Experts in hockey training advise that players not be on the ice during the summer months. They recommend that players return to the ice in the weeks before training camp. In addition, nutrition plays a very essential role. Click Here for more on the best nutrition tips for hockey players. Many believe riding a bike is the best way to develop your energy system for hockey players. Some others, such as me, combine a variety of methods to help hockey players become fitter, faster, and more resilient to injury.
Bike Workouts
You can also add land-based agility training, track or hill workouts, and even some bicycling to your skating sessions. What is the difference? It doesn’t matter if they bike only or not, as long as they are getting fitter. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that hockey players shouldn’t ride the bike. My hockey players have been known to ride the bike during summer but not every day. It is a fantastic tool that you can use throughout the season.
Skating in the off-season has the advantage of allowing the player to rest their groins after a hard workout. This can be used to encourage the use of the bike as a training tool. You will notice when someone is bicycling that their legs stay parallel to the pedals. This indicates that the movement is in a sagittal plane. This is a great way to show that cycling won’t stretch your groins like skating.
Barbell Bench Press
This is what you instantly thought of when reading the title of this article. This is why you clicked through to the article. The athlete lies flat on their back, with their feet flat on a bench, and presses a barbell to their elbows. This variation could be used in strength training for hockey goalies. This is a valid question if the athlete will be subject to bench pressing at training camp. This is only part of my pre-season testing.
The strength gained from this exercise can’t be transferred to the ice because it requires minimal stability through the core or hips. We are not trying to gain strength that can be used on the ice. It is not about building dumb muscles in the gym that will make you unable to play hockey.
Dumbbell Press on Stability Ball
We are now talking! Let’s get technical! When I think about a dumbbell bench press on a stability ball, I’m not only thinking of the anterior deltoid, pecs, and triceps. Thomas Myers’ book Anatomy Trains describes the fascial connections. It’s amazing to see the connection between your groins, your chest muscles, and your chest muscles. Imagine the link in goaltending when you do one of those amazing gloves saves and then go down into a split position. Stretch on your groin, stretch out on your abs, stretch up on your chest, shoulder, and chest, but not injury!…