When playing Basketball or for any sport for that matter, and you want to compete on a high level, it is important to work on developing your muscles.
This is to make yourself stronger, make yourself less prone to injury, allow you to jump higher and to be more explosive.
One of the most important workouts a lot of guys building muscles forget about are their legs.
You see the sun is shining and you want to look in good shape, showing off your arms and chest in a tight vest on the Basketball court, but then there's always something that looks a bit unusual about some guys that work out.
They don't work on their legs, and what you find is a bulky or toned upper body accompanied by a very skinny undefined lower body.
Considering how much Basketball depends on your legs, working on strengthening this area surprisingly gets overlooked.
Well what are the reasons? Working on legs, in comparison to other muscle building exercises is pretty boring, harder work, and can take a while to see the type of visual results you would notice on your arms, back and chest - but when in the gym, why not to kill two birds with one stone, and use muscle building to look good and to be more competitive on the Basketball court? Let's face it, you may look good with your big biceps and bulging pecks, but you have skinny legs, is that actually look good? No, you want defined, muscular calves surely? You want to wear your shorts and fill them out properly.
You want to have a balanced, well-rounded frame surely.
Apart from the cosmetic advantages, lets look at the physical advantages.
Working on your legs can actually enhance your posture.
If your upper body is too built and your legs are lacking in any kind of shape or definition, you run the risk of overloading your legs to carry excess weight.
This could lead to back problems and issues with posture.
If you built a house without strong foundations, the house would probably be blown away.
The same principles should apply to muscle building.
Get your leg muscles and lower back in good form to carry the load of your upper body.
On the Basketball side of things, it is no secret that to jump higher requires working on your legs.
Yes, some people are blessed with natural athleticism, but to really take your vertical leap to the next level, you need to build those leg muscles.
There are many elements to work on regards to legs, but muscular training in the gym is a good direction to go in.
With all the rebounding, blocking shots, jump shooting and even maybe dunking, you are hopping around constantly.
I hope you are seeing the advantages on working on those legs.
Next time when you're pumping away, building up those biceps, working on your chest and then you ponder if you should or shouldn't work on legs, go for it.
After a few weeks you'll step on that Basketball court and will be leaping above everybody.