Heart Rate and it’s Impact on Conditioning Levels

Posted by admin on April 5th, 2009 at 04:03pm

This past week I was doing some thinking about why I was so winded the last time I played basketball.  I mean, twice per week, I am running hill sprints.  Prior to the basketball tournament, I was up to 15 hill sprints twice per week.  So I must be “in shape”, so what gives?

Well, what gives is the conditioning that I am doing is completely non-specific to basketball.  All one must do is give some thought as to what it is you do during basketball and one can see how they must condition themselves to play the game.

First though, for my hill sprints, I basically sprint up a hill for roughly 6 to 8 seconds then walk down slowly and sprint back up again.  I do this 5 times, rest for 3 to 4 minutes, then do 5 more.

How does this conditioing relate to basketball?  It doesn’t.  When during a basketball game do you sprint for 6 to 8 seconds then walk for a minute, then sprint again?  You don’t.  Basketball is a continuous game.  In order to be prepared and conditioned to play the game, you must prepare specifically for it.

This is where heart rate comes into play.  You must condition and prepare yourself at the heart rate that the game is played at.  Time motion analysis will let you know where you should be.  A study on elite basketball players in Greece (I think, I will have to see if I can find it…) found that the average heart rate is between 169 and 171 beats per minute.

Comparing this to my hill sprints, my average heart rate is much lower, as the heart rate is only elevated for 6 to 8 seconds at a time.

So how should one prepare for basketball?  One should condition exactly as a game is played.  One should work in the heart rates that elite players do so that they will be ready for the demands of the game.  An example of how this might be done would be to split conditioning into 4 15 minute quarters (just like a basketball game).  Work on specific basketball skills for the 15 minute quarters keeping the average heart rate around 170 bpm.  During the 15 minutes, take one or two 30 second to 1 minute breaks to simulate timeouts.  After a 15 minute quarter is up, rest for 2 minutes, then move on to the second quarter.

So a sample workout might be like this:

First quarter: 15 minutes.  Work on jump shooting, getting your own rebound then running to get another shot off.  Keep the heart rate around 170 bpm, monitor by wearing a heart rate monitor.

Second quarter: 15 minutes. Work on defensive technique, defensive slide drills, etc. again keeping the heart rate at 170 or so.

Half time: rest for 10 minutes

Third quarter: 15 minutes, pick new skill or go back to shooting.

Fourth quarter: 15 minutes, pick new skill or go back to defense.

I will be implementing something like this about a month or two out from the tournament next year.

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