LOWER BODY MOVEMENTS

In our Strength Training System, most exercises that are being considered for a specific program will be placed into one of three general movement categories. Lower Body Movements involve the following movements: knee extension, hip extension, and plantar flexion. Lower Body Movements are those that will help increase strength in the lower back, quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus muscle group, hip extensors, flexors, adductors, abductors, and the muscles of the lower leg (calf and ankle). Bilateral Movements are prominent within the program, but we also utilize a lot of unilateral variations which are more sports specific and help reduce stress placed on the body during training.

Split Stance Squats: Barbell – Off the Pins

Pin Squats differ from traditional Split Stance Squats because the weight is completely unloaded from the body during the bottom portion of the lift, resting on the safety supports. This eliminates an eccentric load and forces the athlete to become completely tight and stable before completing the accent. This quickly turning your CNS system off and then back on is the same thing you should be learning to do before you get hit or give a hit on the ice. Other than that, your technique is the same.

• Address the bar in the rack position
• Next grab the bar with the same grip you would use to bench, thumbs a finger width from smooth
• When stepping under the bar, pull your shoulder down and back, while placing the bar on your lower traps. This should be a tight and secure position.
• Under control, walk the weight out of the rack slowly, one step at a time
• Prior, make sure your bar clamps are secure
• Once you’re in your proper stance, slowly and under control, drive your hips back as you maintain a relatively upright posture. Take a deep breath and hold it during the decent.
• Notice your torso is leaning slightly forward and at the same angle and in-line and with the rear thigh and front shin. I like to see the front knee slightly forward of the ankle because it matches proper skating mechanics
• Allow the bar to come to a complete rest for 2 sec on the safety supports
• Proper depth should allow your back knee to be only 1” off the floor.
• Then stand up with your weight slightly more on your flat front foot than on the ball of your back foot.
• Your chest should always come up first, before your hips. Not the other way around.
• Your head should be in a neutral, double chin position throughout.
• The utilization of a Safety Squat Bar is also an excellent variation to this movement which we often rotate into our training protocol