LeBron James is the poster child of how long a world-class athlete and body can maintain peak performance and athleticism for longer than its predecessors of 50, 30, 20, even 10 years ago.
James is playing statistically as good as ever in his 15th NBA season and at the age of 33 he is on pace to have his first 82 game season in 2017-18.
There is a fantastic, in-depth piece by Brian Windhorst on ESPN on Monday that delves deep into the lengths that LeBron James is going in order to keep his body performing at peak level for longer than most elite athletes in the world and in NBA history.
Here is one excerpt from the piece:
“James is known to personally spend seven figures a year caring for his body, and Raimon is part of that tab. So are personal chefs and masseuses. He also gets private treatments with liquid nitrogen to help reduce inflammation. James’ home facilities rival those of professional teams. In his home in Akron, James has a fully outfitted workout gym, hot and cold tubs and a hyperbaric chamber.”
The most mystifying and mind-numbing part of the piece though is more about a bizarre body composition change and an in game weight gain (you read that right) by James during an eastern conference finals game once…
“And the topper: the time James gained seven pounds during an Eastern Conference finals game.
Some Miami Heat teammates saw the scale and attest to it in amazement. James himself just shrugs and calls it “weird as hell.” The truly wild part is that it was from 271 pounds to 278 pounds, though James is much lighter these days.”
Whether you believe the legitimacy of that claim or not, the fact of the matter is LeBron is taking professional sports longevity to new heights with his dedication as he chases those ghosts he has mentioned a few times…
You can read the full Windhorst piece here:
