What muscles should I focus on strengthening for volleyball?

Question

Many people tell me your core (abs) is the main part you need to strengthen quite a bit, with legs of course. But, is there any one that I should really focus on? Should I get my abs the strongest, my legs, my arms? Thanks =]

Answer 1

abs, legs, arms, but shoulders also... holding your arms out strait while watiting for a serve can tell you that. my shoulders would be so sore until i finally built them enough to handle the physical movements.

Answer 2

Volleyball is an intense sport. You need to train the whole body.

Legs are obviously important for quickness, stability, and leaping. Plyometrics, sprints, running stadium steps and lifting weights are great leg exercises.

Abdominal muscles are critical for hitting and blocking.

The arm isn't designed for extended overhead repetitive motions (such as hitting and serving), so make sure your shoulders are strong enough for what you plan to do (put spin on serves, hit down the line). Weight lifting  and weighted jumpropes are good ways to strengthen your arms. Make sure you alternate days of upper body weights and lower body weights to allow recovery time for the trained regions.

Ankles are very commonly injured in volleyball, make sure you work on the flexibility and strength of your ankles. Being flexible can save you serious injury and lost playing time.

Volleyball is a total package sport. If you are weak in any of these areas, your strengths in the others will not prevent injury or diminished performance from the weaknesses.

Answer 3

I would say thighs and shoulders.  They are really what you use in volleyball!  Abs I wouldn't start yet.  Try doing some wall sits and lunges for the thighs.

Answer 4

your main focus needs to be your abs then your legs. your arms can be up there too but arent as important. the biggest thing is the abs because if you block or hit, you curl at the waist to get the most down force. your arms kinda just go with it.

you need your legs to get your maximum jump but once you make contact you need to contract and curl your entire mid section down as hard and fast as you can to get the most pop off of your spike! good luck!

Answer 5

well, i'm researched this quite extensively. i would say legs and abs are priority, but so is the shoulders, more specifically the rotator cuff. i recommend weight lifting and doing plyometrics if your the appropriate age. thats what i am doing myself right now. www.bodybuilding.com has some great articles on vertical jumping and how to obtain it. i reccommend you follow of their program or a similar one as vertical jumping is key. hope this helps

Answer 6

You should definitely work on your abs. If you are not a great jumper, you should focus on your legs. And if you have weak arms or a weak serve/bump/volley, then you should focus on your arms.

But really, you should do a whole body workout, just to be strong.

Answer 7

you should work on arms and legs and abs!!! there all use in differnt parts of the game. you need strong legs for jumping and being able to get low for a long period of time. you need  not a whole lot of arms but you need them to serve! you need abs to hit and to sever!!! very important!!!!! just be in shpae we run a lot in school to train for season

Answer 8

Focus on your legs, and STRETCHING, keeping things loose will help prevent injury. Upper body strength is important, but if you over do it you'll bulk up too much and be top heavy which doesn't help vertical. Hamstrings and quads (think wall sits/squats/lunges/stair climbing). If you strengthen your abdominals and lower back which all connect to the hamstring and quads, you create a great core to expode up. That's why a lot of people with lower back problems have tight hamstrings, or weak abdominals, which puts extra strain on the lower back.

Answer 9

Yeah you are right: abs, legs, and arms. Also it depends..if your vertical isn't that good then you should work on legs..like that. Or if you have a weak serve work on arms.

Answer 10

i honestly think shoulder (lifting weights) if by far the most important for your serve and spike so you can get a good swing a hit. and your rotators cuff which is in the shoulder make sure this is strong and gets a good stretch a bad stretch could lead to over extending it, that is what i did and couldnt serve for weeks. legs (calves, thighs) are important for speed and jumping. abs are still very important 1.to be in shape and 2. for when you block squeezing your abs makes your arms higher. hope that helps

Answer 11

well arms the srongest then abs then legs but they alll need to be strong

Answer 12

defintely ur calf muscles on ur legs - for jumpig 2 block-spike-or serve

and ur biceps and triceps- for hitting the ball spiking &serving

Answer 13

It really depends on yourself... if u know u got strong muscles in a particular spot then u know not to try and strengthen them any more...

The muscle i would say to strengthen is your legs especially your thighs... as you need to keep your legs bent most of the time so u get a quick reaction time...

thats just from my view

Answer 14

definitely your arms, you want to be toned every were but I focus on my arms during Volleyball season so i can kill someone with the ball when I hit!

Answer 15

abs are extremely important.  also work on your shoulders and quads.

Answer 16

the most important part is the legs. when you set or anything else, your legs are the ones that is forcing the ball to go over the net.