Train Like a Pro: 3 Essential Exercises for Hockey Players
I’ll cut right to the chase: when you’re a hockey player at any level and you’re looking to improve your performance with strength and conditioning, there are a lot of exercises that can help you. That’s because everyone has different needs and we need to address them all in different ways.
However, there are three exercises that I like to use as a north star for many hockey athletes. These are what I call “indicator exercises,” and they push the needle and increase strength and performance as they go up. An inability to do them is also usually a red flag.
Let’s dive in.
1. Step Ups (to a High Box)
The first exercise is one of my favorites as it sets a baseline. The step up to a high box is an indicator to me that you can stabilize your hips (via your add/abduction, glutes, and more), and that you can create force, strength, and power from a deep knee and hip flexed position. It also trains valuable hip extension at the top of the movement.
This exercise really has it all and can be scaled, progressed, or regressed in many directions, making it very approachable for youth athletes just getting started in the weight room, more experienced athletes, and all the way up to adult professionals.
We use a variety of loading patterns and have athletes hold dumbbells, sandbags, barbells, or wear weighted vests. The possibilities are endless and it’s a key movement for us at DiSalvo Performance Training in teaching hockey players how to create single leg strength.
2. SSB Split Squats
Safety squat bar split squats take the ingredients of the step up and really beef them up. The addition of the safety squat bar means we can load you up significantly, creating a much higher ceiling in terms of how strong you can get from the movement. Using the safety bar directly loads the spine, creating a much greater stimulus for overall force production. Many athletes, especially those in hockey, shy away from this because of fear of the bar or the wrong idea about direct spinal loading. In fact, assuming you are healthy, it’s the opposite. You stand to make some the greatest gains in force production from the increased ability to load your spine and perform an exercise like this.
You’ll see professional hockey players and NHL athletes doing an upwards of 495 lbs, so the potential is there for a lot of weight pushed, but most people doing this for the first time will start at around 100 lbs or less. As always, use caution and work on this with a qualified coach.
3. Power Cleans / Hang Cleans
The two above exercises are great at improving your strength or ability to produce force, but they aren’t necessarily a way to directly make you faster and more explosive. That’s where doing an exercise with a higher rate of force development, or simply a faster exercise, comes into play.
My choice, and many coaches' choice, is the power clean. You can also use the hang clean or any similar barbell clean variation. This exercise trains rapid extension at the hips, knees, and ankles, and has a very impressive transfer to many sports.
While seeing more weight on the bar is something every athlete loves, its also very beneficial to do this movement light and fast. I often see athletes throw this movement out too soon because they feel like they can’t “go heavy enough.” That’s a mistake.
Despite there being a skill component to executing the lift, I suggest young athletes learn it early, even if it’s just with a broomstick. Adult professional players may find that they aren’t able to progress the lift much in season or without a lot of practice, which is all the more reason to learn the movement early and develop the strength as you enter adulthood.
Conclusion
Like I said before, these lifts are great indicators that you’re preparing well off the ice and in the weight room. That said, “passing” at your execution of them doesn't guarantee anything, but struggling with them is usually a red flag worth paying attention to. If you’re having trouble with any of these, reach out today and we’ll help you out!
About the Author: Mark DiSalvo, CSCS
Mark is the founder and owner of DiSalvo Performance Training. He brings over a decade of experience training clients and athletes of all backgrounds and is the strength and conditioning coach to athletes of all levels and disciplines, from youth to professional and Olympic-level.
A lifelong athlete, Mark started playing hockey at a very young age in Pittsburgh, PA, and played competitively for over a decade before getting into martial arts.
Mark is currently purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, with over 10 years of experience grappling.
A graduate of Northeastern University, he’s an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and Sports Performance Expert. He’s also a Steve Maxwell Certified Kettlebell Instructor (Levels 1 & 2).
You can read more about him here.
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