Welcome to September's Volleyball Tip of the Month!

     Summer is over and it's nearly the start of a new season.  For many players it's time to get on the scale and see what damage has been done from a summer off, or for others it's time to get their beach legs accustomed to jumping of a flat hard surface again.  What ever your situation, pre-season is the time to get into shape and get tuned up for that long season ahead.  

     One thing that all of us need to do at this time of year is to get into the gym and put on some muscle.  The rigors of the season will take it's toll on your body and your best defense is to go into the season as strong as possible.  I know from personal experience that my knees start getting sore (patellar tendons) when my legs get weak.  

      So how do you get strong?  Well you need to put your muscles through hypertrophy.  You want to train a little like a body builder and do higher reps and higher sets than normal to competely fatigue your muscles.  This will create a response in them and adaptation will occur. (you will get bigger!)  Training this way for a few weeks will get you good and sore, feeling thicker, heavier and slow.  Sounds great doesn't it!?? Yikes!  Well the good news is after this phase you can return to more normal training and get your quickness back while remaining strong.