7 Hockey Player Workouts to Build Strength and Speed (2024)

FAQs

How many times a week should you do speed training for hockey? ›

Off-Season Sprint Training

As for the off-season, when you're talking about sprint training for hockey players, two to three times a week is enough to make sure you're making improvements in your speed.

Jump squats, one-leg hops, box jumps, and skater jumps are all examples of plyometric exercise. These exercises demand that your muscles contract to explode upwards and then cause a stretch as you land, the combination of which is highly effective in developing leg and stomach muscles and improving your hockey shape.

Also, he has a lot of strength in his legs, and it is clear from the way that he skates. When crossing over or taking strides, the 20-year-old is able to fully extend his foot off each skate, and can also dig into the ice and push harder as he goes forward.

Aim to shoot about 100 pucks a day, but if you have it in you, shoot even more than that. The more you shoot the better your shot will become, you will have better accuracy, more power, and a faster release which will all result in you scoring more goals. Remember to always practice with the proper technique.

Training for speed and agility is recommended for four times a week to acclimate your body and to develop muscle memory. While some days you may train harder than others, the most important factor in improvement is consistency.

Deadlifts and weighted squats are the best lifts for hockey players. Deadlifts help strengthen your upper body and core, whereas weighted squats help you gain lower body strength. These exercises strengthen muscles and prevent injuries that could occur commonly while playing hockey.

Every hockey player knows they need to have certain basic skills in order to be successful. They have to be able to skate well. They must able to handle the puck, give and receive passes. And of course, kids should know how to handle body contact and shoot the puck.

Barbell Rows

Doing a barbell row with proper technique will train your upper back, mid-back, lower back, hips, arms, grip, and core. This exercise is one of the best assistance exercises you can do to improve your bench press, squat, and deadlift — which all have significant carryover to your on-ice functional outputs.

The term “periodization” simply represents the process of organizing your training into phases. These phases are placed in a logical order for the purpose of optimizing your long-term hockey performance, avoiding psychological burnout, and preventing injury.

Hockey players are mesomorphic in structure. They are relatively lean since excess mass is detrimental to their skating performance. There is a large interindividual variability in VO2 during skating. Both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems are important during a hockey game.

How do squats help hockey players? ›

Hockey players usually have tight hips from skating, squatting can help increase hip mobility by going to full-depth. Increased vertical jump/sprint speed aka explosiveness: we know vertical jumps and sprints all require aspects of power.

Zdeno Chara holds the record at 108.8 mph.

Zdeno Chara has the record of the hardest shot in the NHL competition when he reached 108.8 mph in 2012. Chara at the time was a member of the Boston Bruins.

If you're initially rotating with your arms outstretched, then when you draw your arms inward, your moment of inertia decreases. This means that your angular velocity must increase, and you spin faster.

Creating a Daily Practice Routine

Have a dedicated place to shoot. Get 20 pucks and shoot 5 sets of 20 for 100 pucks in a day. This should take about 20 minutes given no distractions.

Athletes of all ages need to drink plenty of water every day. They need to consume 600-700 ML (20-24 oz.) prior to going on the ice.

In general, 100 to 200 milligrams of caffeine about an hour before you hit the ice can help to support focus and alertness.

There are quite a number of different studies that suggest that training in the late afternoon or early evening is the best time for most people. The reason for this has to do with muscle temperature, which reaches its peak around this time.

To run and move faster, you need your legs. Building strength in the quads, hamstrings, and other big muscle groups will improve speed over time. Aim for at least two leg strength training sessions per week that include: squats, deadlifts, and lunges.

How many reps should hockey players do? ›

We want the muscles to be stimulated yet able to recover, so going from a rep range such as 4 sets of 8-10 which may have been used in the off-season towards something such as 2-3 sets of 4-6 reps will be important.

How often should hockey players be working out? Hockey players should be working out roughly 3-5 times a week. Including 3 strength workouts, 2 speed workouts, 1-2 conditioning or mobility workouts. This will depend on the time of year and the player's development needs.

To hit harder, you need to generate more force which means practicing a faster swing. Another thing to remember is to keep your head down and body low throughout the entire swing and follow through with all your weight ending up on your front foot. Tip #3: Repetition and Practice.

a movement in which the ball is passed quickly to another player by flicking it out of the hand; often performed with only one hand. 2. hockey, ice hockey.

3d skills occur when the ball is carried on the stick in the air either in one direction or by changing the direction of the ball in the air by changing the direction of the stick face under the ball. They are an extension of a drag and jink with the ball remaining on the stick for longer periods of time.

According to the studies of Emmert (1984) and Pan et al. (1998) the muscle groups involved in the wrist shot at the point of puck release are: wrist extensors and wrist flexors, triceps brachii and lattisimus dorsi.

In linear periodization—sometimes called classic periodization—strength training progresses from a low intensity to a high intensity across the entire macrocycle, generally progressing from high repetitions of lighter resistance to low repetitions of higher resistance. The goal is to increase strength and power.

A hockey player's diet should be based around lean proteins for muscle repair and recovery and appropriately timed carbohydrate for fuel. In addition, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and dairy foods provide important vitamins and minerals, along with some healthy fats.

Full Strength: When both teams have no players in the penalty box, both teams are skating 5-on-5 (full strength). “Gordie Howe Hat Trick”: Named after hockey legend Gordie Howe, this is the distinction of finishing a game with a goal, an assist, and a fight.

So the million dollar question is, what's the ideal body fat percentage for hockey players? Answer: No higher than 12% for males, and 18% for females. Ideally for males, you should be anywhere from 8-10% body fat. Up to 12% is acceptable though – Any higher than this is likely a performance trade-off.

Why are pull ups good for hockey players? ›

This is because hockey players tend to be push dominant and have a forward rounding posture that can cause upper body dysfunction. Doubling up on pull-based exercises will help improve postures and create balance in the upper body.

Studies have also suggested that heavy hip thrusts improve sprint times versus squats (7) – likely attributed to the emphasis on glute strength. With the glutes and posterior chain demands on hockey players, this should be in every hockey player's program.

Generally speaking, speed workouts should constitute only about 10-20% of your training – or roughly one run per week. You can also include small doses of speed in the form of strides (see below) throughout the rest of the week after a few easy runs.

Most runners find that two speed workouts a week offer maximum performance benefits while allowing enough recovery time. One or two speed workouts a week also give you time to do a weekly long run if you're training for long-distance races such as the marathon.

On-ice training somewhere between 7 and 15 hours per week should be sufficient to become a top skater. This post is the third in a series on How to Develop a Great Hockey Player (Intro).

By working out too intensely and too often, you're not allowing your muscles proper time to recover and heal. This can result in fatigue, muscle injury, and ultimately decreased performance. One of the caveats to working out seven days each week? It's possible to completely tire yourself and burn out.

Working out seven days a week can actually be an amazing way to keep active and healthy. Dr. Bohl tells us, "Working out seven days a week isn't necessarily a bad thing—in fact, it can be a great way to stay active and healthy.

As long as you're not pushing yourself too hard or getting obsessive about it, working out every day is fine. Make sure it's something you enjoy without being too strict with yourself, especially during times of illness or injury.

To run and move faster, you need your legs. Building strength in the quads, hamstrings, and other big muscle groups will improve speed over time. Aim for at least two leg strength training sessions per week that include: squats, deadlifts, and lunges.

If you're looking to build muscle quickly, whether you've been training for years or are just starting out, then doing slower reps is the way to go. Workouts with slower reps cause your muscles to experience more time under tension, much more than with faster reps.

How many hours did Wayne Gretzky train? ›

Wayne Gretzky, is also very dedicated. As a youth, he said, he would often practice before and after school every day. Usually it was dark when he finally went inside. On the days he did not have school, he would practice an average of 12 - 14 hours.

The amount of training hours per week should be between 15 to 20. During the off-season, the training program for players should focus on the development of strength, power and conditioning to cope with the demands of ice hockey.

In a typical week, the team will play three or four games, practice once or two times, and train off-ice twice. Because the game schedule varies from week to week, we adjust the timing of our training to maximize both the benefit of our training and the subsequent recovery window.