How to Build Upper Body Strength to Dunk

For anyone watching basketball, seeing athletes fly through the air to make a slam dunk is exciting and inspiring. If you play basketball, building your vertical movement and upper-body strength is key to imitating your favorite ballplayers on the court. Fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles are both needed to build strength, endurance and speed on the court, according to Critical Bench. With a structured strength training program, the size of your muscles may be increased for dunking abilities.

Things You'll Need

  • Weights
  • Bench
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Instructions

    • 1

      Maintain a strict exercise regimen. While building upper-body strength is essential when improving dunking skills, you will also need to build cardiovascular endurance with jogging or other physical activity.

    • 2

      Stretch the arm muscles before beginning strength training. Stretch the muscles with anterior and posterior stretches. For an anterior stretch, stand in a doorway, placing both hands on either side of the door with thumbs facing upward. Gently lean forward, feeling the arms stretch and loosen up. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds.

      Next, stretch the back of the arms by reaching one arm toward the ceiling, bending it and reaching behind your head toward the opposite shoulder blade. With the opposite hand, gently grasp the bent elbow and push down allowing your bent arm to reach further toward the shoulder blade. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds.

    • 3

      Focus on building shoulder and chest strength with weights for your dunking training. Use a weight that starts out easy but increasingly gets harder toward your final repetitions. If you can keep going after your final repetition, the weight is too light.

    • 4

      Hold weights in each hand and do shrugs to build shoulder strength. To do shrugs, stand with feet hip-width apart holding weights. Lift up the shoulders as high as you can and then lower. Do two sets with 15 repetitions.

    • 5

      Finish strength training with chest presses. Lie flat on a bench press machine and use a barbell or dumbbells. Push the weights up then slowly lower down to the chest, without touching the chest. Push the weights up again into the starting position. Complete two full sets with 20 repetitions.

    • 6

      Complete upper body strength training Mondays and Thursdays for at least nine weeks. Once you are finished with each session, remember to repeat the stretching exercises to reduce tightness in the muscles.