If you’re just trying to get into hockey, I’d recommend stickhandling drills (just snag a wood or plastic stickhandling ball) , cardio of your choice to get a bit of condition, and any strengthening exercises will help out. I’ve found that hockey uses pretty unique muscles and it’s hard to stay in hockey shape if you’re not on the ice, so I’d recommend just working on your hands and general fitness and strengthening.

For conditioning, speed and strength work I suggest you watch this vid and then put your own routine together from the exercises shown (there are enough here to put together at least a 60 minute daily work out) or others that follow the same ethos. Darryl knows what he is talking about, he works with the USA team and many NHL players - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx_rXXFD7ds

Squats for strength and mobility. Practise keeping your back straight while lowering ass all the way to the ground. You'll be surprised how much that helps.

That one foot hop exercise sounds unpleasant but effective

squats

A great resource is usa hockey's website. They have a list of exercises and even examples of how to do them. They even vary for age groups and available equipment. Usahockey.com/ dryland

Here’s what I did when I was in great shape and I could play an entire game without getting tired.

Start with stationary bike for like 10 minutes,

stretch

5x5 box jumps as high as you can jump.

Leg Press 3x10 heavy as you can

Front squat 3x10

Hip abductor/adductor

Wall squats

Sled push until exhaustion.

I would do this twice a week (mixed with other workouts in the week) and my legs were so fucking strong. Not only was I flying but my legs never got tired on the ice.

Core exercises too, crunches, leg lifts, planks. The better core the less your back will hurt.

Stretch and stretch some more.

57 still playing and do a lot both.

Static wall holds the squat position for explosive speed.

Squats are fine but don't give you explosive speed really. A wall sit will have your fast muscle fibers firing the whole time and that helps develop them for on ice burst speed.

But in general, box jumps are also great, lunges, squats, etc are all going to be what you want to be doing, no singular exercise, you want combinations.

How often and such friends in intensity. I would say destroy you legs one day, take a day off, then go easy on legs but work then, take another day off, and go hard again and blast em then take two days off. I.e. Monday and Friday are heavy days, Wednesday's are light.

Bulgarian split squats, lunges, sprinting.

Road bike. Lots of miles. Not only cardio but I feel it works a lot of muscle groups linked to skating. Not just the obvious ones but things like balance.

What level of hockey? Beer league? Just do cardio and have fun.

Plyometrics and improving hockey IQ by watching/studying games

Look up Tony Greco on instagram, he’s a personal trainer that specializes in workouts for hockey players. He posts workouts all the time.

Not necessarily cardio.

You could go on jogs for months and, personally, I find it doesn’t translate well.

Anaerobic activity is best: sprinting, plyometric jumps, like someone else said, biking even if you’re doing it in bursts and short rests inbetween. Hockey relies much more on your anaerobic fitness than your aerobic fitness. Get that heart rate up there until you are forced to take a break basically, and repeat.

Whenever my teammates are arguing about gear, I tell them the best hockey gear is green leafy vegetables.

Add on split squats for even more gains; I've noticed so much more power in my strides.

I'd definitely work on squats to strengthen your leg muscles, as in hockey, they do most of the hard work. If you can do any weights, work like Back Squats will help.

Also work on shuttle sprints, a lot of hockey is short sprinting bursts and that will help you get fitter fast.

There's quite a lot of stuff on YouTube if you search.

You might wanna check out the youtube channel integrated sports. He explains into detail about specific training in field hockey

Body strength and conditioning should be supplimented by weights.

Dumbell swings are great for building core strengh in both quads and lower back.

Press ups I've found help a hell of a alot.

Planking, both flat and side on is good.

Tricep dips.

Stretching is super important, both before the match and post.

Might be a worth a trip to a physio and/or pt for the feeling something pull. You probably need some dedicated work on that.

• Single leg calf raises - complete as many as possible (target = 25 reps)
• Single leg bridges - complete as many as possible (target = 25 reps)
• Single leg balance, cross lifted leg in a figure 4 over standing leg with eyes closed (target = 60 seconds)
• Plank and side plank - hold as long as possible (target = 90 seconds)
• Weighted ball lunges (target = 10 per side)
• Dumbbell rowers (target = 10 reps)
• Dumbbell arm lifts to front and side (target = 10 reps)
• Dumbbell chest press (target = 10 reps)

Start with target of 10 reps in 3 sets for all exercises

Ad in 20 push ups, sit ups and squats as a progression

Just a quick thing, I would look at stretching and strengthening hamstrings and and Bulgarian split squats - anything of the of the lunge variation is highly important for building on for hockey as those will lighten you back working overtime to compensate for them essentially.

Russian twist dealt with the twisting of the core when you do like hitting

Side planks are great Deadbugs also good

https://www.integratesports.com/blogs/hockey/core-exercises-for-field-hockey-players?srsltid=AfmBOoprx44ujsy-sFdfogbOLs3eQc8kw2mXcOqLMIRFjz-tVZ_n05iK - here’s a link for a really solid core workout regime

Squats help a lot with ice hockey because of skating. For ball hockey, you really just need endurance and speed so sprints and also go for long runs to increase your stamina.

I would say you want more endurance and intensity training (for speed and agility), as opposed to strength training. Some additional muscle is nice to make you more harder to push around, but I wouldn't focus on that.

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I would focus more on sprints, fartlek training on an indoor track is a good idea. To be more intense I eliminate the walking portion, do a light jog. You want to work on your ability to handle intense cardio bursts, and you want to improve your recovery time and endurance.

Sprints 1:30 rest in-between, sets of 4, 3 times a week.

Each week, increase the set count by 1, and once you get to 6 sets, start over at 4 sets, but reduce the rest to 1:15.

Rinse and repeat, and keep reducing rest time

Wind sprints for sure. I started with a 5 min warmup jog and then 15 second sprints/30 seconds rest and did that five times. Did that every other day and after a couple of weeks moved up to 20/40 seconds and then just built up from there.

Edit: realize now you said gym exercises but leaving it up just in case

This is a great question! I agree with most of the above. Stamina and endurance first! I also try to lose weight because I hate the feeling of running with excess muscle or fat bouncing around. If you’re on d squats and composite lifts can help move the defender out from the net and give you a nice foundation, especially in more physical leagues. Just try and stay fresh and not sore for game day … have made that mistake before! Best of luck!

I played hockey for the very first time on Monday, hadn’t skated in 18 years. I got home late, showered, foam rollered one leg and butt half-assed. Then was like eh this probably isn’t doing anything. Went to bed.

It’s Saturday. The side I didn’t roll on the foam? Still very sore. So sore. I’m an idiot.

All this to say, thanks. I’m gonna take a look at doing these things as well as rolling everything next time lol.

The fact is that for beginner lifters like youth hockey players, any program is going to produce results. You don’t need to overthink it. You can do full body workouts, upper/lower, push/pull/lower. What matters is they learn form, increase volume, then worry about load. Consistency is what will produce results.

Why such an emphasis on supersets. Especially the exercise #4 would surely be better off breaking up into two-three smaller super sets. If only for the sake of not having to maintain concentration on form for as long and therefore being able to go heavier/ be safer and reducing some of the mental fatigue.

Best I can do is a coors light and 10 seconds of light stretching.

I’m a middle aged beer leaguer. I will be doing a grand total of zero sets.

I'm using an inflated rubber hemisphere (like a Bosu but I didn't go for the brand, felt too expensive) and I try to use it regularly while doing something else, e.g. watching a documentary.

I did RollerBlade before ice skating and... it is very VERY similar. For a beginner honestly it's probably THE best exercise off ice you can do. When you do reach an intermediate or advanced level though, the differences are bigger but at the beginning, it's amazing. I ice skated maybe 5 times total in my life before but after RollerBlading regularly for maybe a year, when I started ice skating I was instantly better than most people on the ice. I was nowhere near as good as people who ice skate regularly but people who come once per Winter? Definitely.

I don't dance but I bet that would also help. Anything involving careful body coordination will help, especially when balance is involved, so I'd also suggest climbing and bouldering.

Anyway, that being said, nothing replaces time on the ice!

PS:

In terms of actual drills now it's a bit tricky to suggest without properly knowing where you are but :

longer strides on 1 foot, alternating
same with zig-zag on 1 foot
forward cross-overs
all that again but backward (while looking! You MUST look in the direction you're heading at)
same with more frequent transitions, forward to backward and backward to forward

... and that should help most to become "one with the ice" for a little while.

copy/pasted from earlier related answer https://old.reddit.com/r/iceskating/comments/1jjxyn5/becoming_one_with_ice/mjyyyqn/

That's really not much time at all, so the easy answer is just to spend more time skating, especially if you have a specific goal for each session.

Don't jump into advanced skills without spending time and effort on the basics. Plenty of videos exist on YouTube so check out Marcel's hockey school or something that clicks with you. If you can get irl coaching, so much the better. But the bottom line is just to spend as much time skating as you can. And enjoy! There's nothing like it.

Stretch in general. Doing daily stretches increases flexibility therefor allowing you deeper positions and easier extensions on everything.

For me, it's rowing.

I do 12x250m sprints. 45s rest

The sprints are a good proxy for a hockey shift, they take about 55-1:02 to do. The rest is shorter than you'd typically rest but that's the point of building endurance

You can try for more sprints but good luck, I'm usually gassed by the end. Total exercise time is around 21 minutes. 12ish minutes of active sprint rowing and 8 of rest.

Since I do the same exercise I can track my times and see how I'm getting better (or worse). My good times I can absolutely see on the ice

Exercise bikes doing the same routine works well too, just not as well. I crank up the resistance during the sprint and just drop it to the lowest for the 45s rest and barely pedal (enough for the bike to keep the time going)

HIIT workouts mimic hockey the best.

Mountain biking. Even medium to medium-low difficulty trails will have a mix of higher-intensity climbs, cruising areas (that you can also choose to sprint through), agility/balance sections when you have to pick your way through technical roots/rocks sections, etc.

Plus the entire time you're doing a full-leg workout.

Ride the bike 2-3 times per week.

45-60 minutes continuous. This builds endurance. Mix a few sprints in there in the hard gear for 60 seconds with a minute or two easy recovery. This builds some power and recovery. do some fast spins for 30-60 seconds. This builds foot speed.

There’s nothing complicated. Run, do lots of variations of running. Long and middle distances, interval sprint training, rucking is another good choice.

Then in the gym for squats, deadlifts, alternating barbell lunges.

A million people will have a million ways to “optimize” this, just run a lot and do leg day two to three times a week.

I felt like what I was doing a lot of yoga, I was playing my best beer league hockey. The core strength, the balance, it all just really helped.

Cossacks are great for strengthening your groin and posterior leg chain of muscles

Single leg exercises, especially ones that require balance. Bulgarian split squats, weighted lunges and weighted reverse lunges, skater hops (no idea what these are technically called but when you just leap from side to side and go into a knee bend when you land), single leg box jumps.

Any HIIT workout will help too. Running long distance isn’t bad but the best thing for hockey is 45-60 seconds high intensity intervals. And obviously you’ll just need strong legs and the ability to withstand lactic acid buildup in them and keep playing

Hill sprints til you die