Inside the Zoom workouts keeping Miami Heat players in shape during the NBA shutdown
Team facilities around the NBA have been closed indefinitely for the past month amid the coronavirus crisis. That means Miami Heat players do not have access to the weight room or practice facility at AmericanAirlines Arena.
But Heat players do have access to the team’s head strength and conditioning coach Eric Foran.
Foran, who is in his third season as the head of the Heat’s strength and conditioning program, uses the Zoom remote conferencing platform to lead team workouts and help keep players in shape during the league shutdown. Foran leads five team workouts per week through Zoom that last between 60 and 90 minutes.
“As a strength and conditioning coach, I always begin the program with the end in mind,” Foran said Friday afternoon during a conference call with reporters. “For example, in the offseason we have certain days that are circled on the calendar — the start of training camp, the conditioning test, the first game. We’re always building toward that. Right now, without that direction, what we have to do is just kind of maintain a certain level of fitness, strength, conditioning, everything. That way when we do kind of get the all clear and the go ahead, that we’re a little bit closer to that baseline.”
There’s still no clear timetable for a potential restart to the 2019-20 season, with June believed to be the earliest games will resume. But there’s also the possibility that the season won’t restart and the next NBA game played will be as part of the 2020-21 season.
ESPN reported Sunday that in the scenario the 2019-20 season is saved, “one of the ideas that has been proposed is a 25-day program for players to go through before they resume game play” This 25-day stretch would include 11 days of individual workouts and then a two-week training camp with entire teams participating.
“We’re, obviously, right now not going to stay in NBA competitive shape,” Foran said. “It’s not like we’re playing basketball and having games every day and practice every day. So we’re going to expect that everybody is taking a little bit of a step back. But as close as we can stay to that, we want to make it a little easier of a transition when we do come back. That it’s a little bit easier and safer to get here. We don’t want to start from ground zero again.”
The Heat’s Zoom workouts start off with meditation and mental skill development, then the team begins a warm-up period before beginning the lifting portion of the session, and most workouts end with a stationary group bike ride to maintain conditioning. On the non-lift days, the workouts include Pilates.
Foran said the Heat’s strength and conditioning staff considered various options to keep players in shape during the shutdown, including sending out individual plans. But Zoom was the pick because “we all get to see each other like this, the guys are on there, they can stay connected, they’re all joking with each other and it almost has the feel of getting together with the team without actually getting together.”
“The attendance has been good,” Foran said when asked about player participation in the workouts, adding that center Meyers Leonard has been an active participant despite missing the past 16 games with a sprained left ankle. “We’ve had pretty much the entire time on there. Every day is a little bit different. There might be a guy or two showing up or not showing up and then he’ll text, ‘My kids had home schooling today or whatever it is.’ There’s slight fluctuations, but attendance has been solid. If a guy can’t do it, we talk, we text, we send videos and we can get it done with whatever the guy needs.”
While some aspects of the Heat’s strength and conditioning program have continued despite the league stoppage, the organizations’ weekly weight and body fat measurements for players have not.
“I can’t check the body fat if I’m not in person,” Foran said with a grin. “But we talk about it.”
Also, no current Heat players have full basketball courts at their homes, with many living in condominiums that don’t allow for it. Goran Dragic and Jimmy Butler are the only two Heat players with baskets at their homes.
But once/if a timetable for a potential restart to the season comes into focus, the Heat will make sure each player knows the expectations regarding physical condition upon returning for action.
“We definitely will have standards,” Foran said. “We haven’t set those yet because we don’t know the timeframe yet. So as we have a little bit more direction there, we will be reaching out to everyone with those standards.”
This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 5:31 PM.
