Push-Up Hold (Isometric)
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 push-up start position — straight line from heels to head. Lower halfway down — elbows at roughly 90°, chest 4-6 inches off the floor. HOLD. This is the working position. Brace the core, squeeze the glutes, breathe in shallow but steady patterns. Hold until you can no longer maintain a perfect straight line — that's your rep.
Why It Works
The isometric push-up hold is the 'brace' phase of triphasic upper-body training — and it directly mirrors the position you hold every time you absorb a check, fight for net-front position, or push back on a defender along the boards. Isometric work at long muscle lengths (which is what a half-rep hold is) increases tendon stiffness and improves the rate at which you can express force — the missing link between max strength and on-ice power.
Hockey Transfer
Triphasic isometric phase for upper-body pushing. Hold the bottom of a push-up — builds the "brace" that lets you absorb contact, push off the boards, hold position in front of the net. Useful for absorbing a check, holding net-front position, fighting off a stick lift. The static brace IS the work.
Coaching Cues
- "Push-up start. Lower halfway down (elbows ~90°). HOLD. Tight core"
- "Straight line head-to-heels. Breathe steadily. Don't sag."
Common Mistakes
Holding too high (elbows barely bent) — the 90° position is where the muscle is most challenged. Sagging hips — you're shifting load away from the chest to the lower back. Stop the rep. Holding breath — drops blood pressure, makes the hold less productive. Adding reps when you should be adding time — this is a TIME exercise, not a count.
Progression / Regression
Single-arm push-up hold (50/50 weight) — doubles the load per arm.
Incline push-up hold (hands on a bench) — same isometric stimulus, less bodyweight load.
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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