Joel Embiid's freakish frame requires a unique training plan

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The voice of the Sixers, Marc Zumoff, sat down with the team's head strength and conditioning coach, Todd Wright, to chat about many aspects of his job, including the challenge of working with a guy with a body as big and powerful as Joel Embiid.

As Wright explained it, Embiid has gone through quite the journey in terms of understanding his frame and the care that is needed to keep it at top form.

“Joel has had a great transformation in understanding the importance of taking care of yourself," Wright said. “Joel is such a unique athlete in the sense that he’s 7-foot-2 and he’s very large and very powerful."

Having such a unique body means it works a bit differently than an average human. The electricity firing through such a bigger muscle system takes longer and can fatigue a bit faster, as Wright explains it.

"[Joel's] parameters in understanding the frequency of training, the rest that's required to repair all of those things, that was a work in progress for all of us, to really understand just how unique he was. The organization has done an incredible job putting a team around him with some of the smartest people in the world. As we've gotten to know Joel, I think our strategies have gotten stronger and stronger and our ability to educate him has gotten better and better."

Zoo tried to get some specifics out of him, but Wright kept the actual plan and action items pretty generic.

He said the Sixers attempt to boil down Embiid's action plan to: managing sleep, nutrition, balancing court work and weight room work, and creating better habits.

It's a process, albeit a complicated one.

Wright also spoke about his unique relationship with Kevin Durant and KD's incredible drive. You can listen to the whole podcast below.

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