Question:  Why are we seeing so many injuries in the NHL this year?

Answer: Hockey is a high impact sport and the most common areas of injury for hockey players are the groin, knee, shoulder and lower back.  To prevent injuries, players need to put an increased focus on muscle balance and flexibility. Working out hard and being strong or fast is not enough. Elite athletes need individualized workouts that take their body type and athletic goals into consideration.  A player who is small and quick needs a different workout from a player who is big and strong. Goalies, defenseman and forwards need to do exercises specific to their position.  Most professional sports organizations are good at rehabilitating an injured player, but are lacking when it comes to injury prevention. Simply including mandatory flexibility and joint stability tests on a monthly basis would be the first step to stop injuries from happening in the first place.

Most hockey players work on their core musc

les all year to prevent groin injuries. Stability balls, Bosu® balls, balance boards and medicine balls are more popular than ever. Yet, we are seeing more and more groin injuries. The problem with most of these exercises is that they isolate the upper and side abdominal muscles but are not that effective at isolating the lower abdominal and pelvic floor muscles. All athletes should be performing pelvic thrusts for their low abs, as this exercise is the foundation for targeting that area. However, such a basic exercise can seem too easy and monotonous and often gets left out of a program. This is when an imbalance starts to occur and an injury may follow. The athlete is then quickly entered into rehabilitation and starts with the basic exercises that could have prevented the injury in the first place. It is a basic philosophy that I call “prehabilitation”.

Shaun Karp is a certified personal trainer.  For further information call his office at 604-420-7800 or go to www.karpfitness.com.