If you are like most volleyball players, you’ve experienced your fair share of lower back pain while playing. Generally, this pain is the result of overuse. Whether it’s from a 2 ½ hour practice or an all-weekend tournament, the muscles of the lower back can become irritated from repetitive arm swinging and jumping.
Below are three strategies you can use to prevent lower back pain while you are playing volleyball:
Strengthen Your Core:
Every athlete has been told they need a strong core, but many might not know why. The function of the core is to efficiently transfer power between the upper and lower body, and to stabilize the spine.
When an athlete goes through the repetitive motions of serving and hitting, over the course of weeks and months, she may begin to experience tightness and soreness of the lower back. This is a good sign that the muscles of her lower back are being fatigued and need a rest.
Strengthening the core can help prevent this from happening by improving the strength and endurance of these muscles. A strong muscle not only generates more force, it also can withstand more stress before becoming overworked and sore.
Some good exercises to strengthen the core are squats, deadlifts, lunges, and planks.
Improve Hip and Shoulder Mobility:
The goal of improving hip and shoulder mobility is to reduce the amount of motion the lower back needs to create. When serving and attacking, athletes need to open up and extend their hand over their head. Ideally, most of this motion comes from the hips and the upper back/shoulder region. When this doesn’t happen the lower back will hyperextend, to compensate. This can put unnecessary stress on lower back muscles and the spine.
For an adult athlete, it’s generally a good idea to spend a few minutes everyday going through a quick stretching routine for their hips and shoulders. This should help maintain or improve the athlete’s mobility and reduce injuries.
However, teen athletes very rarely lack flexibility (passive range of motion) in their bodies. Instead, any lack of mobility in their hips and shoulders is often the result of poor muscle coordination. Essentially, they have not learned to move using the proper muscles/areas of their body. For these athletes, performing a well-planned strength and conditioning program, using proper technique, will have the most benefit on their mobility.
Take Care of Your Feet and Lower Legs:
When an athlete lands from a jump, she can experience forces equivalent to 3-5 times her bodyweight – that’s 450-750lb for a 150lb athlete. Considering the number of jumps an average volleyball player performs in a day, that stress can really add up.
To help dampen this stress, it’s important for athletes to take care of their feet and lower legs. This is the part of the body that first meets the ground, and must begin absorbing the force of a landing, to reduce excessive stress further up the body. Just imagine what hitting a pothole would feel like if your car didn’t have shock absorbers.
A little calf and foot massage can go a long way towards keeping an athlete’s “shock absorbers” performing well. Along with using their hands, athletes can also use a foam roller or a lacrosse ball to massage these areas.