and the range of motion is a good thing, but not in the expense of strength training. To strength train, you have to use maximal weights low repetitions. What I see from the video is that Dwight is training only for hypertrophy and strength-endurance.
You also see Dwight doing single-leg work which is good but as you can see, Dwight does not do the single leg squat in its full range of motion. That is counter-productive and the Bryan Meyer’s should really address the problem by increasing his flexibility.
In addition, you see Dwight doing a lot of body-weight exercises which again, is good. Since bodyweight movements move the body through space, it has more neuromuscular contractions than simply moving an external weight. The problem is this, Dwight Howard is probably more than capable to do inverted rows and pushups in the hundreds. He can probably do more challenging exercises so as to induce more hypertrophy to the muscles. Examples would be pull-ups instead of inverted rows and dips instead of pushups.
So why is Dwight Howard so big and sculpted? A most logical explanation would be genetics. Genetics play a huge role in building muscle and losing fat, hence, creating the need for uniqueness in training and nutrition for everybody. But wait, Dwight Howard wasn’t always big; he was skinny when he was young. What most people forget is that Dwight Howard is only 24. My guess is that when he was in high school, he did not even train as hard as he does now, coupled by the fact that maybe his testosterone and growth hormones have not kicked in yet.
As much as you would like to think that doing Dwight Howard’s Superman workout routine will magically grow some muscle on your frame. It doesn’t work that way; what you need is to educate yourself through reliable sources of information and design a program which is best suited for your individual needs. Click here to read how to design a basketball training program. Either that, or hire a personal trainer. A good one.
Author: Victor Roffel
Sources:
NBA.com – NBA Videos and Highlights
http://www.nba.com/video/
Why Is Strength Training Important For Athletes?
Joe Defranco
http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/38-articles/55-why-is-strength-training-important-for-athletes.html
