Twist: "Base Level Of Fitness"

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For those of you that have read Peter Twist's book..

Towards the beginning, he advises that a person acheive a base level of physical fitness before doing a hockey-specific program..

Problem is, I can't find anywhere that he defines this 'base level'.. Am I just missing it?

[biff44 0]

It varies. Usually starts with something like being able to squat 2X your body weight, bench press 50% of your body weight, etc. I might have the percentages wrong.

Also involves having some pro look you over and tell you if you have any obvious muscle imbalances. For example: Often time hockey players have well defined chests, and horrendous backs. You can tell this if they can bench press 200#, but only do 2 chinups! You can also tell if you skate all hunched over like a gorilla! Sometimes there is a little neck/back muscle, that you need for a slap shot but you do not have any strength there, etc.

It is a little dangerous to do hockey specific exercises, especially some of the more extreme plyometrics, if you have muscle imbalances, so a good trainer will spend a month or so on those weak areas first. With muscle imbalances, you can put too much stain on a knee joint, for instance, in a box jump, etc.

Muscles are natures little shock absorbers.

Also, chipmunks are natures little speed bumps.

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Now that you mention it, I remember something about squatting 2x before doing plyo's... I don't remember anything about the bench press though..

I never even thought of muscle imbalance...

[2-Keys 1]

it makes sence to have the base level of fitness before starting hockey specific training.

[Cavs019 708]

I don't know how much the 2x makes sense. According to that I need to squat 340 in order to do plyos, yet I started them way before I could even come close to lifting that much weight. And 2-Keys, Why does it make sense?

[biff44 0]

I know one pro trainer that works newbies for 6 weeks before he does any plyo work.

Basically, the story goes like this. Your joints are where two bones meet with a thin wafer of cartilage inbetween. The shock of certain types of plyo would tear up or wear a groove in your cartilage quickly. In order to keep that from happening, you need your muscles, tendons, and ligaments to take most of the impact force, protecting the cartilage. If you have weak muscles, or an imbalance where you think you have strong muscles but a key opposing muscle is weak, then those muscles are not doing their shock absorbing job and your joints will suffer.

The trouble with young atheletes is that you will not know there is a problem until a few years later when things start to fall apart in a hurry.

I think they say generic things, like needing to squat 2X your body weight, is that the squat is a full body move, so it is a good test. If you have any serious imbalances or flexibility issues in any muscles you will not be able to do a good squat. A pro can spot this as you try, and will develop an exercise plan around the weeknesses.

Now there are different types of plyo. If you just want to do a few minutes of bounding on the turf, there is probably little danger. If you are going to stand on a 2 foot box and jump down and run away, then you had better have your chit together!