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1- Department of Sports Injury and Corrective Exercises, University of Guilan, Guilan, Iran
Abstract: (29 Views)
Purpose: Volleyball is a high-demand sport characterized by repetitive jumping, rapid changes of direction, overhead actions, and frequent landing tasks, which expose athletes to a considerable risk of injury. Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether a structured volleyball-specific injury-prevention warm-up program could reduce injury incidence and improve Volleyball Functional Movement Screen (VFMS) performance in male players competing in the Iranian Premier Volleyball League.
Methods: This quasi-experimental pretest–posttest study was conducted on 72 male volleyball players competing in the Iranian Premier Volleyball League. Participants were allocated to an intervention group, which completed a 9-week progressive injury-prevention warm-up program, or a control group, which continued their regular warm-up routine. Injury occurrence was recorded using the FIVB Medical Injury Report Form, and functional movement was assessed using the VFMS before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using mixed-model ANOVA and related statistical tests, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05.
Results: Both groups showed significant improvements over time in total VFMS scores and in upper-extremity, trunk, and lower-extremity domains; however, no significant group-by-time interactions were observed. Likewise, the intervention did not result in significant between-group differences in injury incidence, injury distribution, injury mechanism, injury severity, or injured body region. The ankle and knee were the most frequently injured body regions in both groups.
Conclusion: Among male Iranian Premier Volleyball League players, the 9-week volleyball-specific warm-up program did not demonstrate a statistically significant advantage over routine warm-up practices in reducing injuries or improving functional movement performance. Although both groups showed improvements over time, these changes were not significantly different between groups and therefore cannot be attributed to the intervention. Accordingly, the present findings do not support the effectiveness of this warm-up program as a standalone injury-prevention strategy in this specific population and should not be generalized to other athlete populations.
Methods: This quasi-experimental pretest–posttest study was conducted on 72 male volleyball players competing in the Iranian Premier Volleyball League. Participants were allocated to an intervention group, which completed a 9-week progressive injury-prevention warm-up program, or a control group, which continued their regular warm-up routine. Injury occurrence was recorded using the FIVB Medical Injury Report Form, and functional movement was assessed using the VFMS before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using mixed-model ANOVA and related statistical tests, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05.
Results: Both groups showed significant improvements over time in total VFMS scores and in upper-extremity, trunk, and lower-extremity domains; however, no significant group-by-time interactions were observed. Likewise, the intervention did not result in significant between-group differences in injury incidence, injury distribution, injury mechanism, injury severity, or injured body region. The ankle and knee were the most frequently injured body regions in both groups.
Conclusion: Among male Iranian Premier Volleyball League players, the 9-week volleyball-specific warm-up program did not demonstrate a statistically significant advantage over routine warm-up practices in reducing injuries or improving functional movement performance. Although both groups showed improvements over time, these changes were not significantly different between groups and therefore cannot be attributed to the intervention. Accordingly, the present findings do not support the effectiveness of this warm-up program as a standalone injury-prevention strategy in this specific population and should not be generalized to other athlete populations.
Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Sport injury and corrective exercises
Received: 2026/06/10 | Accepted: 2026/08/23
Received: 2026/06/10 | Accepted: 2026/08/23
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This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC-By-NC 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
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