Mark Burik (00:01.73)
Hey everybody and welcome to the Better at Beach podcast. My name is Mark and I'm here with my main man, Brandon Joyner, and we're here to tell you everything there is to know about beach volleyball. But today we're talking specifically about workouts, fitness, how to last through tournaments, how to jump higher, how to be faster. And we're going to share some of our favorite workouts, some of our quick.
tips that will go the longest way for you in terms of just being more athletic and playing better. And some pitfalls that we've been through and that we know a lot of players go through. So this one's gonna be quick. We're gonna try to keep it under 40 minutes. I think it's a good episode for you to drive to the gym and listen to before you get there. But we're gonna share some really massive and crucial tips for you to
get a lock on what you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing as far as workouts and the easiest way to get the most bang for your buck in the shortest amount of time. So I hope you're ready for a great episode and this is one of the ones that everybody is so interested in because it is important and a lot of the answers to you actually getting better, making more plays, hitting better. How do I dig this shot? How do I pass this ball?
Sometimes the answer is you need to be faster. And in order to be faster, yeah, you need to be faster and you need to be stronger. So we'll talk about the strength and speed comparison as well. But just a few announcements before we get to that, our camps, Dominican Republic, all inclusive right after Thanksgiving. So November 29th to December 5th, if you wanna play volleyball all day.
every day and eat as much as you can possibly eat. And if you care to, you know, have a beverage or two, we are going to an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana and our Virginia Beach June 20th is sold out. We do have June 20th in Santa Monica, June 27th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 18th in Des Moines, Iowa, July 25th in Bend, Oregon.
Mark Burik (02:19.242)
August 1st in Santa Rosa and August 22nd in Chicago, followed by October 3rd in Youngsville, Louisiana. If you guys have not, if we don't have a camp in your city or you want to run something, please let us know. Go to betteratbeach.com forward slash camps and we will get you on the list.
Brandon Joyner (02:44.825)
Yeah, and we just talked about this yesterday, Mark, real quick. We just talked about this yesterday, but if you are a organizer, if you have a facility, if you run a big group, reach out to us. We have a special offer that could come with a free camp and free stay. So yeah, if you're one of those people that has a lot of people in your group, reach out to us. We're trying to build on
Mark Burik (02:46.242)
So, Brandon.
Mark Burik (02:51.15)
Mm.
Mark Burik (03:06.349)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (03:13.275)
amazing communities and the more people we can get the better.
Mark Burik (03:17.752)
Yeah, that's facility directors. That's club directors. That's people who have a gigantic WhatsApp group. That's tournament organizers. if you want a free trip to Punta Cana, please reach out DM me or Brandon on Instagram and we will tell you all about it. So working out, mean, we get all the questions. how many times a week do I work out? One of the most common is how do I split my workouts with my playing?
Brandon Joyner (03:20.187)
.
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (03:47.462)
And we're going to give you some of the data that is for professional beach volleyball players. But then we're also going to break it down so that the everyday person can actually do it and can achieve what you need to do. And then, you know, how to get in and out of the gym in 30 minutes and still be able to compete. How to show up at the beach, get your workout there.
you know, right before your playing session or after playing session so that you don't need two separate drives. If you're a parent, if you've got a real job, it's tough to chase your hobby and then be a high performance hobbyist at the same time. So we'll give you the absolute like, you know, what the pros are doing, but then, all right, how do we shrink it down so that it's a bite sized for us during the week? Now, let's just start with this.
Okay, again, highest level possible first. Okay, what are you chasing? You're chasing the maximum amount of strength and the maximum amount of speed. Okay, that is the highest jumpers. If we look at like NFL guys, know, short story, I used to train next to NFL guys and we also had our beach volleyball players, pros just going there and we're all jumping and trying to reach as high as we can. And the volleyball players all have this.
beautiful jump technique and we're reaching high, we're touching like 11.2, 11.3, came shock was touching like 11.8. And then this big defensive lineman from the NFL walks up there, no jump technique whatsoever, squats down, jumps up and touches higher than all of us were touching. And we're just like, what you just waddled up to that thing, squatted and jumped.
Brandon Joyner (05:39.087)
Hahaha
Mark Burik (05:42.274)
But what's he doing athletically that makes him able to jump high and move fast? Number one, he's always speed training. If you're on an NFL team or a football team, you're doing sprints constantly, right? So he's always speed training, which has a lot of tie-ins to vertical jump. If you can sprint really fast, you can definitely jump high, right?
There's a little bit of difference there. If you can jump high, you might not be able to sprint super fast. But if you sprint, it will increase your vertical jump. Number two, these dudes are five and 600 pounds on their deadlifts, 400 pounds on their squats. And in order to move another 350 pound human,
You're also doing that all day in practice and at your games. So you're doing essentially human-based sled work where you have to drive a person back. So your legs are getting super strong and super fast at all times. And so if we can just take those concepts for beach volleyball players and say, how do I train at max speed or max vertical? And or how do I continuously increase
my strength. So that's the generic of what you're chasing. How much weight can you push and how fast can you move? And the combination of those two equals a massive vertical jump and equals super fast first steps so that even if you're not good at reading, you can still recover athletically and get to those balls. And when we look at our adult players and then one of my juniors,
She's 12, we're working one-on-one and film together, but I have her on an exercise program and one of the key things that she has to do for all of her exercises is just, hey, you need to sprint and you need to sprint a minimum of three times a week. And when I say sprint, I don't mean run, I mean run as fast as you possibly can, all out speed, and then we can start developing everything else.
Brandon Joyner (07:57.919)
I think there's some like random statistic that like It's a ridiculous number like 99 % of us don't get into a full sprint after the age of 30. I Can't remember where I heard that but when I heard it I was like, yeah, I mean that kind of that makes sense So like yeah, I think it's a great place to start just sprint and it's fun. Like let the dog out go after it
Mark Burik (08:22.062)
Yeah. Like ad sprints. I were to give you, so yesterday I was, I was driving home with Janelle and I was like, we've got a really good player. Anytime the ball's to her, it's controlled. She's able to hit. She knows volleyball. She just needs speed and strength. And she's like, did you tell her that? And I said, I will. Let me just develop a little bit of trust in the coaching. you know,
Brandon Joyner (08:42.395)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (08:49.44)
make sure she likes me first before I tell her, hey, start sprinting and go to the gym and bust up your legs, right? And I said, if she just did 20 jump lunges at max height every day, she would be halfway there. And she goes, jump lunges, that's what you would choose over squats. And I said, it's one of them. If I said, hey, max jump with a squat jump,
Brandon Joyner (08:57.721)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (09:17.888)
Yes, if I said max jump with a lunge jump, yes, like these are things if you take a look at some of the impact percentages and force production on your legs for sprinting, they could be similar to what you're doing when you jump lunge. There's not quite as much hip flexor activation, but if you just need one bang for your bucket exercise, drop into a lunge.
Brandon Joyner (09:22.075)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (09:45.792)
jump as high as you possibly can and land in the next lunge, reset, and then do the exact same thing on the other leg. Like if you're not doing jump lunges or you don't have max jumps in your workout program, start with that, add those.
Next, one of the exercises that I talk to a lot of players about is sled pushes. I don't actually include those in our online workout programs. And the only reason I don't is because it's hard to find a gym.
Brandon Joyner (10:20.891)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (10:21.506)
that has a sled. If you have a garage gym, you're you're probably don't have a sled that you can push. It's like some of them are two hundred dollars. Some of them are eight hundred dollars and they are these massive machines. So it's not a piece of equipment that is readily available and the space in most gyms. Sometimes there's no actual place to sprint and push this thing. But if you are a defender.
and you have the ability to use a sled where you're pushing weight and you can push it slow, but again, like we need speed plus strength. So if you can actually max out while pushing that sled, that's going to be huge because it puts you into the position where your chest is down.
where you're sprinting so your chest is low to the ground and you're driving the ground behind you and that's the position that we need for defenders because they have to be low and they have to be pushing so that they can get those digs. So that's one of those secret exercises that most people don't have access to but I wish every volleyball defender would absolutely do that.
Brandon Joyner (11:32.283)
And I mean, just, saying this for me, like if we don't have access to a sled, like there are other ways that you can do it. I know that you and I have done it out on the beach where like, maybe I have a resistance band around my, around my waist and you're standing behind me kind of like holding onto me and making me run. you can also do it where like you're fixed against a wall and you're just chopping your legs.
Mark Burik (11:59.181)
You
Brandon Joyner (12:01.531)
So if you don't have access to a sled, can still find some kind of variant.
Mark Burik (12:07.148)
Yeah. So, and let's say this, let's make it real for people. Talking about hours and what they can do and how they should work out. Because I could give you masterful programming that dials down percentages, making sure that you're playing with your reps and sets and give you the best exercises. But the number one thing.
Brandon Joyner (12:16.773)
Thank
Mark Burik (12:35.884)
that supersedes all of this is can you train and will you train consistently over long periods of time? So that flies right in the face of heavy, fast lifts because if we need to lift heavy, there is the potential for an increase in injuries, right? Like if you slip,
or your technique fails when you've got 500 pounds on your back, your back's gonna lock up. Something bad's gonna happen, right? If you hate squatting or you hate front squats or you hate back squats or you hate whatever exercise you hate, you're not gonna do it for a long period of time. And the only thing that breeds consistent results is you
being able to work out over the course of months and years without stopping. And that means that you shouldn't hate the exercise. They shouldn't annihilate you every time to the point where you're like so proud that you're working out harder than everybody else. But because you've pushed so hard for like two weeks, then you need a week break. Or even worse, like you get an injury that knocks you out for.
two, four, six weeks. Then you're just resetting and you have to do it again. So for the everyday person, yeah, go.
Brandon Joyner (14:08.003)
Yeah. I would say just to add in on that, would say there, one, there's a difference between not liking an exercise and being bad at it. You know, like for me, there's a lot of exercises I don't enjoy, but then as I continue on them for a decent amount of time, maybe like three weeks, I gather the strength.
Mark Burik (14:32.547)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (14:34.843)
to where I actually really enjoy those exercises. This is how it used to be with me in pull-ups is like, I hated pull-ups. And then all of a sudden I got good at pull-ups and I was like, I love pull-ups. And so there is a little difference there, right? The exercises you hate.
Mark Burik (14:42.444)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (14:55.693)
It should be because you don't like the way it makes your body feel or maybe it puts you in some pain, things like that. But if it's just like, if you're doing lunge walks and you're like, man, I hate this exercise. It's probably because you just don't have the necessary strength to complete those exercises. But what you can do is you can lower the rep number. You can, you can lower weight or not use any weight. So try to try to decipher that too. Is it like, all right, am I
Do I not like this workout because I'm just not strong enough yet? Or do I not like this workout because it's putting my body in harm? And so think about those two things.
Mark Burik (15:33.868)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so me, like I've had this history of low back problems and I know how to mitigate it. Like if I stay really consistent with my mobility program, literally I go down to my gym, I press play on my computer for the mobility program that we have on better at beach.com and I just follow the videos. And when I'm regular on that, my back is never.
In issue, like it's automatic. It feels good. My body opens up. get more limber and without necessarily hardcore strength and sprint training. That sets the foundation for me to be athletic. And that's the program that I built when I had 20 days from getting the boot off of my broken foot to playing in the Pottstown rumble, which is this grass, big court marathon. And I said, I'm not going to be in prime shape, but.
I will be tournament ready in 20 days. And in order to do that, need consistency. You need to do something athletic every day that still allows you to then get out there again the next day so that I was able to get the reps and get to practice. yeah, I was able to play in Potsdam. I think we took a third or fifth, which I was stoked on because I was just saying, how can I make my body survive this in a three week program?
Brandon Joyner (16:55.055)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (16:56.268)
And so that's where our 21 day Mobility for Volleyball program came. And it's also a Strength Foundations program that I put every one of our members on. If they haven't been working out for a while, I'll start with the Mobility program, get all of your movement patterns right, get healthy. And then we can move you into the 60 day program where there's a little bit more intensity in terms of pushing weight and sprinting and jumping.
Brandon Joyner (17:20.795)
I would say selfless plug here. I think that that 21 day mobility program is the best program we have. I think it is like for anybody who is not consistent on working out for me specifically, like that program was able to give me the small strength, like the strength in all of my little tiny muscles that I didn't even really realize that I was using.
Mark Burik (17:47.032)
Thank you.
Brandon Joyner (17:49.765)
consistently in volleyball points. And like I think for everyone listening to this podcast, give the 21 day mobility program a try. If you complete those 21, that 21 day mobility program, you will see a huge difference in your game over those three weeks. And then you're going to realize, okay, that's what it looks like if I just get strong in these mobility stations.
Then you start to realize okay now that I have this baseline of all these little muscles and strength Now I can start adding workouts into them and then that's when you start to see inches added to your vertical you start to realize that like That's what it means to be stable on when I'm passing or stable on defense or having a quick reaction time But if you don't have that base like for me and I played for a pretty long time
The last five years of me playing, concentrating on that mobility program and then moving in, that was the game changer between me being a qualifier that maybe made it out of the first round, second round was kind of fighting to be in the last round of a qualifier to where it was like, after I started really focusing on that, it was like, it was a surprise if I didn't make the last round or if I didn't qualify.
But yeah, that mobility program, check it out. It's a game changer and it just makes you understand. I think that was a big thing.
Mark Burik (19:27.629)
Yeah. And for a lot of our, a lot of our audience who are adults, it, you know, we have an average for our 60 day program, an average increase of four and a half inches over the 60 days, uh, in vertical jump, and then even more in broad jump because we have testing phases. But even from the 21 day, most people still see two to three inches of increase because they're finally activating their muscles. They're actually turning things on and they're unlocking all of their tightnesses.
Now these are not, and no program is going to consistently get you four inches every time that you run through it, right? But what people...
What we know from experience is that if somebody's doing nothing or they're just completely working out the wrong way, and then you finally get them on a consistent routine where they're not stopping, they have a clear finish point, that's when they're actually seeing results. So we get them on a routine, we wake up certain muscles, we unlock the other ones, like you and me are sitting at a desk right now, if you guys are sitting for, you know.
more than four hours a day, figure it out. You should be standing and walking or jogging more than four hours a day to undo all of the harm that you have from sitting, which tightens up your hamstrings, tightens up your hip flexors. consistency is going to breed results. So even if you didn't follow a volleyball specific workout program, where you are chasing the maximum amount of weight over time,
and you're moving at max velocity, if you just did 50 % of what you're capable of, but you did it every week, two to three times a week for months and then years, you will get insane results. It just doesn't feel like it because you have to measure them over months and years. There's this one Jack guy that I follow on Instagram and like he always gets
Mark Burik (21:30.24)
accused of steroids and all this and like, how'd you get that big and blah, blah, blah. He's like, I've had 15 years of not missing a single week of workouts. It was when you do that, go and show me what your body looks like. You know, but to sit there on your couch eating potato chips while you scroll through Instagram and tell me like, you can't look like that and be natural. Well, you've got to show
Brandon Joyner (21:58.404)
Hahaha
Mark Burik (21:59.81)
You've got to show up every single day for that much time. And in order to do that, you've got to train smart, which means that you have to choose workouts that allow you to show up the next day and the next week and the next month. Okay. So if I were to give you just absolute. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (22:04.411)
That's a funny visualization.
Brandon Joyner (22:15.353)
Yeah, I just just.
Brandon Joyner (22:19.919)
Go ahead.
Brandon Joyner (22:23.877)
think we're on a little bit of a delay, but.
Mark Burik (22:24.246)
If I were to give you the absolute like.
Mark Burik (22:34.382)
Spectrum's coming today. They're going to fix it. Yep.
Brandon Joyner (22:36.495)
go. I'm gonna go. Okay. So one of the things that you said a couple times is talking when we're going into the gym and we're having these conversations, having the conversation about a lot of weight and velocity.
think one of the things that I picked up from Handy, who was our strength coach, and we were a very strong team, but I'm not sure how the volleyball workouts were. But one of the things that I really liked that he says is don't get blinded by weight. I think that that's a really important thing because when we're going through our workouts, Mark and I, we look very similar. Our body size and everything like that.
When Mark takes a shirt off, he looks a little bit stronger than me. But when we're in the gym, like Mark is, you're a machine. Like you, the amount of weight that you put on the bar and that you're comfortable doing. If I tried to do that, I would get hurt instantly. And so we always joke around about it because especially during COVID, I would go over to your house a lot and it would be me, you and Janelle working out and in the garage and.
I would be doing like a lot of the times I was doing the exact same weight as Janelle, but I'm really focusing on doing it quickly. Right. And so when I walked into the gym, I had to release this like ego of mine and be like, Hey, it's not necessarily about me keeping up with Mark. It's about me figuring out what weight can I do where I can increase my velocity really quickly. And so
I think that that is like a really important thing for a lot of you guys that are listening. Don't go into the gym right away and be like, I squatted 305 in college. So that's my goal. Like be okay going a week or two at 135, but having really, really good mobility, really good form. Like I've been blessed since I was a freshman in college, having you next to me, my entire lifting career.
Brandon Joyner (24:54.279)
of where you're giving me feedback every single time. And then, I think that that's one of the cool things about our, our online platform as well as like when people sign up for our 21 day mobility program, or they sign up for a six day max, they get to submit those videos. We go on there and we correct their form. We, we give you guys tips and ideas on how you can be performing these things well. And so for me, like I had to start super light.
And just because I was changing my form, it still felt super heavy because I was putting myself into kind of like different positions that I wasn't ready to load yet. But after a week, after two weeks, after three weeks, slowly see those weights go up. And then before you know it within a month, a month or two, I'm back to the weight that I was doing that I thought I should be starting at. But I've also avoided.
Mark Burik (25:27.608)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (25:51.227)
all of these injuries along the way that didn't happen and all that happened because I was like, all right, I'm going to go in with form, mobility, make sure I'm getting this full range of motion and then I'll think about adding weight afterwards. And I think that's a good mindset for a lot of people that especially if you're not consistently following a program. If this is the first program that you're going to get on, be okay starting light.
Mark Burik (26:19.158)
Yeah, and you've got to put a cap on how much you want to increase your weight. For anything upper body, let's think about adding three to five pounds every two weeks. For something lower body, five to 10 pounds every two weeks.
Brandon Joyner (26:28.667)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (26:45.942)
Most people, or maybe I'm speaking for myself, you do, let's just call it 135 on Monday, and then you're coming back on Friday and you're like, I'm stronger, so I should do 145 this time. And then you come back on the next Monday and you're like, well, I already did 135 and 145, so now I'm gonna do 155. And then you get really close to this breaking point and that becomes almost demoralizing and it gets so hard.
that you also, again, you don't want to return and you start like kind of not looking forward to that workout. Something again that came from Mason with us was a lot of our workouts left us so hungry for more. It's a bunch of 18 to 22 year old dudes in there who are like, no, we can push, let's do more, let's do more. And you get booted from the weight room in 25 minutes. And some of them, some of the workouts I remember,
Brandon Joyner (27:33.851)
You
Mark Burik (27:41.036)
We were in here for 18 minutes. What did we even, why can't we work harder? And luckily we had Handy who was like, because you don't need it. You you guys are jumping, you're mid season, you're already max jumping a lot during every practice and we need a recovery cycle so that, yeah, we're not gonna push as hard. You're gonna be in and out in less than 20 minutes, making sure that your body felt tension and.
and felt speed with an external weight. Right? So do you need the gym to jump higher? No, for most people, you absolutely do not. What can we do? We can sprint. We already said that. If you are statistically normal and you haven't sprinted in a while, do not go out there and sprint.
For me to get up like now, you I built the Airbnb for two weeks. So I didn't do a lot of sprint work. I was just kind of trees and roots around and doing wheelbarrow stuff. But for me to get out and sprint after a two week break, I'm going to tweak a hip flexor or I'm going to tweak a groin or a hamstring. So for me to get to my actual what I think is full speed, it's like a four to five week journey.
Right? Where I'm starting at 50 % going up and down my block. I'll sprint down. It's about a hundred yards and then I'll walk back and then I'll do that four times at about 50%. And yes, I'll feel slow. Yes, I feel that I can move faster if I want to, but I've got to stay there, let my body acclimate. And then two to three days later, come back and do the same thing. And then again.
50%, like you're staying there for a full week, if not two, then after two weeks, I can move up to 60 % speed. After two weeks there, I can move up to 70 % speed, right? I don't want to just get out and now that I'm saying, sprinting is one of the most valuable exercises you can do, you should not hear this and go, you know what? I haven't sprinted in 10 years. Let's get out there right now. Start with a jog.
Brandon Joyner (29:52.195)
You
Brandon Joyner (29:56.187)
Yeah, you're pop a hammy real quick.
Mark Burik (29:59.982)
Yeah, and if it takes you 60 seconds to get to the end of the block, just, you know, look at on your watch and say, okay, it's gonna take me 60 seconds to get to the end of the block. And then I'll walk back and I'll start again. But I'm going to do that four times at 60 seconds in two weeks. You know, after doing that twice a week in two weeks, I'll come back and I'll try to do it in 57 seconds. And then I'll
like slowly increase by two to three seconds every week until maybe at the end of a couple months, you can be at 100 % for a hundred yard sprint. Okay. But sprinting.
Brandon Joyner (30:36.955)
100 yards in 60 seconds is... I think you guys are better than that.
Mark Burik (30:44.686)
It's achievable. Yeah. But you do it four times back to back and you'll be crying. And that's a lot of the programming from our kettlebell where we increase the kettlebell program starts increasing people's sprint mechanics. So if you do those.
Brandon Joyner (30:47.355)
It's certainly achievable.
Brandon Joyner (30:54.635)
Right, yeah.
Mark Burik (31:07.918)
If you do bodyweight squats into bodyweight jump squats, and when I say jump again, let's talk about, build yourself up. Do you have to max jump right away? No, but get yourself up to a six inch box 20 times in one workout and then do that for four, two weeks, four workouts, two weeks, right? And then say, all right, now I'm ready for the 10, 12 inch box.
Right. and then just work your way up from there, but body weight squats, you can for sure become a better volleyball player. You can be stronger. Your body will be more activated for you. And if you just go out and play volleyball every day, saying I'm exercising. Yes, you are definitely in better shape than the average human who is doing nothing. Right. But just because you're playing volleyball, I'll tell you this volleyball players almost never max jump.
during a match. It's somewhere between for a pro, it's somewhere between 85 and 95 % for the majority of their jumps. But if they're actually trying to jump as high as they possibly can, right, that's it's different mechanics. And it does different things to your nervous system where you're pushing the limit. But when you have to get feet to ball, then you have to be accurate. And then you have to spike.
You're very normally not max jumping. You're just jumping at a high rate. And so that's for pros who have awesome feet to ball, who have great mechanics, who have amazing setters, right? If you're playing a B tournament, it is more running than it is jumping. And when you do jump, it's kind of a hop that you like chase and have to slap for a set. So you're not really jumping in order to jump higher when you're just playing volleyball.
So there should be some focus either before or after you play or if you go for a separate workout where you say, all right, twice a week, I am going to try to jump as high as I possibly can. I'll give you an easy number, 20 times.
Mark Burik (33:23.438)
20 times, twice a week. Don't do them back to back, right? But see if you can just jump as high as you can twice in a row, take a 30 second, maybe a minute break, do it again, and then come back 10 times. With body weight jumps, you can...
increase your vertical easily, and then you can also add, like we talked in the beginning, lunge jumps. Just drop one knee to the ground, jump as high as you can so that you get a little bit of balance from both legs. And so if you did squat jumps, body weight, max body weight squat jumps, and then you did sprints, you're good. And if you want some stuff for your upper body, do pull-ups, do push-ups, like.
You're pretty much set there. And then yes, we can add in a ton of the other stuff, but push, which equals a chest press or a push up or an overhead shoulder press pull, which equals a row or chin ups or pull ups. and you're set. And if you can do those things, jump, sprint, push, pull.
If you could do that twice a week for 12 months, you will be in amazing shape. And that's, you're not using anything external. Me and Janelle just finished a hundred squat, a hundred push-up a day, 30 day challenge. To do a hundred squats and a hundred push-ups for, for me and for Janelle, it took under eight minutes. And that was our baseline, our daily baseline. And then we could add workouts from there.
But again, like you said, when you get consistent, things just start feeling really good. All of a sudden, yeah, I can go as to grass on my squats. Like my legs feel strong. I'm actually burning through these squats way faster. My pushup count went like I went starting at 20, 25, and then I was finishing at 50. So that consistency that you read over time, your nervous system learns how to deal with it. Your body adapts and you can go there.
Brandon Joyner (35:11.119)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (35:31.438)
We will talk about shoulder injuries and rehab in another episode but if you are a volleyball player and you don't live with a band like a shoulder band in your bag, I think that's a mistake. I think if you look at a hundred pros 99 of them will have a band in the bag that they show up to practice with or that they travel with.
Brandon Joyner (35:31.891)
Yeah,
Brandon Joyner (35:56.207)
Yeah. And there's, there's two people that come to mind when you're talking about this. one of them is Vartan who guy that used to come to our classes. and if you live in Hermosa, I almost guarantee you've seen this guy. He will bring a volleyball out to the beach or sometimes it's a soccer ball and he will. Like toss us, toss a ball for himself. He'll do a full approach, jump as high as he can, and he'll hit it as hard and as far as he can.
Mark Burik (36:05.71)
you
Brandon Joyner (36:26.169)
And then he will just sprint after the ball. And he will do that from the beginning of the Mosa all the way to the end. And at first, when I saw him, I was like, man, what is this? Like what's going on with this guy? And then after a while I was like, huh, I wonder if that's why he always has an eight pack or he is always like one of the stronger looking guys. so that was pretty funny. And then another guy that comes to mind is Travis Mayweather. Travis.
Mark Burik (36:38.542)
Thank you.
Mark Burik (36:45.8)
Ha ha!
Brandon Joyner (36:55.803)
is like when I was competing a lot, especially in the last couple years, I looked at Travis and I was like, him and I should be very similar. Like I think him and I are capable of getting a lot of the same results. We're somewhat similar players. But then every, a lot of tournaments would pop up and I would see him getting the finishes that I wanted. And I was like, what is going on here?
I don't see much of a difference in our gameplay, like our consistency, stuff like that. And then I started practicing against Travis a lot. And I realized that after every single practice, and I'm sure he did this at practice, I wasn't there at as well, but after every practice was done and I was tired and I packed up and went home, he stayed out there and he did.
squat jumps, he did lunges, he did these suicide sprints where he was timing himself and like every three minutes he had to do a round of these suicide sprints. And eventually I started joining in on him and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna stay here and I'm gonna do these workouts with him. And then I started doing it on my own as well. And that little addition at the end of my practices, it made moving on the sand easier, it made.
The fact that I didn't get as tired and matches and I realized that that was the big difference is that Travis, you can look at Travis at the beginning of a tournament at the end of the tournament. He never really has that look on his body of being fatigued. But then I looked at myself from the beginning of tournaments towards the end of tournaments and I was like, damn boy, you look tired. And so like just adding it, he wasn't out there for longer than 10 extra minutes.
Mark Burik (38:25.517)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (38:33.058)
Ha ha ha.
Brandon Joyner (38:40.729)
But convincing himself, holding himself accountable and being like, hey, this is what I'm going to do. I think that's what separates people like Travis from the other athletes is like, are you willing to stay after practice when you're already tired? You've already gotten your work done. Are you willing to do a little bit more to make yourself get ahead?
Mark Burik (39:02.316)
shout out one of our other campers who lost 120 pounds just playing volleyball and with a couple small dietary changes his name's Dan Bybee he said he had one rule he goes I'm gonna play volleyball as much as I possibly can and then when it's time to shag I look for the farthest ball on the beach I sprint to it
Brandon Joyner (39:09.048)
yeah.
Mark Burik (39:28.128)
and I looked for the next one that's closest to that and I sprint to that and then I sprint to the next one. And so if you don't have the quote unquote discipline to stay after practice or to show up and do a mobility routine and then get sprints in before practice, when it's time to shag and you're in between points, instead of walking to the ball, say there's a ball, gun it to that ball, then gun it back to the service line and then take a break and start the point.
But just those sprints are going to make a huge difference. Again, we're not going to get too far into the weeds on this and talking like percentages and how to measure. There are different things that measure how fast you're moving weight. There are different tools out there that measure how long when you jump, how much time you spend in the air. They're called force plates. And they show how much force you're producing. But I will give you.
An example of a workout that I did that you can do super easy and it took 25 minutes And I'll tell you exactly what I did and it covers all of your bases. Okay, I Started with body. So this is called an every minute on the minute workout Okay, so that means that every minute you start a set and then however long you Whenever you finish you just rest in your next set. We'll start the next minute. So
Without a warm-up I would do so all of these are sets of ten. Okay, I did ten first I started with bodyweight squats just to get myself warmed up. So I went bodyweight squats Then I went over I have a dip bar You can do push-ups or you can do dips or any sort of shoulder press and on the next minute I did ten dips Okay, so I've covered my chest and my triceps got a little bit of shoulders as well. So that's my push. Okay
Then I went and I did kettlebell swings. So I used 45 pounds as my first set. So the third minute I did 10 kettlebell swings. That equals a hip hinge, which is very important, but we won't again dive too far into the weeds. So, so far we've got bodyweight squats, 10 dips, 10 kettlebell swings. You could also do straight leg deadlifts if you want, but I like to be explosive and fast. Then.
Mark Burik (41:51.214)
On the next minute, I did 10 chin-ups. And on the final minute, I did bicep curl to shoulder press, just because, you know, I want to impress you now. Not really a total necessary anything, but like, if I can keep some sort of size on my arms and make my shirts look good, I will. And then if, so that's a five minute, that's a five minute workout. And then on the next set,
Brandon Joyner (42:02.543)
Hahaha.
Mark Burik (42:19.854)
The only thing that I did was for the next set of squats, then I added a 45 pound kettlebell, held it in my hands. And then I increased the kettlebell weight with the swings. So each set I just built on the kettlebell weight. Everything else was body weight. And then I finished up by doing some ballistic training. I've got a 12 inch plyo box and I did 10 jumps as high as I can. So if you can imagine that there's a box in front of you.
I do three small hops and then one big one where I jump as high as I can over that 12 inch box and then I land on it. So instead of just going to it, I go hop, hop, hop, big jump, slam the ground and get as high as you can. And so I did three sets of that and I did 10. So one, two, three, one, one, two, three, two. And I did three sets of 10 there. So I'm in and out of the gym, full workout program.
full body and it takes under 30 minutes. know, the weight portion or the strength portion takes 25 and then the other one took 30. And then I went and played volleyball at our Monday night league. And that was an hour and a half of straight cardio where I had maybe two max jumps because of the way that, you know, there are some passes and some sets that were off and I was playing with the beginners. So
Brandon Joyner (43:33.339)
Hahaha
Brandon Joyner (43:37.7)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (43:44.354)
for me to like get the max jumps, there was only two opportunities in an hour and a half where I could actually really elevate. So you don't get your jump training in there, so I have to figure out a way to do that in the gym. And if you do that workout two or three times a week, I don't care about timing, just get it in two or three times a week, it's less than 30 minutes. If you continue along that path,
you will be strong. can write all that down. We're also gonna put that into the comments so you can copy paste it and just roll with it. It's so easy. Okay, set a clock, look at your watch and then do those five sets of 10 reps for that entire body weight circuit and that will be a great workout. Is it the most elite volleyball scientific based workout that will get you the farthest when you're ready? No, is it a workout where if you did it consistently,
Week in, week out, for months you would see crazy good results. Yes. So easy, right? Like what can be easy? And if you're inconsistent with your workouts and you're looking at those numbers and it's been like a week and a half or two weeks since your last lift and then you try to get the numbers that you did your last lift, it's not gonna work out for you. So find a way just to move and then figure out how to do something at max velocity.
Brandon Joyner (44:48.955)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (45:10.083)
Yeah. And I think the coolest thing about like we've talked a lot about consistency in this episode and I love that workout. I think it's great. It makes me hungry. I'm like, I should do that today. but the cool thing about the 21 day mobility program, which is harder than you think it's going to give you like, it's going to make you stronger. And then we also have our 60 day max vertical program. So if you combine those, you're pretty much getting a solid three month training plan.
of all the workouts that you need. So while that one isn't extremely volleyball specific, it's great to build up. If you only have 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and you need to rock something quick, do it. But we do have that full volleyball built out program as well. And you get to meet with us. So it's great.
Mark Burik (46:01.24)
Yeah. And that steals some of the style that I used for the kettlebell program where we have kettlebell level one, which you don't actually need a kettlebell for. It's just an introduction. If you've got a dumbbell, you can still use kettlebell one. Once you get to kettlebell two and three in our library, that's when you should really actually purchase, definitely purchase your first kettlebell set. But
Brandon Joyner (46:06.863)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (46:25.442)
Yeah, we've got all those workout programs. there for you. We've got a whole nutrition workbook that will help you. But if you just listen to this episode and you just needed to take something, figure out a way next time you're at the beach and you've played volleyball or you're halfway through your playing sprint to something that's far away. If you haven't sprinted in a while, okay, go at 75 % with big powerful steps. and then see if you and a buddy can stand across the net from each other.
Brandon Joyner (46:35.003)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (46:53.238)
jump as high as you possibly can and see if you could get your hands over their hands. Like give each other a little high five or go to the antenna and see like what stripe you can touch on the antenna. If you've never done that, do it a bunch of times. See what stripe you can touch and then come back in a few months after doing that workout that I just gave you for two months and figure out, you know, if you can hit the next color on the antenna. And it is that easy.
Brandon Joyner (47:00.827)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (47:18.523)
Yeah, I always liked going over to your garage and we used to use chalk. So like on the front of Mark's house, there were these like little lines of chalk just randomly. And I would always go over there and I would look at that wall and see if like he had put one up there that was a little bit higher than mine. And then I was like, all right, I got to leave a mark that's like a little bit higher than his just so that when he comes home, he sees that I was here.
Mark Burik (47:40.493)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (47:45.806)
Yeah. All right, guys. So that's your advice. And then as far as like measuring during practice, again, you can do it the elite way where you measure out your jumps and how much a jump intensive practice will be versus a tournament. And then we should work out less or with less reps, right? Leading to a tournament. But that's not the majority of people's problems. The majority of people's problems is
doing something consistently and showing up for weeks, months, and years in a row. And if you do that, even if you're tired for a couple of tournaments, in the long term, it will definitely, definitely pay off and you will be stronger for tournaments three and four months from now. And I would sacrifice like that ultimate performance in this week's tournament to be a rock star.
in three or four months and not even like stress about fatigue or gassing out. So.
Brandon Joyner (48:45.115)
And if if you guys I'm just gonna Kind of shout you out real quick I said it early in the episode like the last 20 years or so however old we are 15 years, whatever I've been extremely lucky to always have you like as a part of that if you guys haven't realized by the end of this episode Mark loves talking about this stuff like he is
It's what he went to school for it's I think for a little bit you Envisioned yourself being like a trainer for school or sports teams or something along those lines. So he has all the certificates If you guys have any specific questions, leave them in the comments or reach out to us Support at better beach comm DM one of us and we can we can answer all those questions That's it. That is the tricky part is
Some people have knee pain, some people have shoulder pain, some people have never done any type of workout. Maybe they've just like jogged or done something small. If you have something that is specific to you, reach out to us and we can get you guys going on the right journey.
Mark Burik (50:00.418)
Yeah, is, before the days of Instagram and being on the phone, like my bathroom magazines were the strength and conditioning journals. I would be reading through all of the studies from strength and conditioning in the last three months, and I would just absolutely consume them. So it is fun for me, it's a fun topic. But.
Brandon Joyner (50:11.387)
Hahaha
Mark Burik (50:27.788)
Consistency is the name of the game guys. Consistency, max speed, and then just making sure that you show up with some form of workout, anything that you're gonna do over time, and you'll be set. And if you really wanna get into the weeds with me and with our coaches at Better Beach, we can definitely do that. We can dial you in. But if you want a just easy program.
where you press play, you follow the videos. Like I told you, I do it to myself. I'm literally watching myself on video and following the workouts that we made. We've got it available. So you can use that. And like I said, if you want to become one of my one-on-one players, then we can work in a different capacity there. But it's ready for you. Get consistent. Sprint, jump, minimum of twice a week. You will get results from that.
Brandon Joyner (51:16.931)
like and share. Yeah, those add an extra 0.25 inches to your vertical. Every time you like and share one of our videos, it helps your vertical. science is still out, the results that have come in look very promising.
Mark Burik (51:18.702)
Like, subscribe.
Mark Burik (51:28.28)
So I've heard, yeah.
Mark Burik (51:35.95)
All right guys, that's it. If you want to train with us in person, head to betteratbeach.com forward slash camps. If you want to see our workout programs, go to betteratbeach.com forward slash workout. And yeah, like Brandon said, if you liked this video, just go ahead and like share and subscribe. I'm trying to get us to a hundred thousand on YouTube by the end of summer. That would be nice. I want to do the plaque in the back. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (51:57.723)
We need a plaque. Get us a plaque. Yeah. We need it.
Mark Burik (52:05.356)
All right, that's it. You guys have a great week from me, from Bannon, from everybody at Better at Beach. We'll see you on the sand.
