Hockey, Better Than the Treadmill

I just came home after a couple of hours
on the ice rink with some buddies playing hockey.
Aside from the fact that it’s - 25 celsius here which already makes it difficult, I had forgoten how much energy skating and stickhandling takes. After 10 minutes I thought i was gonna die.

Is it just a foggy memory or is it true that in our youth we could play until you couldn’t see the puck anymore into the evening with energy to spare?

I’m kind of hoping that it’s not that I’m so out of shape but that my body isn’t used to the movement, and needs time to adjust after not having played for so many years…
Running on a track or cycling is one thing but boy does it ever take balls to skate all out for even short periods of time.
I really enjoyed getting back on the ice and throwing some good body checks…and getting laid out a couple of times to boot.

I’ll take an hour on the ice any day over a treadmill…
Now that’s living.

I know how you feel man. When I played competitively I always trained hard in the summer and kept myself in good shape, but when I got back on the ice after a long layoff, I always felt out of shape, no matter what I did, or how I trained. It would take a few weeks to get back to a level where I could finish a practice or game and still have some gas left in the tank. I couldn’t tell you why this it, maybe I’m just weird.

I totally agree with you though I’d take an hour on the ice over a treadmill any day of the week.

Yea, I went back on the ice for the first time recently. I thought I was in good shape- doing triatholons these days, etc. Man, after a three minute shift, I just wanted to puke. I wish the pick up league was not at such an inconvenient time, though. What is it about skating that just takes the wind out of you so fast?

Functional training, its a beautiful thing :slight_smile:

I used to work at a mall when I lived in dallas for the summer. They had an ice rink inside the mall. Pretty much every day for my lunch break I would skate 45 min, alternating sprints with regular speed skating. By the end of the summer my quads were like tree trunks. However, Ive found that skating seems to overstimulate quads and understimulate the hamstrings. So I would throw in some extra ham work at the gym.

I’ve been doing squats and DL’s regularly since I found this site and I run a couple of times a week so I thought my legs were in pretty good shape… but last weekend I played racquetball again for the first time in about 6 months… I could barely walk for two days… It’s not hockey but I thought it relevant… :slight_smile: