Sport Specifics: Hockey
The other evening, a link was passed my way. It’s to a weightlifting centric blog called “Stack” and can be found here. The link details University of Minnesota Hockey’s coach Cal Dietz. For those that don’t know, Minnesota is the hockey state, and University of Minnesota is the hockey school in Minnesota. The article covers Cal’s use of a very unique, and sport specific exercise: the isometric deadlift.
You can see the lift in the video found at the link above, but essentially, you dead lift the bar with pins above it, stopping you from getting to lock out. You do this with a split stance over the bar, or one foot placed well behind the bar, and the other slightly in front of it. Once the bar hits the pins (only a few inches of travel) you hold the weight for a count. Your front leg should never pass 90°. Rinse and repeat. Below is an image of the isometric deadlift.
The lift perfectly mimics the position coaches want skaters in at the top of a stride. One leg extended behind, and the other completely loaded with power. The isometric deadlift isn’t just for hockey players, though. The movement directly translates into any sport or movement that needs power loaded in the bottom position of squat: powerlifting, high jumpers, triple jumpers, and sprinters will all see nominal benefits from this movement.
Give the lift a shot, and let me know how it works for you. As a hockey player myself, I’ll be incorporating it into my routine this week.
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