Strength training workouts

by Philthyanimal on Mar 22, 2008 3:45 PM PDT

Over the years, I've only heard positive things describing Bobby Medina, the strength and conditioning coach. I'm watching the pregame for the Clippers game yesterday on CSN and it had a segment on Bobby. I remember earlier this year he got Greg to be a monster with all the pounds of solid muscle he added. LMA has also transformed his body in the off season as well. It led me to wonder if all the extra workouts Sergio has put in has effected his shot negatively. I don't remember what Sergio's shot was like last year, but it's obvious that his shooting percentage has gone down significantly. This year it's pretty plain to see that his shot is pretty flat. Is the extra workouts slowing his progress in the shooting department?

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That is a real possiblity. It really hampered the

careers of Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, David Robinson and countless others when they hit the weights hard.

All kidding aside it could have an effect on him. When I played I had to lift on non game days. Jordan would lift on game days. I can't imagine he was going to "muscle failure" on those days. Probably something a little more light.

Being that Medina has been in the game for a long time I am sure that this is addressed. It is probably a confidence thing for Sergio at the moment more then anything being that he is in the "skating on thin ice, you make a couple mistakes and you are out" position. That is tough to play under those conditions. Especially for a free wheeling type of player.

by jferg on Mar 22, 2008 4:03 PM PDT 0 recs

That is a real possiblity. It really hampered the

careers of Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, David Robinson and countless others when they hit the weights hard.

by jferg on Mar 22, 2008 4:04 PM PDT 0 recs

that's nuts

I wonder what MJ's training regimen was like on game days. I do a few sets at the gym and I lose my shooting touch already.

by Philthyanimal on Mar 22, 2008 4:06 PM PDT up 0 recs

I mentioned this in the

Jack and Sergio both suck thread. I think the strength he gained has affected his jumpshot. After I added some muscle, I played bastketball for the first time in 8 months, and my both the arc and form of my jumper were altered.

However

Keep in mind, he obviously shoots everyday, unlike us. It might still be hard to adjust though, after learning to shoot one way for so many years. I would gather that his shooting is worse this season, both in game and in practice, Which could explain why Nate decided to play him less.

by Dheepan on Mar 22, 2008 4:05 PM PDT 0 recs

unlike most of us you mean

Oden '08 Worth the Wait

by JTDuck22 on Mar 22, 2008 4:26 PM PDT up 0 recs

unlike some of us you mean

"Stick a knife in 'em, their done!" ~ Mike Rice

by courtsideerrandboy on Mar 23, 2008 11:30 AM PDT up 0 recs

unlike Lizzy you mean

I haven't shot a Basketball since last summer. I'm still waiting for the outdoor courts to dry. I have tossed a little softball with my daughter but we get tired of keepin' that dry too.

Go ahead use it. I don't care.

"The Team with Caricature!"

by Lizzy Lowblow on Mar 23, 2008 3:08 PM PDT up 0 recs

No un intended

Duh.

"The Team with Caricature!"

by Lizzy Lowblow on Mar 23, 2008 3:10 PM PDT up 0 recs

Interesting, I'm not sure

My guess is PT and flow have more to do with it than anything.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that strength (aka muscle building) training is conducted almost exclusively in the off season. During season the focus is on conditioning and toughness, like what Medina has been doing with Frye... getting him to be able to maintain composure after taking a hit, though strength helps a lot, I think during the season the focus is on the hit itself. They'll go back to muscle in a few weeks when the season wraps up for us.

Back to my first statement... if because Sergio was playing with his Spanish national team for much of the summer, he didn't get strength / muscle building training that he otherwise would have focused on perhaps they are doing muscle building training right now. This would actually be a very good reason to limit his PT because it would seriously effect his shot on a day to day basis. The key is that once the muscle is there and you aren't growing into it and getting used to it the shot should normalize and you can again focus on working on that aspect in a more successful manner by not bulking up while looking to increase shooting %s.

by drawingjeremy on Mar 22, 2008 4:10 PM PDT 0 recs

Most of the Blazers lift during the season

Martell lifts after every game. Not sure if it's just maintenance or if it's actual strength building though.

by Dheepan on Mar 22, 2008 4:12 PM PDT up 0 recs

Lifting yes

but to keep in condition I thought, not to bulk up at all, that's for the off-season. I could be way off on this, but I thought during the season the weight is light and the focus is on reps, aka not building, just conditioning. This is just what I've always been told by people who have played on higher-level teams, so it's not from personal experience, I could be wrong, but it always made sense to me.

by drawingjeremy on Mar 22, 2008 4:15 PM PDT up 0 recs

correct

it is common for athletes to work on muscle building in the offseason. yet medina caters the workouts individually to each player, so it wouldnt suprise me if he went against the grain on this one.

by Philthyanimal on Mar 22, 2008 6:07 PM PDT up 0 recs

I can buy that

it also wouldn't surprise me. In fact it's one of the best reasons I can think of to not give Sergio more PT (though I'm not saying I think this is why he doesn't have more PT)... if it's the plan to bulk him up more right through the season so he'll be ready for more PT next season, working on adjusting his shot w/ his new muscles at the close of the summer / early fall.

by drawingjeremy on Mar 22, 2008 6:25 PM PDT up 0 recs

if this is the reason

I am ok with it as well. As fans we can only formulate our opinions with what we see in games and what we read in newspapers, and sometimes if we had more information we could formulate better opinions instead of all these fire/trade x diaries.

by Philthyanimal on Mar 22, 2008 6:52 PM PDT up 0 recs

With you all the way!

by drawingjeremy on Mar 22, 2008 7:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

Did you notice the whiteboard listing

how many times each player had worked out for the month to date? Sergio led the pack with Oden running a close second. My boy Travis was last with 3 workouts.

by annthefan on Mar 22, 2008 4:34 PM PDT 0 recs

i didnt see

that Travis was last...but I did notice a huge disparity between LMA+Sergio and the rest of the team. I didn't happen to catch Oden on the list tho.

by Philthyanimal on Mar 22, 2008 6:09 PM PDT up 0 recs

Quick was hatin' on Sergio in the Quick Chat

The problem isn't the working out, the problem is that he's working on the wrong thing. He should be in the gym and not the weight room.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/blazers/2008/03/quick_podcast_with_oden_update.html

The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.

by tominhawaii on Mar 22, 2008 5:11 PM PDT 0 recs

he's sorta right

but it's kinda crap that Sergio's main flaw was his size and lack of defense. He's working on that now and other flaws are being exposed so people are crapping at him for that.

I for one like how committed and hard working he is. If Sergio was an excellent shooter but still horrible on defense, I still would believe that Nate wouldn't give him more minutes. It's defense that Nate wants to see from Sergio.

by Philthyanimal on Mar 22, 2008 6:12 PM PDT up 0 recs

I made that point a few days ago, too

Sergio needs to work on his shooting and to the basket skills. Work on hitting the weights in the off-season.

ROTUNDITYDOTNET

by damir on Mar 22, 2008 10:07 PM PDT up 0 recs

It's not the strength training...

It's the way it was done.

The muscle groups were worked in an imbalanced way and the resistance training wasn't followed up with the appropriate flexibility work- which involves a lot more than simple stretching.

I've seen it time and time again where the only time they (or most any other man) will start using a balance/flexibility method like Pilates is when they're rehabbing an injury. That is, after the fact and always with an outside trainer. (I can think of dozens of athletes other than Oden, Favre, or Woods to back this up). Doing that sort of work is perceived as un-masculine for some reason, while pushing a bar away from your chest 70 times in a row is.

"Pro athletes" frequently succeed in spite of themselves and don't know what they're doing in the weight room. It doesn't help that they way prospects are graded always involves pushing a weight away from their core with their limbs, even though that's not indicative of the whole range of movements they need to perform within their game/sport.

by Farty MacFartson on Mar 23, 2008 2:26 PM PDT 0 recs