Last week I teamed up with Dr. Brian Russell to do a presentation on keeping young athletes healthy and performing at the top of their game. We did four seminars for the parents at Capital City Volleyball Club (Where I’m the strength and conditioning coach)

One of the questions we received was “What do you think of crossfit for my volleyball player?”

Well, as I’ve said before, I don’t like Crossfit for ANYTHING.  (But if you’re a consenting adult, you’re welcome to make your own bad decisions

But it’s time to point out a few of the problems with Crossfit that are SPECIFIC to volleyball players.

1) Volleyball isn’t an endurance sport.

Any volleyball player who trains by running anything more than 50 or 60 meter sprints is not only wasting their time, they’re ruining their volleyball performance.

I don’t know who said it first, but it’s well known by top strength and conditioning coaches that distance running “turns jumpers into joggers.”

Volleyball is a strength and power sport, NOT an aerobic sport.  Honestly, if your daughter is in shape enough to text her friends, she’s in good enough AEROBIC condition to play volleyball.

Here’s an example of a crossfit workout that would sap a volleyball player’s strength and power:

“Jerry”
For time:
Run 1 mile
Row 2K
Run 1 mile

Not only would this be a waste of time for anyone serious about volleyball, it would destroy hard-won fast twitch muscle fibers, promote fat storage, increase carbohydrate cravings, beat up joints, take inches off your vertical jump, promote illness, mess up hormones, shorten joint range of motion, and reduce explosiveness.

2) Crossfit is more random than a Pauly Shore movie.

No matter what you think about “muscle confusion” and “being ready for anything,” volleyball is a SPECIFIC sport and needs a specific workout.

Volleyball players get sport-specific injuries and asymmetries that can only be fixed with a SPECIFIC training program.

When a player comes in to see Dr. Russell because she has a glenohumeral internal rotation deficit, scapular dysfunctions, lack of stability, kyphosis, and a severe knee valgus, the last thing she should even think about doing is something like this:

Five rounds for time of:

• 5 Muscle-ups
• 135 pound Power clean, 10 reps
• Run 220 meters

Or:

• 35 Double-unders
• 95 pound Thrusters, 25 reps
• 15 Pull-ups

One of the core principles of success in anything is the idea of SPECIFICITY.

Crossfit is a mishmash of a bunch of systems.  To quote the legendary Charles Poliquin (on Crossfit): “Looked like a bunch of cachexic fitness-model wannabes searching for their souls in the weight room.”

Or, to paraphrase my Grandpa, you can’t ride two motorcycles when you only have one butt.

To get better at volleyball, you need a volleyball training program – not an epileptic writing fit of someone who has never actually trained anyone.

3) “Fatigue makes cowards of us all”

I have a rule about doing things RIGHT before you try to do them a lot.

If a volleyball player has a crappy serve, practicing that serve will just ingrain bad habits even more leading to injury and ineffective performance.

Lots of crossfit workouts have athletes doing complicated weighted exercises for a certain number of reps and trying for their lowest time.  Two bad things with this: 1) It encourages poor form and shortcuts 2) as they get tired, injury risk goes WAYYY up.

Poor exercise technique is bad for anyone, but volleyball players are even more injury prone than other athletes.  One in five competitive female athletes will suffer an ACL-based knee injury this season, 68% of female volleyball players will have some sort of shoulder injury this season.  The injury rate goes up when you factor in everything else that will go wrong too!  Thumbs, wrists, etc.

The goal with a volleyball strength and conditioning program is to 1) keep the girls on the court 2) improve performance.  In that order.

Racing to see who can get the most power cleans done is a sure recipe for injury.  Even more when you remember that we’re dealing with tired athletes who just want their workout over so they can get back to checking their facebook pages.

4) Leaving out the important stuff.

For the moment let’s forget that crossfit is totally inappropriate in exercise selection, loading, and volume – just focus on the fact that crossfit workouts leave out important injury prevention movements for volleyball players.

Volleyball players need a lot of hip mobility, thoracic spine mobility, scapular stability, anti-rotational core stability, anti-extension core strength, and lumbar stability.

If you waste all your time screwing around with nonsensical crossfit workouts, you won’t have any time, energy, or motivation left to pay attention to this stuff.

5) Volleyball shoulders aren’t normal shoulders.

Ok, when I was in college I actually dissected shoulders and spent a lot of time learning how everything works.  So believe me when I say that I’m VERY concerned when I hear about volleyball players doing crossfit.

It’s almost a cliche that after an experienced volleyball player serves, she grabs her shoulder.  Dr. Russell realigns shoulders daily at his practice.

Heck, I know a school bus full of 16 year-old volleyball players who have already gotten cortisol shots just to be able to finish playing the season.  It shouldn’t be like that way.

Here are some of the notes we made while talking about volleyball players and shoulders:  “Most have significant shoulder and full body laxity (aquired, congenital, and monthly hormonal), diminished rotator cuff strength in serving shoulder (especially with no rest all year), abnormal labral features, supraspinatus tears, inactive serratus anterior, jacked up scapular upward rotation, retroversion, and impingements.”

Basically, it goes back to the title of this section: Volleyball shoulders are nothing like regular shoulders.

Add in an imbalanced training program, poor posture, and improper form and I’m surprised that the number of shoulder injuries isn’t higher than 68%.

When scholarships are on the line, any coach who recommended crossfit for shoulders with all of these problems should be beaten to death with a folded-up ballcart.

With all 5 of these problems with crossfit in mind, I recommend that anyone looking to improve their volleyball performance find a REAL strength and conditioning coach, not just someone who paid $1000 bucks for a weekend seminar in destroying athletes.

As most of you know, in addition to running Wold Fitness Body Transformations, I am a youth sports performance specialist.

I work mainly with Carson City Volleyball Club as their head strength and conditioning coach, but consult with various schools districts and sports clubs as well.

Carson City asked me to develop a 5 minute Warm Up for all of the players to do before they even touch a volleyball.

Here’s what we came up with:

Carson City Volleyball Championship Warm Up

• Seal Jacks x 20 (40 sec) Temp Raise, chest stretch
• Mountain Climbers x 40 (80 sec) Temp Raise, hip loosener, core activation
• Fire Hydrants x 10/leg (110 sec) Glute activation, hip loosener
• Hindu Pushups x 10 (140 sec) Full body strength, posterior chain stretch
• Hip flexor stretch x 20sec/leg (180 sec) Releases the “brakes” on hip extension
• Glute bridges x 15 (210 sec) Glute activation/strength
• Piriformis Stretch x 20sec/leg (250 sec) Releases the “brakes” on jump & squat
• Tuck Jump x 10 (280 sec) Neural activation and explosiveness
• Bicycle Crunch x 20 (300 sec) Temp raise, core strength

(The time on the side is a running clock towards the 5 minutes)

Here are videos of each exercise:

Seal Jacks

Mountain Climbers (Volleyball Players do these without the sliders)

Fire Hydrants (first exercise in series)

Hindu Pushups

Hip Flexor Stretch

Glute Bridges

Piriformis Stretch

Tuck Jump

Bicycle Crunch

Short and sweet: This is the summer volleyball weightlifting program for Carson City Volleyball Club, where I’m the head strength and conditioning coach.

There are 3 different “days” in this program, A, B, & C.  If you workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, it would would look this:

• Mon: Day A
• Wed: Day B
• Fri: Day C
• Mon: Day A (add weight, reps, time, etc)
• Wed: Day B (add weight, reps, time, etc)
• And so on for 6 weeks

Day A:

A1: Rack Pulls 5×5 (45 seconds rest)

A2: Swiss Ball Mountain Climbers 5×30 (45 seconds rest)

B: Barbell Step Back Lunge Off Box 3×8 (30 seconds rest)

C1: 45 degree back raise with 5 sec hold at top 3×10 (0 seconds rest)

C2: Sprinter Sit Ups 3×20 (0 seconds rest)

C3: Rope Face Pull 3×12 (30 seconds rest)

A Carson City Workout post by Lucas Wold….

A lot of people ask me what my workouts look like.

Well, they look like me!  Ugly, sweaty, and smelly

Here’s a sample speed training workout I did:

(This is athletic training, not specifically fat loss or muscle-building training!)

Wold Fitness Warm Up

Box Jumps:

• 2 easy sets of 5, then 5×2 on the 49″ box

Speed Circuit x 5, rest as long as the circuit took:

• Box Squats: 2 reps with 50% one rep max (275 pounds)
• Clap Pull Up: 5 reps
• Decline Clap Push Up: 5 reps

Double Kettlebell Snatch:

• 5×5 (53# each)

Self Defense Training For Cooldown

Here’s some vids!

Box Jumps to 49 inch box:

Speed Circuit:

Double Kettlebell Snatch:

Self Defense Practice:

The goal of this workout was to remain explosive and strong throughout.

Talk soon!

~Lucas Wold
291 Rhodes St
Carson City NV 89703

The guard is a fundamental mma position:

Every Carson City MMA athlete that wants success in the ring should practice guard techniques, as well as strengthening the muscles used in the guard.

Enter the guard row on a pull up bar:

How To Do The Guard Row:

- Grab the pull up bar with a neutral grip

- Lift your legs up and lock them around the bar

- Pull (try to touch your shoulder to the bar) yourself up

- Switch which side your head goes to on each rep

To make this exercise harder, you do all sorts of things to challenge yourself, such as:

• using fewer fingers on each hand
• adding a weighted vest
• using a thicker bar
• wrapping a gi or towel around the bar to hold onto

For more Carson City MMA Exercises, check out this post: 15 ValSlide Exercises For Serious Grapplers

Have you ever considered running a 5K? The benefits may surprise you.

A 5K race is 3.1 miles, the perfect distance for beginning runners. It’s a realistic, attainable goal that’s fun and satisfying to achieve.

Here are 5 rewards you will reap:

1) Tone Your Legs:

Runners have awesome legs. Muscular, toned and tan. Training for a 5K will get you on pace for your own set of lean limbs.

Calves: Not the easiest muscle to tone in the gym, but these lanky muscles are quickly toned by running. A proper runner’s stride has your foot landing in a rolling motion, heel to toe. As you push off with your toe, feel a firm contraction in your calves. Push your calves to the limit by running in sand or gravel. No Thumping! You know your stride is stiff when you hear a thumping sound with each step. When you lightly roll your foot from heel to toe, you take pressure off of your lower back. Remember, thumping feet lead to a sore back.

Glutes: Running is a great way to firm up your glutes. To really raise your glutes take your training to the hills or do bleacher runs.

Thighs: Who doesn’t want slimmer thighs? Running does wonders for shaping and slimming your thighs, right where it counts.

2) Support A Cause

By participating in a 5K you get in shape while supporting a cause. Most 5K races are put on by charities or non-profit organizations. Many times you have the opportunity to raise funds and community awareness through your involvement.

3) Flatten Your Abs

Running burns a massive amount of calories. This means you’ll find your body quickly morphing into that of a lean athlete. Don’t over-compensate the extra calories burned by eating too many carbs. Manage your portions to reap the most belly shrinking benefits.

While running is an amazing way to transform your body, running alone won’t deliver complete results. Resistance training is an equally important part of the equation. With resistance training you get:

Raised Metabolism: Resistance training raises your metabolism for an extended period of time, even after the workout is finished. This means more calories burned. Also resistance training adds muscle to your body, which raises your resting metabolism to burn even more calories when you aren’t exercising.

Upper Body Muscle Tone: While running is great for adding lower body muscle tone, it won’t do much for your upper body. With resistance training you target the muscles of your upper body to create a symmetric physique.

Muscle Confusion: With resistance training there are endless variations of movements you can do in order to keep your muscles guessing. Never allow your routine to grow stale by doing the same motions over and over again.

4) Make New Friends

Athletic endeavors are a relaxed way to make new friends and form connections within your community. Join a local running group to assist your training or start your own group of 5K hopefuls in your neighborhood. Your group could run the 5K together for support. Who knows, you may make new friends for life.

5) Start A Habit

Although you may find it hard to believe, especially if you haven’t yet run your first 5K, racing is addicting. The satisfaction of accomplishing your goal, along with the exciting changes in your body, will likely lead you to another race. It’s not farfetched that you’ll build your training up to run a marathon.

Running is great, but as we touched on above, resistance training is essential for achieving outstanding results. The best way to get into amazing shape is with a challenging and dynamic exercise routine.

Call or email today to get started on your own exercise program that will lead to more rewards than you ever dreamed of.

When it comes to training young athletes, focus on building the basics.

You don’t need a rotational kettlebell snatch on a BOSU ball… you need squats and push ups.

Here are a few simple workouts from my files that I’ve actually used with groups of up to 100 young athletes in the weight room at a time.

Now remember, use these workouts as an inspiration for designing your young athlete’s workouts, don’t use them as-is unless they fit into your program.  An effective workout is useless unless it fits into the larger framework of your athletic development program.

Without further ado, here are some young athlete workouts for you:

Young Athlete Workout One

A1. Pike Plank 4×30

A2. Squat Holding Chains 4×15

B1. T-Pushup 4×12

B2. Med Ball One Leg Glute Bridge 4×12 (each leg)

C1. One Arm Dumbbell High Pull 4×12 (each side)

C2. Back Foot On Bench Double Lunge 4×12 (each side)

Young Athlete Workout Two

A1. Touchdown Side Plank 4×20 each side

A2. Underhand (supinated) Body Row 4×12

B1. Lunge Hops 4×15 (each leg)

B2. One Foot On Med Ball Glute Bridge 4×15 (each leg)

C1. Kneeling Jump To Squat 5×6

C2. Dive Bomber Push Ups 5×8

Young Athlete Workout Three

A1. Wide Grip Body Row 4×10

A2. Hockey Squat 4×10 (each leg)

B1. Wall Walk Up 4×5

B2. Dumbbell Suitcase Lunge 4×12 (each side)

C1. Rodeo Jump 4×30

C2. Hands Touching Push Up 4×12

Young Athlete Workout Four

A1. Negative Pull Up 4×6

A2. T-Pushup 4×12

B1. Bridging Shoulder Thread 4×26 (13 each side)

B2. Dumbbell Suitcase Lunge 4×14 (each leg)

C1. V Up 5×20

C2. One Leg Quarter Hop 5×35 (each leg)

Young Athlete Workout Five

A1. Blender Body Rows 4×12

A2. Hockey Squat with Hop 4×14

B1. One Leg Squirrel Squat 3×35 each leg

B2. Half Pushup Hold with Jumping Jack Feet 3×70

C1. Deck Squat 4×15

C2. Blender Push Up 4×12

Young Athlete Workout Six

A1. Negative Chin Up 4×8

A2. Back Foot On Bench Double Lunge Hop 4×12 (each leg)

B1. Reach Out Plank 4×40 reaches (20 each side)

B2. One Leg Glute Bridge With Foot On Medicine Ball 4×16 (each leg)

C1. Wide Feet Burpees 4×20