Tag: hockey training course

The Only Way to Cruise

First things first. The other day I mentioned I would be providing a high frequency training template. I will be, but instead of posting it, I’ll be sending it out in an upcoming newsletter. If you haven’t yet, grab a free copy of “Strong Hockey Core Training” and sign-up for my newsletter. Even if you already invested in my Off-Ice Performance Training Course, it’s still worth signing up for the newsletter to get updated information and other freebies. Sign-up window in the upper right corner of this site.

Moving on…

On Saturday I got back to New York after a 7-day cruise through the Caribbean with Emily. It was probably the most fun week of my life. Up to this point, my foreign travel has consisted of hockey trips to Canada, and one accidental journey through part of Mexico during a cross-country drive with my brother. We spent one day each in: St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Lucia, and Barbados.

If you know me at all, you know I’m exceptionally boring. On an average week, I’m busy with something kinesiology or training related for about 14 hours a day, about 4-6 of which is spent reading. I get about 7-8 hours of sleep, and spend the last 2 hours eating the same foods (pepper, onion, and cheddar cheese omelettes, ground turkey, spinach, broccoli, and smoothies). Some would call me a workaholic. I wouldn’t disagree. I just happen to enjoy my work, so I don’t mind putting the time in.

Having said all that, Emily made it clear that no constructive work would be done at anytime on this cruise, which was an ultimatum I agreed to without hesitation. I needed a break. It was time to relax and branch out. It was a week of firsts. Last week, for the first time ever, I:

Have been on a cruise ship
Been outside North America
Ate snails
Ordered Shrimp, three times I might add
Ate Wahoo…it’s a type of fish
Ordered three desserts and ate all of them
Enjoyed a bowl of Strawberry Bisque
Eaten Cream of Asparagus Soup
Rode a jetski
Ordered a Mojito with an unaltered self-perception of manliness
Feared for my life (Emily, driving the jetski at full speed through choppy waves straight toward the shoreline, turns her head and says “I can’t see anything. I’m going to close my eyes. Let me know if I hit anything!” She later added, “I had NO idea what I was doing” haha)
Spontaneously slow danced in the middle of a hallway
Saw SEVERAL senior citizens ripping their clothes off to win a cruise-hosted contest
Saw several men provocatively dancing together to with the same contest
Got a tan! Due to my Irish, German, and English heritage, my skin tone usually varies between eggshell white and translucent. In fact, I’m so pale, the people at the “Bodies” exhibit asked if I would be part of their tour, as it is indeed rare that you can see the muscles right through the skin in a life human.
Stood up in the open back of a jeep while speeding through poorly paved roads in a rain forest
Saw a banana plantation (it was cool to see where they come from since I’m single-handedly keeping the banana industry afloat by eating 5-6 a day).
Snorkled above a ship wreck and with sea turtles
Tasted banana ketchup
Went a week without checking my email or voicemail once. Nor did I send a text message. First week without outside communication in as long as I can remember.
Been to a cigar lounge
Saw a towel animal (On different days, our room was inhabited by a towel elephant, monkey, and what Emily described as a “Sexy Antelope”)
And lastly, interacted with such a diverse population. I made friends with two bartenders from China and a small island off the coast of Africa, a piano player from England, a waiter from the Philippines, and a couple with the wife from Russia and husband from Albania. I learned more about foreign culture in one week than I have in 18 years of school.

It was a great break from reality. I’m already looking forward to my next escape 🙂

Hockey Training Take Home: Take a break every now and then. You’ll feel well-rested and rejuvenated, allowing you to get back to training hard and making progress.

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So You Want to Get Stronger?

Want to get stronger?

I often get questions that start out something like:

“What’s the best way to…?”

The truth is, there is not right answer to this question. The best way to achieve any training goal depends very much on your training history, current training level, and injury history, among other things.

One programming approach to drastically improving strength is high-frequency training. The nervous system adapts to the demands we place on ourselves, such that specific movement patterns are strengthened the more we perform them.

Following this logic, the more we lift specific movements the stronger we’ll get, right? Sort of.

The answer is yes, IF we intelligently alter the intensity and speed of the exercises to allow for recovery. The body is in a continuous state of remodeling, meaning it is constantly breaking down and rebuilding. This goes for bone, muscles, connective tissue (e.g. ligaments and tendons), etc.

High frequency training, or training specific movement patterns 3+ times/week can be a very effective strategy in improving strength quickly. Stay tuned. In the next couple days I’m going to post the program I’ve been using for the last three weeks.

Keep training smart.

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24 Hours to Overtraining

Overtraining is becoming a popular topic in ice hockey, and in youth sports in general, and for good reason. With the overemphasis on year-round sports participation (notably the crazy hockey parents that think it’s a good idea to have their kids ONLY play hockey year-round), we’re starting to see kids suffer symptoms of overtraining.

When I started to look into overtraining, something became clear to me:

There is no difference between OVERtraining and UNDERrecovery.

It’s a game of balancing stress with recovery. Stress, positive or negative, takes a toll on the body. I always joke that I can elicit overtraining symptoms in college students within 24 hours. How? I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to use this on anyone…Give them three exams, have their significant other break up with them, make a 15 page paper due in two days, and then have their neighbors throw a party, not only in their apartment, but also in all the campus libraries.

Boom! Overtraining symptoms.

And that’s without ANY training! You want to avoid overtraining-focus on recovery. For more information, don’t forget to check out Eric Cressey’s E-book: The Art of The Deload.

Keep training smart.

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Classic Hockey

I stumbled across this video today. CLASSIC hockey-the PATRICK division finals. Remember that name? Kevin Stevens used to be my favorite hockey player. Why?? I don’t know. Probably because his name is Kevin and he was on the first line of the Penguins in NHL ’94 for Sega (still the only video game I play…what the hell is a rockband?). Unfortunately, Kevin only makes it through the first 30 seconds of this one. The fact that this is a Game 7 highlight shows evidence that the Islanders did, in fact, stumble across victories occasionally in the past. Enjoy!

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The Truth About Resistance Training Guidelines

Usually I save my rants for Friday’s, but I didn’t have time last week to get this one out. Happy Monday…

I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to spend my last two years at UMass Amherst, completing my graduate work. While in Amherst, I’ve learned from some of the best, and interacted with several hundred students. One area of education (notably for future professionals within the kinesiology field) that consistently disappoints me is the resistance training recommendations (actually-I don’t care much for the physical activity guidelines either, but I’ll leave that alone for today).

The recommendation goes something like: 8 exercises hitting all the major muscle groups in the body for 8-12 reps. Nice.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why they’re like that (as an aside: these stem from government-funded research, not from the brilliant faculty at UMass). The rationale is simple: what’s the most basic recommendation we can make to a huge population of people. I still don’t like it, but I understand why it’s so generic. I’m much less okay with it being taught as a good recommendation to hundreds of students within the field of kinesiology. Present the generic recommendations, because you have to, but then put a big asterisk next to them and go into more detail.

Saying you need to perform 8 exercises to target all the major muscle groups give most people the impression that they need to perform one exercise per muscle group. Here’s the thing, your body doesn’t work in isolation, so neither should you. The recommendation leads to the mind state of, “I’ll do something for my chest, for my back, my legs, my calves, my biceps, my triceps, my abs, then my lower back.”

Great! You’ve effectively found a way to spend a significantly longer time in the gym, getting worse results, training your body to function in a way it will never have to function. I’ll let you in on a secret. Better yet, I’ll challenge you. Find me a major muscle group (or minor muscle group for that matter) that isn’t worked in a two exercise program utilizing the deadlift and push-up.

It’s time for people to stop subscribing to what I call the “Magic Muscle Theory.” Simply, this is the idea that specific muscles just lie dormant, awaiting a specifically designed isolation exercise to strengthen them. For example-Decline benching is great for the lower pec. Lower pec! I haven’t decline-benched in over 5 years, and, miraculously, my lower pectoralis major has found a way to survive. The whole isolation mentality alludes me.

If you’re in anyway involved in the field of kinesiology (student, athletic coach, strength and conditioning coach, athletic trainer, physical therapist, etc.), you’ll do yourself and your clients the greatest service by learning how the body creates movement. As a hint-it never happens because of the isolated contribution of one muscle.

And another thing, high protein diets are good for you. They result in greater fat loss and reduce your risk of Type II Diabetes. There is absolutely NO evidence that high protein diets have a negative impact on kidney health in people with healthy kidneys (only on those that already have kidney damage/disease). Contrarily, high amounts of poor quality carbohydrates are likely to rapidly decrease your quality of life and eventually kill you.

That’s the end of my ranting for this week. Enjoy your weekend.

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