After the two previous posts about off-season hockey development, it’s clear that every player needs to follow a good training program!
Off-Season Hockey Leads You to Surgery?
With all the people/companies out there offering training programs, I thought I’d give you a list of things to ask about when considering your off-season training options. A quality hockey training program should include:
1) Soft-tissue work (foam roller, lacrosse/tennis ball, medicine ball) for the muscles around the hips, shoulder blades, and chest
2) Static stretching for specific hockey-related “tight” spots
3) A well-designed dynamic warm-up with multi-planar mobility exercises for the ankle, hip, and thoracic spine.
4) Linear and lateral speed work
5) Double-leg, single-leg, and full body power work
6) Strength training, including single-leg exercise, dissociated upper body exercises, and dynamic core exercises (in linear, rotational, diagonal, and anti-movement patterns)
7) Hockey-specific conditioning, using various implements (e.g. shuttle runs, slideboards, sleds, etc.), and following an interval training progression (avoid steady state aerobic exercise!)
If the training program you’re following has ALL of these things, you’re probably on the right track. If it doesn’t, sign in to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com and ask everyone if they know of a good hockey training center in your area.
Keep training hard!
Kevin Neeld