Published 2006-09-26T00:00:00Z”/>

Becky Regan

Building a body takes dedication. Some people work out of vanity, others for health. But athletes work out to win (and because their coaches say so). The Orion picked body parts from each varsity sport to find out how to build the ultimate athletic body.

Left arm

Basketball player LaCurtis Sumlin III: Most of the men’s basketball team’s arm training happens in the weight room. Lifting weights depends on body size, but every player’s routine includes bicep curls, shoulder presses, shoulder complex and bench presses. Players are also expected to do 62 pull-ups, Sumlin said.

Right arm

Volleyball player Jamie Houle: The women’s volleyball players may look as if they have scrawny arms, but don’t be fooled: Those arms give the ball a lot of velocity. Most of the team’s arm workouts are done with a surgical band. The players work their rotator cuffs by tying a surgical band to a pole at shoulder height and pulling their fist up and down while keeping the elbow in place and at a 90-degree angle. To work the rest of the arm, the players stand on one end of the surgical band and pull the other end up to shoulder height. They do this exercise with their thumbs facing up and then repeat with their thumbs facing down. The players do about two sets of 15 for each exercise.

Core and back

Baseball player Robby Scott: Almost every aspect of baseball relies on core body strength. The baseball team’s workouts vary, but strengthening the core is always routine.

One exercise the players use to strengthen their cores is called the plank. To do this exercise, hover above the ground with body weight on the toes and elbows. Make sure the butt is down and the body flat, much like a plank, and lift one leg up and out. Alternate legs and alternate the workout by holding out an opposite arm at the same time.

The baseball players also strengthen their abs by doing crunches with a stability ball. Holding their legs at a 90-degree angle, the players must touch a stability ball to their toes 30 times and hold for 30 seconds.

Assistant coach Alex Carbajal incorporates a stability ball into a majority of the team’s core workout. The key to core workouts is keeping the abs tight and the glutes squeezed, he said.

Glutes

Volleyball player Abbey Ranzau: The volleyball women strengthen their glutes with exercises called high pulls and hang cleans. These exercises start with the feet shoulder- width apart and a 45-pound bar. With knees slightly bent the players push off their legs and use that momentum to quickly pull the bar up to shoulder height. By keeping the torso forward, the weight is put on the legs instead of the back. The players also do squats while holding weights at their shoulders.

Right now, the volleyball team is at two sets of 15 for most of these exercises.

Left leg

Soccer player Jennifer Hogans: Running during her two-hour soccer practices keeps Hogans’ legs conditioned. She rides a stationary bike for an hour every other day. She simulates hills and alternates workout intensity by pedaling for one minute of high resistance and then 30 seconds of low resistance. Hogans does three or four sets of 20 to 30 walking lunges a couple of times a week.

Right leg

The reason cross country and soccer players have such defined legs is mostly due to running and more running.

Cross country runner Scott Bauhs runs an average of 12 to 13 miles a day, broken into two runs.