Breaking down LeBron James’ summer workouts & training

LeBron James’ longevity is all by design. A key part of it is his commitment and discipline, tu it’s also about how he trains and prepares his mind and body for the rigors of an NBA season.

That training becomes even more important — and impressive — when considering James is entering into his 20th NBA season with a level of physical fitness, resilience, responsibility and overall impact that no player in NBA history has come close to at his age, particularly with his number of miles traveled (remember, he’s played 266 playoff games which is akin to tacking on three plus regular seasons at extremely high intensity!).

LeBron’s training and fitness planning this summer for the upcoming season continues to be a major priority for him; a priority that he’s more than willing to share on social media by filming some of his training sessions. In the following video, I explained some of my favorite sequences and the rationale for them.

Hopefully, now that you’ve learned more about LeBron’s training and why he does it, maybe you’ll go out and try it you.... just kidding. As tempting as it is to say “well if LeBron does it, I should do it”, he’s built up to this point over years and years of planning and incremental gains. Skipping those steps is what leads to poor training and injuries. LeBron’s training is earned by the work he puts in every day.

All that being said, we can take the principles of his training and apply them at any level. But as for actually carrying them out consistently and methodically with his level of commitment and discipline? That’s a whole other story.

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training. He also works at a hospital — giving him experience with patients in the immediate healthcare setting and neurological patients (post stroke, post brain injury) — and has been practicing for 4 years. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes the Lakers from a medical and skills perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.