Main muscles for hockey?

Question

What main muscles would i need to work on this summer to make me faster at hockey?

Answer 1

Midsection and legs. You need a strong back and stomach (core muscles) and then develop your leg strength. Too many people focus on the legs only and that is a mistake. Make sure to avoid heavy weight training, lighter weight and more reps will keep your muscles more toned and less bulky. Bulk will slow you down and make you less flexible and make sure to do non weight workouts also (sit ups, crunchs, etc.) If you can, go to a high school track and work on quick short sprints to develop the burst needed and develop leg drive (and practice on rollerblades as well). And last work on your leg crossovers, it helps maintain speed while turning or cutting.

Answer 2

All the muscles from the top of the head down. Speed is generated from the lower body, but strength in the upper body complements and enhances lower body. Hockey skating is great bursts of acceleration for short periods. Overload training works well. If you mow the lawn with a standard mower that is a good start.

Answer 3

To make yourself faster you need to work on ur quads. If you can keep ur knees a lot you get so much more out of ur stride it's unbelievable. You also might want to work on ur core/abs. The lighter you are the easier it is to go faster. As ridicoulous as it may sound your ankles play a key role in skating, too.

Also although it's not a muscle your endurance plays a key factor in quickness. Run over the summer and change up what you do (sprints, miles, etc.)

Answer 4

Back, Abs, and Legs. For hockey you generally need every muscle but since you only said speed go for those three

I would also advise shoulders, deltoids, and pecs because extra power behind the speed will really scare opponents because your checks will be brutal.

Do some wrists exercises to improve your shooting

Also practice skating alot because the more experience the better

Answer 5

Chest: Pecs (will provide padding for the brunt force of the hit) Back: Traps and Lats (Keeping your back firm in case you get hit awkwardly,etc.) Core, i.e. Abs (provides padding, protection, plus fulfills the same duty as your back in keeping your upperbody from getting bent forwards or backwards too much) Legs: Quads and Glutes (add more padding, gives you explosive power to jump into the guy who hits you, much like Ovechkin does.) However, I wouldn't worry just about muscle. As one of the other guys said, you don't want to get hit in the first place. However, there are still many times where that is unavoidable. In this case, you need to know HOW to take a hit. So let me give you a little story. So I play hockey goalie, lacrosse goalie, and, starting last week, midfield in lacrosse. I am 5'8" and 120lbs (I have muscle but still have a very slim build.) In a game over the weekend in which I played midfield, I was running, and the defense-man who had the ball passed it a bit behind me, causing me to reach back as I was running (making me vulnerable, just like blindside hits in hockey). Now, I knew I had a big midfielder on the other team closing in on me. What I didn't know was that he was going to clobber me. He was probably 6' and at least 180lbs, but again, I didn't really see him (so he may have weighed more), I just had that awareness that he was coming. So he runs full-speed into me, absolutely destroying me with the hit, as spectators commented. However, since I "know how to take a hit" I got up a few seconds afterwards, just about 100% OK (albeit somewhat shaken.) To boot, I also drew a nice long 2 minute penalty for the absolutely brutal, aggressive hit. The way I did it was I simply dispersed the energy from the hit into movement, rolling on the ground (like a log, rather than a ball, if you get my meaning.) This is very similar to the way acrobats (and assassins in medieval times) could jump from heights without breaking their legs. So the moral of the story is its all about mentality, having an idea of what is going to happen, and how to redirect the force of the person who hits you. Ovechkin does this by jumping into the air, causing the person who hits him to essentially hit a 240 pound (and more, if you could gravity bringing him down, which gives him more force, and therefore, a greater "weight") sand bag. Hitting a ~300 pound sand bag sucks so by using Ovechkin's method, you can actually counterhit the player, causing the entire team to be less willing to hit you. Or, if your smaller, like me, you can take my approach, where I simply "rolled" out of the hit, dispersing the energy from the hit into movement. Anyway, I hope this helped!

Answer 6

Actually leg bulk won't necessarily slow you down. Sidney Crosby's legs are the size of my midsection. I saw him when he was home for Christmas and he was doing crossovers up a big hill (citadel hill) carrying a big weight plate. He works on all muscle groups but his legs are quite a specimen. Huge and muscular and it doesn't seem to limit his mobility, but rather gives him quite a low center of gravity and makes him strong on his feet and hard to knock off the puck.

Answer 7

Developing your legs and back will help you a bit. Trust me though, your lungs are the most important. You need to focus on doing exercises in short bursts. Players normally give each shift 100% in short bursts like 40 - 60 seconds. wind sprints are good.

Answer 8

Don't forget the groin
I'm not being a wise-***.......
It's the most commonly pulled muscle in hockey

Answer 9

Midsection and legs

Answer 10

for skating quads