Reverse Nordic 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
Kneel on a padded surface — folded towel, yoga mat, or carpet works. Knees hip-width, toes pointing back behind you (feet flat or pointed, your choice). Push your hips slightly forward and engage the glutes. Slowly lean backward — body stays in one straight line from knees to head. Stop where it gets hard — your eventual goal is hands able to touch the floor behind you, but start much shallower. HOLD. Tight glutes the whole hold. Return to upright under control.
Why It Works
The reverse Nordic is one of the very few exercises that loads the quads in their LENGTHENED position — the same angle the quad reaches at the back end of a hard deceleration or stop, where strains happen. Most quad training (squats, lunges, leg press) loads the muscle in a shortened or mid-range position, leaving the lengthened end of the strength curve untrained. That gap is exactly where injuries occur. A 20-30 second iso hold in the deepest reverse-Nordic position builds tissue tolerance precisely where it's needed for hockey: protecting against quad strains, building tendon stiffness around the kneecap, and adding the kind of bombproof anterior chain that lets a player decelerate from full speed on demand.
Hockey Transfer
Loads the quads in the LENGTHENED position — the exact angle they fail at during hard decelerations. A rare quality you can't train any other way; protects against quad strains and patellar pain. Don't grind through pinching at the kneecap — that means you've gone too far. Find the position where it's hard but not sharp.
Coaching Cues
- "Kneel on a pad"
- "Knees hip-width"
- "Toes pointed back. Lean backward as far as you can control — hips push slightly forward"
- "Body straight from knees to head. HOLD where it gets hard."
Common Mistakes
Bending at the hips to fake range — defeats the exercise; body stays straight knees-to-head. Going too deep too fast — quad strains happen here; progress 5° per week max. Sharp pinching pain at the kneecap — back off immediately; that means you've gone past tolerance. Skipping the knee pad — bare knees on a hard floor end the set before the quads do.
Progression / Regression
Reverse Nordic with arms overhead — adds anterior-chain demand and moment arm. Eventually full bottom range with hands on the floor behind you.
Shallow reverse Nordic — lean only 15-20° back, hands on thighs for support.
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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