Jimmy Butler’s Workouts Are Not For the Faint of Heart

Avid NBA fans know Jimmy Butler, with all of his quirks, is one of the hardest-working athletes in the NBA. While most of the league’s stars get by on scoring, Butler rose to stadrim with an overall package that requires him to stay in tip-top shape. Butler has been open about his workouts since he entered the league.

Recently, he opened up about how he stays in NBA shape and remains a step ahead of his competition. As we quickly learned, his workouts are not for the faint of heart.

Jimmy Butler’s workouts and work ethic

Butler has always gone all-in on whatever he does. His exploits in practice, like the particularly notable Timberwolves practice where he challenged his teammates and led the bench players over the starters, show this. NBA players may make it look easy on the court, but this hypercompetitive drive separates the best in the world from the best in the league.

This may be why Butler worked so well under his former head coach Tom Thibodeau. This coach is notorious for running players into the ground, as the swift declines of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and Luol Deng can attest. Butler, on the other hand, remains at the top of his game. Now he’s leading the Miami Heat to one of their best seasons in years.

The 30-year-old never takes a day off. In 2016, former trainer Chris Johnson recalled to Sports Illustrated the grueling schedule required just to train with the All-Star.

“We lived in the gym,” Johnson said. “Three times a day, four times a day. Whatever it took. He wouldn’t even get sick. A lot of guys will call the trainer, ‘Hey man, I don’t feel good. I feel like I’ve got the flu, I’ve got a head cold. Can we work out tomorrow instead?’ Jimmy never missed a day.”

Butler’s daily schedule

Butler sticks to his daily routine. His goal is to work on all aspects of his body, build strength, and maintain endurance for a long and tedious NBA season. Men’s Health profiled his training routine, which even the most physically fit non-athletes may think twice about doing.

Butler wakes up at 4:00 a.m. to start his day, never skipping a day or a step in the process. From there, everything involves a strict routine so the Heat player doesn’t take any days off. He tries to be in bed by 7:00 p.m. when he isn’t playing and prepares for his sleep three hours beforehand with herbal tea and a ban on screen time.

Despite these crazy hours, Butler’s current trainer, James Scott, claims that the athlete is never late and never lazy in his approach.

What is Butler’s workout?

According to Men’s Health, Butler starts his workout by shooting a 10-pound medicine ball like a basketball to build up his wrist strength. After this, he holds 45-pound weights by his side and purpose drops them so he can catch them. This helps him with his grip.

After that is a game of sorts, where Butler stands on one leg and has his resistance tested with a band. Scott then throws red and blue balls, the red meant to be caught with his left hand, the blue with his right to test his awareness and reflexes. According to Scott, this game is Butler’s favorite routine. Then, the duo follows up with bridges, planks, and an ab workout.

Once this phase is complete, Butler shoots 1,000 jump shots in the next hour. Then, he heads home for breakfast, which includes egg white omelets, avocados, berries, and black coffee. He has a small timeframe for recovery before he does more drills. If this is not enough, Scott claims he heads down to the arena at 3:00 p.m. to see if anyone wants to play a pickup game.

Butler treats everything as a challenge. This would not be possible if he just showed up on game days and practice sessions. Instead, he works harder than anyone else to make opponents suffer. Do you think you could handle his workout?

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