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Hockey players using Pilates to fight injury

January 14, 2010 11:22 AM | Posted by   Cassie Campbell  

When I retired from competitive hockey I took almost the entire summer off from regular hockey training. Now I wasn’t just sitting on the couch, but I never got on a stationary bike or do squats or other typical hockey exercises. Basically, I did everything I could do to get away from the everyday training of being a hockey player while at the same time trying to keep in some sort of shape!

One of the best moves I made after retiring was to start doing Pilates. I wish I had learned earlier about the benefit Pilates would have on my body.

I started working out regularly with Stephanie Davis, who works out of the Calalta Figure Skating Club in Calgary. I realized as soon as I started working with her how us hockey players tend to be deficient in so many areas.

A large part of that is due to the nature of our sport in how we balance speed and power with physical contact. I was lucky throughout my career when it came to injuries. I mostly dealt with the common hockey issues (back and shoulders) and I was out for seven months with a pretty severe neck injury, but the common groin stuff never really factored into my career.

Taking Pilates plunge

With so many injuries occurring throughout this NHL season I thought I would parlay Davis’ views on why hockey players suffer so many groin injuries. She quickly pointed out to me during our discussion that she’s no doctor and recommends the collaboration of all people when dealing with training a high performance athlete. Well said!

Davis has worked with many Calgary-based hockey players such Martin Gelinas, Rhett Warrener, Braydon Coburn, Devan Dubnyk and Jason LaBarbera. Most recently she helped Theoren Fleury attempt his comeback to the NHL. She is a former figure skater and competed at Canadian nationals, so she is in tune with the athletic body.

Here are some of her theories on why hockey players suffer groin injuries. Just for your information!

1. We have weak feet: Due to the stiff hockey skates we wear, there is no need for our feet to be strong. However, without strong feet we do not have a proper balance point. This in turn makes everything unbalanced from the bottom up. I found this evident when I first tried speed skates. With no support I really felt that I was going to break my ankles! I did one loop and that was that!

2. We have a weaker lower core: We have weak stabilizing muscles near the pelvis area. This is almost like comparing our body to a car that has a loose wheel. If one wheel is loose then the others can’t do their job. If the core is not doing its job, other parts will over work, like our hip flexors, or groin.

3. We lack flexibility: The reason why more players have started taking up Pilates and yoga is because they realize the need to have more balance when it comes to overall strength and flexibility. Stretching the myofascial (which is painful to me) is like giving the joints WD40 so they are free to move. One side might not have the same range as the other, but balancing this out is the key. When the leg goes out in a hockey stride, it might not move as freely as it should or it will with strain due to lack of flexibility. Over time, this general hockey movement becomes strenuous because the leg doesn’t come back to the centre of the body. This causes an imbalance just from skating and adds more load to different areas, like the groin. In order to optimize power, an athlete not only needs to build strength by lifting weights, but they need to have a better balance between strength and flexibility

4. Our quads are too strong: Every motion we do is based on quad strength. However, there needs to be a balance. All the anterior leg muscles (i.e. quad, hip flexors) tend to be stronger then the posterior muscles (hamstring, glutes) causing a very big imbalance.

Balance between strength, flexibility and stability

We can also look at other factors that impact why hockey players get groin injuries - the poor quality of ice or the increased stiffness that hockey skates are made with year after year - but in essence, I think there’s often too much emphasis on building strength and power and not enough on flexibility. Is it the chicken before the egg or the egg before the chicken? Each athlete has to find balance between strength, flexibility and stability when training.

I am no doctor, but it kind of irks me how so many players struggle with groin injuries in the NHL. It’s not something that’s as serious as head injuries, obviously, but the prevalence of groin injuries has to be a concern for all NHL teams and their trainers.

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