Seasonal Hockey Fitness Training: A Comprehensive Guide
Hockey is a physically demanding sport that requires players to be in top physical condition throughout the season. To perform at their best, hockey players need to tailor their fitness training programs to match the specific demands of each season. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a budding young athlete, understanding what in-season hockey fitness training should look like is crucial for success. In this blog, we’ll take a comprehensive look at how to structure your training program to optimize your performance during the season.
Pre-Season Preparation
Before diving into in-season training, it’s essential to lay the groundwork during the off-season and pre-season. This phase focuses on building a solid fitness base, improving strength, and enhancing endurance. Key components include:
Strength Training: Emphasize compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and all other Olympic lifts to build a strong foundation. Functional strength will help you during battles and will make sure that you remain strong on your skates.
Conditioning: Incorporate aerobic and anaerobic conditioning to improve your cardiovascular endurance. Hockey is an anaerobic sport, so you need to be prepared for short bursts of high-intensity effort.
Skill Development: Work on your hockey-specific skills such as shooting, stick handling, and skating during the pre-season. This is the time to fine-tune your technique.
In-Season Training
As the season progresses, the focus of your training should shift towards maintaining your fitness level, managing fatigue, and preventing injuries. Here’s what in-season hockey fitness training should look like:
Maintenance Workouts: Reduce the frequency and volume of your strength training sessions, but continue with maintenance workouts to sustain your strength gains. Aim for 2-3 sessions per week, focusing on core lifts and compound movements.
Cardiovascular Endurance: Incorporate shorter, more intense cardio sessions that mimic the demands of a game. Sprint intervals and agility drills can help you maintain your anaerobic fitness.
Recovery: Prioritize recovery to manage the rigors of a long season. This includes adequate sleep, nutrition, and strategies like foam rolling, stretching, and mobility.
Injury Prevention: Perform exercises that target injury-prone areas, such as the groin, hip flexors, lower back and shoulders. Regular mobility work and flexibility training can reduce the risk of injuries.
Game Simulation: Occasionally, integrate game-like situations into your training to enhance your decision-making skills and situational awareness. This could involve small-area games or scrimmages during practice.
Mental Preparation: Don’t underestimate the mental aspect of the game. Work with a sports psychologist or practice mental techniques to stay focused, confident, and resilient throughout the season.
Nutrition
In-season nutrition is critical for maintaining your energy levels and promoting recovery. Focus on:
Balanced Diet: Consume a well-rounded diet with an emphasis on complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, healthy fats, and a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Hydration: Stay properly hydrated before, during, and after games and practices. Dehydration can lead to decreased performance and increased risk of injury.
Timing: Time your meals and snacks to provide the necessary energy for practices and games. Consider pre-game and post-game nutrition strategies to optimize recovery.
Supplements: Consult with a sports nutritionist to determine if you need any supplements like protein, creatine, or electrolytes.
In-season hockey fitness training is all about maintaining the foundation you’ve built in the off-season and pre-season, while also managing the specific demands of the sport. By focusing on strength, endurance, recovery, and nutrition, you can optimise your performance throughout the season and stay at the top of your game. Remember, consistency and dedication are key to becoming a successful hockey player.
FAQ
We certainly do! You can either purchase programs or book personal training sessions and be given your workout at the end of the session.
We have free parking, showers, sweat/shower towels, wifi and toiletries.
If you need to reschedule a session, no worries at all! Just give us a 24 hour heads up and you will not be charged for your workout.
Ideally, you should have some form of fuel in your system before you workout. Eating an easily digested carbohydrate an hour or so before you come to the studio ensures that you’ll have enough energy in the tank to get through your workout. Fruit is always a great option if you are concerned about getting an upset stomach. But once again everyone is different so experiment with what works best for you.
Most likely you will start to feel better before you really see the results. We always remind clients to celebrate everything along their fitness journey- whether it is lifting a heavier weight, recruiting the proper muscle groups or dropping/gaining inches. The more consistent you stay to your workout and nutrition plan the quicker you will see physical results.
There is no magic pill or diet. At the end of the day it is a very simple equation and that is calories in vs. calories out. If you would like to lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than you are burning. If you are looking to put on weight you want to eat more calories than you are burning.
We definitely believe we are the best gym in Edmonton. With our owner having 15 years of experience in the fitness industry, being named one of the Top 10 Trainers in Canada by Muscle Insider and having owned training studios for over 12 years there is confidence in our team. Every trainer is fully certified and extremely knowledgeable with tons of experience from all types of clientele. Don’t believe us? Come try out a free one-on-one personal training session and find out for yourself.
All of our trainers are fully certified and have the knowledge to help you reach your goals. We are so confident that you will love our team that our first training is always free. We will literally put our money with our mouth to prove to you that we are what you are looking for.
You’ve come to the right place. Zone 105 is a private personal training studio and our only goal is for you to crush yours.
That is a loaded question but weight loss comes down to a simple equation – calories in vs. calories out. If you eat less calories than you burn you should lose weight. Unfortunately sometimes the scale can be stubborn but your body composition will change. That is why we always recommend that you take measurements to also track your progress.
We are a private personal training studio located centrally in Edmonton. All of our clients in the gym can only work out when they are with their trainer so you will never have to deal with a busy, public gym.