Volleyball is a fun sport that you can keep playing for many hours with your friends without getting bored! However, there are couple issues that come with that, indeed …
Playing volleyball can potentially hurt your arms especially if you are a beginner because they have yet to learn the right ways to hit the ball with minimum impact on their hands. They also need some time to develop enough tolerance to pain that comes with hitting the ball multiples times during practices.
In this article, I breakdown in details more reasons that could potentially hurt your arms while playing volleyball. As well as some clever and easy ways to avoid that efficiently.
Reasons why does volleyball hurt your arms …
There are many reasons why your arms hurt after playing volleyball. Let’s take a look at some of them …
- Rotator Cuff Tendinitis: While serving or spiking, the rotator cuff muscles are heavily used to generate the needed power to move the shoulder. Though these muscles rarely get completely torn in younger players, they still tend to get irritated or fatigued due to overuse. Usually, rest and physical therapy should help eliminate the pain.
- Finger injuries: Fingers are the most vulnerable to injury. Indeed, actions such as blocking, setting, and digging can lead to injuries that, later one, can cause pain in the arms as well. Common finger injuries include dislocations, fractures, ligament and tendon tears. If you are unable to bend your finger after playing volleyball, it is best to consult a doctor at the earliest.
- Shoulder internal impingement: Internal impingement of the shoulder can happen due to using improper techniques while serving or spiking the ball. It can even happen from the extensive overuse of the arm, even while following the proper technique. Since volleyball players repetitively place their arms into extreme positions, the motion may lead to excessive stretching in the front part of the shoulder over a period of time.
Helpful Tip: In case you are fairly new to volleyball, it is highly recommended to use arm sleeves to help minimize arm pain until you can get fully used to it. For example, those arm sleeves are of a decent quality and will make you feel little to no pain when hitting the ball.
Does volleyball ball quality affect your arms?
Using a lower-quality volleyball can impact your game and also increase arm pain quite a bit! Indeed, approved balls by professional organizations, have a very strict standard of material quality (Check this example here at Amazon).
If you use a volleyball that does not have a smooth outer shell, it can cause the ball to veer off in an unexpected direction when it hits the floor. This can put the players in a difficult situation.
The smoothness of the outer shell ensures the ball will move in an anticipated way. This is especially important in an indoor volleyball setting.
The other thing that matters is the core, also known as the bladder. If the core is not done properly, it will not allow the ball to fly smoothly through in the air…
The players will have to put in a lot of extra effort to work the ball and will end up straining themselves. If the ball does not have a good core, you will find many players with red and sore arms.
How to protect your arms during volleyball games?
Volleyball needs maneuvering and hitting the ball with force with your hands and forearms. This can leave you with sore and reddened arms …
However, by using the correct body positioning techniques and avoiding some common mistakes, you can protect your arms while playing volleyball …
- Position yourself directly underneath the ball. Avoid stretching your arms out to meet the ball, as this will create unnecessary contact between the ball and the sensitive and tender inside of the forearms.
- Before hitting, squat with your legs kept slightly more than shoulder-width apart. When you make contact with the ball, this will ensure that the force is applied using your legs. Bending your legs will put you in the proper power position. If you use your arms instead to apply the force, it leads to redness and soreness.
- Hold out your arms in front of the body. Clasp your dominant hand over your non-dominant fist. Position your thumbs side by side and then extend your arms in front of you. Now make a slight bend in the elbows so that it will cushion the impact. Otherwise, you face the risk of elbow pain later.
- Try to make contact with the ball at the base of your thumbs instead of your forearm.
- Instead of smacking the ball and applying upward force from your arms, press downwards into your legs and straighten your body so that the force is applied through the legs and lower back. This will ensure you have more power behind the bump while protecting your arms from slapping at the ball.
How to help your arms recover after volleyball games?
Here are some tips on how to help recover and relieve volleyball soreness:
- Relax your muscles by slow and gradual stretching. Stretch each muscle just to an extent where you begin to feel the stretch. Then hold that position until you feel the muscle let go.
- Don’t bounce or force the muscle, as this will do more harm than good.
- Cooldown stretching should include both static and dynamic stretching exercises. Static stretching is good to rest tight muscles and also relaxes the muscles that turn off the nervous system.
- A good old-fashioned massage will increase your circulation and coax the muscles to relax. You can even consider going to a massage therapist. Even a self-massage can help your nerves and muscles relax, loosening up the muscles and helping blood flow back into the muscles. The purpose of self-massage is to soothe the irritated tissue, which produces a chemical response that begins the healing process.
- Self-massage with a foam roller can also help relieve muscle pain, increase blood flow, and soothe the nerves.
- Coldwater or ice breaks the pain or spasm cycle by increasing circulation and interfering with the pain signals. Ice also works as an excellent anti-inflammatory agent and greatly speeds up healing. Running your arm muscles under cold water for 5 to 10 minutes after a volleyball game can help a lot.
I highly invite you to learn more about the best practices to reduce volleyball soreness!
Volleyball moves that hurt arms the most …
There are some volleyball moves that have a higher rate of causing arm pain. This generally happens due to repetitive use and overload stress on your arms.
Serving is one of those moves where you try to give your team the advantage by putting on lot of power into your shot. Of course, this could potentially hurt your arms if done times and times again.
Yet, serving is not the move that will hurt your arms the most (especially, if you’ve past the beginner stage). Indeed …
- While serving you always have control of how much power you want to put in and how to execute the serve.
- If your arms can’t stand it anymore, you can always handover this task to other teammates.
However, spiking is totally different, you have little choice on how to execute it, because you have to adjust to the situation so you can win the point at that given moment. Otherwise, your team could lose that point.
So, even if your arms start feeling the pain you still have to put yourself in a situation where you can spike the ball and win points for your team. This could irritate your hands if those situations repeat themselves a ton.
Blocking is another move that could hurt but it usually hurts specifically your fingers.
Volleyball positions with the most arm soreness …
There are some positions in volleyball that usually have arm soreness issues (especially after intense games or practice sessions). These include …
- Opposite hitter
- Outside hitter
- Middle blocker
In fact, all these positions require players to be quick on their feet and quickly raise their arms above the net in a blocking attempt.
They also need to be able to jump high and be ready to adapt to different situations (while defending or attacking). This is why while playing in these positions you should be extra careful.
Keep in mind that the volleyball positions I’ve just mentioned are the ones that are also the most vulnerable to shoulder injuries. That’s why it is very important for them to tape their shoulders for maximum protection!
Final Thoughts …
The purpose of this article is not to discourage you or scare you about volleyball as a sport that could hurt your arms or cause injuries. The goal was simply to let you know about what’s possible and help you with some ideas on how to solve and even prevent that …
Indeed, people who fail doing so are generally more vulnerable to arm issues which usually hold them back from playing the sport at their full potential.
Finally, I highly invite you to check this article to avoid breaking your arms in volleyball! You will find that very useful …