You might be wondering what exactly a balance board for hockey can do for you. Believe it or not, practicing your balance skills on a balance board for 15 minutes a day can bring you a plethora of benefits including a stronger core, and more agility when it comes to skating and other activities that require balance. But, did you know that practicing on a balance board increases stamina as well? Keep reading and you will learn how it all works.
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What is Stamina?
In simple terms, a person with stamina is a person that has the ability to sustain long durations of physical, or mental activities. In many cases, the person with the highest amount of stamina wins a competition. Stamina is the way mountain bikers, triathlon runners, and even hockey players stay strong and focused throughout an entire game or race. Stamina is a key ingredient for success.
What is Your Core?
Whenever you stand up to walk, run, or anything that takes balance, your core goes to work. The core is an intricate system of muscles that communicate with the brain in order to keep people from falling down and stay balanced. The stronger your core, the better your balance can be. Without your core strength intact, you would not be able to walk two steps without falling down. The core is that important.
Although it is a group of muscles they are not directly grouped together like your biceps, triceps, or trapezoids. Within the center of gravity in your body, there is a network of muscles that work together behind the scenes to keep everything in balance. Whenever you engage your core there are literally millions of conversations between your brain and your muscles that happen in order to guide your emotions in a way that will keep you safe. Your core is muscles, and for them to stay engaged for prolonged periods of time, you need stamina.
How Stamina Develops
The way that an athlete develops a monumental stamina machine is to work out in a way that demands longstanding stimulus. In other words, to build stamina, you have to do things and hold them for prolonged amounts of time. The way that a balance board builds stamina is that you stand on it and keep yourself balanced for prolonged amounts of time. As you do this, you train the muscles in your body to stay engaged and activated for long periods of time. First, five minutes may seem like forever. After consistent practice, balancing for half of an hour is a piece of cake. This is because you build stamina and your body begins to develop a tolerance to withstanding the excess stress on the muscles.
Building Stamina With a Balance Board
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to build stamina. Jogging, bike riding, holding your body in the up position of a pull-up for minutes at a time. Anything that requires you to hold your strength for a little while will build stamina. However, what makes a balance board for hockey a great tool for stamina building is that it activates the same muscles that you use when you ice skate. If you hold those muscles and keep them activated for a while each day, you will improve your balance skills as well as your stamina. Balancing on a board is not as exhausting as running, or riding a bike, but it can be highly effective in core strengthening and stamina building at the same time.
Hold the Burn
Building stamina is not an easy thing to do. Any way that you train that will specifically build stamina is going to be a challenge. As soon as it gets easy, you need to kick up the heat and make it more difficult. You get stronger as you push yourself and move away from comfort. When you feel the burn coming on, don’t let it scare you. Keep pushing and always strive to be stronger than you were the day before.
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