Work with what you've got | body weight exercises | Strength | Fitness factor | Hardcore Hockey

Body weight strength training is the first method of training you should perform to gain any strength. The exercises can easily be adapted to suit the needs of any individual. In addition, most exercises can be done in your home as well as at the training ground or gym, with very little to no equipment necessary.

This stage of training offers an invaluable opportunity to gain an overall body strength from which to build on.

A popular example of body weight exercise regime is circuit training.

Using a body weight strength training programme allows specific muscle groups which closely replicate Hockey actions to be practiced.

Another advantage is that because the maximum load will be your body weight, you are less likely to suffer any serious injury through incorrect technique.

Sit Ups strengthen the abdominal muscles (rectus abdominis and obliques) assisting your core stability.

Lay on your back on the floor.

Bend your knees so that the knee is flexed at 90 degrees and your feet are flat on the floor.

Place your hands across your chest or have them at the side of your head. Do not place your hands behind your neck or head whilst performing sit ups as this can lead to neck strain on the pull up (exercise phase). Sit up as if rolling your lower back off the floor.

Sit Up & Twist progresses the standard sit up and introduces the muscles along the sides of the abdominals (internal and external obliques). As you perform a sit up and rise from the horizontal to the vertical position slowly twist your torso. A good guide is aim to touch your left knee with your right elbow.

Alternate the twists on each sit up to make sure you develop each side equally.

Knee Raise trains the lower abdominals and hip flexors (Illiopsoas). Lay on the floor with straight legs.

Place your hands under  your lower back and then flex and pull your knees up to your chest, then lower them back down. To make it harder don’t lower your heels down fully, leaving about an inch gap before the second rep. To make it even harder then you can keep your legs straight whilst raising them up.

Make sure you have your hands under your lower back and slightly raise your head of the floor.

Press Ups are an exercise which strengthens more than the active triceps, anterior deltoids and pectoral muscles. Holding your body flat during the press up triggers all the core muscles around the torso.

To perform the press up lie on your stomach and place your hands shoulder width apart. Keeping your back straight, straighten your arms and raise your chest and hips from the floor. If your hands are placed close to your body you will train the triceps, but if you move your hands wider you will train the pectoral muscles.

To make this exercise harder either place your feet on a raised platform (the higher the raise the harder the exercise. You can also try adding in a dynamic arm extension such as clapping your hands in the middle of the upward phase.

Squat Thrusts actively develop the hip flexors but also isometrically the shoulder and arms which hold your body position on the floor. To perform the squat thrust lie on your stomach and place your hands shoulder width apart.

Keeping your back straight, straighten your arms and raise your chest and hips from the floor as if you have just performed the upward phase of a press up.

Whilst your elbows are extended and you have good balance bring your knees forward and up to your chest. You can either slide your feet along the floor or you can tuck them up as little jumps. Then extend your legs back out to the starting position to complete the repetition.

To develop this exercise you can add in a vertical squat jump; to do this from the finish position you stand up but extend this standing into a jump, as you land you squat back down by flexing your knees and then placing your hands in the start position you repeat your squat thrust.

Body weight exercises are a very similar training method to free weights with respect to the movement patterns and muscles used. For example the body weight squat  where the performer stands up straight and bends the knee to perform the squat can be performed with dumbbells or barbell in free weights.

If you cannot hold your body position and perform the movement without the free weights you are not ready to progress to using free weights.