The Importance of Active Stretching During Warm Up

April 13, 2016

Needless to say that warm up activities plays a key role in volleyball as well as many other sports. The warm up period provides a volleyball player with the perfect opportunity to prepare his/her body either for the match or training classes properly. Obviously, every volleyball player should warm up well prior to practice and game.

It’s no surprise that stretching is the major part of warm up programs in the sport of volleyball. Today, we are going to explain readers why it is so important for athletes to do stretching exercises during warm up before a volleyball match. Moreover, we will tell you about the specific benefits of doing active stretches during volleyball warm up.

Top Benefits of a Proper Volleyball Warm Up

Volleyball players should start warming up 30 to 45 minutes before the match or practice. Performing warm up prior to the game or practice allows volleyball players maximize their physical activity dramatically. During the warm up period volleyball players should do special exercises which hit all major muscle groups of a body.

Warm up gives volleyball players a good chance to practice serving, blocking, passing, defense and setting skills. Such well-known exercises as ankle flips, Russian kicks, over-unders, handwalks and scorpion are actively used by volleyball players for warm up purposes. There are also a lot of effective volleyball warm up drills and games.

Among the top benefits of doing warm up exercises for volleyball are increased body temperature, increased muscle temperature, increased blood temperature, improved blood circulation, increase in flexibility, improved range of motion, increased muscle coordination, increased the secretion of hormones, more effective body cooling, dilated blood vessels, increased explosive power, increased mental focus as well as mental preparation.

It goes without saying that warm up is incredibly important to volleyball players. It is worth noting that stretching during warm up helps volleyball players improve their performance dramatically and demonstrate much better results during the game. Obviously, doing warm up exercises allows volleyball players to avoid injuries.

Top Benefits of Doing Stretches during Volleyball Warm Up

– Stretches help volleyball players reduce tensions in muscles and prepare a body for the game. It’s important to know that a player’s muscles are usually very tense he/she gets started with physical activity. Actually, it is the main cause of common volleyball injuries.

So, volleyball players should never start a game or training classes until they warm their muscles and joints well enough. Doing stretches during warm up always results in reducing tension in volleyball player’s muscles. This also helps volleyball players minimize the risks of getting injured during the game.

– Stretches help volleyball players prevent injuries during the game. A volleyball player makes various movements during the game. These include digging, lunging, spiking as well as squatting. There is evidence that these movements negatively affect the player’s joints. So, in order to prevent any kind of injuries during a game a volleyball player has to get ready to it.

Without a doubt, it is a good idea to do dynamic stretches during warm up for volleyball. Performing dynamic stretches of different styles has a huge positive impact on player’s muscles and joints. Dynamic stretches help volleyball players prepare a body for the volleyball-specific movements and avoid injuries during the game.

– Stretches allow volleyball players to move faster during the game. Active stretches during warm up helps volleyball players be more dynamic. Doing stretches during warm up helps volleyball player prepare their body and muscles for volleyball-specific movements successfully. As a result, volleyball players are very fast and perform well during the game.

– Stretches increase muscle coordination significantly. If muscles of a volleyball player are well-coordinated, he/she will perform well on the court. In order to perform all the necessary movements during the game properly a player’s muscles must work well together. Doing stretches increases muscle coordination, make the body work more effectively and reduces the risk of getting injuries.

– Doing stretches during warm up leads to improved blood circulation. Stretches have a positive influence on the blood vessels and increase blood temperature. After performing stretches blood circulation increases as well. Improved blood circulation has a positive impact on player’s endurance. When blood circulation increases muscles start getting more nutrients and that’s why a body can demonstrate much better performance during the game.

– Stretches help volleyball players activate their muscles for the game and demonstrate more effective results. The main objective of doing stretches is to stretch and warm muscles of a volleyball player properly. So, if you do stretching exercises during warm up you will manage to activate your muscles for the game successfully. Such stretches as dives, extensions, rolls and sprawls must be definitely included in warm up program for volleyball.

Players are recommended to perform both dynamic stretches and static stretches during the warm up period. The largest benefit of doing static stretches is that they allow volleyball players to increase the range of motion of their muscles. Performing static stretches helps make tight muscles more elastic. Dynamic stretches also help volleyball players be active on the court.

– Stretches provide volleyball players with energy they need during the game. Obviously, a volleyball player needs energy to demonstrate excellent performance during the game. Doing stretching exercises is an effective way to increase energy levels before the game of volleyball.

– Active stretching during warm up helps volleyball players improve their strength. There is no doubt that volleyball players must be very strong in order to demonstrate excellent results during the game. That means that athletes also have to work hard to improve their long-term strength. A big advantage of doing stretching exercises during warm up regularly is that they train muscles effectively and also lead to much better strength and flexibility.

– Stretching exercises during warm up make a body more flexible. Volleyball players must be very flexible. That means that exercises for better flexibility have to be the part of their training program and warm up.

It is important to note that volleyball players can improve their body flexibility dramatically while warming up and getting ready to matches and practices. All that they need to do is to include stretching exercises in their warm up and always do them when getting ready to the match or practice. Stretches have a positive influence on the body flexibility and allow volleyball players to demonstrate excellent performance during the game.

Those volleyball players, who want to improve their flexibility, should definitely focus on performing static stretches during warm up. It is also reasonable to perform this type of stretches during the cool-down phases. Such exercises help players continue warming their body and muscles. Keep in mind that ballistic stretches should be avoided by volleyball players. The point is that stretches of this kind involve doing quick repetitive movements which can lead to injuries.

What Types of Stretches Volleyball Players Should Do During Warm Up

During the warm up prior to the match or practice every volleyball player must stretch the following muscle groups in the body: hip flexors, quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes, adductors, abdomen, low back, posterior shoulder, anterior shoulder and chest.

As it was mentioned above, there are different styles of volleyball stretches. During the warm up period volleyball players have to focus on doing such stretching exercising as bar ducks, hand walks, forward and side leg swings from a standing position, shoulder rolls as well as walking forward lunges.

Light cardio and arm swings will certainly become a good addition to your warm program. Swinging arms in random directions helps prepare muscles of arms for the game as well.

Obviously, you need to stretch your quads well enough before the game of volleyball. The best way to do this is to combine jogging with performing butt kicks. Volleyball players can also do jogging with high knees during warm up. It is worth noting that doing this kind of stretching exercises helps players stretch and warm hamstrings and hip flexors properly before the game.