Mike Muscles Performance Training

Mobility isn’t about becoming more flexible. It’s about maintaining the movement you need to perform.

During the season, athletes are exposed to repeated high-intensity training, competition, and accumulated fatigue. Over time, that can change how an athlete moves and accesses key ranges of motion.

The goal is to maintain quality movement, restore positions that have become restricted, and prepare the body for the next training or competition exposure without creating additional fatigue.

For athletes , midweek mobility is about three things ⬇️

✔️Maintain the range of motion your sport demands
✔️Restore movement quality after repeated loading
✔️Prepare the athlete for what’s coming next

Think hips, adductors, T-spine, shoulders then integrate those ranges into controlled intentional movement.

And importantly, mobility is one piece of the recovery puzzle, not a magic fix. Sleep, nutrition, hydration, appropriate training load, and smart programming still do the heavy lifting.

Elite athletes don’t just produce force. They know how to CONTROL it.

That’s exactly what we’re training here.

At first glance, it looks like a simple jump over a bench.

But underneath it, we’re challenging some serious athletic qualities ⬇️

Lateral force production

Can you create explosive force and move your body sideways?

Deceleration

Can you absorb the force you just created and slow yourself down under control?

Single-leg stability

Can you own the landing through the foot, ankle, knee, hip and pelvis?

Body control

Can you control your center of mass instead of letting momentum control you?

Remember sport isn’t performed in a controlled weight room environment.

You have to accelerate, decelerate, change direction, land, stabilize and go again.

The bench isn’t what makes this exercise “elite.”

Elite ex*****on does.

The goal isn’t just to clear the obstacle.

The goal is to produce force violently, absorb it efficiently, and own the position you land in.

That’s athleticism. 🔥

Deceleration

EXPLOSIVENESS ISN’T GIVEN. IT’S BUILT.

Elite athleticism is built through intentional training.

This plyo + strength session is designed to improve force production, rate of force development, reactive strength, and overall explosiveness.

We’re not chasing fatigue.
We’re chasing adaptation.

Every jump. Every landing. Every lift. Every rep has a purpose.

Build strength. Move violently. Become a different athlete. 💥

What are we actually training here? 👇🏾🏐
These two exercises may look different, but they’re built around qualities that volleyball athletes need every time they step on the court.

Movement 1: Explode out of the hip lock

The athlete starts in a single-leg position, maintains the hip lock against the band, then aggressively drives the knee up while pressing the plate overhead.

The goal?

➡️ Own the single-leg position
➡️ Produce force quickly
➡️ Coordinate the lower and upper body
➡️ Develop explosive intent

This teaches the athlete to go from stable to explosive.

Movement 2: Own the hip lock under rotation

Here, the athlete holds the hip-lock position while rotating toward the stance leg and moving the plate in and out.

Now we’re challenging the athlete to maintain control while introducing rotation and upper-body movement.

The focus is on ⬇️

➡️ Single-leg stability
➡️ Pelvic and trunk control
➡️ Rotational control
➡️ Balance under movement
➡️ Coordinating the entire system

Volleyball athletes don’t just need more strength. They need the ability to produce force, absorb force, control rotation, and maintain position when the game gets chaotic.

That’s what we’re trying to build with exercises like these.

Don’t just train the movement. Train the quality behind the movement. 💥

Why use a resistance band during a young athlete’s trap-bar deadlift?

This is more than just making the exercise harder.

By attaching a light resistance band to the front of the trap bar, we create a forward pull that challenges the athlete to maintain control and position throughout the movement.

✔️ Teaches bar control ,the athlete learns to keep the bar centered instead of allowing it to drift forward.

✔️ Reinforces a strong starting position ? encourages proper bracing, hip position, and tension before initiating the lift.

✔️Improves trunk and lat engagement , the athlete must resist being pulled forward while maintaining a strong, stable position.

✔️Encourages pushing through the floor , helps shift the focus from simply “lifting the weight” to producing force from the ground.

✔️Provides instant feedback , the band exposes technique breakdown without requiring heavy loads.

For young athletes, the goal isn’t to make the deadlift as difficult as possible.

The goal is to teach them how to move well, create tension, control their body, and build confidence under load.

Start with a light band and manageable weight. Once the athlete can consistently control the movement against the band, remove it and see if those mechanics carry over to the standard trap-bar deadlift.

Quality first. Load second.

The best athletes don’t just need more strength. They need more ways to use it.

If your goal is athletic performance, lower-body training can’t only be about how much force an athlete can produce with two feet on the ground.

Sport constantly puts athletes in asymmetrical situations.

Accelerating off one leg.
Braking on one leg.
Planting to change direction.
Landing from a jump.
Reaching outside their base of support.
Producing force while the pelvis, trunk and opposite limb are all doing something different.

That’s why unilateral training deserves a major place in an athlete’s program.

Single-leg exercises force the athlete to own the position, produce force, absorb force and control their body without being able to rely on the opposite limb to share the load.

And that gives us an opportunity to train some of the qualities that separate good athletes from great ones:

➡️ Force production
➡️ Rate of force development
➡️ Single-leg stability
➡️ Deceleration capacity
➡️ Balance and proprioception
➡️ Hip, knee and ankle control
➡️ Frontal and transverse plane strength
➡️ Force absorption and redirection

But there’s one more piece I think is extremely important⬇️

Don’t just train unilaterally. Train unilateral movement in different ways.

A split squat, reverse lunge, step-up, lateral lunge and single-leg RDL all put one leg in a primary role,but the demands aren’t identical.

Changing the exercise changes the constraints.

And changing the constraints changes the problem the athlete has to solve.

That variation can expose athletes to different⬇️

• Joint angles
• Ranges of motion
• Stance positions
• Loading strategies

Want your athletes to become better at producing force?
Don’t forget about their ability to absorb it first.

Athletic performance isn’t just about how much force an athlete can produce.

It’s about how well they can manage force throughout the entire movement.

Here are two exercises I like for developing different pieces of that puzzle:

✔️Double-Leg Pogo + Resistance

The athlete repeatedly absorbs and redirects force with short ground contacts.

Think:

ABSORB → LOAD → REDIRECT

This can help develop ⬇️

• Reactive strength
• Elastic qualities
• Ankle/Achilles stiffness
• Rate of force development
• Ground-contact efficiency
• Lower-body coordination

✔️Band-Resisted Squat Jumps

Now we emphasize the other side of the equation⬇️

PRODUCE → ACCELERATE

The resistance challenges the athlete to produce force while maintaining aggressive intent to jump.

This can help develop⬇️

• Explosive strength
• Force production
• Rate of force development
• Lower-body power
• Hip and knee extension
• Acceleration qualities

🔑But remember

The exercise is only as good as the stimulus you create.

If the resistance is too heavy and movement quality and velocity completely disappear, you’re changing what you’re training.

The goal isn’t simply to make an exercise harder.

The goal is to create the right adaptation for the athlete.

Because athletes need more than the ability to produce force.

They need to be able to absorb it, control it, and express it quickly.

3 exercises I like for volleyball & basketball athletes looking to build stronger, more resilient lower bodies.

These movements combine single-leg work, balance, coordination, and strength,helping athletes prepare for the jumping, landing, and change-of-direction demands of their sport.

If your knees are taking a beating from your sport, don’t overlook the importance of building the strength and control to handle those demands.

Save this post and give these 3 a try!

Athleticism doesn’t start with the jump. It starts with how you control your body before, during, and after it.

In this session, we break down the jump from the ground up , focusing on strong hips, knee stability, single-leg control, and the ability to absorb and produce force.

For volleyball athletes, jumping well isn’t just about producing force. It’s about being able to load, control, absorb, stabilize, and redirect that force into an explosive takeoff.

The better you control the movement, the better you can express your power on the court.

Build the positions. Build the control. Then build the power.