LeBron James
Basketball player · NBA all-time leading scorer
Four-time NBA champion and the league's all-time leading scorer, drafted straight out of high school in Akron in 2003 and still playing more than two decades later. Longevity is the point of his routine: with trainer Mike Mancias he treats sleep, stretching, cold and compression as daily work, and he has talked about it in unusual detail on The Tim Ferriss Show and in the Netflix series Starting 5. He co-founded the supplement brand Ladder, has partnership deals with Calm and Tonal, and co-hosts the basketball podcast Mind the Game.
- Entries
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- Does
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- Recommends
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- Discusses
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The gear and products they use
All 7 products in this stack
- SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Protein powder
A protein shake from Mancias goes down right after every game, before he eats. Mancias explained the choice: a plant protein with almond milk and fruit rather than heavy whey, because he wants clean calories absorbed in the first half hour and avoids animal products for the first hour after a game.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasView item: Protein powderBacked by 16 of 44 stacks - GearDiscusses$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Red light therapy device
Robb Report, summarizing his Netflix series Starting 5 via the New York Post, reports that he said he often uses red light therapy alongside cryotherapy and compression boots. His only direct words on the page concern cost. He would not put a number on what he spends on his body each year. The real cost, he said, is time.
Source: Robb Report: LeBron James's Recovery Routine Includes Cryotherapy and an Oxygen ChamberView item: Red light therapy deviceBacked by 4 of 44 stacks - AppDoes itSponsor, disclosed
Calm
The sleep app he named on the Ferriss show, where he picks the rain on leaves soundscape to play on his phone through the night. In December 2019 Calm announced a multi-year partnership with him that includes original audio content from him, which is the disclosed sponsorship flagged here.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasVisit calm.com (opens in a new tab)Backed by 1 of 44 stacks - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
I Promise
His own children's picture book, written around the promises that pupils at his I Promise School in Akron make each day. It went straight to the top of the New York Times children's picture book list in August 2020.
Source: NBA.com: LeBron James' children's book 'I Promise' debuts atop New York Times Bestsellers listView item: I PromiseBacked by 1 of 44 stacks - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Pneumatic compression boots
NormaTec boots are part of what he calls the recovery package, listed alongside the ice bags as the things he does while awake. Good sleep, he says, beats all of it: wake up fresh and you do not need an alarm clock.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasView item: Pneumatic compression bootsBacked by 1 of 44 stacks - GearRecommendsSponsor, disclosed
Tonal
He praised the wall-mounted unit for efficiency in strength work, saying everything sits at arm’s length with no racking of weights, and told readers they could get a full-gym workout off any wall in the house. He is an investor and brand partner, which is the disclosed relationship behind this entry.
Source: Tonal blog: LeBron James interview on strength and efficiency with Tonal (October 2021)Visit tonal.com (opens in a new tab)Backed by 1 of 44 stacks - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
VersaClimber
Asked which ingredients he likes to keep in his off-season, he answered that besides the VersaClimber he really likes running on a football field, which puts the machine in his own account of his summer conditioning. He gave no detail on how he uses it.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasView item: VersaClimberBacked by 1 of 44 stacks
Protocols
11 entriesRepeatable, mostly free routines with a defined trigger and dose.
Strength work has run through his whole career, he says, using many different machines and methods over the years. In 2021, when he became a Tonal investor and brand partner, he praised the machine for getting a full session done quickly with three kids competing for his time.
Source: Tonal blog: LeBron James interview on strength and efficiency with Tonal (October 2021)Backed by 37 of 44 stacksHe was icing his knees and the rest of his body during the podcast itself, Mancias pointed out. After a game, once food and a shake are in, cryotherapy follows in whatever form the arena has: a cold tank, ice bags or a cryotherapy chamber.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 23 of 44 stacksEight hours is his floor, nine is better and some nights run to ten. Sleep, he told Ferriss, is what has become most important to him with age, and the thing that lets his body and mind recover for the next day.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 10 of 44 stacksTrainer Mike Mancias described the setup they keep for him in every hotel room: temperature around 68 to 70 degrees, completely dark, electronics off half an hour to 45 minutes before bed. James chimed in on the electronics part and added that he likes a sleep app running through the night.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 8 of 44 stacksA friend told him at 13 to play hard, have fun and stretch, and he says the advice stuck. Consistent stretching to keep his limbs flexible is one of the few specific habits he credits for lasting past the point where most players decline.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 7 of 44 stacksHe has practiced yoga since his Cleveland years and took an 8 a.m. class at the team hotel between games of the 2014 Finals after cramping in Game 1. His own hedge stands: he says it works for him and that he is no guru on conditioning.
Source: Sports Illustrated: LeBron James credits yoga class for helping alleviate cramping issues in Game 2Backed by 7 of 44 stacksSummer conditioning means 100-yard sprints end zone to end zone on a football field, partly because it puts him outdoors and takes him back to high school football. There is no set count; they run until the heart rate is where they want it and Mancias calls a stop.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 6 of 44 stacksAfter a bad loss he replays the game in his head and asks what he did, what he did not do and what the team did not do, so he can handle the same situation differently next time. He is careful to say the aim is learning, not dwelling.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 3 of 44 stacksTreatment at 4 p.m., massage and/or stretching as the article puts it, is a fixed slot in the home game-day schedule he laid out in Starting 5. Mancias adds that off days matter because they are when the body gets worked on rather than pounded.
Source: Olympics.com: Nearly 40 years young: LeBron James' fitness routineBacked by 3 of 44 stacksFor 67 days in the summer of 2014 he ate no carbohydrates, sugar or dairy, dropping to around 250 pounds. He framed it as a personal challenge that had nothing to do with basketball, though he did say he felt quicker on the court afterward.
Source: Sports Illustrated: LeBron James: Weight loss 'had nothing to do with basketball'Backed by 2 of 44 stacksPilates and yoga came up as a pair in 2011, when he told the Miami Herald how he stays physically ahead. No frequency. He said only that he feels it helps him.
Source: Sports Illustrated: LeBron James credits yoga class for helping alleviate cramping issues in Game 2Backed by 2 of 44 stacks
Habits
6 entriesDaily practices held long enough to become default behavior.
Reading before games became a playoff ritual in 2012, when he worked through West by West, The Pact, The Tipping Point, the Hunger Games trilogy and Jay-Z's Decoded during one postseason run. It relaxed him and gave him a break from preparation, he said, so he could zero in once he put the book down.
Source: Shelf Awareness: NBA Champion LeBron James Was 'Reading a Little Bit More'Backed by 19 of 44 stacksDeep breaths, eyes closed, centering himself and listening to his inner self: that is how he described the meditation that he said kept him sane inside the 2020 NBA bubble. Cameras have caught him doing the same thing on the bench late in games.
Source: Silver Screen and Roll: Why LeBron James meditates during games, explainedBacked by 17 of 44 stacksHe naps. When the night falls short of eight or nine hours he makes it up with a nap, and he said he was heading home from the recording for one of about two and a half hours. He calls it the best way to recover.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 6 of 44 stacksHip hop, always, from the moment he arrives at the arena. There is no fixed playlist; he picks whichever artist he feels will get him going that night, and says the routine only starts once the music does.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 5 of 44 stacksTheodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena passage was still in his locker in 2018, he told Ferriss. He writes it on his shoes before every game. It hit home when he was listening to people he should not have been, and he says it reminds him that people outside the arena cannot judge what happens inside it.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 3 of 44 stacksIn season he cuts fried food, artificial drinks and artificial sugars entirely, keeping to natural sugars and whole foods while his body is burning so much. Off-season the artificial drinks come back from time to time, by his own admission.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike ManciasBacked by 1 of 44 stacks
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“There’s nothing more important than optimal REM sleep. And that’s exactly what we’re talking about right now. That’s the best way for your body to physically and emotionally be able to recover and get back to 100% as possible.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike Mancias (opens in a new tab) · 30 Nov 2018 “It’s an app called Calm actually, that I use. Yeah. And I’m the guy who picks rain on leaves. That’s what goes on on my phone throughout the night.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike Mancias (opens in a new tab) · 30 Nov 2018 On Calm
“I could do all the training. I could do all the ice bags and the NormaTecs and everything that we do that we have as far as our recovery package while I’m up. But when you get in that good sleep, you just wake up, and you feel fresh. You don’t need an alarm clock.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #349 transcript: LeBron James and Mike Mancias (opens in a new tab) · 30 Nov 2018 “For me, it's relaxing honestly. You spend so much preparation for the games, sometimes you just need to get away from it for a little bit. The reading has helped me get away from the game a little bit, and I'm able to zero in once I'm done and get ready for the games.”
Shelf Awareness: NBA Champion LeBron James Was 'Reading a Little Bit More' (opens in a new tab) · 22 Jun 2012 “I do Pilates and yoga, just try to stay above the curve to get to this point, … Does it work for everybody? I don't know. I'm not a guru about how to be in the best condition, don't let me sit here and tell you that. But it works for me.”
Sports Illustrated: LeBron James credits yoga class for helping alleviate cramping issues in Game 2 (opens in a new tab) · 9 Jun 2014 On Yoga
Stack notes are paraphrased. Anything in quotation marks is a short excerpt copied from the transcript it links to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.