Weight Training for Ice Hockey

Phase 1 - Early Pre-Season

Repetitive sports activities can strengthen one side of the body at the expense of the other, or emphasize one or two major muscle groups with less emphasis on others. Inevitably, weak areas can be susceptible to injury and can perform poorly. This is not to say that your non-dominant arm or side has to be as good as your skill-dominant side. However, for example, in hockey, each hand has its own important role in controlling the stick, and this affects your stick-handling skills. You need to allocate sufficient training resources so that you achieve functional foundation strength in all areas including opposing muscles and left and right sides of all major muscle group areas -- back, buttocks, legs, arms, shoulders, chest and abdominals.

In the early pre-season, the foundation program encompasses a mix of endurance, strength and hypertrophy objectives, which means that the weights are not too heavy and the sets and repetitions are in the range of 2 to 4 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions. In this phase, you build some strength, some muscle size and endurance.

Duration: 4 to 6 weeks
Days per week: 2 to 3, with at least one rest day between sessions and a lighter week in week 4 to promote recovery and progression.
Reps: 12 to 15
Sets: 2 to 4
Rest between sets: 30 to 60 seconds

Phase 1 Exercises

• Barbell squat, dumbbell squat or sled hack squat
• Dumbbell incline bench press
• Romanian deadlift
• Dumbbell biceps arm curl
• Dumbbell triceps extension or machine pushdown
• Seated cable row
• Lat pulldown to the front with wide grip
• Reverse crunch

Points to Note

• By trial and error, find a weight that represents a taxing lift for the last few reps of each set. If you're unsure, start with a light weight and increase it as you get stronger within the training period so that the perceived effort remains similar.
• Don't lift too heavy in this phase. The last few reps in a set should be taxing -- yet without extreme effort to "failure," especially for the arm and shoulder exercises. You want the arm and shoulder prepared for work and beefed up but not overtaxed.
• Do front squats or dumbbell or sled hack squats if the rotation required to position a barbell on the shoulders for the traditional back squat stresses the shoulder joint to the point of discomfort.
• Shoulder joint protection is important at this and subsequent stages.
• Circuit training, off-rink cardio and other aerobic exercise should be added to this program where possible.
• Stop immediately if acute pain is noticed during or after a weights exercise, and seek medical and training advice if it persists.

Phase 2 - Mid Pre-Season

Strength will be the foundation for the next phase, which is power development. Power is the ability to move the heaviest loads in the shortest time. Power is essentially a product of strength and speed, and is an important component of a successful hockey skill set.

Time of year: Mid pre-season
Duration: 4 to 6 weeks
Days per week: 2 to 3, with at least one day between sessions
Reps: 3 to 6. The players relying most on speed and agility and who need least bulk should do the lowest number of reps.
Sets: 3 to 5
Rest in between sets: 3 to 4 minutes

Phase 2 Exercises

• Alternate, single-leg sled hack squat
• Barbell bench press
• Romanian deadlift
• Lat pulldown to front with wide grip
• Pull ups - 3x6 repetitions - adjust to suit ability
• Alternate, single-leg dumbbell upright row

Points to Note

• Adjust the weight so that the final few repetitions are taxing but not to complete failure. The fewer reps mean that you will be lifting heavier in this phase.
• Get sufficient rest between sets. You need your muscles recovered so that you can complete a heavy lifting session.
• If you are unable to recover from a session with only one rest day in between, reschedule this program to two sessions each week rather than three. Strength training can be physically and mentally demanding.
• You will be sore in the muscles after these sessions. Muscle soreness or delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is normal; joint pain is not. Be sure to monitor your arm and shoulder reactions to this phase. Back off when you feel any joint pain or discomfort.

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