The Los Angeles Lakers recently hired Gunnar Peterson to be their new Director of Strength and Endurance Training, taking over for Tim DiFrancesco. Peterson has trained many athletes and celebrities in his career, and has already started working with the Lakers young players.
One player who Peterson will be paying extra attention to is Brandon Ingram, who proved his talent on the basketball court last season but really needs to add strength in the weight room to become the All-Star caliber player he wants to be.
Peterson recently addressed the issue of Ingram trying to add strength this offseason, via Lakers reporter Mike Trudell:
“He just worked out with me 15 minutes ago. He’s not weak. He comes out of Duke, where I know the strength coach because that’s where I went, and I spoke to him. Brandon is young, just made the transition from the college schedule to the pro schedule, and he carried a big load last year. I don’t ever see him showing up at 250 (pounds). He could be between 180 and 190 his whole life. Some guys don’t have that body type to get really (bulky). If he’s active, moving and playing, he’s never going to be Karl Malone. I’d rather have him be the best Brandon Ingram he can be than a knock off of Karl Malone. The second-best of that is always going to be worse than the best of himself.”
Peterson also addressed what he and Ingram will be focused on in the weight room this offseason:
“Lower-body strength, so he can dictate when he’s out there. He’ll be dead lifting. Doing a lot of weighted carries, like he’s been doing already. Weighted lunges in different planes of motion to different targets so he’s strong when he goes left, right or straight ahead.”
Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson recently called Ingram the team’s only untouchable player at this point in time, so it has to be nice for Johnson to see that isn’t going to his head and he is still working hard in the weight room to get stronger.
Ingram will also be one of the Lakers players playing in the Las Vegas Summer League in July along with Ivica Zubac, David Nwaba and their two picks in the upcoming draft.
