Michael Jordan lifting weights with trainer Tim Grover

Today weightlifting is a staple of training regiments for athletes of nearly every sport, but it wasn’t always this way. In decades past the idea of lifting weights conjured up images of Mr. Olympia competitions along with the massive physiques of those like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno. Popular perception at the time was that lifting weights would add too much bulk at the cost of agility, speed, and stamina. In sports like boxing it was conventional wisdom from trainers to discourage their fighters from taking part in it. In golf you still see people arguing that Tiger Woods would have won more if only he never touched a weight.

But what about basketball? Like other sports, weightlifting was initially discouraged for its athletes, but it slowly started to take root in the big men who played down in the post and could make use of their strength advantage. The back court on the other hand still valued their speed an agility and largely shied away from it. Michael Jordan was no exception to this, at least at first. His Airness would avoid the weight room until 1992, when he would finally decide to add weightlifting to his training routine.

So what changed his mind? Well, these guys did:

Jordan Fights Back

In an article written in the Chicago Tribune April 7th, 1992 the new face of the NBA expressed concerns about weightlifting that were common at time. ”I never really lifted weights before because I was always afraid it would mess up my shot or slow me down” he said. His Bulls had swept the Bad Boys Pistons the year prior in the semifinals of the playoffs, but it hadn’t come without a price. Jordan would reveal that what motivated him to start lifting weights was:

The beatings I was taking from the Pistons. I was always physically drained and tired after we played them. I feel a lot stronger now.’

Chicago Tribune 4/7/1992

This was a far more physical era of the game, and skill alone was not enough to win on the court. Jordan, and the entire Chicago Bulls organization as a whole, made a decision to get bigger, stronger, and meaner.

The Chicago Tribune followed up on Jordan’s commitment to the weight room one year later, and found that the whole team had bought in.

Conditioning is a major priority for any NBA team, and the Bulls’ bosses consider the team’s strength program a major factor in the team’s consecutive NBA titles. Strength and conditioning coach Al Vermeil and assistant Erik Helland guide players during postpractice and off-day training sessions, which include weightlifting, jumping and sliding drills and other routines designed to increase speed, strength and endurance.

Chicago Tribune 3/8/1993

A Personal Trainer Like No Other

But while the team was just starting to embrace the benefits of strength training, Jordan was, in typical Jordan fashion, already ahead of the curve. He spurned the newly built team practice facility to do his own workouts with legendary trainer Tim Grover.

According to Grover, Jordan had approached him looking for help with the abuse he was taking from the Pistons. Grover immediately put him on a strength training routine that would see MJ pack on 20lbs of solid muscle.

“His reason was that he was tired of taking abuse from the Detroit Pistons,” Grover said. “Everything he added was muscle,” Grover said. “The extra size and strength carried him on longer if he was tired during the season.”

Jordan working lat pulldowns with Grover, showing excellent form by pulling with his elbows and touching the bar to his chest. pic.twitter.com/GhfeADZowj — The Sports Loop (@sportsloopnews) May 10, 2020

I have a special program designed only for Michael. During the season, it’s mostly a maintenance program. We try to maintain a playing weight of between 212 and 215 and a body-fat percentage of 3.2 percent.

The results of Grover’s work began to speak for themselves. By the 1994 season Jordan was noticeably larger, leaner, and more aggressive on the court.

Adding to his already elite skills on the court, his newfound strength was the last piece of the puzzle that would ensure his total dominance of the game.

The Drive to Succeed

I think the key takeaway of this story is how Jordan’s drive to be the best didn’t end when he actually became the best. When he made the decision to add weightlifting to his training, it was already at a time when he was the most talented player in the league, and when his team could easily defeat the Detroit Pistons.

However he still recognized the deficiency in the physicality in his game and strove for higher levels of greatness when he was already the greatest. He pushed back on conventional training wisdom and followed the lead of a young visionary upstart in Tim Grover which led him to new heights of success. It was this bold, unceasing drive to improvement that made Jordan the legend that he is.

As an interesting side note, Tim Grover still does strength and conditioning training for NBA players to this day. You can check out the routine he put together for Goran Dragic here.

If you want to know more about Jordan and the Pistons, check out the best seller The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith

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