Hockey is just started for me today. I plan on lifting during the season and at least maintaining if not gaining strength. At the end of last season I was weak ass 164 lbs. I’m currently 181 lbs, before I seperated my shoulder I was at 184 lbs. That was about 3 months ago and since then I have gained back nearly all my strength by doing full body and upper/lower splits. I really like doing the splits as they are less time consuming and I don’t feel I will be able to lift legs heavy again until my legs are in “hockey shape.”
Anyway, I need advice on how and what to do. I skate at least 5 days a week. We usually have 1 or 2 games a week and I obviously won’t be lifting on those days, or heavily the day before. I’m looking at doing 2 sessions a week. Probably a push/front squat day and a pull/deadlift day or an 2 days with both push and pull accompanied with either deadlifts or squats and an iso calf exercise.
Practice is after school daily at 3:00 till 4:45. I can’t lift before but I can lift immediately after (as the rink is next to the gym) or later that night. After X-Mas vaca I should be able to lift before school at around 7 am.
So please drop me some advice and alot of criticism. Thanks in advance.
I played hockey for 13 years, stoped after my last year of midget AAA.
Your lifting routine sounds pretty solid, I was never too serious about lifting when i played but i wish i was, I think it would of helped my game more.
My advice I guess would be to focus on strength as you already have decent size. Other then that eat like a horse. Good luck.
I’m curious as to why you suggest EDT style training? Isn’t that more or less for hypertrophy? Try skating with sore ass legs and see how that works out for ya. Just keep it simple and short. I believe the goal should be to maintain the strength you already have. You won’t be able to put on any muscle if you’re skating that often expending so many calories.
[quote]StevenF wrote:
I’m curious as to why you suggest EDT style training? Isn’t that more or less for hypertrophy? Try skating with sore ass legs and see how that works out for ya. Just keep it simple and short. I believe the goal should be to maintain the strength you already have. You won’t be able to put on any muscle if you’re skating that often expending so many calories. [/quote]
At this point you should be doing “in-season” training. Your goal should be to maintain strength and not get injured.
Forget about gaining any appreciable size, since you won’t be able to train often enough, and you are going to be burning a ton of calories at practice. I would stay away from high reps, and slow movements during the season.
I like the Squat/Push and the Dead/Pull days for you, or two full body days, one with a quad dominant leg focus, and the other with a hip dominant focus. Either should work. If you stay in the 4-6 rep range for 3-4 sets on your major lifts (after warm-ups), you should be able to maintain most if not all of you off/pre-season gains.
Keep you calories high and relatively clean. I know how easy it is for college athletes, and especially hockey players to trash their bodies with fast food and alcohol. If you keep it to a minimum, you will be way ahead of the rest.