Core strength training

Core strength training is a must these days in basketball. Core strength training involves working your entire core section (all abdominals and back), but the key is strengthen in a way that gives you complete body control, total body balance, and complete body strength.

Core strength training programs are really all about body control, body balance, and when it really comes down to it all it's just all about BALANCE! Though, your bodies balance must cames from the core of your body. It's your abs and back that is core behind you having body control and balance.

It is the core of your body that connects your upper body to your lower body. But it is much more than just an "connection" that you don't have to worry much about. Just take a minute and think about the all motions made by a NBA player or just any basketball player in a typical basketball game:

- Leaping up while being pushed from behind to grab a rebound
- Reaching for a loose balls on the floor
- Twist side to side to grab passes or rebounds
- Power dribble while backing down your opponent with complete total body balance
- A tie up when trying to twist and take the ball out of an opponent hands

When you really start looking at the game of basketball most of the action on the court, involves your core (abdominals and/or back). This is why it's so important to give this part of yourself (your core), proper attention, and the proper training.

Though, it's not just going through the motions of strengthening your core body, it's a specific type of training that has a wider effect. The stats show us by having a stronger core, you actually give yourself better overall body balance, and better overall body strength. A strong core allows your upper body work properly with your lower body, in balance, rather than in a separate fashion. Which with a stronger core, can in return help prevent injuries that could happened from an unbalanced body.

Core strength training involves training many different muscle groups all at once, while at the same time, working on the total body balance:

Core strength training uses exercise balls, BRT (Burst Resistance Training) Professional Exercise Balls, or Stability Balls!!
Exercise balls, BRT (Burst Resistance Training) Professional Exercise Balls, or Stability Ball with DVD are all great ways to train your core, train for balance, and strength your core muscle group. Doing any regular exercise such as dumbbell bench press, military press, leg lifts, wall squats, and crunches using the exercise ball help strengthen your core, and build body balance. This type of core strength training helps train your muscles, but also overall total body balance and movement.

Let's try to give you the full picture here: let's say you backing down your opponent while power dribbling with your back to the basket and the defender on your back. Think about how many multiple actions are going on while all this happening on the court all at the same time, but no action really is isolated. So your dribbling the ball hard using your arm (using your abdominals, forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulder muscles, etc.) you should be getting low backing into you opponent almost like a squat position (now your using things, hips, calves, and lower back). You should also be making some what contact with your back again your defender which he should be giving you a good resistant to not get to the basket so he is pushing back probably right at your core body. That's a lot of different actions happening all at one time. And you need to have complete body control, balance, and strength all working together to get the goal accomplished of scoring while backing down your defender.

No movement in any sport led alone the game of basketball is a complete isolation of one muscle, so it makes sense to train muscles game like. The traditional way of lifting weights were to focus on large muscle groups in a way of isolation (not true isolation, but an effort at isolation nonetheless). Core strength training, and body-balance training takes the new effective approach, and for good reason.

Train using Medicine Ball
medicine balls give you even more game like core strength training. While using medicine balls to do crunches, squats, and other stability core strength training



Train using BOSU balance trainers
BOSU Balance Trainer(seen in the video above) is an outstanding balance, stability and agility trainer and currently one of the most popular fitness accessories available. BOSU Balance Trainerare great piece of core strength training equipment for the same reasons they force you to work out on total body balance (and all the above reasons).

BOSU trainers
can be used for such things as doing:
- Quickness/agility footwork drills
- Push-ups
- Bicep curls
- Squats
- Medicine ball drills
- Crunches and other abdominal exercises