Objectives: The goal of our study was to decrease pain involving the shoulder-joint and thoracic spine region in professional volleyball players, aged 22-30 [n₁=25.9 years (±2.81)], who regularly participated in international volleyball contests.

Methods: The training program and the previous surveys were conducted at the BME Sports Complex in Budapest, Hungary. Date of the research: 01.05.2019-31.08.2019. Through 4 months we organised unique, 30 minutes long sessions for 10 participants (n₁=10), twice a week. We used special tests approved in the literature for the assessment of the shoulder, besides the study of pain involving the glenohumeral joint and thoracic spine with the help of the visual analogue scale (VAS). 42 participants (n₂=42) filled in a questionnaire adapted specifically for volleyball. We conducted follow-up measurements after the end of the trainings, the results of these justified the efficiency of the program.

Results: VAS results of the participants of the training sessions improved in case of the thoracic spine region (from 6.3 (±0.95) to 3.3 (±0.67) (p<0.001), and in the case of the dominant shoulder (from 7.4 (±1.43) to 3.4 (±0.84) (p<0.001). The most apparent change in the range of motion was observed in internal rotation in the case of the dominant hand (p=0.009). The interaction between stretching and pain in the thoracic spine region should be highlighted (r=0.418; p=0.006). According to our special tests, our training demonstrated positive effect on the side of the dominant hand in case of the Impingement-tests (p=0.007). Back pain showed an improvement of 3.3±0.675, and dominant shoulder pain also showed a decrease of 3.4±0.843, so it can be stated that there is a moderate positive correlation between the two values (r = 0.351; p=0.319).

Conclusions: Based on our results, we have shown that unique training sessions, approved in the literature, specifically aimed at volleyball players is efficient.