Why hockey players static strech BEFORE they workout at Revolution Conditioning.
Hope you had a great weekend – I was super bummed to see the Blues get knocked out of the play-offs. This led to a very cranky Sunday afternoon and evening. Really, I don’t even want to talk about it, so let’s get down to the business of explaining why hockey players static stretch before their workout at Revolution Conditioning.
Why hockey players static stretch before their workout
When I get the question “why do your hockey players (or any athletes for that matter) static stretch before they workout at Revolution Conditioning?” my first answer is…’because Mike Boyle told me to’. The second short answer is… ‘because it works’. In other words, I started doing it because Mike does it, I continue doing it because it works.
I have had the question a few times in the past week, so I thought it would be a great topic to clarify. The question comes in different versions, but here is the basic –
“I heard static stetching before you worked out was dangerous”
Okay, let’s get one thing straight…running with scissors is dangerous. Static stretching? I am not sure about that. Although I do not know of any research that concludes static stretching before training is ‘dangerous’, there is evidence that it decreases peak force production and peak power production.
What if you just FEEL more flexible?
When you do a goalie flexibility program like the Ultimate Guide for Durable and Flexible Hips, you see your range of motion improve. You find you can get deeper into your splits without discomfort. Can you tell me why?
How Hockey Goalies Get a Better Splits.
To many hockey goalies the holy grail of flexibility is the splits. So it is not odd that I get several emails every month asking, “What stretch will let me do the splits?” If only it were that easy my friends. There are at least three things limiting any goalie from doing the splits.
Off-Ice Hockey Training Q&A #3
How a hockey player or goalie can get heavier in the off-season while gaining speed and agility and I also fill you in on when we do our static stretching at Revolution – before, after or during the workout.
How many hockey players can pass this test?
Have you ever had a car that only you can drive? You are accustomed to its idiosyncrasies and you don’t even realize it is THAT out of whack. I remember…
Off-Ice Goalie Training Q&A – week of Feb 14
The weekly goalie training Q&A talks about pre-game warm-up timing for goalies, knee pain in 11 year old goalie and a new cardio machine that mimics the skating stride.
Post-game restorative stretches for hockey goalies.
First things first, just a reminder to check out Monday’s post if you want to get a free copy of the Rapid Response Training system for putting in about 3-minutes of work.
Now to the business at hand – I had a question from Trev who checked out a few of the blogs that I recommended earlier this week. He was over at Kevin Neeld’s site where he had outlined a post-game stretching routine for hockey players. It is a really good article and worth a read. Trevor was wondering if the same stretching routine would work for goalies or if there were some stretches I recommend.
Wonder if Luongo ever tries this?
I find the pre-season fascinating for a few reasons 1) I have to anxiously wait to see how the athletes I train over the summer are doing at their pro camps and 2) there are always lots of tweaks and strains that pop up and this always gets me thinking about the ‘why’. The one that sticks in my head most recently is Luongo’s groin ‘tweak’. I immediately thought back to an article about how Luongo became passionate about road biking this off-season and how he logged 1800km on the bike to help him drop 8lbs of weight. I can’t help but think…hmmmmmmm!
Any goalies want a wider butterfly flare?
One of my friends over at www.goaliecrease.net put forth an idea to have a friendly challenge to see who can widen their butterfly flare the most over the next six weeks or so. I offered to create a program to help goalies increase their butterfly flare.
So I created this little workout that will only take 10-15 minutes to complete (click the link for the PDF):
A simple way for goalies to build strong, flexible hips.
Here is one of the simplest exercises I can think of to help goalies build strong and flexible hips. All you need is a resistance band tied in a small loop. Don’t have a resistance band – fine, then place one hand on the outside of each knee to create resistance as you push your knees outward.