Tag: off-season hockey

3 Strategies to Maximize Recovery

Today’s “Throwback Thursday” post covers three powerful strategies to maximize recovery. Interestingly, I wrote another post on this exact topic recently that almost identically mirrors my thought process from 2009. In other words, over 4 years after this post was written, what I view as three of the most powerful recovery strategies has not changed at all! You can check out the more recent post here: 3 Powerful Recovery Strategies for Athletes

You may be surprised by how simple these are. It’s not a matter of cracking some magic code; it’s a matter of taking care of the things you already know are important.

1) Drink PLENTY of water. Maintaining proper hydration has positive implications on both mental and physical performance.Bluntly, it means you’ll be smarter and feel better if you drink enough water. Plenty is not 6-8 cups a day. That’s BARELY adequate for completely sedentary people on low caloric diets; you should be drinking AT LEAST double that.If you’re like most people, you’re not even close.It’s never too late to start. Increase your water intake significantly.You’ll likely be making many more trips to the bathroom than you’re used to, but that will cut back within a couple weeks when your body gets used to being fueled properly.

2) Sleep! Everyone’s sleep needs are different, but in general, most people should be getting 7-9 hours of QUALITY sleep.As in wake up in a pool of drool sleep.Wake up with no feeling in your arm because you didn’t move all night sleep.DEEP, QUALITY sleep.If you get 7 and you consistently wake up feeling tired, you need more sleep to recover from the stresses you’re experiencing (through training or other aspects of your life). Remember that this should be consistent from night to night.Your body doesn’t adjust well to 5 days of a lack of rest during the week, and then two days of excessive sleep on the weekend.Make it a priority to get a good night’s sleep every night.

3) Proper Nutrition. This comes in two parts: General Nutrition, and training-specific nutrition.With regards to general nutrition, it’s important that you eat adequate calories from QUALITY sources.This includes as many servings of vegetables as you can tolerate throughout the day, fats from olive oil, nuts, and cold-water fish (e.g. salmon), and carbohydrates from whole grain/high fiber sources.As a reminder, your carbohydrate intake should be determined by your activity level.The more medium-high intensity activity you do, the more carbohydrates you need.Training-specific nutrition is pretty straight forward.Consuming a liquid source of simple carbohydrates and rapidly digesting protein (e.g. whey protein) immediately after your training helps replenish glycogen (read: carbohydrate) stores within the body and stimulate protein synthesis (read: rebuilding).It shouldn’t be hard to see why this would be advantageous.There’s now research to support consuming these “shakes” immediately before and/or during your training, so the nutrients are readily available as your body begins to break down.Think of it as “on the fly” recovery.Personally, I usually make a half shake and sip it while I train, then make another half shake and drink it immediately after. For the complete nutrition guide, check out John Berardi’s Precision Nutrition program.

Following these three simple (well, at least they’re simple conceptually…maybe not so simple to implement) strategies will help you maximize your rate of recovery, allowing you to get the most out of your training.

Keep training SMART!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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The Truth About Deep Squatting!

This “Thursday Throwback” features an article I wrote over 4 years ago that overviews what may prevent someone from squatting deeply, and an assessment you can use to check your squat depth. Over the last several years, I’ve read a ton of research on hip anatomy and progressive structural changes. In the end, it seems that structural limitations are becoming more of the norm than the exception and it is incredibly important that coaches AND athletes/lifters recognize that what was previously considered a full squat may not apply to everyone/you. Symptoms of squatting past your range can manifest in many ways, but two of the more common ones are low back pain and anterior hip pain. I’ve also seen pretty significant discomfort in the piriformis, adductor complex, and TFL as a result of this pattern.

Check out the post below, as well as the article I link to, and please feel free to post any comments or questions you have below. This is an important topic that affects just about everyone that trains (or moves)!

The Truth About Deep Squatting

About a month ago, my article “Battling Anatomy: Implications for Effective Squatting“, was published at SBCoachesCollege.com, a website I couldn’t say enough good things about.

The other day I received an excellent question from Jason Price, Founder and CEO of Athletes Equation.

“Hello Kevin,
I read you article on SB Coaches College today and really found it informative and enjoyed it very much. I did have a few questions after reading that I was hoping you could provide me with some further information or clarification. What I have noticed with many of the youth athletes that I am training is that their hip mobility is terrible. I too have utilized the “touch and go” method to control how much depth they can attain until they have improved their mobility. I have found this to be a fantastic method for most athletes. But, I was thinking after reading your article about athletes which are dependent of being in the deep squat position in their sport. I train several weightlifters and one of them still suffers from a very similar condition as the individual in your videos. I am wondering what suggestions you would have for me in coaching this individual. In the sport of weightlifting as I am sure you are aware you must get into the deep squat position to effectively clean and snatch significant weight. My athlete does not have the significant discrepancy one side to the other. But, he does have the tuck under at the bottom of the deep squat position. So how can I effectively train him to receive the barbell deep in the squat with this technical flaw without placing him in this potentially hazardous position? Should he not squat deep? Do you know of any methods outside of orthopedic evaluation for anatomical abnormalities?

Again, fantastic article i really enjoyed it and felt you gave many of the readers an alternative viewpoint as to why some of these technical breakdowns happen. I appreciate your time and any response.”

My immediate thought is to first consider that everyone is not built for deep squatting. Despite the increasing usage of pictures of babies in a deep squat position as evidence for this ability, the hip joint and associated ligaments change as a natural/circumstantial part of development, that may result in a range of motion (ROM) limitation in some people. Having said that, it’s always better to assess than guess.

With regards to the lifter in the article video, the side-to-side discrepancy simply indicates that only one of his hips, the right one, lacks full ROM. In his case, I was able to recommend he see a hip specialist because he had multiple signs of CAM impingement. Notably, he lacked internal rotation ROM on the right side compared to the left and flexion/adduction on the right side was extremely painful.

Getting more to your question about the bilateral hip tuck, the first thing you could try is to coach him to push his knees out while he’s going down and to keep his knees out while driving up. This opens up the hips to allow for maximal hip flexion while avoiding bony contact between the trochanters of the femur and the “spines” of the hip bone. Mark Rippetoe wrote a great article called “You Don’t Know Squat without an “Active Hip”” about this topic.

If that doesn’t clear things up, there is a pretty straight forward assessment you can use to see whether this is a soft tissue restriction or a joint anatomy restriction. A few months ago I had the pleasure of talking to Shirley Sahrmann about this issue. She recommended using quadruped rocking to assess their ROM.

Quadruped rocking involves putting the lifter in a quadruped position, with their knees under their hips, top of their feet flat against the floor, and hands under their shoulders. The lifter should set up in a neutral lumbar spine position, then use their arms to push their hips back (pushing into hip flexion) so as to sit on their heels, while MAINTAINING the neutral lumbar position. Note the angle that the hips begin to tuck. Stop them there, have them return to the starting position and try again. Dr. Sahrmann basically said that 8-10 repetitions of this should improve their hip ROM. If it doesn’t, their hip joint anatomy doesn’t allow for it and never will. Any attempt to push beyond this point will lead to lumbar flexion, and invariably some sort of back pain.

I’ve found this assessment to be incredibly useful. In less than 30 seconds I’m able to see what kind of hip flexion ROM someone has. If their hips start to tuck at 90 degrees every time, and it doesn’t improve with more repetitions, I know that’s the extent of their ROM and stop them at that point during all exercises (squats, lunges, etc.). Depending on the severity of the restriction, this may also mean that they can’t perform a deadlift off the floor, in which case I’d move them to a rack pull from a height slightly above their end range.

Ask your athlete where they feel the restriction while quadruped rocking. If they feel like they’re tight on the back side, some mobility work may clear that up, but it’s also likely that quadruped rocking will clear that up. If they feel restricted in the front or any type of grinding in or around their “groin” area, it’s likely a hip joint limitation. I don’t recommend forcing lifters through positions their hip joints don’t allow for. That is, unless they’re looking for low back pain and a hip labral tear. Hope this helps.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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Rethinking Bilateral Training

Over the last 5 years I’ve written over 650 articles for this site. It’s a little crazy to think about!

Because of the sheer volume of content, I find myself answering a lot of emails these days by searching for old articles I’ve written that answer the person’s question and just firing them back over. The reality is that I may be the only person among us that has read every one. In short, there is probably some good stuff that you guys are missing out on!

It’s for this reason that I’m starting a new “Throwback Thursday” series that will highlight an article from the past that still contains information that is relevant today. This will be a great way to reignite some conversation and discuss what (if any) changes in philosophy/training methods have resulted since these were first written. Today we’ll kick things off with an article that covers what I still feel is a fairly controversial topic (extremists on both ends). Enjoy!

Rethinking Bilateral Training

Bilateral training frequents athletic development programs everywhere. By bilateral I mean both legs or arms working simultaneously to produce force/motion in the same direction. Exercises such as front squats, deadlifts, standing shoulder press, and bent over row are just a few examples. While bilateral training and the associated exercises are deeply rooted in the history of strength training, it may be time to reconsider their use. Heresy you say?

I’m certainly not the first to make this suggestion. Michael Boyle has been making the case for single-leg training for years now. After reading one of his articles on the topic, I began thinking more about the lack of respect single-leg training receives. As the article mentions, people are probably reluctant to use single-leg training because they require less external load. This raises a few more questions. Is external load completely indicative of internal stress to the muscle? If so, is neglecting the movement pattern and maximizing the external load really the goal of training athletes? The article also mentions the “functional” inclusion of the medial and lateral musculature of the hips that is present in single-leg training and not bilateral training, functional being defined as “training the muscles that we’re using in the way that we use them.”

I want to preface the rest of this article by stating that I’m not yet calling for a complete abandonment of bilateral training. Instead I simply want to present some of the research supporting the empirical evidence that Coach Boyle presented in his T-nation article. In light of the available research on the nervous system, a working knowledge of functional anatomy, and injuries associated with heavy spinal loading, I think it is time to reconsider the efficacy of predominantly bilateral training programs.

Neural Hinderance?

A look into the literature on the nervous system’s role in force production revealed an interesting occurrence known as the bilateral deficit. For those of you that aren’t familiar, the bilateral deficit simply describes the fact that the sum of individual extremity force production is greater than bilateral force production (1-5). In other words, if you performed a one-legged knee extension with your left leg only, then your right leg only, and added these two forces together, they would be greater than if you performed a knee extension with both legs together. Bilateral Deficit: Leg A + Leg B > Both Legs
In fact, the bilateral deficit is said to be as large as 20% (6,7) during slow contractions and as high as 45% (7,8) during rapid contractions! Luckily, researchers were quick to monitor the changes in this relationship following a bilateral resistance training program and found that the deficit decreased. In some instances the relationship even reversed so that both legs produced more force than the sum of individual leg efforts (9,10). Phew! Disaster averted.

Neural scientists refer to the bilateral deficit as a phenomenon. I would question whether it is a phenomenal occurrence or a long-term adaptation to repeated movements. As many of you already know, performing a movement repeatedly strengthens the associated neural circuitry resulting in improved force production. In the words of my old neurobiology professor, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” This is the primary explanation for why novice lifters can experience rapid gains in strength in the first eight weeks of training.

Is it possible that the bilateral deficit is simply a life-long adaptation to producing force on one-leg? I realize that no one grows up performing one-legged squats off their kitchen stools on a daily basis, but think about the movements we perform regularly, notably walking and running. While one leg is producing a triple-extension force, the other is usually producing a triple-flexion force. Let’s come back to the knee-extension example. In consideration of the “neurons that fire together, wire together” statement, it would make sense that as one leg is extending the neural circuitry is telling the other to flex. This pattern predominates in most human movements: walking, skipping, running, and even crawling!

The neural circuitry to explain this pattern is well-established. Some of you may have been introduced to it through the flexor crossed-extensor reflex. In this example, if someone steps on a sharp object or other painful stimulus, they will withdrawal that leg by flexing the hip and knee. At the same time, they will extend the hip and knee on the other leg. This is a stabilization mechanism. If both hips and knees flexed, you’d like end up sitting on the painful stimulus you’re trying to avoid. Basically, as the flexor group on one limb is excited, the contralateral flexor group is inhibited, and the contralateral extensor group is excited.

What does this have to do with athletes?

We are wired to effectively produce unilateral movements. Athletics involve unilateral movements. Most strength and conditioning programs revolve around bilateral movements. Why? I understand the benefits of including single-leg training is being increasingly recognized and that more unilateral training is being prescribed. However, it still seems that we’re adding some single-leg training to a double-leg program, instead of the other way around. What happens if we abandon double-leg training altogether? Compared to double-leg training, single-leg training:

1. Requires greater force production from more muscles. Picking up one leg immediately requires greater force production from the hip abductors and adductors (among others) to stabilize the pelvis. Some of the affected muscles would include: pectineus, adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus, gracilis, obturator internus, obturator externus, gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, psoas major, iliacus, sartorius, gemelli inferior, gemelli superior, piriformis, and tensor fascia latae.

2. Increases the proprioceptive and sensory demand. Decreasing stability by narrowing the base of support will absolutely necessitate greater proprioceptive and sensory feedback to maintain balance.

3. Decreases spinal loading. I’ve heard a saying a few times that goes something like “Live your life the wrong way, you’ll end up in a cardiologist office. Live your life the right way, you’ll end up in an orthopedic office.” This has come to be accepted as an inevitable truth. Research supports the idea that repetitive heavy spinal loading, as is common in long-term weightlifting, results in a myriad of spinal issues including an increased incidence of spondylosis (11), decrease in intervertebral disc height (12), lumbar spine degeneration (13). But does it need to be this way? If we can maintain or even improve the quality of the stimulus to the muscle and cut the external load in half, could some of these injuries be prevented?

4. Reinforces the neural circuitry common to most athletic movements. The majority of athletic movements occur from one-leg or a staggered stance. Could this more similar training approach help to decrease the incidence of injury? I’m thinking specifically of hamstring strains and ankle sprains. Hamstring strength absolutely plays a role in preventing hamstring strains. But how do we explain the athletes with monstrous hamstrings that suffer an injury? Bad running form? Maybe. Is it possible that these strains are occurring due to a neural mishap associated with hamstring momentarily attempting to contract concentrically bilaterally when one side should be lengthening? The causative factors associated with ankle sprains remain relatively allusive, but there does seem to be some evidence that decreased proprioception and increased peroneal stretch reflex latency may be related to ankle injury. As a global factor, fatigue seems to be related to injury, with more injuries occurring as fatigue increases. Of interest is that muscle fatigue is training-specific, meaning that if double-leg training predominates, the athletes will resist fatigue more efficiently in double-leg movements than single-leg movements.9 Naturally, the opposite is also true. Both of those factors are neural in nature, and may be positively affected by the increased demand on the sensory system provided by single-leg training. Prior history seems to be the greatest predictor of future injury. Therefore, if we can prevent an injury from ever happening, we significantly decrease the risk of future occurrences.

Admittedly, some of the proposed benefits of single-leg training on injury prevention are speculative. There is a clear list of benefits to single-leg training, however, that shouldn’t be overlooked. While I believe that largely moving away from double-leg training is premature (and somewhat scary), I think it is worth considering. Albert Einstein once said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Weigh the pros and cons associated with eliminating double-leg training. Is it time for a change?

This article was originally published on StrengthCoach.com, an athletic development website where some of the world’s experts in strength and conditioning print their articles and discuss current issues.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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References

1.    Obtsuki, T. (1983). Decrease in human voluntary isometric arm strength induced by simultaneous bilateral exertion. Behavioural Brain Research, 7, 165-178.
2.    Schantz, P., Moritani, T., Karlson, E., Johansson, E., & Lundh, A. (1989). Maximal voluntary force of bilateral and unilateral leg extension. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 136, 185-192.
3.    Secher, N., Rorsgaard, S., & Secher, O. (1978). Contralateral influence on recruitment of curarized muscle fibres during maximal voluntary extension of the legs. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 103, 456-462.
4.    Secher, N., Rube, N., & Ellers, J. (1988). Strength of two- and one-leg extension in man. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 134, 333-339.
5.    Taniguchi, Y. (1998). Relationship between the modifications of bilateral deficit in upper and lower limbs by resistance training in humans. European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology, 78, 226-230.
6.    Howard, J., & Enoka, R. (1991). Maximum bilateral contractions are modified by neurally mediated interlimb effects. Journal of Applied Physiology, 70, 306-316.
7.    Koh, T., Grabiner, M., & Clough, C. (1993). Bilateral deficit is larger for step than for ram isometric contractions. Journal of Applied Physiology, 74, 1200-1205.
8.    Vandervoort, A., Sale, D., & Moroz, J. (1984). Comparison of motor unit activation during unilateral and bilateral leg extension. Journal of Applied Physiology, 56, 46-51.
9.    Rube, N., & Secher, N. (1990). Effect of training on central factors in fatigue following two- and one-leg static exercise in man. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 141, 87-95.
10.    Enoka, R. (1997). Neural adaptations with chronic physical activity. Journal of Biomechanics, 30, 447-455.
11.    Aggrawal, N., Kaur, R., Kumar, S., & Mathur, D. (1979). A study of changes in the spine in weight lifters and other athletes. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 13, 58-61.
12.    Granhed, H., & Morelli, B. (1988). Low back pain among retired wrestlers and heavyweight lifters. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 16, 530-533.
13.    Videman, T., Sarna, S., Battie, M., Koskinen, S., Gill, K., Paananen, H., & Gibbons, L. (1995). The long-term effects of physical loading and exercise lifestyles on back-related symptoms, disability, and spinal pathology among men. Spine, 20, 699-709.

In-Season Hockey Training

Most of our off-season hockey players wrapped up their training last week. Most youth programs are getting started with camps in the next couple weeks. At this time of year, I get a ton of questions from players and parents about what they can do in-season to help maintain or continue progressing their physical development.

For starters, I think it’s important to establish how crucial in-season training is. In-season training has certainly gained favor over the last decade or so, but there are still thought-leaders/organization heads with an old-school mentality that don’t emphasize it nearly enough. This, in part, might be explained by a lack of understanding of the goals of in-season training:

Maintain physical qualities (continue to increase in lesser trained players)
Reverse negative changes in soft-tissue length and quality
Facilitate recovery

This stuff is VERY important in-season!

All of these goals are inter-related. When done right, in-season training will help players feel, perform, and recover faster. As an example, take a look at a few interesting statistics from my friend Stieg Theander’s work with the Phoenix Coyotes:

Man Games Lost to Injury

1996: 450
1997: 473
1998: 250 (Stieg’s first year!)
1999: 149
2000: 142

The first year resulted in a ~45% reduction in man games lost to injury. After 3 years, that number decreased another 25%. That’s a 70% reduction in man games lost to injury in three years! It would be short-sighted to attribute all of this to in-season training, but it highlights the magnitude of change a quality training program can have on a team’s health. Think your team would do better with a 70% reduction in games lost to injury?

In-Season Training Composition
Some of the hesitancy with implementing in-season training programs boils down to not understanding how to design and implement the program. If a player take their off-season program and follows it through the year, they’ll be completely buried before Thanksgiving. The off-season is about developing capacity; the in-season is about doing the bare minimum to maintain capacity. These are much different goals and require drastically different approaches.

Three In-Season Program Changes
I’m in the process of developing the new in-season programs for the entire Team Comcast Tier I youth organization for this season, so I’ll probably post some of the programs to HockeySC.com over the next couple weeks. Until then, here are three in-season program changes to think about:

1) Speed and conditioning work is on the ice
In the off-season, we sprint twice per week and condition between 2-3 times depending on the phase. In-season, the players’ speed and conditioning work should be done on the ice. If players perform drills at a high tempo, they’re getting the most hockey-specific form of speed training possible, and most practices are of sufficient tempo to prepare players to compete in a game (despite what physiologists may tell you). Hammering sprint and conditioning work off the ice will put excessive wear and tear across the muscles of the hips and lower body. In-season, sprint work should be limited to very low volume (e.g. 4-6 sprints of 10-15 yards), and be done sporadically. Conditioning should be low impact (e.g. on bikes or using circuits), and be used to compliment on-ice conditioning. Most youth players skating 4+ times per week will be fine in this department. Pro players that may not get much ice during games are a different story and will benefit from supplementary conditioning work.

2) Avoid rotation
This is anti-sport-specific training at it’s finest. Hockey players rotate several hundred times per week during practices and games to turn, give and accept passes and hits, shoot, and orient their eyes in a more optimal position to read the play. All of this is stress in a rotation pattern. Like speed work, rotation-based core work should be limited in volume and frequency.

During this time, however, it is extremely important to maintain rotation-pattern mobility. Amongst others, hips and thoracic spines tend to stiffen up as the season prolongs. Maintaining this mobility is a top priority and should be done on as close to a daily basis as possible. In our setting, we built our warm-up to encompass these qualities so we know they’re hitting them every time we see them, and encourage teams to do the same warm-up when they’re not under our supervision. We’ll also build some extra mobility work into the off-ice training sessions (lying knee to knee mobilizations, diagonal hip rocks, wide stance quadruped rock, seated thoracic rotations, diagonal arm arcs, etc.).

Lying Knee to Knee Stretch. This can also be done for reps with 2s holds, and with a sleeved shirt.

3) Strength and Power are Key
In general, the physical qualities stressed on the ice during the season are multi-directional speed, low load power, and work capacity/conditioning. To design a program that compliments on-ice work, it’s important to consider what qualities ARE NOT being stressed on the ice. Strength and high load power are visibly absent from the list above. ALL in-season work should be low volume, but there should be a greater proportion of the total training program allocated to these qualities than the others that receive more on-ice attention. To be overly simplistic, if all players did was follow this template:

A1) Olympic Lift
A2) Hip Mobility
B1) LB Push
B2) UB Pull
C1) LB Pull
C2) UB Push

they’d be much better off than what most players do.

Great display of power. Colby Cohen hang cleans 235 x 3

The key is to get a low volume of high intensity high quality reps in, and then call it a day. Don’t overdo it. 2-3 sets of 4-8 reps is all it takes for most in-season lifts. As a general rule, player’s shouldn’t be smoked at the end of an in-season training session; they should feel warmed up and energized. There is a time for tough sessions in the interest of team building or developing mental toughness, but this is the exception, not the rule.

Hopefully this provides a reasonable insight into the composition of an in-season training program. In a couple days, I’ll post some important information on how to alter the stimulus of a training program to minimize the risk of detraining throughout the year. Check back soon!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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7 Signs of a Good Off-Season Hockey Training Program

After the two previous posts about off-season hockey development, it’s clear that every player needs to follow a good training program!

Off-Season Hockey Leads You to Surgery?

Off-Season Hockey Training

With all the people/companies out there offering training programs, I thought I’d give you a list of things to ask about when considering your off-season training options. A quality hockey training program should include:

1) Soft-tissue work (foam roller, lacrosse/tennis ball, medicine ball) for the muscles around the hips, shoulder blades, and chest
2) Static stretching for specific hockey-related “tight” spots
3) A well-designed dynamic warm-up with multi-planar mobility exercises for the ankle, hip, and thoracic spine.
4) Linear and lateral speed work
5) Double-leg, single-leg, and full body power work
6) Strength training, including single-leg exercise, dissociated upper body exercises, and dynamic core exercises (in linear, rotational, diagonal, and anti-movement patterns)
7) Hockey-specific conditioning, using various implements (e.g. shuttle runs, slideboards, sleds, etc.), and following an interval training progression (avoid steady state aerobic exercise!)

If the training program you’re following has ALL of these things, you’re probably on the right track. If it doesn’t, sign in to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com and ask everyone if they know of a good hockey training center in your area.

Keep training hard!

Kevin Neeld

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