Coping & Connecting: Strength & Conditioning

Note: Fourth in a series highlighting Central Michigan Athletics' efforts to cope with changes necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic.

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Resourcefulness and discipline have been the buzzwords for Central Michigan student-athletes as they work to gain strength and maintain their stamina levels throughout quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're making sure the kids are doing the most that they can," said Joel Welsh, CMU's director of strength & conditioning. "Our kids are finding a way to constantly challenge themselves."

Welsh and his staff of three assistants and one graduate assistant are responsible for the strength and conditioning and nutritional needs of CMU's 475 student-athletes. It's a job that is increasingly more challenging and requires a great deal of creativity and adaptability in light of the quarantine.

"We don't coach weights, we coach people," Welsh said in a familiar refrain of strength & conditioning coaches nationwide. "It's true day to day, and it's so true now more than ever."

Welsh and his staff are diligent and comprehensive in developing workout plans covering student-athletes in all 16 of CMU's varsity sports. Those plans are delivered through texts, group chats and emails that include hyperlinks to video demonstrations.

Included in those plans are techniques to strength train without the benefit of weights for those who may not have access to equipment.

Filling a backpack creates a homemade dumbbell and laundry detergent or milk containers, filled with liquid, can do the trick as well, Welsh said. Pushing a car and bench pressing a sofa are among the myriad ideas that have been bandied about in group chats, he said.

"Kids that are motivated are going to find a way," he said.

Savannah Thompson, a sophomore on the CMU volleyball team, joins three or four teammates three days a week for a workout. They can see each other and chat over webex during the workout. Two days per week, Thompson performs a 45-minute sprint series on her own to improve her cardiovascular health.

"We understand that every student-athlete in the country is in the same position that we are so it's, What are we going to do to improve ourselves?" said Thompson, who is home with her parents in Thornton, Ill. "We all have the same goal in mind which is to make sure that we're doing our part with what control we have.

"We still have to make the gains even though we're not in the gym. At this point you just kind of have to have fun with it because everyone's in the same boat and you just try to make the best of it to get a workout in."

Oakley Lavallii, a senior fullback on the football team, is home in Boca Raton, Fla. His lot is perhaps more advantageous than that of most of his Chippewa peers in that he has access to a set of weights courtesy of his sister, Austin, a former collegiate tennis player who competes in CrossFit.

His brother, former CMU running back Saylor Lavallii, is also in the house and fills the role of motivational lifting buddy and they join with Austin and Oakley's girlfriend, a CMU student, during workouts.

"Everyone's going to work out, but the biggest thing is that team setting," Oakley said. "When you're at school, you're pushed in a different way than you're ever able to push yourself. You've got 40, 50 guys in the weight room, the music's going, everyone's yelling. That's when you really come together as a team and make those personal gains at the same time.

"For me I still have that team aspect (in Florida)."

His new 'team' will certainly help get him through, Lavallii said, but there is nothing like being with football teammates.

"That team setting, to me, is huge," he said. "That's what I appreciate – I appreciate going in and getting to build relationships through adversity every day. These times when your hand is forced, you have that appreciation."

Welsh sends a weekly newsletter via email to all of the student-athletes. Nutrition tips are included, and he takes a realistic approach to "the best ways to maximize what you have in your fridge."

Welsh said another key to a student-athlete's development and well-being is sleep, both the amount and the consistency of sleep and wake times. That is always part of the equation, and it's even more important in a time of uncertainty.

"One of the things that a student-athlete goes through during their college career is a very rigid and a very routine schedule: This is the time you go to class, this is the time you practice, this is the time you go to eat, this is the time you study," he said. "Our kids are used to doing things a certain way.

"The biggest part is talking to our kids, having conversations with them. Every kid is in a different mental state; every kid's home life is different. We're trying to adapt to realistic circumstances."

Central Michigan University Athletics

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