Common Problems in Hockey Players - Part I

#1 – Lower-Body Muscle Imbalance
Over the last several years I have done hundreds of fitness assessents for Hockey players. There are a few common traits that I have seen chiefly with reference to muscle imbalance, muscle elasticity and joint flexibility, as well as core strength issues.

The fact is, that when dealing with hockey players, I can consistently guess what the outcome of their assessment will be, before I do it. However, there are exceptions to the norm, and, since program specificity is important to us, we like to fairly evaluate every athlete that trains with us.

While assessing lower body muscle balance, we came to a revealing conclusion. Since skating is not a natural body movement, several imbalances may occur in hockey players, especially if power skating is their basis for off-season conditioning. In the quadricep muscle, hockey players often have a very strong Vastis Lateralis (outside muscle) compared to their Vastis Medialis Oblique (inside muscle). This can cause the kneecap to be pulled toward the outside and run out of its “groove”. This can cause potentially serious long-term side effects for the athlete if it is not treated properly.

Next, we have found that the glutes are much stronger relative to the hamstrings. The hamstrings are very important in speed development and so we need to improve hamstring strength and function early in the training period. There are also imbalances within the hamstring itself. The hamstrings consist of three muscles and like the quadriceps group the Biceps Femoris (outside muscle) is stronger than the two inside muscles, Semitendinosus and Semimembranosus. It is important that we correct these imbalances early on in the off-season training program.

The goal, when training an athlete, is to increase performance while decreasing the risk of injury. By improving these lower body imbalances athletes afford themselves the greatest opportunity for success.

Coach Steve Bodanis, SST Director of Strength Training and Program Design