Thirty Minutes With Mike Morrison: Part 1
The Pro AVP Volleyball Player and Team Fuel Athlete Discusses His Workouts, Diet and the Road to the 2012 Olympic Games.
TL: What is the most important aspect of your workout?
MM: I tend to be a little bulkier than the average volleyball player, so I’m not trying to put on a lot of muscle mass. The one workout that goes with me through all seasons is my sand workout. I really believe that training in the sand is what’s gotten me in better shape for this sport than anything else. Other athletes could benefit from it as well because the sand gives you no energy back to accelerate, so working on speed movements and the sport-specific shorter-burst movements in the sand really makes you work hard and calls on more muscle fibers to accelerate and jump and whatnot. I’ll do different anaerobic movements in the sand and use medicine balls and bands for strength training intermittently throughout those exercises. I’m also a big fan of functional training, like with the bosu ball. I’ve used that for years. I think it helps challenge your mind and your body on a different level, rather than standing around on a mat doing bicep curls.
TL: How much time do you spend training?
MM: Usually the workouts are about two and a half to three hours of volleyball skills and through the whole pre-season we will do that a minimum of four days a week, if not five. The next routine will be stretching, recovering and foam rolling. Or it might be a core workout. During the season we usually have only like one or two days on the court because we’re going into tournaments every week and we need a little more recovery time.
TL: What about cardio?
MM: Volleyball is more of a fast-twitch muscle sport. We’re really not moving for much more than a minute each play. Most of my cardio, like anaerobic sprinting and whatnot, isn’t in the true sense cardio, but it’s my form of cardio. For an athlete in my sport it’s essential for becoming quicker, faster and all that, but that type of cardio really almost makes people leaner and more defined than traditional running and jogging for distance and you can kind of see that just by looking at the athletes. I really enjoy that stuff.
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