Volleyball’s workout regimen

The volleyball team's workout regime incorporates advanced, skill-based movements for the whole body, but it all starts with leg power.

"For the most part, our workouts primarily concentrate on lower-body strength and taking that lower-body strength that we got and trying to make that as explosive as we can," said Dan Cavender, the team's weight trainer.

This includes squats, lunges and the Olympic-style clean and jerk, he said. But the basic vertical movements are still his go-to workouts.

Cavender said the squat and the clean are pretty much his core lifts, and the players usually dislike these the most. However, there is a silver lining.

"The reward is definitely worth it," Cavender said, and the players believe it.

Senior outside hitter JuliAnne Chisholm and freshman outside hitter Courtney Traxson talked about some of their favorite exercises as well as the ones they dread.

"I don't really like the RDLs," Traxson was quick to say, talking about Romanian Dead Lifts. For these, the players wrap a weight band from their feet around their upper bodies. Then they bend over with their knees bent and back straight, and straighten back up.

Traxson said she enjoyed the tricep- and bicep-targeted movements. One of these involves standing with feet staggered to the front and back. With a weight in one hand, players push from their chest to as far back as they can go.

Chisholm said she does not enjoy the cross-fit workouts. One such workout involves 25-yard increments and repetitions of 25. The players sprint to the 25-yard line, perform 25 squats, shuffle to the 50-yard line, do 25 push presses, and continue in the same manner with different movements at each stop. When they reach the opposite side, they have to run back and do it all over again.

Despite the intensity of these workouts, Chisholm takes a tough mental approach.

"Workouts are workouts are workouts to me," she said.