Use Bands For More Strength and Power From Your Hockey Training
Step in the training room of any NHL or NCAA hockey team and will undoubtedly locate some elastic bands or tubing. Generally we associate this with rehab, restorative exercise or maybe a metabolic circuit. You'd see hockey players performing lateral band walks and clam shells to get the glutes turned on. And you may also observe them utilizing a band for a scapular retraction exercise or a cleaving pattern.
And these bands or tubing are great. I like them because they are easy to move around the training room, you can do various exercises with them and it's truly hard to hurt yourself. Add to this they are relatively inexpensive and easy to get and it makes sense to remember them for a hockey team's training financial plan.
But what about when we get past restorative exercise and rehab for an injury. What do we do once we are healthy, warmed up and everything is in alignment? Do we toss the bands and tubing aside and proceed onward to the racks, platforms, bars and free weights? That's where real strength and force is created in the training room, correct?
Well what about the occasions you've seen a force lifter utilizing bands while squatting, sidelining or dead-lifting?
Presently before you get all excited about recommending we abandon hockey training and switch to control lifting that's not what I'm saying.
But does this have a place in a hockey training program? To answer this we have to ask ourselves what is the reason for a particular training meeting. If the goal is increased strength and force then maybe it should be an interesting point. Because the individuals who center altogether around increased strength and force for example power-lifters appear to utilize them quite a bit.
So what might the benefits of incorporating bands into your hockey training? Well with all elastic resistance the power you have to defeat is variable. The resistance increases as you increase the length of elastic. With your lifts this will put more emphasis on the fulfillment of your lifts. Additionally there will be an increased whimsical load as the band pulls the bar towards the attachment point. These can be good things if you need improvement in locking out your lifts or more attention in controlling the stretch or capricious phase of the lift.
But what does the research say about utilizing bands? Anderson et al (2008) attempted to answer this inquiry with an examination including 44 NCAA division I athletes. One gathering of athletes trained the back squat and seat press in a regular free weight fashion and the other gathering played out the same exercise with bands attached to the bars. At the finish of the examination the two gatherings were tried in these lifts as well as their capacity creation. This is what they found.
Upgrades in the squat and force creation were multiple times greater for the elastic gathering compared to the benchmark group. And seat enhancements were twofold those of the benchmark group.
So what does this mean? Well it reveals to us that utilizing elastic bands may be beneficial in the present moment for increasing strength and force creation.
But recollect this is but one instrument. Make sure if you do incorporate bands into your resistance training it is gone before by utilizing these same bands to address and align the body first.
