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 FEBRUARY 19, 2004 Health Benefits of Basketball The health benefits of basketball include improving your aerobic capacity and building strength, particularly in your legs. Like other running sports, basketball requires superb conditioning. You must be able to exert a burst of speed to get by the person guarding you and also have the endurance to run the court for an entire game. Basketball also helps develop quickness and agility. Basketball is, of course, a jumping sport, and improves leg muscles. But we can't overemphasize the value of an overall strength-training program for basketball. Your upper body needs to be strong for boxing out and rebounding. Through weight training, both men and women can increase their upper body strength markedly without bulking up. Women basketball players do have a slightly higher injury rate than men. Women are four times more likely to tear a knee ligament than men, says Freddy Fu, MD, team physician for the University of Pittsburgh. A women's knee is more narrow than a man's, and the muscles and supporting structures may not be as efficient, leaving women more prone to injury. Quadriceps (front of the thigh) muscle-strengthening exercises are a must. |
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