Segmented training delivers segmented results

My neighbor of 15 years approached me with questions about off-season training for his daughter. She plays college volleyball down south and was home for the summer.

While away from school, she was assigned a “volleyball training program” to follow in the off months building up to the next year’s season. The program included dietary recommendations (high carbohydrate, minimal fat, some protein), circuit training (involving isolation machinery commonly found in your local commercial facility), stretch bands, and a few scattered Olympic-style lifts (power cleans). Once back at school in the fall, the team would test their off-season training by performing leg extensions and leg presses for maximum weight or repetitions. I kid you not.

I reviewed the training curriculum more times than I care to remember. I was simply stunned that supposedly success-driven sport teams follow the standard pop fitness model (bodybuilding), yet expect to be in the winner's circle.

That kind of programming (of the Muscle and Fitness magazine variety) does not provide fitness, forge elite athleticism, or condition fighters or warriors to dominate in the arena, cage, or battlefield. Varied, functional movements executed at high-intensity do.

The father-and-daughter team were the second and third members of Team6 at the carport.