Other ways to strengthen arms besides weightlifting?

Question

I play volleyball, and I was suppose to weightlift, but my doctor told me not to because I'm still growing. I want to get stronger besides weightlifting. I'm currently on JV v-ball and play libero. I can't overhand serve a volleyball perfectly yet so this is very important.

Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

If you're libero you should really work on quickness and reflexes too..but if you want to stregthen your arms, do push-ups, serve a lot during practice if you can, do wall pushes (when you stand facing a wall and push it for a few minutes to try and make it fall over, even though obviously you can't ), pull-ups, stuff like that, you know?      =D  Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Push-ups. You'll have less injuries using your own body weight than with weights.  If you're not careful you can end up tearing your muscles by straining them by adding too much weight.  Push-ups will help strengthen your shoulders and triceps just the same as weights.

I usually do at least a 50 per day...usually 2 sets of 25. Especially before i go to sleep. I also do push-ups the guy way instead of the girlie way. I feel absolutely nothing when i do it the girl way (probably because i'm doing it wrong, lol). Try doing 25 in one set or just do as many as you can but try to make it a point to do 50 a day.  Your shoulder blades will be soar as well as your triceps but after a while that will subside because your muscles will be getting stronger....which is exactly what you need to serve that volleyball! :-)

Answer 3

I find many people who think that they can't hit hard because they don't have good enough strength.  Once, I even saw a guy asking how to develope fast twitching muscle for faster arm swing.  Do the major league pitchers have the strongest arms in the world?  Most likely not but they do have the best ball throwing or arm-swinging technique.

Strength training is important but no matter how strong you are, if you don't have good technique, you won't make good use of your strength.  If you are a JV v-ball player, I'm pretty sure you're already strong enough.

You should talk to your coach and see if you're using the right technique to serve.  Once, I helped a girl who couldn't hit the ball over the net.  She was one of the taller and stronger players in her college club team.  With a few adjustments, her problem was resolved.

When you're hitting the ball, you're trying to transfer the energy from your body to the ball through the contact point.

Primary contact area should be the heel of your palm.  Try to make good solid contact with the ball and also put your weight into it.  Don't slap or push the ball but hit it clean.

Whatever your error is, work more on the technique than strength.  Good Luck.

Answer 4

A good way to strengthen not just your arms but your wrists as well is to get a small ball like a baseball or tennis ball and just hold your arm out and let go but then quickly grab the ball again. Repeat this for a while. you can even do it while watching TV or doing other things

Answer 5

If you want to do exercise without weights, you can do push-ups, sit-ups, jogging, and regular practice with the team or with a friend or two. Most of your benefits will be gained from practice and focusing on technique. I played for years, beach, club, college, USVBA, and I played with a lot of players, and most of the best ones just had great technique from years of practice. And some were just talented and there arm speed had more to do with hitting and serving than strength.

Some things to remember when serving, make sure you follow through after you make contact.

Another thing, learn different serves and accuracy. I am 6'3" and in my prime had a 38" vertical, and I used a floater serve more than half of the time, for several reasons. One I could place it in about any spot on the court within about 3 to 5 feet. I almost always hit it in, because you can't score while serving if you don't hit it in, and with players jump serving so much players are pretty good at passing them. And it is good to stand and hit a top spin serve and mix it up with floaters, and disguise them. A lot of times if some one thinks you're going to serve a top spin which will drop and you serve a floater it will float toward their body or high and mess up their pass.

Anyway, practice a lot, and good luck.