Volleyball Exercises

Core training for volleyball strength and explosive power

It's very important to warm up before performing intense volleyball exercises. 

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Warm Up Volleyball Exercises

You can start an easy warm up by doing the jump rope or light jogging for 3 to 5 minutes. This helps elevate the core temperature and increase the heart rate. 

1. Ball balancing 

Next, do a more specific warm up to warm up the joints and prepare you for more challenging volleyball exercises. 

Balance on a balance ball. Go for a minute. Get on the ball and balance on your knees, shins, and hands. Keep the back nice and straight. Keep your abs pulled in or engaged. 

Once you get comfortable balancing on all fours, you can move to a position of to upright your torso. This isn't easy. Keep back straight with shoulder over hips. 

2. Standing rotation 

Hold the ball in front of you and have your belly button face where the ball turns. Belly button always points towards the ball. Knees are bent and always stay bent as you rotate. 

Keep back nice and straight with belly button pulled in. 

3. Wood Chops 

Do 20 times. Keep back straight and only bend at the waist. Knees stay bent except at the top of the move. Abs are tight and inline with the hips. 

4. Back lunges with opposite arm up 

As you step back, keep front knee over the ankle and tracking over the toe. Both legs are at a right angle and shoulders will stay over your hips. Abs are engaged the whole time to warm up the back and protect it from injury. As you extend the opposite arm up, extend and engage your shoulder muscles to warm up even more. 

On the last repetitions, do the yoga pose warrior one by extending your arms up. This stretches the front side of your spine and abdominal muscles. Be sure to do both sides. Keep back leg as straight as you can with arms extended up overhead. Pull your stomach in to support the spine. 

5. Arm Circles (palms down) 

Extend arms and with palms down. Rotate forward making small circles with your hands with thumbs pointed forward. Abs are tight, shoulders are over hips, chest is up and out. 

6. Arm Circles (palms up) 

After you do 10, put your palms up. Keep a straight spine and neutral back. 

Always make sure you perform a proper warm up and cool down every time you workout. 

Volleyball Exercises for Warm Up

Basic level exercises for training the lower body

7. Multi-directional lunges 

Movements in most sports don't just happen in a front to back motion. You want your volleyball exercises to involve movements that improve strength in diagonal patterns and lateral patterns. On the lateral lunge, you really want to focus on the hip sitting back. Knee is tracking forward over the foot. Hips sitting back with a neutral spine. Progress this exercise to holding weight. 

First, just start with your own body weight. Then progress to add weight. Be sure to use perfect technique through full range of motion before you advance. Stomach is nice and tight with upper body staying erect. 

You can use a plate for resistance or dumbbells. You don't want to round your posture. Shoulders stay back over the hips. 

Variations of lunges... 

Walking lunges. Keep nice wide angles in the legs. 

Diagonal lunge curl and press. 

Back lunge and resistance band fly. 

Lateral lunge and punch. 

Squats 

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8. Squats on one leg. The advantage is you don't need to put heavy weights on your back to perform this movement. 

The back is often the weak link in squatting. When squatting, be sure the knee is always tracking over the 2nd toe. Shoulders should always stay over the hips. 

9. Squats on one leg with dumbbells. Add weight when you are stronger. Arms just hang with shoulders over hips. Keep a nice right angle on the front leg. 

Other variations of squats... 

Cable squats with arm extension. 

Cable squat row. 

Step ups. 
The motion of step ups replicate the motion of the slide attack. You're stepping off the back foot and pushing down through the heel. Knee is tracking over the ankle. 

As you get stronger, add dumbbells for added resistance. Belly button drawn in. 

10. Step ups with curl to press. This involves a lot of balance. 

11. Step ups with one arm curl to press. This makes things even more uneven. Core is working really hard just to stabilize. Knees are tracking towards 2nd toe. 

12. Dumbbell dead lifts 
Good spine alignment to help support the lower back. At the bottom of the movement, imagine pushing the floor away to engage the stomach muscles. There's a slight knee bend with feet inline with your hips. A progression for dead lifts is the dumbbell with curl to press. This is very advanced. This really engages the hamstrings and challenges the biceps. 

This exercise could also be done on a core board. 

13. Dumbbell dead lift on stability board. This exercise challenges the core muscles of the lower back. This exercise is very important for jumping. 

14. Hip extension with hamstring curl on stability ball. Bridge on a stability ball keeping a straight line from knee to hips to shoulder. Engage the hamstrings as you pull the ball toward you. 

As you bring the ball to you, continue to keep knee, hips, and shoulders in a straight line. Progress to one leg hip extension. With hamstring curl on stability ball the hips stay up and in a straight line. 

Can also use a bench instead of a stability ball. Dig the heel into the bench and lift up your hips. 

All these volleyball exercises can be used to dramatically improve your vertical jump.