Professional athletes work with strength and conditioning coaches to ensure their bodies are strong and healthy enough to withstand the demands of their respective sports. By the time LOVB Houston Volleyball players began their inaugural season in January, the athletes’ training routines were well underway to perform their best on the court.
As the official medical provider of LOVB Houston Volleyball, Memorial Hermann plays a key role in optimizing the players’ performance and collaborates with LOVB Houston’s athletic trainers. Memorial Hermann also partners with strength and conditioning coaches from Athlete Training & Health (ATH), with facilities throughout Greater Houston, to develop training programs to maintain athletes’ performance.
ATH’s Chief Athletic Performance Officer Trey Job, who has worked with collegiate athletes playing volleyball, baseball, softball and other overhead sports and swimmers, says proper training involves time in the weight room and simulating game conditions in a controlled environment to maximize endurance.
“For most athletes in predominantly overhead sports, like volleyball, we want them to start preseason training four to six weeks in advance of the opening match,” Job says. “Our goal during that time is to get them as fit and explosive as possible.”
He recommends prescribing exercises that provide a good balance of strength training for the front (anterior) and for the back (posterior) of the muscles in the upper body, especially those surrounding the shoulders, and the muscles that allow for mid-back, or thoracic spine, mobility. He says two to three days a week in the weight room for about an hour will develop muscle and power to perform well and help minimize injuries during the season.
Common injuries to the upper body among volleyball players, Job says, occur to the rotator cuff of the shoulder. Glenoid labrum tears, which occur in the soft fibrous tissue of the labrum that surrounds the socket to help stabilize the joint, and rotator cuff tendinopathy, where the tendons around the shoulder joint become inflamed, often sideline volleyball players.
“Unlike finger and thumb injuries that cannot be prevented, unfortunately, we can ‘prehab’ the shoulder with training to strengthen it and reduce the chance for injury,” he says.
At ATH’s newly opened sports and athletic training center at Memorial Hermann Sports Park – Cypress, located on the campus of Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital, Job and his ATH colleagues train volleyball players in the preseason to improve their strength and overhead force production. Military presses, power jerks, lat pulldowns and pull-ups, which engage push and pull muscles to target the anterior and posterior muscles, mimic motions repeated throughout volleyball matches. These, along with accessory exercises such as bench presses and push-ups, help strengthen and mobilize the scapular and thoracic muscles to protect the shoulder, he says.
Job also prescribes single-joint auxiliary shoulder exercises that focus on internal and external rotation and adduction and abduction of the shoulder, moving it toward and away from the center of the body.
In addition to strengthening their upper body, volleyball players must maximize the functionality of the muscles and joints of the lower body. Chris Slocum, director of advanced performance for ATH, says that preseason is the time when he and his colleagues focus their attention on rebuilding the players’ strength after their time of rest in the off-season. Job says that maximum strength is typically retained for roughly one month, so if athletes cannot maintain training, their strength could diminish.
Trainers also evaluate the landing mechanics of the players so that hips and knees are properly aligned and correctly absorb the impact of quick movements. The ATH team looks closely at reactive strength index (RSI), a measurement of the athlete’s ability to quickly change from an eccentric muscular contraction to a concentric one, as in an explosive vertical jump, to assess, monitor and reduce the risk of injury.
Additionally, volleyball players condition their bodies by simulating match situations to maintain a high level of performance. Slocum, Job and other ATH coaches train athletes to quickly move and change directions in the frontal (front to back), sagittal (left to right) and transverse (upper and lower) planes. Agile movements in all of these planes is a hallmark of volleyball matches, where jumping, diving and moving laterally challenge balance and mechanics. This type of conditioning, Slocum says, develops the energy system that volleyball players must use. Conditioning also involves learning and practicing fall mechanics and ankle stability to prevent injury during matches.
During the season, when daily practices complement the players’ fitness regimen, Job recommends dialing back weight room activity to just two days a week for an hour each time or “microdosing” five to six days a week for 20 to 30 minutes each session. Both these approaches minimize the chance for fatigue or soreness that may impact performance negatively during matches. Slocum adds that in-season training should include upper- and lower-body exercises to maximize the reduced time these athletes have in the training room.
Both Job and Slocum recommend that volleyball players stay active and train year-round but that they also incorporate deload weeks to help their bodies recover.
“Whether you’re a professional volleyball player like the LOVB Houston athletes or playing school, club or college volleyball, consistency in strengthening and conditioning throughout the year will keep you healthy and greatly reduce your chance of injury during the season,” Slocum says.
For more information about the partnership between Memorial Hermann |Rockets Sports Medicine Institute and LOVB Houston Volleyball, visit Memorial Hermann | Rockets Orthopedics.
