The Perfect Hockey Warm-Up

Whether it’s a big game, a casual scrimmage, or just a practice, warming up the right way can make a huge difference in how you feel and perform on the ice.

1. Stickhandling Warm-Up (5–10 Minutes)

Before you get dressed, spend a few minutes getting your hands going. Grab your stick and ball/puck and:

• Start with the basics: stickhandle side to side in front of you, and move the puck front to back on both your forehand and backhand sides.
• Progress to more advanced curvilinear movements like figure 8s, cutbacks, and toe pulls while moving around in a small space.
• Finish with some visualization-based reps—pretend you’re in a game pulling off 1-on-1 moves like pull-backs, toe drags, and forehand-to-backhand head fakes.

This gets your eyes, brain, and hands firing before you even lace up.

Your brain activates many of the same neural pathways during mental rehearsal as it does during actual gameplay, so you’re not just warming up your hands; you’re training your hockey instincts, too.

2. Dynamic Full-Body Warm-Up (5–10 Minutes)

Do this before getting your equipment on to loosen up stiff joints, activate key muscle groups, and raise your core body temperature. A proper dynamic warm-up increases blood flow, enhances mobility, and wakes up your nervous system, preparing your body for fast and powerful movement.

This means you’ll skate stronger, move more freely, react quicker, and reduce your risk of injury once you hit the ice.

Option 1: Follow-Along Video (No Thinking Needed)

If you want to press play and warm up with me step-by-step, this video walks you through the full routine:

Option 2: Self-Paced Version (No Screen Required)

If you’d rather do it on your own without following a video, here’s the full warm-up you can run through at your own pace:

Here are the exercises we ran through in the above warm-up:

• Zombie Lateral Lunge x 5 per side
• Jumping Jacks x 30
• T-Stab Push-Ups x 6 per side
• Arm Circles x 12 in each direction
• Straight Arm Rotations x 8 per side
• Single-Leg Hip Circle x 12 in each direction per leg
• Zombie Squat With Reach Through x 8
• Shoulder T x 15

3. On-Ice Warm-Up Focus

Don’t waste your team’s on-ice warm-up time just going through the motions. Use this time to dial in your movement, timing, and feel for the puck and your edges:

• Focus on your skating mechanics—crossovers, edge control, mohawks, quick starts, and transitions to get your feet under you.
• Add in stickhandling reps with changes in direction and speed to sharpen your touch and hand-eye coordination.
• Get shots off from multiple angles and locations, simulating game-like situations, don’t just fire pucks mindlessly.

These reps set the tone for your first shift, physically and mentally. If you treat the warm-up like a walkthrough, you’ll likely start slow. But if you treat it like a preview of your performance, you’ll hit the ice ready to compete from the opening faceoff.

The Benefits of Properly Warming Up Before Hockey

The two biggest reasons to warm up properly before hockey are injury prevention and performance enhancement, and both come down to how your body responds when it’s physically and neurologically prepared for action.

Here’s what a proper warm-up does behind the scenes:

• Muscles contract more forcefully and relax faster, which directly boosts your speed, power, agility, and strength.
  
• Nerve signals fire more efficiently, improving reaction time and overall coordination—this is often referred to as “waking up the nervous system.”
  
• Blood temperature rises, improving oxygen delivery to muscles and enhancing endurance.
  
• Vasodilation increases, allowing more fuel (such as carbohydrates and electrolytes) to enter working muscles and helping to remove waste products like lactic acid more efficiently.
  
• Mobility and joint range of motion improve, reducing stiffness and injury risk while helping you move more freely in real game situations.

In short, almost every physical advantage you want—quicker reactions, more explosive strides, harder shots—relies on raising your body temperature and priming your nervous system. Yet despite this, warm-ups are often rushed or overlooked by players (and even coaches) who don’t realize how much performance they’re leaving on the table.

If you want to perform at your best, a proper warm-up isn’t optional—it’s a competitive advantage.

Final Thoughts

Take your on-ice warm-up time seriously!

Many hockey players just “go through the motions” of a warm-up without actually focusing on getting the body prepared for the game (which is why some players and teams start slow).

By incorporating a general warm-up before putting on your equipment and a specific warm-up when you’re on the ice, you should be 100% ready to play at full speed at the drop of the puck.

Ready to take your game to the next level?
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Click here to use our free Program Selector Tool to get started today.

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Frequently Asked Hockey Warm-Up Questions