Working your core muscles on a hockey balance board is one of the best things you can do for your body. Our core muscles are the elements that allow us to be able to walk around and not fall on our faces every time we take a step. The more you take care of your core, the more it will take care of you. The great thing about exercising core muscles is that you can do it without having to endure excruciating training sessions. All you have to do is balance yourself.
The Hockey Balance Board
When you use a balance board for hockey training you can feel the difference in your core immediately. It is not always an obvious feeling, you have to draw your attention to your core in order to feel that it is engaged.
As you balance on a board, your core muscles are activated. Although it is not the same as when you flex your bicep and feel the muscle get tense on your arm, it is more of an awareness and a tenseness of the muscles that help to keep you balanced. The tension that you feel in the muscles that surround your pelvis, abdominal area, and parts of your obliques all work together in order to stabilize your movements, keep you balanced, and help to avoid injury by muscular imbalance.
Hockey Balance Board Core Training
If you are new to training on a balance board, you have to keep in mind that that balance boards can be dangerous if you are not used to them. In fact, there is always a risk of injury whether you are brand new or have been balancing for years.
Make sure that you are in a safe place where you will not fall on any sharp objects.
When you are ready to balance, simply balance your board over the roller lengthwise, in the same fashion as a teeter-totter. Advanced balancers will place the roller longways under the balance board so that it the balance area is only as wide as the board. Whichever is more appropriate for your skill level, that is where you should begin.
Balance Board Squats
As you become more comfortable on the balance board, you might want to push yourself to do more and try additional exercises. One good way to bundle up on training workouts is to incorporate squats into your routine.
You can stand with your feet on opposite ends of the board so that they are about shoulder-width apart and slowly squat down as you continue to balance yourself on the board. As you squat down, you don’t want to squat lower than your body’s natural position, so just squat down to where your thighs come out from your body at a 90-degree angle so that they are flat, and level with the ground.
It is best to do squats from the heels as opposed to squatting on your toes. This may take a bit of getting used to, especially when you are just learning to squat on a balance board.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways to amp up your balance board workout sessions. You can do squats, as we mentioned above, you could do pushups off of the balance board, you can even do a nice long plank of the board. Whatever ways that you find work best for you, keep doing them. If you continue to train on a hockey balance board consistently, you will have no choice but to see results.
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