To kick off my inquiry project I am jumping right into the weight room and looking at volleyball specific exercises! Over the next couple of posts I will be laying out a chest/tricep workout, back/bicep workout, shoulder workout, and leg workout that caters to volleyball and the specific skills and movements patterns that take place in this sport. In order to do this efficiently, I have spent time looking into resources and talking with some professionals about what exercises are effective and why.

Some of the resources I used when researching volleyball strength training were:

• The Art of Coaching Volleyball – this is a very well-known and respected community of high level volleyball coaches and players who post tips for everything from strength training to drills to mental preparation to strategy and more. Some the people who are active in this community include Karch Kirlay (Mens USA National Team coach), Russ Rose (the coach of Penn State), John Dunning (coach of Stanford and 5 time national champion), and more.
• Volleyball Training 101 – Contains many articles with overall health and performance tips but also specific volleyball related articles written by kinesiology graduates that special in strength and performance training.
• Reid’s Workouts – Reid Hall is a former national player and now dedicates his time to training elite university level teams and individual athletes. He has an honours degree in kinesiology and health sciences from York University and is a 4 time winner of the Sports Excellence Award. He is well respected and very knowledgable in volleyball and strength training.

After diving into some of these resources I put together a workout plan with my coach that I then performed at the gym. My workout plan for “chest/tricep day” consisted of:

• Dumbbell chest press – 4 sets of 8 reps
• Dumbbell pullovers – 4 sets of 8 reps
• Incline dumbbell chest press – 4 sets of 8 reps
• Chest flys – 4 sets of 8 reps
• Pushups – 3 sets of 10 reps
• Dips – 3 sets of 8 reps
• Tricep rope extensions – 3 sets of 10 reps
• Skull crushers – 3 sets of 12 reps

Training chest is vital for volleyball players. There is many benefits to training chest such as strengthened back muscles, stability and injury prevention, and the ability to perform swinging movements harder and faster. Overall this workout went really well for me and I am excited to see the benefits that come from it!

Photo Credits: Header photo by Danielle Cerullo on Unsplash