Lateral Core Training

When integrating core exercises into a training program, it’s helpful to categorize the exercises based on the pattern of movement or control: Anterior, Lateral, Diagonal, Rotational.

Keeping the pattern in mind, there are several different exercises using different pieces of equipment that can be used to target specific areas. This allows athletes some flexibility in exercise selection as resources may change with travel, and also gives the casual gym-goer some room for creativity/variation without losing sight on the point of the exercise.

Throughout the next week, I’ll share a few lateral core exercises I’ve used in the past, starting with the…

TRX Lateral Lean w/ Overhead Press

The goal here is to maintain a “tall” posture (e.g. no hip sag) through the initial lean and then hold that while pushing the arms overhead.

Typically performed for either 3 sets of 8-12 reps or 3 sets of 4-6 5s holds.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. If you’re interested in how core training fits into a hockey-specific training program, check out Ultimate Hockey Transformation.

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Program Individualization: Phase Sequencing

There are many ways to individualize a training program to make it more specific to an athlete’s needs.

One simple way is to skip phases of an off-season program NOT relevant to the athlete’s needs to create additional time for the athlete to cycle through phases more specific to their goals.

This table is from a paper I published in the Strength and Conditioning Journal in 2018. In it, you’ll find an example of a typical phase-by-phase progression of an off-season program for ice hockey players.

Using this as a reference, an athlete who wants to focus on speed/power could use Phase 1 as a hybrid anatomical adaptation/strength phase, progress to a power emphasis in Phase 2, Speed in Phase 3, Speed/Power Phase 4, and then transition to more anaerobic capacity work in the two weeks preceding training camp.

This would provide ~9 weeks where speed and power are the primary targets, opposed to 6 in the table.

In team settings, it’s helpful to build out several off-season templates (e.g. hypertrophy/strength emphasis, speed/power emphasis, conditioning emphasis) with specific phase progressions to ensure that athletes are safely and logically progressed in terms of exercise selection, intensity, volume, synchrony of the training program and “conditioning”, etc.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. If you’re interested in more information about how to profile an athlete’s needs and use the profile to individualize a training program, check out the videos at Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

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Individualizing a Training Program

Over the last few months, I’ve shared examples of how an athlete’s speed or conditioning can be limited by different factors, and how game demands vary by position in ice hockey.

The reality is that every athlete is starting from a unique place, and therefore requires a specific path to get from where they are to where they want to go. As a result, the more a training program can cater to the specific needs of the individual, the more effective (or efficient) it will be in helping that athlete achieve his or her goals.

Making individualized adjustments can be challenging in a team or group environment, but here are 3 simple strategies:

Alter Exercise Selection
Alter Sets, Reps, Rest, etc.
Alter Phase Sequencing

There are countless ways to use there 3 strategies, but the first two can be particularly helpful when the facility requires players to be in the same area (e.g. in a squat rack) at the same time.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

https://OptimizingAdaptation.com.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

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What’s the best exercise for…

Over the years I’ve received a lot of questions worded something like “What’s the best exercise I can do to improve speed (or power, or lower body strength, etc.)”. The allure of the “best exercise” also appears in mainstream media, where we regularly see articles with titles that start with “Top 10 exercises for…”

There are two different ways to approach training program design when it comes to exercise selection:

Start with the exercise: Build the program based on pre-determined exercise progressions (e.g. double-leg variation, progress to static single-leg, progress to dynamic single-leg)
Start with the intended outcome: Identify a desired training goal, then determine the exercise ALONG with the loading parameters to achieve that specific goal

The reality is that exercise selection alone does not drive the training adaptation, all of the loading parameters do. These include sets, reps, load, tempo, intended speed of movement, actual speed of movement, and rest.

The table above demonstrates how a single exercise can be manipulated to produce significantly different outcomes.

Main take-home: Start with the goal, and reverse engineer from there.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For more information on in- and off-season program design, training and reconditioning for injured players, and integrating sports science into a comprehensive training process, check out Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

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Goalie-Specific Power Training: Lateral Pushing

Lateral and rotational jumps can help goalies improve the speed at which they get across the crease.

One piece of feedback I’ve heard from goalies over the years is that after going through a training phase to improve speed/power, they OVER push, and end up past the position they need to be in.

A couple years ago, I had a conversation with my friend @goalietraining about this issue and she mentioned integrating more “short amplitude” lateral pushes. With these, the goal is to cover a shorter distance as fast as possible, instead of attempting to cover as much ground as possible. This better replicates the patterns goalies go through most commonly.

This video (Click here to see video: Goalie-Specific Power Training) from Maria is of a short-amplitude lateral push resisted by the @ancoretraining cable (which has been an awesome addition to both our training facility and my home gym).

Any significant off-ice changes will take some practice time to transition those improved qualities to the ice, but integrating both maximum effort jumps AND short-amplitude lateral pushes provides goalies with a more versatile movement skillset that better transitions to the ice.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For comprehensive hockey training programs to improve your speed AND repeat sprint ability, check out: Speed Training for Hockey

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