Excellent physical performance is crucial to being a successful athlete, especially in sports as aggressive and demanding as ice hockey. However, players new to the game likely aren’t equipped with enough knowledge to successfully train on their own – which is potentially more detrimental than not training at all.
As ineffective training methods are potentially worse than idleness, we decided to outline all the crucial hockey workouts at home for hockey players should get started in.
Sample workouts:
It’s worth noting that the hockey workouts described in this article contain elements of generic training programs, which will increase your overall fitness and make you more powerful on your ice hockey skates. However, if you’re tied to a specific team role, e.g., defensemen, you’re likely to benefit more from role-specific training. So, with that out of the way, let’s discuss everyone’s least favorite but most important workout – cardio.
The Importance of Cardio
Cardio workouts are meant to increase your aerobic fitness, allowing you to skate, ski, jog or run for extended periods at a moderate pace without getting too tired. However, the implementation of cardio into your workout routine is crucial because your body’s adaptive response is greater for the type of exercise you finish your workout with. In short, if you’re building muscle, run first; and if your building endurance, do cardio at the end of your training session.
Hockey Workouts At Home
Though not effective as training in the gym, at-home workouts can still yield fantastic results. We strongly recommend that you start your at-home routine with warm-up/cardio such as wind sprints and explosive running.
Next, you should focus on pull/push workouts. Push-ups and chin-ups will help you develop upper body strength, while squats do wonders for your legs. Just keep in mind that legs include large muscle groups which thrive under high-intensity training.
Lastly, you can focus on your stickhandling drills as a part of your at-home routine to keep you prepared for the next hockey season. Repetitions mater (Repetition is the mother of all learning) is an old Latin saying that applies in ice hockey. Repeating stickhandling drills throughout the year will make you more comfortable when stickhandling during the match.
In-Gym Hockey Workouts
Gym training is often more effective due to a sheer number of specific muscle targeting equipment, which allows for a broader range of training methods. Still, as with home training, we suggest you incorporate cardio training into your in-gym hockey workout routine, which also consists of push and pull exercises.
The bench press is a fantastic upper-body workout, which mainly emphasizes chest muscles. Squats are the lower-body equivalent of bench press, which will turn your legs into logs and provide much-needed muscle strength and control necessary for skating.
Deadlifts are an exceptional strength-building exercise that focuses on your upper and lower back muscles, as well as your core, quads, hamstrings, glutes, and hip flexors. Truly exceptional. If you pair it with Hang Cleans, a compound series of strength-building movements, you’ll significantly increase your overall fitness.
A Simple Push/Pull Routine
Push/pull routines are a simple and effective way of getting a balanced workout, whether in the gym or at home. They’re less time consuming and more effective at preventing injury and muscle imbalance, but they work best when you implement them as supersets, as follows:
- Push-ups followed by pull-ups (3 sets, 8-15 reps each set)
- Squats followed by deadlift (3 sets, 8-15 reps each set)
- Triceps followed by biceps curl (3 sets, 8-15 reps each set)
Rest And Recovery
Every successful athlete understands the importance of rest – which hides in the depth of muscle growth biomechanics. Exercise creates microscopic tears in your muscle tissue, which is repaired during rest. This mechanism helps the tissue heal and grow, resulting in a stronger and better functioning muscle.
Conclusion
By building up your aerobic and anaerobic fitness, you effectively increase your performance, which is specifically important for all athletes. For the most part, hockey players should focus on aerobic training for better endurance and sustained effort.
Training on skates is elemental, but the benefits of “off rink” training are too great to miss. Just don’t forget to include proper nutrition and dieting into your fitness plan, as it can significantly increase the effectiveness of your physical effort in the gym.
I hope this article help to know all the necessary information about hockey workouts at home. Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts!
