Mike Muscles Performance Training

Mike Muscles Performance Training Built for athletes who train with purpose & demand more from their performance. By appointment only.

09/02/2026

The best athletes don’t just need more strength. They need more ways to use it.

If your goal is athletic performance, lower-body training can’t only be about how much force an athlete can produce with two feet on the ground.

Sport constantly puts athletes in asymmetrical situations.

Accelerating off one leg.
Braking on one leg.
Planting to change direction.
Landing from a jump.
Reaching outside their base of support.
Producing force while the pelvis, trunk and opposite limb are all doing something different.

That’s why unilateral training deserves a major place in an athlete’s program.

Single-leg exercises force the athlete to own the position, produce force, absorb force and control their body without being able to rely on the opposite limb to share the load.

And that gives us an opportunity to train some of the qualities that separate good athletes from great ones:

➡️ Force production
➡️ Rate of force development
➡️ Single-leg stability
➡️ Deceleration capacity
➡️ Balance and proprioception
➡️ Hip, knee and ankle control
➡️ Frontal and transverse plane strength
➡️ Force absorption and redirection

But there’s one more piece I think is extremely important⬇️

Don’t just train unilaterally. Train unilateral movement in different ways.

A split squat, reverse lunge, step-up, lateral lunge and single-leg RDL all put one leg in a primary role,but the demands aren’t identical.

Changing the exercise changes the constraints.

And changing the constraints changes the problem the athlete has to solve.

That variation can expose athletes to different⬇️

• Joint angles
• Ranges of motion
• Stance positions
• Loading strategies

09/01/2026

Want your athletes to become better at producing force?
Don’t forget about their ability to absorb it first.

Athletic performance isn’t just about how much force an athlete can produce.

It’s about how well they can manage force throughout the entire movement.

Here are two exercises I like for developing different pieces of that puzzle:

✔️Double-Leg Pogo + Resistance

The athlete repeatedly absorbs and redirects force with short ground contacts.

Think:

ABSORB → LOAD → REDIRECT

This can help develop ⬇️

• Reactive strength
• Elastic qualities
• Ankle/Achilles stiffness
• Rate of force development
• Ground-contact efficiency
• Lower-body coordination

✔️Band-Resisted Squat Jumps

Now we emphasize the other side of the equation⬇️

PRODUCE → ACCELERATE

The resistance challenges the athlete to produce force while maintaining aggressive intent to jump.

This can help develop⬇️

• Explosive strength
• Force production
• Rate of force development
• Lower-body power
• Hip and knee extension
• Acceleration qualities

🔑But remember

The exercise is only as good as the stimulus you create.

If the resistance is too heavy and movement quality and velocity completely disappear, you’re changing what you’re training.

The goal isn’t simply to make an exercise harder.

The goal is to create the right adaptation for the athlete.

Because athletes need more than the ability to produce force.

They need to be able to absorb it, control it, and express it quickly.

08/26/2026

3 exercises I like for volleyball & basketball athletes looking to build stronger, more resilient lower bodies.

These movements combine single-leg work, balance, coordination, and strength,helping athletes prepare for the jumping, landing, and change-of-direction demands of their sport.

If your knees are taking a beating from your sport, don’t overlook the importance of building the strength and control to handle those demands.

Save this post and give these 3 a try!

08/18/2026

Athleticism doesn’t start with the jump. It starts with how you control your body before, during, and after it.

In this session, we break down the jump from the ground up , focusing on strong hips, knee stability, single-leg control, and the ability to absorb and produce force.

For volleyball athletes, jumping well isn’t just about producing force. It’s about being able to load, control, absorb, stabilize, and redirect that force into an explosive takeoff.

The better you control the movement, the better you can express your power on the court.

Build the positions. Build the control. Then build the power.

08/17/2026

Your shoulder is built to move. Your training should teach it how to control that movement. ⚾️

Baseball puts your shoulder through thousands of high-speed reps. This is how we build the strength, stability, and control to handle the demands of throwing.

08/12/2026

B-STANCE WALKING TRAP-BAR DEADLIFTS 🔥

Unilateral strength meets stability, control and athleticism.

This movement challenges the client to produce force, control the pelvis, own the stance and maintain position while moving,all while loading a powerful hinge pattern.

A seriously underrated movement for building strong, resilient athletes.

08/11/2026

Your athleticism is only as good as your foundation.

Great volleyball athletes aren’t built from jumping alone. They’re built through strong feet and ankles, explosive movement, body control, and the ability to absorb and produce force.

Every drill in the session is designed to build the qualities that transfer to the court ,from the pogos and continuous jumps to snap-downs and explosive takeoffs.

08/10/2026

CAN YOUR ANKLES HANDLE THIS?

Most pogo drills keep the force direction relatively predictable.

This one doesn’t.
As the slant board changes orientation, your foot and ankle have to continuously adapt to new force directions while maintaining rhythm, stiffness, and reactivity.

That’s the challenge.

You’re not just training the ability to bounce you’re training the ability to stay reactive when the demands change.

✔️Reactive strength
✔️Foot & ankle adaptability
✔️Multiplanar force control
✔️Reactive stabilization
✔️Proprioception
✔️Elasticity & rhythm

And the goal isn’t to consciously force pressure onto different parts of the foot.
Let the foot self-organize and adapt to the changing board angle while keeping the pogo consistent.
Because in sport, force rarely comes at you from the exact same direction.

You need to be able to absorb it, control it, and return it quickly.

So…

Can your ankles stay springy when the direction keeps changing?

That’s what we’re training here. 🏃‍♂️💨

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