MORRISON, Colo. — It’s 7 a.m. on a weekday morning at Red Rocks, hours before concert goers will fill the amphitheater. Nuggets strength and conditioning coach Steve Hess is already jacked.

There’s not a lot of love as the handful of Nuggets players and coaches who showed up for the voluntary workout start running hundreds of stairs, but the hardest part is over, the anticipation driving to Red Rocks .

“Knowing you are gonna be tired. You almost hav to a psych yourself up,” says Center J.J. Hickson

Guard Erick Green adds, “the night before, all we were talking about was, man we got red rocks in the AM.”

After running three giant flights of stairs, Hess moves the crew over the stadium. The guys cruise up each giant row in one stride.

Hess says “the best thing for a basketball player to do is to play basketball. What we’re trying to do is make a bigger stronger faster machine. And when they apply that to the skill set, they are good to go!”

Hess also brings what he calls “his atomic bomb,” his 13-year-old son Korey. Who works out with the guys every week, hanging right with them.  After two flights of stadium benches, the final exercise is wall climbs all the way to the top. The guys legs are unstandably exhausted. According to Hickson, “they feel like jello.”

 Check out the video above to see the Nuggets in action.