Thanks for the help.
What does your 5 hours of training involve?
2 Hours gym and 3 hours courtwork. Gym usually consists of well, let's see. This is what I did last night.
05/04/12
Practiced Cleans
Barbell Squat Jumps
Back Squat 85kg 1x5
Back Squat 90kg 1x5
Back Squat 95kg 3x5
DB Bench Press 35kg 1x5
Eccentric Chin Ups 5kg 1x5
DB Bench Press 35kg 1x5
Eccentric Chin Ups 5kg 1x5
DB Bench Press 35kg 1x5
Eccentric Chin Ups 5kg 1x5
DB Bench Press 35kg 1x5
Eccentric Chin Ups 5kg 1x5
DB Bench Press 35kg 1x5
Eccentric Chin Ups 5kg 1x5
That's just the lifting, there's more such as core, mobility, foam rolling etc.
Courtwork is mostly just volleyball related drills involving mostly passing and setting stuff. Some nights will involve hitting in which case there will be a considerable amount of jumping involved.
Rest is super-important to improving your performance (obviously), but I'm not just talking about icing your knees in-between trainings or matches, I mean full days of rest where your physical activity is minimal/none while you ensure you're getting adequate protein/water/nutrients etc.
Agreed. Basically, I need these 14cm this year. Do or die. That's why the training volume is so high, I feel hopeless if I don't train almost everyday. My diet and sleep patterns will certainly help support such a volume but I've dedicated Sunday to absolutely no physical training. I'll probably just do some extra hydrotherapy/recovery sessions on that day.
When I tour, I consider that as rest also since I'm not in the gym. For instance, next week I'm going to Thailand for two weeks and won't be doing any training at all. Gives my CNS a chance to recover slightly.
I guess it would be clearer if you had a day-by-day breakdown of your gym sessions and volleyball trainings.
I can send you an excel document with all my sessions on it with exercises, sets, reps, etc. That's only my personal sessions, not academy sessions, though.
Lastly, I'm guessing you care about your volleyball a lot. What are your ambitions for the sport? You've always seemed to be obsessed with gaining huge inches on your vert (as most of us Adarquians are), but I'm sure that keeping your spot in the academy is important too.
To play international volleyball, you really need at least a spike reach of 350cm. Given my standing reach of 257cm, if I want to reach that, I'll need a 93cm vertical or 37 inches. For me to leave my state based academy in Queensland and go to train in Canberra at the Institute of Sport (my ultimate goal at this stage), I'll need two things by the end of this year. 1 being that 350cm spike reach and two, improved courtwork skills. The courtwork skills come with training hard on the court which I'm sure I can achieve and it also involves playing well in game situations. The spike reach is more difficult and requires a lot more effort. Currently, I'm only getting 4 hours a week at the academy in the gym which, to me, isn't enough to get that extra 14cm on my current PR spike reach (336cm).
If training for vert means that your performance on the court is suffering, then you need to think about what's more important.
Since my only real opportunity to improve on the court is during my courtwork sessions at the academy, there's no real way in which my vertical goals can hinder the skill development. Only, of course, if I was so tired I couldn't dig or set a volleyball. I'm confident that if I train hard in the gym everyday, my ability to increase my courtwork skills will still be there.
It's your body so if you think you can do all this, go ahead. Just don't let yourself get burnt out.
It's going to be a hectic year that's for sure. I'm just hoping my diet/flexibility/sleep/rest patterns will support such a huge workload.
Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.
