Strength training for volleyball players: what the trials in players measured, the lifts and jumps, and a week by season

Strength training for volleyball players, in the research, is jump training and lifting added to a player's practice, and the main measure is how high the player jumps. This page covers adults. Where a meta-analysis mixes in younger players, it says so and doesn't carry the result over.

The sport's demands show up in the jumping. A 2026 systematic review of 28 studies of match-play loads found setters performed the greatest jump volumes, middle blockers and outside and opposite hitters performed the most high jumps (above 50 cm), and females performed more jumps but at lower heights.¹ Position and sex change the jump load, so scale the jump volume below to yours; that adjustment is practical, not from the review.

What the trials and reviews in volleyball players found

• Across 14 trials. A 2020 meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in healthy volleyball players, with no limits on age or sex, found plyometric jump training raised vertical jump height (effect size 0.82). The effect was 0.89 in players aged 19 or older and 0.70 in younger players, and larger in the female groups (1.3) than the male groups (0.5). There was no significant difference between programs of up to 8 weeks and longer ones, or between two sessions a week or fewer and more.²
• Across 18 studies. A 2021 meta-analysis of 746 amateur and professional volleyball players, of any age and sex, found small-to-moderate effects of jump training on sprint speed (0.70), squat jump (0.56), countermovement jump (0.80), drop jump (0.81) and spike jump height (0.84). Players aged 16 or older improved their countermovement jump more than players under 16.³
• Eight weeks of pre-season. 16 male Division I collegiate players were randomly divided into a squat-jump training group and a control group that did squats and leg presses at a 6-repetition-max load. The squat-jump group's vertical jump rose 5.9% and 6.3% on the two tests, significantly more than the control group's change; the authors named a faster rise of force as a main contributor.⁴
• 16 weeks in professionals. 18 professional female players trained for 16 weeks, 9 with weights alone and 9 with weights plus landmine exercises. Both groups improved on the deadlift and push-ups; the back squat reached significance in the landmine group only, and the countermovement jump improved more in the landmine group. That is one small trial, and the landmine work was a mix, so it doesn't say what any one exercise did.⁵

In these studies, jump training raised jump measures in the pooled trials, and in the one pre-season trial with a comparison group, squat jumps came out ahead of squats and leg presses. The week below keeps jumps and lifts together.

The lifts and jumps for volleyball players

The squat, deadlift and the jumps come from the studies above; the rest of the list is practical.

New to jumping? Plyometric exercises lists the jump progressions, and how to jump higher covers the vertical jump in detail, including volleyball. How to get stronger covers building up to heavy sets.

An off-season and an in-season week

A practical layout, not a protocol from a trial. The meta-analysis found no significant difference between two sessions a week or fewer and more,² and the trials ran 8 and 16 weeks,^4,5 so three lifting days off-season and two in season are my pick, not a finding.

In season the lifts are shorter and early in the week, and the jumps come first, when you're fresh. Cardio and lifting covers the order and the gap between sessions.

Volleyball workouts at home

Without weights you keep the jump half, the half both meta-analyses tested.^2,3 A practical home version: squat jumps, step-up jumps, hops and side-to-side bounds, split squats and lateral lunges with a loaded backpack, push-ups, and band rows. The bodyweight workout lays out a full session and the resistance band workout adds a band.

Common questions

How do I jump higher for volleyball?

Jump training raised vertical jump height in the 2020 meta-analysis and lifting with jumps raised it in the 8-week trial.^2,4 How to jump higher has the full list.

How many days a week should volleyball players lift?

The 2020 meta-analysis found no significant difference between two sessions a week or fewer and more,² so two or three is a practical range, and fewer in season.

Do women and men train differently?

Jump training helped both male and female groups, with a larger average effect in the female groups (1.3 against 0.5).² Those are averages of different trials, so don't read them as a head-to-head comparison. The 16-week lifting trial was in women.⁵

Is this for young players too?

This page is for adults. Both meta-analyses mixed in younger players and found larger gains in older ones,^2,3 and the trials above were in collegiate and professional players.^4,5

Training for another jumping or court sport? Basketball, tennis, baseball and dance each have a page.

If you'd rather have the week planned

Fitting lifts and jumps around practice, matches and a day job is a scheduling problem as much as a training one. Coaching here is general strength and fitness coaching, not volleyball coaching: your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one around what's coming. How coaching works explains it, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: put the Monday lift and jumps in next week, and keep them there for eight.