Getting stronger without weights?

[Fire0nIce228 1]

Hey guys, I want to get stronger during this offseason and bulk up a little bit in my upper body. Only bad thing is we dont have, or have room , or have money for a weight bench or weights at my house. What is some stuff I can do to get a stronger upper body and bigger arms/chest to bulk up a little. I'm not real big, I'm only 5'8" and 135 pounds and I can pretty much get tossed around by any of the bigger guys in the league so I wanna get stronger/bigger.

Last summer I only road my bike a couple miles a few nights a week and it kept my conditioning pretty good for the start of the season so I'd like to incorporate that into getting stronger/bigger upper body.

Sorry if thats really really confusing

[Speed Demon 0]

Go running, and seeings how you say you don't have the room or the money for a weights, get a crate or something and just step up and down on it constantly with one leg.. this is good for putting strength into your stride.. also do lots of pushups.. I am talking about sets of 50.

[Kobe 0]

That won't help very much. You might notice some differences at first but they'll tail off very quickly when your body gets accustomed to the workload. Strength and bulk is achieved through intensity not duration.

Do go running but do wind sprints (interval training) instead of long distance sessions. Pushups are excellent as well but sets of 50 will just make your muscles adapt to the 40 or so pounds of body weight that you're pushing for a longer period of time. Put some rocks/bricks in your backpack and do a couple of sets of 10-15. Add more rocks/bricks (without breaking your knapsack of course) when it gets even slightly easy for you.

Just be creative and remember that weight and intensity is key when you're trying to bulk up. Suppliment your workouts with lots of (good) calories from healthy foods and tons of rest/recovery.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

Thanks guys, I woulda never thought of rocks in a backpack or some Rocky stuff, I should be able to get started with these suggestions! :)

[NCPUCK26 0]

Don't just do regular pushups. Regular Push ups are a foundation, you need to branch off from there, theres so ma ny different pushup combos you can do to help you, i did a pure pushup workout yesterday, with some pretty odd ones, and i was feelin it more than if i had benched, etc.... I'm sure you can find all somewhere, but i can try and explain to you.

[Eazy_b97 1]

So running, Use your surroundings to your advantage. Use the edge of your bed and a chair to to pull-ups. Use empty Bleach containers with sand or water in them to do curls. When to yun carry a water bottle in each hand. As long as you try and be creative you'll do very well. Do pull-ups, chin-ups.

[Chadd 916]

Don't ignore your lower body in your workouts either. You will find that having a lot of strength and musculature in your lower body will lower your center of gravity making it harder to push you around as well.

[Eazy_b97 1]

Very true Ljack. For lower you could do jumps, skipping, runs, lunges, lifting stuff around the house.

[Chadd 916]

Plyometrics combined with some weight training will work wonders.

[Chadd 916]

There are a lot of free sources on the web too, saves a few bucks.

[SB39 2]

pushups, dips if you can find a place fo rthem, and pullups and chinups are best for building netural strength fo ranything, but for lower body, especially if you're getting pushed around a lot, you want to bulk up. Wall squats will help, sprinting hills is best for hockey for both strength, speed, and endurance, but you also need to find a way to work your hamstrings, cuz if your quads get too much bigger than your hamstrings, then its knee injury city. Seriously, check out bodybuilding.com for workout articles. Another great exercise for leg strength, coordination, and balance, is pistols- one-legged squats. look up pistols on bodybuilding.com's search function and you'll get a tutorial on it...

[Gongshow11 1]

Don't run, ride your bike. Only run if your going to do sprints.

hockey is anaerobic while running is aerobic.

run different types of combinations on stairs to, and do plyos.

You could also just squat by yourself with no weights. play the card game. Draw a card from a deck and whatever comes up do that number. Face cards are 10 aces are 11. Do this until deck is complete. you can do that for things liek lunges, push ups, calf jumps, all those things without weights

[pavelbure24 0]

take a broken stick and tie a string/rope in it then put a weight on the end

[MDE3 0]

Disagree a bit about the running...if you do cross country you will get both types of conditioning...you need to have some hills mixed with some flats and vary your pace..sprint to lope to sprint etc.....I used to do 5 miles a day when I played and the last half mile was climbing about 400'. Done properly, you will build both burst power and endurance you cannot believe..

If you have the chance in the winter..a regular routine of cross country skiing.... sprinting up the hills.... will work both the arms(poling) and the legs, developing both aerobic capacity and anaerobic endurance. Basically how much blood can you get to your muscles and use, and how quickly you can recover the oxygen in your bloodstream.

Running stairs if you have a long enough climb (yes a la Rocky).

Legs and torso are the key to hitting, but upper body is for taking or keeping the puck or absorbing the boards.

[sundinleafs137 13]

I have done all sorts of workout and been to alot of camps but the one thing that really gave me an edge was working on my CORE muscles in the abdomen. once you get those tight and strong, it makes everything else stronger and easier.

Try looking up "CORE or C.O.R.E." musles, Core Conditioning, etc in search engines and stuff will turn up.

[SB39 2]

try buying or building a balance board; a .5-1 nch thick circular wooden board with an almost semi-spherical chuck of rubber nailed in the center of the bottom- just try to stand on it without any of the board touching the ground, its freakin hard and your ankles and balance muscles kill after just a couple of minutes...

[Gongshow11 1]

Disagree a bit about the running...if you do cross country you will get both types of conditioning...you need to have some hills mixed with some flats and vary your pace..sprint to lope to sprint etc.....I used to do 5 miles a day when I played and the last half mile was climbing about 400'. Done properly, you will build both burst power and endurance you cannot believe..

If you have the chance in the winter..a regular routine of cross country skiing.... sprinting up the hills.... will work both the arms(poling) and the legs, developing both aerobic capacity and anaerobic endurance. Basically how much blood can you get to your muscles and use, and how quickly you can recover the oxygen in your bloodstream.

Running stairs if you have a long enough climb (yes a la Rocky).

Legs and torso are the key to hitting, but upper body is for taking or keeping the puck or absorbing the boards.

Beleive me i'm right on this one.

This ain't me saying this, but the pros.

Sprinting is only good as in running, jogging isn't good. Always train in intervals

[Eazy_b97 1]

You'll need to do both. The Aerobic conditioning of long runs to be able to recooperate quickly and regain breathe inbetween shifts, and the speed work so you are used to pushing yourself throughout short periods of time. Like theo said hockey is both Aerobic and anareobic.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

This is some good stuff thanks everyone!

[Gongshow11 1]

Hockey is both anaerobic and aerobic though.

Hiking trails is a great aerobic conditioner- the irregular terrain is good for developing single-leg balence, coordination, and stabilizer muscels. Changing terrain also helps build strength around the hips, knees and ankles, whereas hiking inclines build leg power.

After a game do you ever see players getting interviewed on a treadmill? It's a bike, and they are good for your heart since you only play on the ice for 45sec-1 min, aerobic runnning won't do much. Kids here who did cross country running for a fall sport ran on average 6 miles a day. When hockey season came around, they were dying just like I was.

[Chadd 916]

Bikes are no-impact, unlike running. That's a big difference for those with bad knees too.

[Kobe 0]

Hockey is both anaerobic and aerobic though. 

Hiking trails is a great aerobic conditioner- the irregular terrain is good for developing single-leg balence, coordination, and stabilizer muscels.  Changing terrain also helps build strength around the hips, knees and ankles, whereas hiking inclines build leg power.

After a game do you ever see players getting interviewed on a treadmill? It's a bike, and they are good for your heart since you only play on the ice for 45sec-1 min, aerobic runnning won't do much. Kids here who did cross country running for a fall sport ran on average 6 miles a day. When hockey season came around, they were dying just like I was.

They don't ride the bikes for any anaerobic building reasons either. It's called deconditioning. Roger Neilson (sp?) developed it a long time ago. It supposedly helps with cramping and other effects resulting from a "going all out" session to standing still.

[Eazy_b97 1]

Gets rid or reduced the lactic acid thats built up in the muscles.

[Gongshow11 1]

true, but if you ever saw the special on TSN about gary roberts, gordy dwyer i think, and eric lindros, you would see only sprinting and biking.

Do what you guys want, but I get my programs from high up.

[Gongshow11 1]

I think you are definitely one guy who knows what he is doing, Yglodd. But I would have to strongly disagree w/ that one point about the aerobic stuff.

think about it theo,

in hockey do you stay on the ice for 30 mins in a realtively same motion or do you do spurts of sprints for 30-40 secs?

there ya go, aerobic vs anaerobic

Best anaerobic training is ona stationary bike do 30 secs high gear (really hard) and go as fast as you can, and then 1.5 mins slow on easy gear. I'm looking at an NHL cardio workout now as I type. All the exercises are doe on stair master/stationary bike, but mostly bike. There is a little bit of aerobic, a tad, but much more anaerobic.