Today we are talking about leg day!! I personally have a love/hate relationship with leg day. It is hard work but it is so worth it. Leg day is extremely important for volleyball players in order to avoid injuries, improve explosiveness and speed, and to increase your vertical. All these aspects are key to being a good volleyball player. In order to optimize your leg strength training, professionals say it is important to focus on explosive leg movements/exercises as these translate specifically to the sport. After mulling through the resources I posted in my earlier blog, and talking to some trusted mentors (volleyball coaches and personal trainers), I put together a workout that will aim to improve and optimize my leg strength.

The Warm-Up:

• 5-7 minutes of biking
• Full body foam rolling (back, shoulders, glutes, hamstrings, quads, IT band, calves)
• Thoracic spine rotations
• Leg swings and straight leg kicks

This warmup should take around 15 minutes and is critical for getting the muscles warmed up and ready to lift heavy weight. If a proper warm up is not executed, there is a very good chance you will injure yourself. In addition, it is proven that you get better results from your workouts when you are properly warmed up. Sources say that when you warmup, your muscles work more efficiently, it improves the load distribution in your joints, lowers viscous resistance in muscles, results in faster muscles contraction and relaxation in muscles, and more.

The Workout:

• Squats – 2 warmup sets, 3 sets of 8 reps
• Romain deadlifts – 3 sets of 8 reps
• Hip thrusts – 4 sets of 8 reps
• Lunges – 4 sets of 6 reps/leg
• Kettlebell swings superset with jump squats – 3 sets of 10 reps
• Side lunges (8 reps/leg) superset with lateral jumps (10 jumps/leg) – 3 sets
• Box jumps – 3 sets of 5 reps

The Cool Down:

• Standing quad stretch
• Crossover hamstring stretch
• Figure 4 stretch
• Butterfly pose
• Seated twist stretch
• Pretzel stretch
• Inner thigh side lunge stretch
• Pigeon stretch

Stretching after a workout is extremely important in order to promote recovery, reduce muscle tightness, eliminate lactic acid, improve blood circulation, and more. In addition to all these benefits, it also improves your flexibility and range of motion which can help you be more efficient in future workouts and can help further your athleticism. In order for stretches to be effective you need to hold them for 15-20 seconds. This means that your cool down should take approximately 5 minutes.

I did this workout on Monday at it was killer. I am so sore and probably won’t be able to walk properly till next Monday; however, it is clearly working. I can’t wait to see the results in a few weeks!

Photo Credits: Header photo by Meghan Holmes