Freshman guard Noah Locke takes his turn flipping tires early Friday morning.
If This is Summer B, It Must Be 'Strongman' Time
Friday, July 6, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
The brutal summer weight room cycle of the UF basketball offseason (the start of it, at least) kicked in Friday.
The limitations on the former ended this week.
The Summer "B" semester started Monday, which means the strength and conditioning element of the offseason program officially went next level. Eventually, the weight-room work being done by coordinator Preston Greene and his crew will be unveiled with those eye-opening before-and-after photos in early October (always one of the more popular features of the season), but the uptick will be gradual.
And each player will put his head on the pillow Thursday night dreading what awaits Friday morning.
"We build up to it," Green said. "But it's coming."
The loads, pace and expectations all increase this time of year. So do the "Strongman" stations that cap each week. In the case of the first Friday of Summer "B" — which began at 6:30 a.m. behind the basketball complex — the Gators had two stops: tire flips and farmer's walk. Each player had to flip a 400-pound tire 10 times up a sidewalk, then move on to the next station where they grabbed a 125-pound weight in each hand and lumbered 50 feet — then back.
@K5allen1 can bring in all the groceries in 1 trip @GatorsMBK #Strongman #FridayFeeling pic.twitter.com/6vvH2accYu
— UF Basketball Managers (@UFManager) July 6, 2018
Over the course of the next few weeks, Greene will add a station — the weighted tank pull, super yoke carry, and, yes, the ol' truck pull from law school parking lot — and make "Strongman" Friday even more difficult, while also increasing demands on the time it takes to complete the brutal obstacle course.
For the veterans, it's a time for dread because they've been through it before.
For the freshman who just showed up this week, it's a shock.
"It was definitely hard — really hard — but it was great to get going," freshman Canadian point guard Andrew Nembhard said. "It's what you have to do."
Added shooting guard Noah Locke, by way of Maryland: "From what everybody was saying, I was expecting it to be like the hardest thing in the world. So I'd been working out a lot back at home before I got here. it was good. it was hard, but I was able to get through it, so I was happy about that."
We'll see how happy Locke and friends are next week when the tank (a small, four-wheeled vehicles with changeable gears to control resistance) joins the fray.
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