Want to improve your velocity? Let’s be honest, probably every muscle in the body is active when shooting a puck, but by focusing on the prime movers, you can easily gain explosive speed. Let’s break down the movements and muscles involved from the ice up, from a right handed shooter’s perspective. 

1. The right hip has to abduct and externally rotate which is mostly gluteus medius, minimus, and piriformis. Hip airplanes are a great way to target these muscles:

2. The spine has to rotate which involves the spinal rotators and obliques. Single leg chops hit these muscles and get the glutes involved also:

3. The right shoulder needs to adduct and internally rotate. For this, try some flies from low to high:

4. The left shoulder needs to externally rotate. Classic shoulder external rotation will work but from an angled position:

5. The left shoulder also adducts. You can use shoulder adduction for this:

6. The right forearm pronates forcefully. To target pronator teres and quadratus, try this:

7. The left forearm has to supinate which involves the bicep and the supinator. For the bicep, curls will do the job but add supination: 

8.Here is a great way to target the supinator muscle:

9. Grip strength and forearm strength are always going to help for a quick shot. Here is an oldie but goodie: 

A couple of tips:

Always train bilaterally, so do all these on both sides. Sports like hockey, golf, and baseball that are highly rotational in one direction will lead to imbalances later if not trained bilaterally. 

Sports are all about rate of force production. That means quick movement. So I’d recommend performing the concentric movement (positive phase) quickly, then perform the eccentric movement (negative phase) slowly. 

You can use cables for a lot of these motions but there is an advantage that elastic bands have. When it comes to range of motion, most muscles are weakest at the end of a range of motion. An elastic band has more tension towards the end range of motion so it specifically targets the end range. 

Want to add more specificity to your programming? Check out our Train Smarter Program: