11kg in one year, real risk or logical evolution? What the significant mass gain of Wembanyama changes

Victor Wembanyama has gained 11kg over the last 12 months, going from 95kg before his first season in the NBA to 106kg on the starting line of this 2024-2025 exercise. This significant mass gain may have challenged some fans. But what does it actually change for the giant San Antonio Spurs? Elements of response.

As is often the case with Victor Wembanyama, it is still a question of numbers. First there were all the fantasies around his height and his more than 2.20m under the gauge which propelled him into the spotlight from his first steps as a professional. Then his place as No. 1 in the draft in 2023, a great first in the history of French basketball. Or his maddening statistics for his first season in the NBA, with triple-doubles and cards over 30 points.

For the big media launch of the San Antonio Spurs, on October 1, another piece of data was at the center of all the debates: the 11kg that the French phenomenon gained in the space of one season, going from 95kg at dawn of his big debut in the NBA… at 106kg on the starting line for the 2024-2025 financial year. A significant weight gain which may have been a cause for concern.

To understand this notable development, the result of significant bodybuilding and nutrition work throughout the season, it is important to understand the challenges of such mass gain. “Being heavier will allow him to oppose a greater body mass and body weight in ground duels with all these players who are currently heavier than him and who regularly try, like Nikola Jokic, to push and hit him Victor will now have a greater muscle mass to oppose to that, therefore greater resistance”, explains Manuel Lacroix, current physical trainer for the French basketball team and Asvel, where he is. was able to rub shoulders with Wembanyama.

So many kilos on such a slim figure, a risk?

Very important point about this weight gain, which may sound obvious: it is muscle mass, not fat mass. “Muscle mass is lean mass, so it is not fat mass. Which makes it stronger,” says Manuel Lacroix. “By taking this muscle mass, in addition to opposing a greater weight, he will oppose a greater force. He is stronger than before. So it is a very interesting progression for all the contacts and the duels on the ground. ” But concretely, can adding 11kg in 12 months on such a thin figure be risky?

“On paper, it’s something impressive. But it was done very gradually,” says Manuel Lacroix.

“Where it is an interesting work is that it is very harmonious, he explains. The idea is that Victor gains muscle mass, but not too much at once. That it is progressive , so that his body has time to adapt, so that his joints can adapt. We must underline the very good work that is done with Guillaume Alquier, his physical trainer, because the mass gain has been very regular. It was done in good intelligence.”

Stabilizing weight, a considerable challenge for very tall players

“In the photos, it doesn’t shock me,” says Pierre-Yves Couve, Wembanyama’s physiotherapist in the French U16 team. “I don’t think he’s become a golgoth either, which is very good. We must not forget that with physiological evolution, we start by growing, which is why we are all a little thin, before widening between 20 and 30 years old, so it doesn’t shock me. 106kg for 2.22m, that’s still below a lot of players.”

The weight gain may seem considerable. But it must therefore be put into perspective with the size of the interior of the San Antonio Spurs. “When you’re that big, it doesn’t mean that much,” says Manuel Lacroix. “For very large people, body weights can vary by 2 to 3kg from one week to the next. We often have large variations.”

When he worked with Wembanyama at Asvel, Manuel Lacroix remembers the difficulty of stabilizing the weight of the future No. 1 in the draft. “We went up to 102 or 103kg once, but he came back down afterwards. As with any big size, there was a lot of oscillation. Afterwards, he came back under 100kg, around 96kg. There, it’s a stabilized weight so it’s very good,” applauds the physical trainer. Pierre-Yves Couve, for his part, remembers a teenager who “painfully reached 80kg for 2.20m” when he was his physiotherapist in the French youth team.

The fear of distorting your game

Wembanyama stands out with his ability to combine the mobility of a 1.95m player in a 2.22m body. And it is precisely for this reason that the Frenchman and his clan have always been very cautious on this question of mass gain.

After his draft, many basketball fans could be afraid that the former Boulogne-Levallois player would not be a match for the athletic monsters that abound in NBA rackets. But the strategy has always been to go from strength to strength so as not to distort his game.

“People are wrong. We are not at all focused on his weight,” said Bouna Ndiaye, one of his agents, after Wembanyama’s big debut in the Summer League, in July 2023.

“When you add weight, you add an additional load, therefore potentially slower movements… and one of its strong points is precisely the speed of movement”, Geoffrey Wandji, doctor of the French team of basketball, a year ago.

Wembanyama’s size-agility-quickness ratio is an anomaly of nature. The whole challenge is therefore to succeed in making him stronger, particularly in his resistance to impacts, without making him lose his mobility or his explosiveness, which makes him a unique player. “If you add more weight, more mass, there are also potentially changes to the biomechanics of the shot. In terms of mobility, it goes against his current game,” insists Geoffrey Wandji.

In one year, the physical evolution of the No. 1 in the 2023 draft is obvious. Between his departure from the French championship, in June 2023, and the Paris Olympic Games, this summer, the native of Chesnay (Yvelines) has expanded considerably. There was obviously a lot of work on the arms, which were much more defined. But the San Antonio Spurs player also has much thicker legs.

From now on, Wembanyama gives off an impression of great stability, the opposite of this image of a great wader which could stick to his skin just a few months ago. “The priority is the strength on the lower body, that he is powerful enough on his canes to be able to absorb and chain contacts, to run while being low on his supports”, detailed Guillaume Alquier, his trainer at Spurs, in the columns of The Team before the start of last season.

“If you put 15kg back on him next year, I’ll be a little more worried”

The work therefore bore fruit, with a notable difference on the scale. And at the dawn of this second season, the whole question is now how many more kilos will be added to his large frame. “11kg is not a problem. But if you give him 15kg again next year, I will be a little more worried. Because after a while, there will inevitably be bad fat, not just muscle” , alerts Pierre-Yves Couve, his former physiotherapist.

“If mass gain is still possible next year? Yes of course, it’s possible,” says Manuel Lacroix. “It is not excluded that this is in the Spurs strategy from the moment when all the lights are green. He is performing well, he is not very injured, he is progressing, he is stabilizing his body weight… All the lights are Afterwards, it’s impossible to know how high his weight should go. A player like Victor doesn’t exist, so I have no comparison. At the start, we could have said that he must have the same. weight than a Rudy Gobert, but we don’t know in fact He is so unique that we don’t know anything about it. (laugh).” Wemby has gotten us used to resetting all software anyway.