Texas A&M Podcast Features Volt Co-Founder

Texas A&M Podcast Features Volt Co-Founder

Texas A&M University Sydney and J.L. Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance Podcast featured Volt Athletics Co-Founder, Dan Giuliani on May 22nd. The Huffines Institute’s mission is to facilitate research, application, and communication between sports scientists, practitioners, and the world.

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Immediate Home Field Advantage: A Strong Confident Mind

Immediate Home Field Advantage: A Strong Confident Mind

As athletes, we spend a good amount of time in the weight room, working on our physical strength. But how much do we work on our mental strength? The most successful athletes know just how important mental qualities like confidence and perseverance are for competition—do you? Trey McCalla, M.A. Sport Psychology and CC-AASP, explains why a strong mind is crucial for performance—and how to train for it.

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Pieces of the Puzzle: How to Improve Your Vert, Part 2

Pieces of the Puzzle: How to Improve Your Vert, Part 2

Coach Jace and Volt Advisor Mike Favre, Director of Olympic Sports Strength and Conditioning at the University of Michigan, broke down the importance of POWER in the vertical jump in Part 1 of this series. Now, Volt Advisor Justin D. Smith, Co-Director of Athletic Performance at the University of Vermont (UVM), and Coach Jace analyze the second ingredient to an impressive vertical: SPEED.  

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Psoas Talk with Christye

Psoas Talk with Christye

The psoas is, quite literally, the "filet mignon" of the human body. As your primary hip flexor, the psoas works to help you run, sprint, and even walk—and it is critical to keep this muscle happy. When the psoas is either too short or overstretched, it can throw off your body's mechanics and put you at real risk of injury. Learn how to diagnose and treat your "filet mignon" muscle in this week's post.

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Grip It and Rip It: Grip Strength and Batting Power

Grip It and Rip It: Grip Strength and Batting Power

Coaches know grip strength is important in many sports: football, gymnastics, and rowing, to name a few. But how does grip strength—or grip endurance—correlate to sports that involve striking with an implement, like baseball? Coach Scott Colby, guest author, has conducted a research study into the topic and shares his findings today on the Volt blog.

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Complex Training: Pairing Strength and Power For Explosive Results

Complex Training: Pairing Strength and Power For Explosive Results

In the #MentalSweat series, I want to explore some of the awesome research that appears in many of the sports performance and physiology journals that show up on my desk. There is always tons of great insight into the theory and application of many of the principles that we base our training methods on. Hopefully, it sheds more light into why our programs are so effective and how we utilize these principles across different sports, phases, and movements.

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The Specifics of "Sport-Specific"

The Specifics of "Sport-Specific"

It’s no secret that an athlete needs to train differently than someone just looking to get a little healthier, or gain a little muscle. And no one is surprised when I say that a soccer player needs to train differently than a football player. This all boils down to the fact that every sport has specific demands: both on movement (kicking a ball, swinging a bat, blocking and tackling, etc.) and on the metabolic energy pathways used for that movement (explosive with lots of rest, varied sprinting and jogging, etc.). 

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Tools of the Trade: The Barbell

Tools of the Trade: The Barbell

The barbell is arguably the single most important tool you can have in your weight room. Any serious strength and conditioning facility will be outfitted with a surplus of good Olympic bars. Some gyms have different bars for men and women (of different weights, lengths, and thicknesses) but the standard 45-lb bar is suitable to for both men's and women's programming. Barbells set the foundation for any program that focuses on developing speed, strength, and power.

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