Plank Challenge — Max Hold
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds drills like this into your personalized off-ice program, week by week. Your first week is free.
How to Do It
Get into a perfect plank — forearms on the floor, elbows under shoulders, body in a straight line. Glutes squeezed, core braced as if bracing for a punch. Neutral neck — look at the floor between your hands. Start the timer. Breathe in steady patterns. Hold until form breaks: hips sag, hips pike, shoulders shift — at that moment, stop the clock. Write the time down. Beat it next time.
Why It Works
The max-hold plank is the gold-standard test of core ENDURANCE — the muscle quality that holds your skating stride together in the third period. The side plank is a top predictor of low-back resilience in athletes, and front plank endurance correlates strongly with shot velocity (hockey shooters use the core as the transfer point from legs to stick). Tracking this number monthly is one of the simplest pieces of evidence that your off-ice work is paying off.
Hockey Transfer
Long hold = core endurance + grit. Beat your previous time. Hockey is a long game and a strong core is what holds your stride together in the third period. Hockey is a long game. Strong core in the first period is easy; strong core in the third is the metric.
Coaching Cues
- "Get into a perfect plank: straight line from heels to head"
- "Elbows under shoulders"
- "Glutes tight"
- "Core squeezed. Hold for as long as you can with PERFECT form. The second your hips sag"
- "You're done. Time it. Beat it next time."
Common Mistakes
Letting hips sag mid-hold — every second past that point is not a real plank. Holding breath — drops blood pressure, fatigues you faster. Piking hips up to make it easier — same disqualification as sagging. Testing this when fatigued — retest only fresh, ideally first thing in a session.
Progression / Regression
Weighted plank challenge — plate on the upper back, same protocol.
Knee plank challenge — same form but with knees on the floor instead of toes.
Primary Muscles
Energy System
Strength/neural
Put it to work
on the ice.
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds exercises like this into a personalized off-ice program — created by a sport scientist and former national-team coach. Your first week is free.
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