adult hockey training Archives

As hockey continues to grow in popularity, so too does the number of adults that refuse to hang up the skates. It’s been very interesting to see how many adult players not only like to keep playing, but will reach out to me to see what they can be doing to help be in better “hockey shape” for their games.

As with younger players, some are interested in improving their performance. Others simply want to avoid nagging injuries or do enough to not be so sore after they play.

Naturally, those with full time jobs (and possibly kids) don’t usually have as much time or energy to dedicate to the training process.

With that in mind, I wanted to share a few simple strategies adult players could use to modify the programs within the Ultimate Hockey Transformation package to cater it to their specific needs:

1) Spend a week JUST doing the warm-up everyday

The warm-ups within Ultimate Hockey Transformation are comprehensive. They are meant to fully prepare your body to perform at your best. At first, they may seem a bit daunting and time consuming, but once you get into a routine they’re much quicker. This is one reason why spending a week just going through the foam rolling, mobility work, and dynamic warm-up will benefit you. It will let master the process so it only takes ~10 minutes instead of 20-30.

For some, this will also feel like a workout in itself. By doing it everyday for a week (or most days of the week for a couple weeks) you’ll build up a foundation of fitness for you to progress on from in the future.

Lastly, getting a lot of practice with these things will help you feel which exercises really cater to your specific needs. I realize you’re probably not going to go through a full warm-up before every adult league game, but mixing in a few of the most beneficial mobility exercises before you hop on the ice can go a long way in maintaining your flexibility over time and preparing you to play better on the ice. Ultimate Hockey Transformation Training Programs-Small

2) Start with the U-14 programs

Every adult is a little different, but as a general rule, I wouldn’t recommend adult players jumping into programs that have Olympic lifting variations and other complex movements. If you’ve been out of training for a while, the first step is to get back to mastering the basic movements. This is the same goal we have for our younger athletes. It’s important to get very good at the basics before progressing to more difficult exercises.

The programs at this age also have less of a time commitment, so you won’t feel like you’re falling behind if you can’t train 4 times per week.

As a result, the U-14 programs are a perfect starting place for most adults.

3) Cut back on the number of sets

Depending on the phase, sometimes an exercise may have anywhere from 2-5 sets. More sets not only means a longer day in the gym, it means more stress to the body. If you’re working all day, and trying to squeeze in a quick lift before running home to eat dinner with your family and then heading out to play a game, you may not have the time or the “stress reserve” to do the full program.

Shaving off a few sets so you’re only doing 2-3 sets of all the main exercises and 1-2 sets of all the supporting exercises is a great way to adjust the program to fit your needs better.

Get your training programs today>> Ultimate Hockey Transformation

4) Stick with the in-season programs

All of the in-season programs are designed to train 2 days per week with relatively few exercises, sets and reps. While our players continue to develop strength and power during this time, the reality is that the focus during the season is on maximizing on-ice performance so the total volume of training needs to be cut back a bit to account for the increase in on-ice work. For the reasons mentioned above, sticking to these programs (or at least starting here) will be a great option for most adult players.

5) Focus on the nutrition strategies recommended in the manual

When I talk to the players on our youth teams about their nutrition, I’ll tell them, “Some of you have terrible eating habits. The rest of you are even worse.” And we all laugh. The reality is, most adults aren’t much better.

There is some research that connects BCAAs (protein) to decreased soreness. I strongly believe dehydrated muscle tissue is more likely to tear (or “tweak) than hydrated tissue. Carrying around extra body fat isn’t good for anything.

Brian St. Pierre did an incredible job delivering a TON of easy to implement strategies to help you improve your nutrition, which ultimately will help you improve your body composition, perform better, and recover faster. This information, and the habits you develop following it, will benefit you and your family for the rest of your lives, on and off the ice!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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Over the last couple weeks I’ve received a few emails about training programs for adult hockey players. The adult hockey population is rapidly growing, and as with the youth hockey population, they are incredibly competitive.

To be honest, speaking more about adult hockey training never really occurred to me. It’s clearly a large, and generally unserved athletic population. If I were a better business person (I’m not), I’d be writing a book on the topic right now!

I think one of the reasons I haven’t paid more attention to adult hockey training is that the concepts that underlie youth hockey training still apply. We still need to ensure we’re creating appropriate mobility through the ankles, hips, and thoracic spine (the notables), while promoting stability through the knee and lumbar spine; we still need to progress exercises from basic to advanced; and we still need to progress conditioning from less intense to more intense.

The major differences between adult players and youth players are:

The amount of time they spend on the ice
The amount of time they can dedicate to training
The adaptability of the neuromuscular and skeletal systems
The recovery rate from all activities
Post-game nutrition for adults tends to be illegal for youth players

Generally speaking, adult players spend less time on the ice, have less time to dedicate to training, adapt more slowly to training stimuli, take longer to recover, and drink more beer than protein shakes.

Mmm. Post workout nutrition.

While not always the case, most adult hockey players tend to gravitate toward higher body fat percentages than young players. This is a direct result of less activity, more stressed lifestyles, and generally a lifestyle characterized by quick fix nutrition. The take home from this is that the best hockey training program and adult player can follow is one geared toward dropping the extra pounds. Shedding the unwanted fat will ultimately lead to improved relative strength and speed, which will positively impact on-ice performance.

An argument can be made that more hockey-specific training is, in fact, a program geared toward fat loss and I wouldn’t disagree, as long as the athlete is paying attention to their nutrition. The training would only differ in that it would include more traditional speed work, lateral and diagonal movements, and maybe some slideboard work. Of course, if a player’s body fat is too high, none of these things would be safe anyway so the differences become negligible.

If you’ve been reading my site over the last week, you know that I’ve been mentioning hockey training expert Michael Boyle’s new Body By Boyle Online. I think one of the greatest benefits of Boyle’s new site is that he posts the EXACT programs he uses to train his athletes and the exact programs he uses for his fat loss clients. Relevant to our adult hockey training discussion, this means that regardless of whether you want to attempt a program that is more athletic-based (only recommended for relatively in-shape players with a decent training background) or fat loss based (applicable for everyone), you’ll have access to a program that meets your needs and abilities.

What makes Body By Boyle Online so unique is that he has videos of EVERY exercise included in the programs with specific coaching cues so people watching them get an idea of how they’d be coached if they were at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning (which, if you’ve missed my last couple posts, was recently voted the #1 Gym in America). And, for strength and conditioning professionals and proactive intellectual non-professionals, Boyle also put up a number of information-based videos details his philosophies on various aspects of training and giving an inside look to his staff meetings.

The site officially opened to the public today (October 6th) at 9:00 am, and they reserved a special price for the first 500 subscribers (which will inevitably be reached within the first 24 hours). I highly recommend you check out the site at the link below. If it’s not for you, it’s not for you, but this is the first time that programs of this quality have been so readily accessible for EVERYONE, that you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t at least look into it.

>> Body By Boyle Online <<