APEX PWR  |  Athlete Angle

Athlete Strength Training in Portland: What Tyrese Maxey Just Said About the Weight Room

What Maxey Said

Tyrese Maxey just wrapped a season where he led the NBA in minutes per game. 38.0 a night. 70 regular-season games. A first-round playoff upset of the Boston Celtics where he averaged 26.9 points. By the standard he set himself this year, that is a workload nobody else carried.

A reporter asked him after a playoff game how he handled the heavy minutes. His answer was unambiguous.

Not skill work. Not film. Not stretching. The weight room.

He went on to say he lifts four or five times a week during the summer, thanked his strength coach Al for the support since his rookie year, and said he does not feel tired right now even after the minute load he just carried. He framed it as preparation. Summer work, plus in-season consistency, equals a body that can handle the moment.

That framing is correct. And it is the same framing we use at APEX with every athlete who walks in the door.

Summer Is Where Seasons Are Built

Maxey said he lifts four or five times a week during the summer. That is not a small thing. That is a structural commitment to spending the offseason getting stronger, not just resting.

For a youth basketball player in Tigard, Beaverton, Lake Oswego, or anywhere in the Portland metro, the parallel is direct. The summer between seasons is when you build the engine. From May to August, you have the time, the recovery capacity, and the absence of in-game wear to actually push strength, power, and movement quality in ways that you simply cannot push during the season.

What summer training should look like for a basketball player:

• Three to four strength sessions per week, structured progressively
• Lower-body emphasis: squat, hinge, single-leg work, posterior chain
• Upper-body pressing, pulling, and bracing for collision and rebounding
• Plyometrics and jump training (planned, not random) for vertical and deceleration
• Speed work for acceleration, change of direction, and game-pace conditioning
• Movement screening to catch the small asymmetries that turn into the September injuries

The work that gets done from May through August is the work that shows up from November through March. Athletes who skip the summer training block almost always start the season behind, and they spend the first two months catching up while the other athletes are already pulling away.

Training Does Not Stop When the Season Starts

Here is where Maxey's quote becomes most useful for the parents and athletes we work with: he said he lifts after pretty much every game.

That is the part most youth athletes miss. The assumption is that once the season starts, you stop lifting. The games and practices are enough. Save the strength work for the offseason. The reality is the opposite. Athletes who stop lifting in-season lose strength and power across the year. By February, they are slower, weaker, and more injury-prone than they were in November. The athletes who maintain in-season training are the ones still moving well in the playoffs.

In-season strength training looks different from summer strength training:

• Lower total volume per session (fewer sets and exercises)
• Heavy enough loads to maintain strength, light enough loads to recover
• 1 to 2 sessions per week instead of 3 to 4
• Scheduled around game days, not against them
• Recovery work (mobility, soft tissue, sleep) treated as part of the plan, not separate from it

Done well, in-season training keeps the strength gains you built in the summer. Skipped entirely, those gains start leaking out by mid-season.

On "Sport-Specific Training": Some Honesty

Parents searching for athlete training in Portland often type "sport-specific training" or "basketball-specific strength training" into Google. Here is our honest take, because we owe you that more than we owe you matching keywords.

The base of athletic performance is general strength, speed, and movement quality. A basketball player who can squat, hinge, sprint, jump, decelerate, and brace under load is going to outperform a basketball player who has done two years of "basketball-specific" drills but cannot move a heavy weight off the floor. The general qualities transfer to every sport. The specific qualities are the polish, not the foundation.

At the elite level, small tweaks for the demands of the sport make sense. A basketball player at the college or pro level may emphasize lateral plyometrics, single-leg landing mechanics, and sport-specific conditioning at higher percentages of their total work than a multi-sport youth athlete would. Those tweaks exist. They are real. But they are tweaks on top of a strong foundation, not a replacement for one.

The youth athletes who go furthest are almost always the ones who built the broadest base first. That is what APEX builds.

How APEX Trains Athletes in Portland

APEX PWR is a 10,000 square foot training and physical therapy facility in Tigard, Oregon, serving the Portland metro including Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Tualatin, and Hillsboro. Our athlete programs run from 3rd grade through college.

What our athlete training includes:

• Group training tiered by age and development stage
• One-on-one and small group training for athletes who want more individualized work
• VALD force testing (ForceDecks and ForceFrame) to identify strengths, asymmetries, and weaknesses
• Sports physical therapy on-site for nagging injuries, return-to-play, and preventive assessments

Athletes typically start with our Sports Science Assessment, which establishes a baseline using VALD force testing and movement screening, then maps out the right program from there. It is the youth athlete entry point at APEX, and it is also available to adults who want to train with us.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can my basketball player do athlete strength training in Portland?

APEX PWR offers athlete strength training at our Tigard, Oregon facility (11105 SW Greenburg Rd), serving the Portland metro area including Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Tualatin, and Hillsboro. Group, small group, and one-on-one sessions are available, led by Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists with VALD force testing to track progress.

Should basketball players strength train in the summer?

Yes. Summer is when basketball players build the strength, power, and durability that carry through the season. Tyrese Maxey, the NBA minutes leader in 2025-26, has publicly credited his summer weight room work for his ability to handle a heavy minute load. The same principle applies at every level: the work you put in during the offseason determines what your body can deliver when games count.

Should basketball players lift during the season?

Yes, with adjustments. Athletes who stop lifting once the season starts typically lose strength and power across the year, which raises injury risk and hurts late-season performance. Maxey said he lifts after almost every game. Volume and intensity adjust in-season, but the work does not stop.

Does APEX PWR offer sport-specific training for basketball?

APEX takes an honest position on this. The base of athletic performance is general strength, speed, and movement quality, and those transfer to every sport. For elite-level athletes, small tweaks for sport-specific demands can make sense, but the bulk of the work should be foundational. APEX runs group, small group, and one-on-one programs that build that base for basketball players and other youth athletes.

Do you have a girls strength training program?

Yes. APEX runs GRL PWR, a female-led strength training program for middle school and high school girls in the Portland metro area, in addition to general athlete training that is open to all athletes.

Related Reading

• Sports Performance Training in Portland, OR (Service Overview)
• GRL PWR: Strength Training for Girls in the Portland Metro
• Sports Science Assessment (Youth Athlete Entry Point)
• Physical Therapy at APEX PWR Tigard