Is Cycling Good for Basketball?
Every athlete is always looking for an edge on the competition. As athletes we always want to know what the correct food is to eat to make you quicker, the right drills to make you more technically proficient, and the right number of suicides needed to get your crossover crisper. It’s also important to consider all sides of the coin when looking to add an addition of cardio into your workout to make you a sounder basketball player. Is cycling good for basketball?
Yes, cycling is a great addition to your training to create a well-rounded athlete. There are plenty of times that your coach or your trainer should send their athlete to the bike to help them in many facets of their training.
In this post we will discuss exactly how cycling can help you become a more well-rounded basketball player, and the ways where you would need to look elsewhere to improve your skills.
We will go over about cooldown days, recovery, cardio warming up and recovering from injuries. We’ll also discuss how cycling is vastly different from speed drills and why it is important to incorporate both into your routine.
Before we dive into how cycling can help the basketball player, let’s first dispel some myths. It is important to note that there are several aspects of basketball that cycling will not help basketball players in. Read on to learn more.
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How is Cycling Not Good for Basketball Players?
Cycling is useful or many things on the court, however, it is very important that basketball players understand that the use of a bicycle to aid with training is just that. It is an addition to training.
The reason why it is done in addition to is that cycling trains a subset of muscles that are cardio related. This means that basketball players who are known to have huge bursts of speed will be able to recovery faster and last longer before needing to be placed on the bench for recovery.
Cycling Is Not a Fast Twitch Exercise
What is important to know is that cardio training through cycling will have absolutely zero effect on your sprint speed, fast twitch muscle and overall quickness. The positive aspect in cycling is that you will be able to maintain that quickness and speed without getting winded. Therefore, cycling must be done in addition to a normal training load and can in no way replace the training that one is participating in.
Put succinctly:
- Cycling will Not Replace Drills
- Cycling will Not Improve Agility
Cycling Will Not Replace Drills
Drills are still necessary for the athletic reflexes and instincts to achieve the desired results in a game setting. For example, if you place an endurance cyclist on the court, they may have the stamina to recover to defense after a rebound – but do they instinctively know to do this? A basketball player that constantly focuses on the fundamentals of the sport through practicing their drills will outperform someone that has a high endurance level. Keep this in mind when deciding if cycling ought to take the place of a certain ball handling or passing drill. The answer is no, it should never.
Cycling Will Not Improve Agility
Cycling is a constant force workout. There is training for fast twitch muscle included though it is few and far between and this type of training is best served for the adept basketball player on the basketball court rather than when trying to turn the wheels of a bicycle. Because there is little directional change of the muscle use, there is no improvement in a basketball players agility that would be increased during a 3 on 3 8 pass minimum offensive drill.
With these two possible myths out of the way, the idea that is being impressed is that if your time is limited, and you must choose a traditional drill over cycling, choose the traditional basketball drill. If you have time to add more to your training regimen, read further.
How is Cycling Good for Basketball?
If you are cycling in addition to an excellent workout routine, then the trained basketball player will find themselves in great positioning. There are plenty of cardio benefits to a very small amount of time spent on a bike to add to their ability to get around the court. If you want to be known as the player that always gets back on defense without breaking a sweat, find an opportunity to bike.
- Excellent Cooldown and Strong Recovery
- Cardio Training
- Warmup
- Injury Conditioning and Body Repair
Excellent Cooldown
After having a successful practice, your body will want to cool itself down to prepare for the next day. If you have spent the majority of the day doing wind sprints, look to a cooldown so that you are able to have a strong next day recovery of your cardiovascular and respiratory systems.
Cardio Training
There will always be the players that seem to be top of the line at the beginning of each play. They simply never need to take a break to catch wind, and they simply understand that their body can keep going. Their tempo speed is the same as others sprint speed and it does not decrease throughout a game. Those players’ cardiovascular systems are well trained. To train the cardiovascular systems small amounts non-intrusive of base training can be added to the players training to improve their overall court performance.
Warmup
To prepare to utilize the body’s fast twitch muscle, it is important that the cardiovascular system be turned on. This allows players to properly stretch dynamically as the body can send both blood and oxygen to the muscles that are being stretched. Without a proper cardio warmup, the muscles will be lacking in blood flow and the energy needed to perform and stretch at full capacity.
Injury and Bodily Repair
The strongest case for why cycling is good for basketball is to aid the process of repair in injuries. When paired with icing cycling has been proven to create a better recovery experience for injured athletes suffering muscle damage.
How Often Should I Bicycle For?
Adding in a cardio of 30 minutes each at least twice a week is more than enough to feel major benefits in your cycling ability. What’s more important is that those 30-minute sessions do not need to be fast paced. The pace should be at the rate where conversation is comfortable, and the athlete should be able to breath out of only their nose comfortably.
Conclusion
Is Cycling Good for Basketball? Yes, cycling is great for basketball if done in addition to the other fundamentals that are required of an adept athlete. Adding in cycling is great for cardio, flexibility, cooldowns, warmup, and recovery and will be an excellent source to create well rounded athletes who do choose to put in the effort.
Sources:
De Azevedo Franke R;Rodrigues R;Geremia JM;Teixeira BC;Boeno F;Rabello R;Baroni BM;Lima CS;. (n.d.). Moderate intensity cycling is better than running on recovery of eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33932873/
Iwata, M., Yamamoto, A., Matsuo, S., Hatano, G., Miyazaki, M., Fukaya, T., . . . Suzuki, S. (2019, February 11). Dynamic stretching has sustained effects on range of motion and passive stiffness of the hamstring muscles. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6370952/
Van Hooren, B., & Peake, J. (2018, July). Do we need a cool-down after exercise? A narrative review of the psychophysiological effects and the effects on performance, injuries and the long-term adaptive response. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5999142/
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