Damian Lillard worked out with former U.S. Navy SEAL and endurance athlete David Goggins in the offseason and their workout sessions were unsurprisingly quite intense. Lillard was recently asked how he and Goggins linked up and what was the craziest workout he had with him.
“The last two and a half years we have been kind of interacting on and off,” Lillard said. “And this summer… I was trying to find some time to get down there and get with him and we figured out some days that worked and I went down there. I think I was with him for four days, four and a half days and we worked out. In that four days I think we did like 16 workouts. Just a lot.
“The craziest thing I would say we did, one day as part of a workout, it wasn’t even a whole workout, we did a thousand lunges, just literally a thousand,” Lillard continued. “Earlier in that same day, we did 700 pushups in 45 minutes and he can confirm that too. I would have never did that ever in life but somehow he got it out of me.
“It was some crazy stuff,” Lillard added. “It was more mental than anything. Obviously, it’s going to test your conditioning and it’s going to push you but I took away a lot more mental from it than anything else.”
Lillard revealed it took about a month for his body to feel normal again after the sessions with Goggins. I am not surprised by that, considering how intense all that sounded. Lillard also shared a video of him training with Goggins and he sure was pushing himself hard during the workouts.
Doc Rivers had revealed that Lillard told him he was in the worst shape of his career coming into training camp last year and it’s safe to say that wasn’t the case this time. Thanks to Goggins, the 34-year-old is probably in the best shape he has ever been in. While Lillard would have greatly benefited physically from those workouts, he told Bleacher Report that it proved to be even more helpful from a mental standpoint.
“As much as it was a challenge for me as far as conditioning, it was more of a mental challenge than anything else,” Lillard said. “And I think my greatest takeaway from it was the mental strength and realizing it’s a lot more in there than you think when you’re tired and when you’re kind of just dying in the middle of it. So to come out the other end of it after spending that time with him, it really did something for me mentally.”
We’ll soon find out just how much of a positive impact those sessions with Goggins had on Lillard. The eight-time All-Star didn’t quite have the expected impact in his first season with Milwaukee Bucks, averaging 24.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game in 2023-24, and if he turns things around in 2024-25, perhaps some other stars will also look into training with Goggins.
Who Is David Goggins?
Goggins was born in Buffalo, New York on Feb. 17, 1975, to Trunnis and Jackie Goggins. He had a difficult upbringing, dealing with child abuse and racism, but managed to persevere through all the adversity he faced and turned out to be an incredible human being.
Goggins was initially inspired to join the Air Force as his grandfather had previously served in it. He applied to join the United States Air Force Pararescue and while he was accepted, he was diagnosed with sickle cell trait during training and had to be removed temporarily.
Goggins then decided to participate in United States Air Force Tactical Air Control Party training and started working as a TACP from 1994 until 1999, when he left the Air Force. Goggins then worked as an exterminator after which he decided he wanted to become a Navy SEAL. In 2001, he would accomplish his goal.
Goggins would serve tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He graduated from Army Ranger School in 2004 and earned the “Enlisted Honor Man” award. A year later, some of Goggins’ friends died in Afghanistan, and he began long-distance running in order to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides scholarships to children of special operations soldiers who had passed away.
Goggins has now completed over 60 ultra-marathons, triathlons, and ultra-triathlons. The 49-year-old has become one of the world’s top endurance athletes and once held the Guinness World Record for most pull-ups in 24 hours, with 4,030 in 17 hours. Those 700 pushups that he had Lillard do, don’t seem like a lot in comparison, do they?
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