The results of stretching exercises are marvelous if one starts practicing from early childhood. Children are comparatively more flexible in terms of their bone joints and muscles. Therefore, a little effort by them can bring about a huge difference in flexibility within a short period of time. On the other hand, older athletes will have to exert more effort and struggle to reach that level of flexibility that ice hockey workouts demand.
Despite having endurance, strength, speed, and core power, the absence of flexibility can really spoil your performance on the ice rink. Therefore, it is suggested to exercise stretch training right before the game. However, you must warm yourself up before carrying out stretch exercises. A few warm up exercises will relax your muscles allowing them to stretch easily and in a better way. Likewise, you should also perform these exercises at the end of ice hockey drills as it will increase your flexibility even more.
One thing you just cannot afford to neglect is your body alignment during stretch training. While stretching one part of the body, other parts must also be postured the proper way. In case you fail to keep up with the required body alignment, you may experience severe fatigue and even muscle tear under extreme cases. In the attempt to strengthen and stretch one muscle or joint, you can actually damage other ligaments. This will then harm you instead of being beneficial.
There is a fine line of difference between stretching up to your level of resistance and stretching to the point you actually start feeling pain. This particular exercise is meant to improve flexibility, which you can achieve only at a relatively slow pace. If you wish to gain maximum flexibility in one session, chances are that you may land in your room for complete bed-rest. Therefore, it is necessary to proceed slowly and gradually. Start with small moves and brief sessions. Keep practicing on daily basis and increase to the extent to which you can stretch yourself. This way, you will notice highly positive results if you act patiently and wisely.
While you perform flexibility exercises, pay close attention towards controlling your moves and stretches. There are two basic types of stretch trainings, the static stretches and the dynamic ones. Go slow with static stretches and exercise regularly. Static stretches must be no longer than 30 seconds and should be repeated 3 – 5 times per round. However, athletes and pros should expand their static stretches over a few minutes.
The second type, dynamic stretch training, is also known as on-ice flexibility exercise. When performing dynamic stretches, you must avoid bouncing. Incorrect or improper stretching by players may cause the player to feel pain or even have an injury that they cannot afford specially when the game is about to begin. Under such circumstances, seek medical guidance. However, if you follow the above stated rules, there is no doubt you will achieve flexibility while staying safe.
