Cardio

[Whip 0]

I have a tournament this friday and I ve been weight lfiting for the last month along with low intensity cardio.

I was wondering if this is a good idea: drop all weight training until after the tournament which is about 3 days and do high intensity cardio to get my oxygen intake up.

So bascily high intensity or low intensity, I have 5 days and I want to take advantage of the cardio equipment.

Thanks

[SB39 2]

Nothing you do this week will make a positive difference. You pretty much cannot positively affect your fitness in 5 days of exercise. What you can do is lite to medium cardio and superset weight workouts to keep the blood moving and recover, but especially if you haven't been training HIIT, you won't even recover by friday from a sunday session. Just chill and work on technique and chemistry with your game. Get mentally prepared.

[Jason Harris 31]

Between the two, I'd say the cardio workouts would be more effective, but I'd suggest doing nothing on Thursday.

[biff44 0]

Two things you could do that would help.

Get on the exercycle this morning and do 50 minutes at a high constant resistance level. This will give your body a kick on the endurance side. Try to do it without taking too much water to train your body.

For the next two days, I would go with more plyometric/strectching stuff. A little plyo has a big immdeiate impact, but does not screw you up too much before the big tournament. Stuff like the agility ladder, cone hops, sprints.

[Gongshow11 1]

never do plyos on game day. last sumemr i did plyos with a pro trainer and some guys from/going to the show. when i had a game at night i noticed such a lack of endurance in my legs like no other, belive me on this one, ive been doing plyos for a long time, and for them to work, you need minimum 6 weeks twice a week.

i have a question tho. i havent done any cardio so as to gain mad weight this summer except for light jogging and playing in summer league. anyways i have training camp in roughly a month and a half, should i start with sprints now and then move to long runs closer to training camp? im gonna increase my times on the ice of course, but was wondering what my course fo action should be, thanks guys.

[SB39 2]

yglod: I wouldn't switch up from sprints to super long runs before training camp. In teh last week and a half or so, I would limit almost all your cardio to skate times if you can, and go hardcore on techinique and skating form. HIIT workouts will be great to shed a couple pounds and reup your conditioning. I would stop all max effort working out, sprints, whatever, for at least 4 days before camp, except a couple fo sprints at each practice to keep the legs moving. You want to be almost a bit physically frusttrated going into camp, after working out super hard then calming it down going into camp, so you'll be raring to go. Good luck

[Gongshow11 1]

so sb39 should i go full sprints now?

[biff44 0]

I am not saying to do heavy plyos (box jumps, etc) on game day. But the day before should be ok. Plyos are rough on the joints, but I do not think they microtear the muscles the way weigthlifting does, so you do not have to recover as long before a game.

Some people DO do light plyos, like skipping, bounding, running up stairs, etc on game day to warm up and dynamically stretch.

[Nacho 0]

i have a question tho. i havent done any cardio so as to gain mad weight this summer except for light jogging and playing in summer league. anyways i have training camp in roughly a month and a half, should i start with sprints now and then move to long runs closer to training camp? im gonna increase my times on the ice of course, but was wondering what my course fo action should be, thanks guys.

I heard from Dave Roy, director of the Edge of Excellence skating schools that if you run long distances you are only training to get slower. If you run sprints you are training to become faster. So in my opinion you should start sprints now and keep doing sprints. Don't become quick and then start training to become "slow" by running long distances. You will be in good shape if you get ice time and run lots of these sprints. Make sure you recover fully in between each sprint as well so you can go at 100% each time.

[Cavs019 708]

IMO the best training pre tournament is light skating. Gets the hands crisp/legs moving.

[Pats 0]

In my training program, we start with long runs/ bikes then as the program progresses closer to the season, we switch to fast, short intervals on the bike or short sprints.

[SB39 2]

yglod: Go ahead and start sprinting. I just realized that I'm about 8lbs too heavy to go into tryouts in 5 weeks, so I'll be doing the same. A great way to do them is to find a nice field, especially a soccer or football field, take off your shoes and go barefoot; it improves your running form, which universally deteriorates when people wear shoes all the time, and you will likely tire less.

Nacho: You aren't far off. Long, pure cardio runs are good for max 1x a week, if not 2x a month, just to switch it up. Definitely train fast and explosively, not necessarily plyos all the time, but hard, so you have teh giddy up and go in you when you play.

biff: Definitely do not do plyos the day before, or even I would say 2 days before, since it takes longer to recover from higher intensity lifts. You might not be sore, but you sure won't be 100%.