My QC Mallards

Although it may seem outdated, lots of hockey coaches still think bulking is negative for players. The reasoning behind this belief relies on the fact that coaches think getting bigger and bulkier will make athletes feel heavy and slow on the pitch.

Bulking will only have benefits to the body, as gaining muscle and growing their frame gives hockey players the chance to make the most out of their abilities. In this article, the reasons why hockey players should start bulking now to improve their performance will be shared and also some resources on how to pick your own fitness equipment.

More Strength for Longer Periods of Time

Doing some heavy-weight low-rep training sessions every week will help you get stronger and gain muscle in the process. Adding some hypertrophy periods to your training in order to avoid getting into a plateau translates in you gaining lean muscle mass, thus building stronger and bigger muscles without affecting your speed and agility on the pitch.

Gaining Speed by Fixing Muscular Imbalances

Bad posture and weak muscles are common among hockey players, whether they are professional or not. This is due to the basic skating posture players adopt for extended periods of time: a hunched-over half-squat position which will only damage their muscles. Training the back side of the body, mostly glutes and hamstrings, will help to avoid this.

Avoid Injuries by Protecting the Body

Currently, some of the most common injuries in almost every sport are groin strains. Protecting the body in order to avoid this kind of injuries by gaining some lean muscle mass and strength in areas like the hip flexors, lower abs, glutes, and hamstrings, is pretty much mandatory.

Gaining muscle on the upper body will also help players to have ‘armor’ against heavy contact situations which are extremely common in sports like hockey.

3 Tips for Bulking

Now you know why bulking is important if you are a hockey athlete. Next, we provide some handy tips to get your bulking started easily.

Mind Your Nutrition

Nutrition plays an integral role when you are building muscle and doing bulking exercises. You should eat at least 5-7 small meals per day, and each should consist of the right amount of fat, water, protein and carbohydrates.

Focus on Functional Muscles

While bulking can be confused with bodybuilding, the truth is you want to focus on strength and muscles. The purpose of bulking is after all to improve your performance on the pitch, so be sure that you focus on all your functional muscle groups when training.

Follow the Right Training Program

Finally, you’ll need to follow a professional training program to ensure you target all the right functional muscles. This will also include following a balanced diet. The ideal program consists of four phases; Introduction, Hypertrophy, Strength and finally, the Power phase.

Although knowing how to bulk properly may seem easy, it takes some time and effort to actually do it and make it right. The positive rewards from bulking is certainly worth the work put to it, as it grants hockey players better performance and more strength and resistance in the long run.

Having a great performance over the entire season is good for every hockey athlete, as it all comes to the fact of them having the right amount of training and resting time after the season has already ended.

In order to assure hockey players a proper level of performance within the team, it’s crucial to follow some of these tips we’ll share.

Fix Posture and Balance

Hockey players tend to end the season with several postural imbalances and muscular problems, as the sport is extremely demanding for the body in all its competitive levels. Tight hip flexors and weak muscles on glutes and legs are the main reason for these problems.

In order to fix them, it’s important to reinforce mobility throughout the entire body by performing unilateral training to gain strength and balance at the same time.

Do Strength Training

Gaining strength while focusing on technique, instead of just maxing out in every set, is vital for hockey players. Train strength by doing circuits and include exercises such as squats (both one-legged and regular), deadlifts, chin-ups, push-ups, and lunges with high resistance and lower reps per set to gain strength and build more muscle during summer.

Learning to lift heavy weights the correct way is mandatory to boost both training and results to new heights.

Get Explosive

Playing hockey demands to be able to be fast and explosive on the ice pitch. Practicing and developing acceleration and deceleration moves like jumping, weightlifting, and sprinting, will only make athletes’ performance improve if done with high-intensity low-rep training circuits.

Forget the Ice

When the season is over, athletes need to stay off the ice to regain mental and physical health after spending countless hours in an uncomfortable hunched and half-squat-like position on the pitch.

In order to relax, most professional hockey players spend their time doing other activities such as golfing, fishing, swimming or playing tennis.

Getting enough time to be able to relax, regain some strength, and build some muscle while fixing minor injuries will help hockey players start the new season clear-headed, faster, and motivated to make their performance on the ice pitch their number one priority.