Here are five exercises that are effective for hockey players at any level.  They are also exercises that consist of using minimal equipment including barbells, dumbbells, and weights.  These are also 5 “staple exercises” in our program.  I would also classify these exercises as “Pareto Principle” exercises which are 20% of our exercises that give us 80% of our results in the weight room.

1- Front Squat- I really think that improving double leg strength is important for hockey players.  Although hockey players do actually skate on 1-leg at a time, there is also plenty of time during a game when a player is in the gliding phase of skating.  They may be gliding up the ice during a shift or may be battling in front of the net with 2 skates on the ice.

We front squat during the off-season once per week and will use it at the beginning of the in-season phase prior to transitioning to 1-leg variations.  With front squats, we are able to get better, consistent technique across the board with an adequate load on the bar.  In my view, this is unlike the back squat where you may see several variations being performed in a team setting.  Examples of back squat variations would be the bar positioning on the back, depth differences, and torso positioning.  With front squats, the bar is always held across the shoulders with the elbows up.  The torso position allows the athlete to squat deeper because it is upright.  If the torso isn’t upright, then the athlete will drop the bar.

One of the most important factors to consider is the load on the bar.  Proper technique in any exercise needs to be established first and foremost.  In my experience, what breaks technical proficiency down is too much load.  Injuries occur as a result of the load being too much which causes form to break down.

2- 1-Leg Squat- the 1-Leg Squat and its variations are key exercises in our program.  Although we still front squat (see number 1 above), we will always do 1-leg squats within our program during both of the off-season and in-season phases.

1-leg squats can be performed anywhere.  In-season, we actually perform them in the visiting team locker rooms on the road when we don’t have access to adequate facilities.  They are great exercises that really help us in the injury prevention process.

3- Hang Clean- Young hockey players need to be developing power.  For us, the best way that has worked over time is Olympic lift variations.  We will do cleans, snatches (both barbell and dumbbell), and jerks (also both barbell and dumbbell) from the hang position.  Simply, we ask our athletes to move the weight as fast as possible with great technique.

The reason why we do them from the hang position versus the floor is that like the front squats, I consistently see better Olympic lift variations from the hang position.  I have seen many different variations of pulls from the floor throughout the last 12 years or so.  I have unfortunately seen too many back injuries both acute and long term.  Too much can go wrong with pulls from the floor than with the hang position.  Please ensure that proper technique is established before progressing.  We are not training Olympic weightlifters.

In my coaching situation, I always need to look at what the perceived advantage of one exercise is versus another.  I really don’t see the necessary advantage of lifting from the floor versus the hang but I do see a much safer variation that can give the same results.

4- 1-Leg Dumbbell S.L.D.L.- This is another staple in our strength and conditioning program.  We call it a 1-leg DB S.L.D.L. when it may be more of a 1-leg slightly bent knee deadlift.  We are able to get a good exercise for the posterior chain while balancing on 1-leg.  The coaching cues for this exercise include having a flat back, sliding the dumbbell or kettlebell down the leg until either there is a stretch in the hamstring or the back can’t maintain its arch.  Then the athlete will proceed to come back up.

Like the 1-leg squat, this is another exercise that can be done
anywhere.

5- Pull up- Pull ups and vertical pulling variations have been in my programs ever since I started writing them.  I see absolutely no reason to
remove them.  Athletes need more upper back strength and pull ups have shown to give you the most bang for the buck.

The inability to do pull ups is an indicator of weak upper back strength.  People with weak upper backs are more prone to injury, especially at the shoulder joint(s) which is important for athletes in contact sports such as hockey. In my experience, the athletes who don’t (or in their mind can’t do pull ups) are the same athletes with bad shoulders.  They could also be
just plain lazy.

Pull ups need to be done correctly for the athlete to get the full
benefit.  Proper execution is when the athlete starts at full extension and proceeds to pull his/her chin up over the bar.  Then they need to lower themselves under control to full extension before doing the next rep.  Get off the lat pull down machines and do pull ups.

These are 5 basic exercises that have worked well for us over time.  Although we do plenty of other exercises and progressions, I don’t think we could conduct our program successfully without these 5.

Sean Skahan has been a Strength and Conditioning Coach since 1998. During that time he has worked with several athletes who are now playing in the NHL, NFL, and MLB. Sean received his Bachelor of Science degree (B.S.) from U-Mass Boston in 1998. After that, he received his Masters in Kinesiology (M.Ed.) from the University of Minnesota in 2000. He became a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (C.S.C.S.) in 1999.  Sean was certified as a Russian Kettlebell Challenge Instructor- Level 1 (RKC) in August of 2011.  He was certified as a CK-FMS in 2012.  He also speaks throughout the world on Strength and Conditioning.

Sean has 2 DVD’s for sale: Kettlebell Lifting for Hockey and Slideboard Training for Hockey which you can purchase here

According to the website Dictonary.com, the definition of Durable is “The ability to resist wear, decay, etc.  well; lasting; enduring.”

In team sports, the ability for athletes to be healthy on a game to game basis is sometimes what separates the good from the not so good.

In the NHL and NFL, statistics are kept on man games lost to injury (NHL) and starters games missed (NFL).  Over the course of the season, it is ideal
that those numbers are low to ensure that the team is healthy.  In professional sports, the athletes obviously possess enough talent to play their sport, but not so many have the durability to help them remain in the lineup.  Having the best players on the team available to play in each game gives a team the best chance for success.

Unfortunately, injuries do occur.  Broken bones, head injuries, and other
ailments are unfortunately unavoidable.  In hockey, the speed of the game combined with physical contact and a hard rubber puck that is shot around the ice and in the air at upwards of 90+mph can create plenty of opportunities for injury.  It is the soft tissue injuries such as strains/pulls to muscle groups such as the adductors, abdominals, and hip flexors that can be avoided.  Can we prevent all of them from happening?
Probably not, but we can do our best at implementing strategies to help
our athletes avoid them.

Creating and implementing strategies to help prevent these injuries from occurring needs to be part of the strength and conditioning coach’s responsibility.  We can’t continue to wait for these injuries to happen before we take action.  We need to be pro-active, not re-active.  I am not suggesting that we should be spending all of our time on “pre-hab” or “corrective” exercises instead of trying to get our players stronger at the basics.  Although we do what some would refer to as Pre-hab and/or corrective exercises daily in our program.  These are done with all of our athletes even if they have been identified as someone who doesn’t have any issue to “correct”.  However, we use our pre-hab or correctives in conjunction with more traditional exercises used to increase strength and power.  Some may refer to this as functional training.   I am not
sure what it should be called to be honest, but I don’t feel like it needs to be classified as a system of training.  It is what works for us and our players.

In the NFL, the youngest age a rookie may be is 21 years old.  Most of these players are already strong, fast, and powerful as a result of being involved in a structured collegiate strength and conditioning program.  In the NHL, the physical maturity of a young player is mostly different from the NFL.  First, the NHL drafts young men when they are 18-19 years old.  Also, NHL drafted players are not exposed to the similar training methods that collegiate football players are.  NHL drafted players are being selected at the same age that football players are when they begin a collegiate strength and conditioning program.

In my opinion, there are only a small number of college hockey programs with good strength and conditioning programs in place.  As for the junior players throughout Canada and the U.S., the off-season strength and conditioning programs provided by private strength and conditioning companies are probably the best option as the in-season strength and conditioning programs at the junior level are not as structured as the U.S. collegiate programs. The teams in the major junior leagues play double the amount of gamesthat college players do which doesn’t leave an adequate amount of time to train.

Unlike in the NFL, an 18 year old may have the talent to play in the NHL right away.  With these young players, it is crucial that they embrace the strength and conditioning process so that they can develop the durability necessary to play in 82 regular season hockey games at a pace that they have never played in before.  It may still take time for this development
to occur, but we must make it a priority. With the veteran NHL players, they are more like the NFL players who already possess the physical tools to play in the NHL.  These players need to continue to work on their durability in the off-season and the in-season so that they can play every game.  They may not need the overall hypertrophy that the younger player may need, but they still need to address some physical characteristics so that they can remain healthy.

How do you create or improve durability?  Methods to prevent the breakdown of the body have to be implemented.  It may be different for each player.  For one player, it might be gaining strength and lean body mass. For another player, it may be continuing to gain strength but also to
improve their overall mobility.  These are just some examples, but I think the point is made.  Identifying the weakness and trying to improve it so that it is good enough relative to the strengths is a huge component.

What I think is important in designing a strength and conditioning program is developing an all-encompassing program which takes everything into consideration.  Even though an athlete may have specific weaknesses versus strengths, we can still work on their strengths at the same time.  I don’t think that other areas need to take a back seat as we work on weaknesses.

Durability should also be the focus of the training for the average trainee.  The ability to resist wear and decay should be why we embark on exercising.  You don’t have to be a pro athlete to not want to decay.

I hope everyone has had a great week and also have a great weekend.  This week at HockeySc, I will call the Mike Potenza week because we had 2 awesome contributions from him.  Mike is a really good Strength and Conditioning Coach who has done an ubelievable  job with the San Jose Sharks.  He is also a good friend who I get to share ideas with every once in a while.  Here is what we had added to the site by Mike:

Linear and Lateral Movement Training– This a really good in-depth article on Mike’s linear and lateral movement philosophies and progressions.  What I like most about the article is the coaching cues included.  These types of movements are important for hockey players to learn and do properly so they can move more efficiently.  I have a very similar belief system with this philosophy.  My only addition would be the importance of the crossover step.  Check out my Improving the Crossover Step For Hockey in the article section of this site if you have not.

2-Day Summer Travel Workouts–  This is something that does come up quite frequently with hockey players, especially the pros.  Sometimes when a player goes out of town for a few days, workouts like these are necessary.  The hotel gym may not be good enough or what I run across more frequently is players not having enough time.   A players’ personal time on vacation really needs to be taken into consideration.  These are is quick, bang for your buck, workouts that will be just fine in any situation.

Thats it for the week.  Special thanks to Mike Potenza for putting up some great content.  Also, don’t forget to check out the forum.  We have a good discussion going on about how to design an on-ice conditioning program late in the off-season.

Thanks for the continued support,

Sean, Mike, Anthony, Kevin, and Darryl