Training The Professional Athlete

It's amazing what you can do with the right right kind of training. When I was first approached to train Ovidijus Galdikas and Eigirdas Žukauskas, two Lithuanian-born professional basketball players, I jumped at the opportunity. Two summers prior I had the opportunity to work with them as well. But this past summer, I felt much more equipped. The first thing I did when they got here was put them through a structural balance test to determine which muscles were strong and which muscles were weak. I also checked mobility/range of motion issues.

Even though they both play basketball, they are both completely different players at two completely different positions (one is a center and one is a guard). Because of this, I knew I their training needed to be more specific than just “training for a basketball player”. I also knew that they each just finished a season of basketball and were needing specific, individualized structural balance training (based off of our structural balance testing) as well as learn some new lifts and movements. My style of training is far different than what they are used to back home.