When you spend time around volleyball players, you quickly learn that a large percentage of them deal with knee pain. This is not all that surprising when you watch a volleyball practice and see the number of jumps an athlete performs. This crazy amount of daily stress on the joints leads to many volleyballers developing tendonitis in their knees.
Jumping less is not a practical solution for these athletes. Instead, here are five tips athletes can use to help reduce/prevent knee pain during their volleyball season:
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Warm up properly
The first, and easiest, solution to prevent knee pain is to simply warm up properly. Tendons, just like muscles, benefit from the body being warmed up and stretched, prior to more explosive movements. This is especially true if there is already trauma to the tissue.
A good warm up will last 10-15 minutes and should bring the athlete’s temperate up (they should be sweating lightly). It’s also important to activate the muscles around the knee by performing exercises such as – lunges, single leg hip bridges, single leg deadlifts, etc.
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Take care of the tissue around the knee
Another simple solution to knee pain is to take care of the tissue around the knee. When the patella tendon is pulled left or right, due to muscular imbalances or alignment issues, it is much more likely to get injured. To help the knee track properly, athletes should ensure the tissue around the knee is properly mobilized. It’s recommended to foam roll the front and back of the thighs, the calf muscles, and to take a lacrosse ball to the bottom of the feet at least once a day.
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Strengthen the posterior chain
Most people, in general, are lacking strength in their posterior chain (muscle on the backside of their bodies). Volleyball players lacking in this strength will need to rely more on their quads/knees for jumping and landing. By strengthening the glutes and hamstrings, athletes can balance this stress better. Exercises such as deadlifts, hip thrusts, and legs curls are great options to build up the backside of the body.
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Strength train using full range of motion
Using full range of motion improves joint mobility and stability, both of which decrease stress on the patella tendon in the knee. In almost all cases, using less weight through a full range of motion will deliver far superior results, opposed to using more weight with a shorter range of motion.
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Improve landing technique
Perhaps, the most obvious solution for knee pain is to improve an athlete’s landing technique. By landing softer, an athlete can greatly reduce the amount of shock the knee will experience. One simple cue to focus on is to land as quietly as possible.