Doing yoga like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the best ways to increase longevity and prevent basketball-related injuries.
TL;DR: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar increased his longevity by doing yoga. So, if you want to play well into your old age, you also have to prioritize stretching.
Do you enjoy playing basketball?
If yes, then would you like to play as long as possible? Would you play well into your old age if you could? If also yes, then you really need to imitate this NBA legend’s conditioning routine.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greats. He’s won six championships and just as many MVP titles.
But another thing that makes him amazing is that he played for 20 seasons in the NBA, and rarely missed a game (the fewest games he played was 62 in the 1977-78 season).
Even in his final NBA season, when he was 41 years old, he played 74 games and averaged just under 23 minutes a game.
This is really impressive.
Just him playing for 20 seasons back during those ancient times is impressive in itself, let alone pretty much every game.
But how did he do it? According to the legend himself, it’s because he did yoga:
“I’ve been an enthusiastic practitioner of yoga since high school. Yoga is one of the reasons that I was able to play professional basketball as long as I did with as few injuries as I had. One of the first improvements I noticed was in my posture. Before yoga I’d been having lower back pains; after I started practicing the positions, my overall health improved significantly.”
How Yoga Helps with Basketball
Yoga helps prevent injury and lessens wear and tear by keeping your muscles loose and your body flexible.
When you do yoga, you’re elongating your muscles, which is necessary for muscle health.
The reason why is that when you’re playing basketball (or lifting weights), you’re contracting and tightening your muscles. Elongation will stretch it back to normal.
This is why Kobe Bryant tells us to stretch as often as possible.
It also improves your posture and core strength, both of which benefit your basketball conditioning.
Good posture and core strength are important for injury prevention because they stabilize your body.
By having good balance and stability, the (most of the time smaller) muscles involved are able to protect your spine and joints.
Via USA Basketball:
“’Because of the running and the jumping, (basketball players) have a tendency to have tight glutes, and their IT bands–the muscle that runs on the sides from your knee up to your hip–that quad area can be tight,’ [Kent] Katich said. ’Basketball players also have a tendency to roll their ankles a lot. Repetitive spraining of the ankle starts to harden the muscle that’s around the ankle.
’Getting these guys barefoot is an accomplishment, because they start having to work with these smaller muscles they never deal with because their ankles are always taped and they’re wearing shoes. You’re able to start to identify some of the deficiencies and imbalances that come with overload of certain workouts.’”
Abdul-Jabbar practices a specific type of yoga called Bikram Yoga.
It’s a system of hot yoga that became popular in the 1970s. But you don’t have to do this type of yoga like Kareem if you don’t want to.
There are many styles. Some of the most popular ones are:
- Hatha
- Vinyasa
- Kundalini
- Ashtanga
Most of these types are pretty similar to each other, but the differences lie in breathwork, postures/movements, and flow.
Some may focus more on the breathing aspect and some may have different movements and poses.
How to Start Doing Yoga Like Kareem
If you’re not sure which one is right for you, you should take a “yoga tour,” as Abdul-Jabbar calls it, to try out the different styles until you find the right one.
However, if you’re not sure if yoga is right for you (and you don’t want to try a trial class), I suggest you try an intro flow called the “Sun Salutation.”
It’s a sequence of simple moves/poses and only lasts between 10 to 20 minutes. And you can just do it at home.
If you enjoy it, then you can go out and sign up for a class.
You try this beginner’s routine here:
Final Thoughts
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greats of the game.
And one of the reasons why he is a legend is because he was able to dominate the league for so long.
And the only reason why he dominated for nearly two decades is that he did yoga and was healthy.
So, if you want to be able to compete for a long time (or just play basketball on a regular basis), do yoga.
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P.S. If you’re struggling to improve in basketball, you may be training wrong.
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