View of Petco Field from my hotel room. Fireworks after the Padres game.

Home from San Diego and back to the grind in the gym.  In case you were wondering I did have two screaming children directly behind me on the flight home (plus a Dad that kept bumping and pulling the back of my seat).  I think my parents had the right idea, they did not take us on a plane until I was 12!

Before I give you the core exercise that is 10-times harder than it looks, I want to give a shout out to my new friend Jeremy who emailed me when he saw that I was going to be in SD to see if I would be willing to spend a little time with him to talk about being a sport conditioning coach.  He was really nice and respectful in his email and I could tell it was something he was really serious about, so I agreed to spend some time with him.

==>> Check out this post if you want to be a strength coach

We met up at the Starbucks near my hotel where I went to do a few hours of work each morning before the meeting.  When Jeremy arrived, I asked him how long it took him to get to San Diego from where he lived – – – TWO HOURS.  Wow – now that is a guy who is serious about achieving his goal of becoming the go-to hockey trainer in his area.

We laid out some action steps, he is prepared to grind it out for the next few years to build up his expertise and I have a great feeling about his future.

The TOUGH Core Exercise For Hockey Players

A few weeks ago I posted a core and hip exercise that was harder than it looked, well there is a theme here because this one is about 10-times harder than it looks, in fact most of you that can hold a very strong side plank will fail miserably at this exercise once you lift that leg.

If you cannot see the video in the player above, just click this link
http://youtu.be/2c3vqVfSPww

Don’t be discouraged when you crumple onto the floor, you have just exposed a weakness – this is a good thing because we can always make it stronger.  Here’s how to get up to speed with it…

• Bend your bottom knee to 90 degrees and side plank of the knee with your top leg straight
• Now lift your top leg and you are good to go.
• Start with 5×5 second holds and build up to 5x10s holds – then you will be ready to move on to the advanced version in the video and start back at 5×5 seconds.

Avoid the common mistake of trying to lift your top leg too high; it should just be parallel to the floor.

All the best – M

CLICK HERE for the done-for-you pro-style off-season training program for hockey players.