Volleyball Stretching -
How to Prepare for the Game or Practice?

Read about volleyball stretching and how to get ready for the game or practice.

A lot of key areas of the body can be damaged during volleyball training if not properly stretched beforehand.

Volleyball requires pivoting, shifting weight, jumping and twisting; the ideal motions for a strain on the hamstrings, groin, shoulders, ankles, abs or back.

Volleyball Stretching – How to Prepare for the Game?

So what are some of the best exercises you can do before the volleyball game to make yourself limber and ready for that winning spike?

Before I say anything else, let’s lay down a consistent rule about stretching:

Never stretch a cold muscle!

It’s a seriously bad idea. The reason?

Your joints and muscles are naturally a bit more constrained when there is less heat and blood flow. So if you jump right into a deep lateral lunge without doing any exercise beforehand, you’re significantly more likely to strain your groin and hamstring muscles. The increased blood flow and heat of even mild exercise will help reduce this effect dramatically.

The best thing to do right before stretching is a light aerobic activity such as jogging, bicycle riding, rowing or even swimming. Just a few minutes of motion should be more than enough to get the right amount of heat to your muscles that you can stretch safely and effectively.

Stretching before volleyball should always target dangerous areas such as the ankles, shoulders, abs, back, hamstrings and groin. These are the muscle and joints you are more likely to damage during training or a game.

Volleyball Stretching – Stretching Exercises before the Match or Practice

Here are some excellent positions to practice right before a match or practice:

Runner’s Pose: (Muscles Targeted: Hamstrings, Groin)

Step forward in a deep lunge with your back leg straight, your back heel up, with your toe pointed against the ground and your front thigh about parallel to the floor. Let each arm point straight down with finger tips barely touching the floor. For a more advanced version of this pose, raise your arms until they point straight towards the ceiling in a crescent pose.

Table: (Muscles Targeted: Back, Shoulders)

Sit with your hands resting on the floor behind your hips. Push upwards thrusting your hips and abdomen towards the sky until your body forms a table with your limbs as legs and your stomach as a table top. Hold for a count of 15.

Wheel: (Muscles Targeted: Back, Shoulders, Hamstrings)

Lie on the ground with your palms against the floor on both sides of your head so that your elbows are pointed at the ceiling. Push upwards, thrusting your stomach and groin towards the ceiling and support your body with your arms and legs with your body in an arch shape.

Ankle Rolls: (Muscles Targeted: Ankle)

Stand and point one toe toward the ground. Press the toe against the ground and allow the ankle to rotate in a circle with full range of motion.

Volleyball Stretching – Three Types of Stretching

Within any stretching exercise, there are three types of stretching you can perform to give your body a different sensation and a slightly different kind of flexibility:
Static Stretching:
This is the most common and basic. Static stretching simply means stretching and holding the position. A typical static stretch is safer than ballistic or dynamic stretching and should be held anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds per exercise.

Static stretching is your best option after the training.

Dynamic Stretching:
Dynamic stretching is stretching that involves movement, typically shifting weight to another position. Dynamic stretching is very common in hatha yoga when performing consecutive poses. Examples of dynamic stretching: hand walks and forward lunges. Dynamic stretching enhances your strength, flexibility, mobility and stability.

An athlete should perform dynamic stretching to prepare for the practice or matches. An athlete performs dynamic stretching after a warm up.
Ballistic Stretching:
Ballistic stretching means you are rebounding slightly off of the ground to add tension to the muscle you are stretching in order to increase limberness. Any basic stretch, such as a lateral or forward lunge, can be turned into a ballistic stretch by simple rebounding your weight up and down, against the ground. This doesn't mean actually coming off the ground as in most ballistic stretches, but simply bouncing your weight up and down to increase the tension.

A quote to remember

Volleyball quote about stretching.

Volleyball Conditioning Related Pages

Workout for a Volleyball Player

peakpt.com - Stretching for the volleyball player

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