Tag: athletic performance

Should Kids Lift Weights?

A couple months ago I wrote a quick article for the Endeavor Fitness website on the issue of whether kids should lift weights or not.

It’s a question I get a lot, or more accurately, it’s a misconception I have to explain a lot.

Today I read Eric Cressey’s newsletter on the same issue.

Whether you’re an athlete, parent, coach, or “trainer”, you should check out both articles. If you’re like most people, you’ve likely been given poor information on the subject.

Check out the articles:

Kevin’s Article on Endeavor Fitness’ Website

Eric’s Newsletter Article

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Assess and Correct Review

Last week I received my copy of Assess and Correct in the mail, the new DVD set from three of the brightest and most well-respected guys in our industry: Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman and Mike Robertson.

I’ve been fortunate to learn a ton from all of these guys; I own all of their products and rewatch/reread them on a regular basis, so I was psyched that all three of them teamed up for this project.

Assess and Correct really exceeded my expectations.

The first DVD walks you through a series of simple assessments to identify your personal weaknesses and imbalances that may be inhibiting your performance.

The major benefit of this assessment DVD is that they are all self-assessments, which means you don’t need anyone else to run you through them.

Being able to run yourself through a series of assessments to identify performance limitations is an invaluable tool.

Best part?

The entire series of assessments takes less than 10 minutes!

The second DVD is PACKED with corrective exercises to improve your limitations and really help you unleash a whole new level of performance.

This is truly an invaluable resource.

If I told you that I could teach you how to identify your MAJOR performance limitations in less than 10 minutes, would you be interested?

Of course, you aren’t stupid.

If I told you I could then teach you all the exercises to fix your limitations and drastically improve your performance, would you be interested?

Any serious athlete would be. Any serious coach (sport or strength and conditioning) would be interested in learning this for their athletes.

Whether to pick up Assess and Correct is really a no brainer.

The only people I would say definitely should NOT get it are the people that have no interest in learning from the most intelligent, most successful Therapists and Strength and Conditioning Coaches in the business.

Click here to take the first step toward lifelong performance improvement!

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How Much Protein Should You Take In?

Protein has long been hailed as the “super nutrient” amongst athletes and lifters.

Dr. John Berardi recently sent out an email presenting a few new studies have sparked up a lot of conversation about whether athletes do have a higher protein requirement than non-athletes and if the additional protein actually contributes to improved performance or training results.

I’m a huge fan of high protein diets (in most cases), so when I caught wind of these studies I had to check out what Dr. Berardi had to say about them.

Click here to read why you should limit your protein to 20g per meal.

-Kevin Neeld

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Transitional Speed Training for Ice Hockey

I really think that transitional speed training should lay the foundation for speed training for almost all athletes.  For ice hockey players, this is especially important in the offensive and defensive zones when all your movements are rapid bursts of speed interspersed with stops and direction changes.

I’ve played with and against countless players that were ridiculously fast goal-line to goal-line, but blended in with everyone else in smaller areas of play.

Check out this article on transitional speed training I wrote for Maria Mountain’s site.

It includes a few videos of my favorite transitional speed exercises.

-Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Goalie Training for Flexibility

I recently caught up with Maria Mountain, another great mind in the world of hockey training. I asked her if she’d put together an article for you on goalie training.

Check out the article below. I always love articles with material that is instantly usable. This is definitely one of those!

Three new ways for hockey goalies to improve hip flexibility.

Look at any of the spectacular saves from the highlight shows and you will see hockey goaltenders displaying their great hip flexibility.  Does this happen by chance?  It shouldn’t.  If you want to steal more wins for your team, then you must have amazing flexibility, so here are my top three stretches to help you make those impossible saves.

Standing Groin Stretch

If you are a hockey goaltender, then hopefully you are not making many saves from your butt, however if you look at goalies stretching routines, they spend much of their time sitting down with their feet in a wide ‘V’ position to stretch their groins.  I am not saying that is a bad stretch, I just think it can be better by taking the athlete into a standing position.

Seated Hip Internal Rotation

If you play with the butterfly style, then you need hip internal rotation which means you must stretch your hip external rotators.  The stretch I will describe below is an active stretch meaning that the hockey goalie will contract his hip internal rotators to help him stretch his hip external rotators.

  • Begin by sitting on a trainers’ table or your kitchen counter with your knees right against  the edge of the counter.
  • Pull your feet and knees together.
  • Sit up tall.
  • Try to keep your knees touching as you pull your feet apart (keep the knees bent to 90 degrees).
  • Pull the feet outward for five seconds and then relax.  Perform 15-30 repetitions.

Self Myofascial Release with the Foam Roll

Any of you goalies out there stretch your hips but find that your flexibility still doesn’t improve?  Frustrating isn’t it?  The problem may not be that your muscles are tight at all, but rather your fascia may be stuck.  Fascia is the connective tissue that surrounds every muscle and every individual muscle fibre.  It can get tight or get bonded down to the underlying muscle and unless you actually get the fascia moving you will have trouble making gains through traditional stretching.  If you do not have a foam roll, get one.  If you are serious about your sport then you should have one.

Now, check out the video below so you can learn exactly how to do the stretches described above and learn more about how hockey goalies can implement foam rolling to increase hip flexibility.




Maria Mountain, MSc, CSCS is the owner of Revolution Conditioning and a professional fitness coach who is trusted by hockey players to help them compete at levels beyond their expectations while reducing their risk of injury.  Her training methods have been proven at all levels from the NHL to AAA.  If you are a goalie looking to take your game to the next level visit www.ultimategoalietraining.com or get your free 5-Part Hockey Training Insider’s Report at www.hockeytrainingpro.com.

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