"Coming into my sophomore season, I knew
what my main goal was: get stronger. The
post play in high school was not even close to the same level as the physical
play in the post in college. I struggled
with this aspect of the game my freshman year and decided to work as hard as I
could to change it. Now, I know that I
will never become a professional body builder, it’s obvious that is not in my
genes. However, this summer was my
opportunity to really workout hard and gain some muscle. I spent my entire summer at Samford taking
classes and working out. This took quite
a bit of dedication because when my alarm clock went off at 5:30am every single
weekday morning, my first thought was always “why am I doing this to myself?”
There was no other place I would rather be at that moment than in my bed. I knew this would be a struggle when I made
the decision to stay both summer terms.
Coach Morris, along with our strength coach at the time Felicia,
encouraged me to stay. Looking back, I
am very glad I did because I feel as if I have benefited tremendously.
To
put it lightly, the workouts were tough.
The warm-ups could be a workout for most normal people as they left me
covered in sweat before the real fun even began. We would lift three days a week with some
agilities and then focus on conditioning the other two days. On a few Thursday mornings, we met at the new
sand volleyball court to have our workouts.
These days might have been some of the toughest days of my life. We had to do sprints, shuffles, bear crawls
and various other agility exercises in the sand which quadruples the difficulty
factor. Most days we did manage to have
some fun in the sand with some competitions such as tug-of war and a
wheelbarrow race. Needless to say, when
we left we were covered from head to toe in sand. Overall though, we had a lot of fun and I
truly enjoyed it.
I
had to keep a food journal to keep track of everything that I put into my body
to eat or drink. It turns out that I was
not eating enough to gain weight since the amount of energy I used daily was so
high. This is where Muscle Milk came
into play. As many on the team know,
Muscle Milk was not at the top of my list for favorite snack. My first ever protein shake took me about 30
minutes to drink. That time has been cut
down slightly although I still feel as though I had to force it down my throat
some days. Even though I did not enjoy
drinking protein shakes or waking up at the crack of dawn every morning, it
helped me improve physically for the upcoming season. Comparing this preseason to my freshman
preseason, I have made leaps and bounds.
A year ago, I could hardly even hold a side plank for more than ten
seconds. These summer workouts have
really challenged me physically and mentally, but I feel as if they will really
pay off for me. I understand that my
goal cannot be accomplished in just one summer, but it has put me one step
closer in the right direction. I feel as
if this quote summarizes all the hard work that I put into my summer, “I may
not be there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday.”- Anonymous. "
-Christy Robinson
