Beach Volleyball Fitness Workout

Beach Volleyball Fitness Workout Julie Zwillich: Welcome back to Sweat Sport with edging attitude now. Not all are going to win Olympic medals, unfortunately, but no matter what your level, it’s always feels good to get competitive and play it hard out. So our resident Strength and Conditioning expert, Doctor Mike Takes is going to show me some exercises that top players as well as recreational folks like me can do to get better at volleyball. Dr. Mike Takes: All right, let's start with shoulders. Okay, not the bench press, not the shoulder press but we’re some rotator cuff muscles. We got a nice little fair band here. Okay, this is going to provide the resistance to your whole movement. Julie Zwillich: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: Okay, so what you're going to do is try to get your elbow at your side. We’re going to use this little napkin here. So, put it in between the elbow on the side of your body to make sure that we don’t go further the range motion that we want. Julie Zwillich: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: Excellent! Oh, well, that’s not too god. Julie Zwillich: I lost the napkin. Dr. Mike Takes: No, we want to try to keep that at the sides so you’ve come too far across. Julie Zwillich: So, the napkin is to show that my elbow needs to stay pinned. I see so I can only go about to here. Dr. Mike Takes: If the elbow comes off the body, the shoulder is not in the joint and you're not treating the muscles correctly. Julie Zwillich: Right. Now, imagine if we’re doing this way, we also have to do external. Dr. Mike Takes: That’s right. We want to do external rotation. Julie Zwillich: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: Perfect! We’d use the napkin again but we’re just going to do this motion. Julie Zwillich: So, not too far about there. Dr. Mike Takes: That’s right! You can always tie a little knot, put it in the door at home. Okay, this is an excellent exercise to do at home or at the gym. Julie Zwillich: And, these things are cheap. Dr. Mike Takes: And they’re very cheap, very cheap. Julie Zwillich: Costs you a lot less than a set of weights. Dr. Mike Takes: Last exercise, we’re going to the foot. Julie Zwillich: All right. Dr. Mike Takes: So, your right ankle at one side underneath the foot supraspinatus muscle now. Julie Zwillich: Oh, the supraspinatus tendon. Dr. Mike Takes: Okay, so we’re going to do a deduction. We’re going to come out and keep the elbow straight, got the shoulder nicely set back. Everything’s in alignment. Julie Zwillich: I actually have a supraspinatus injury on the other side so will this help me get back to 100%? Dr. Mike Takes: Absolutely! This is going to strengthen the muscle and the tendon so it can slow down that arm when you're spiking, when you have the high velocity movements. Julie Zwillich: Now, speaking of spiking Dr. Mike, what about legs? Dr. Mike Takes: Oh, legs, good you brought that up. Why don’t we use some pliometrics today? Julie Zwillich: Pliometrics? Dr. Mike Takes: That’s right. We’re going to try to get -- we’re going to do some jumping exercises. Julie Zwillich: Oh, at the jumping, I understand jumping. Dr. Mike Takes: How to get fast twitch contractions? Julie Zwillich: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: Okay, you got to get to the top of the net to either block or spike. You want to do that as quickly as possible. Julie Zwillich: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: So, we’ve got a box here about 12 inches high. Just stay on the top now, you're going to step up. As soon as you touch the ground, you want to jump up as fast as you can so anticipate touching the ground. Not bad, not bad! Julie Zwillich: Oh, all right, I’ll get one more try. One more try and in the meantime, Dr. Mike, what else is also important? Dr. Mike Takes: Oh, you always got to leave time and make time to stretch and warm up. Julie Zwillich: Stretch and warm up. All right, you know we’ve talked about training the gear, the work outs, the nutrition that goes into being a better beach volleyball player, now, we’re going to go through one more video to inspire you to get active in the beach volley. Male: We are in good shape and I think people want to come and see us because at first, they think, “Oh, they’re going to be like good looking as far as like they’re going to be in shape and the women are in good shape.” And, that’s true. It’s a by-product of this sport but when they come, I think they overlooked at it and they see just how athletic and some of the exciting place that happen on the court. Female: My words of wisdom are to follow your heart. DO what you love doing. Female: Don’t let anybody ever tell you what you can and cannot do. Julie Zwillich: There’s nothing more to say, just do. Try beach volleyball. I'm Julie Zwillich. See you next time on Sweat.