HOCKEY PLAYER'S WORKOUT
Kevin Grant is huge; a big, big man with hardly any fat. No surprise that he is a hockey player; once for the Calgary Flames, now a coach for young players.
But big can turn to flab for those who don't stay active. Kevin's hockey workout will work for both big and small athletes. "Training like a hockey player is good for all athletes," he says.
Kevin says that dryland training is especially important right now. "Every athlete should be thinking about the end of the season, because all sports have some sort of playoff or finals, and players need to be strong at that point. A lot of them slack off on their dryland as the season goes on, but what you do in December pays dividends in March," he explains.
His workout begins with a dynamic warmup that gets the whole length of the muscles, with continuous lunges or high knee skipping to get the blood pumping. "Use your arms to propel yourself forward when you jump," Kevin advises. He adds that a ten-minute warmup is the minimum.
The heavy lifting to add muscle mass should be over. "At this point in the season, you should be doing lighter weights and faster reps. Doing the reps faster will increase you speed. You can almost reduce the weight to nothing to increase the speed, then once you can go fast with light weight, increase the weight" says Kevin.
When he was with the Flames, team workouts were based on plyometric exercises, and power exercises such as running up hills. Running up an incline, even on a treadmill, increases power.
To build strong leg power, Kevin advises, "Do plyometric bounding in a skating stance, pushing off the side of one foot, landing on the other foot and then pushing off the side of that foot. Do four to five sets of 20 push-offs on each leg."
But if you start losing power, stop and rest. Kevin explains that it's better to do the exercise 80 percent correctly than to do only 60 percent correctly and 40 percent with bad form.
The most helpful part of a hockey workout is the core agility work; players must be able to quickly bend, twist and turn.
"Flexibility and strength through the middle part of your body is essential to being a good athlete. Your core is the basis of everything, whether you're just walking or playing a sport. It's used in every movement, and core agility is as important as core strength," Kevin says.
One of the core exercises he uses is the hockey pushup; where, in the up position, one hand is swung up overhead, so the chest points at the wall, not the floor. Another is the "lumberjack," used with a medicine ball. Holding the ball, stand straight and go down at a 45 degree angle like a lumberjack chopping a tree, throw the ball against the wall at that angle. Alternate sides until you get fatigued.
The one-legged jump will give core "finesse." Jump on one leg, picking a place to stick it when you land. You have to stop and be in perfect balance before going on to the next jump. It requires using the core to straighten yourself into balance.
In a game where a hard shot can send the puck down the ice at 100 mph, and top skaters hit over 30 mph, visual quickness and accuracy is essential. Training for athletic vision will also help basketball players, ski racers, skaters, soccer players and other athletes. A good exercise is to lightly toss ten pennies in front of you, quickly begin jumping from penny to penny; accurately landing on each and quickly pushing off to land on the next one.
You may never be a hockey player, but training like one will certainly make you a better athlete.