(Ep081) Lee Boyce: Strength Training for Basketball Players and Other Tall Athletes

Have you ever wondered why tall athletes can move so fluidly on the basketball court or in a rowing boat but sometimes struggle to squat or deadlift? As a well-muscled, tall sprinter and long jumper in high school, Lee Boyce quickly realized that he didn’t look or move like most of his fellow track and field athletes. He was curious about why height, weight, limb length, and other factors impacted athletic performance and how he could apply this to his own training. This thirst for knowledge led Lee to take exercise science classes, where he mastered the basics of how the human body moves and realized he wanted to pass along what he discovered to others through coaching.

While he was studying kinesiology in college and competing in track, he started training at a gym and helping others put the lessons he was learning into action. 16 years later, Lee has trained hundreds of people, written over 1,200 articles for the likes of Men’s Health, Onnit, and Breaking Muscle, taught multiple college classes, and co-authored the book Strength Training for All Body Types with Melody Schoenfeld. His #tallguytuesday posts have become a go-to resource for basketball players and coaches at all levels.

In this episode, Lee shares:

• Which squat and core training exercise variations basketball players and other tall athletes benefit from

• What his severe knee injury taught him about training for durability

• How an athlete’s height, weight, lever length, training age, and real age should guide their training program

• What the top 3 motivations are for recreational athletes and how a coach can harness these

• Why there should be principles but not rules in coaching

Learn more from Lee by reading his book Strength Training for All Body Types, visiting his websiteleeboyce.com, and checking out his daily posts on Twitter and Instagram @coachleeboyce.