How too..

[SB39 2]

Deadlifting taxes your CNS heavily, making it much harder to recover if done often.

The leg extension and leg curl machines don't develop much in teh way of power and have been known to aggravate knee injuries, not to mention that machines in general, with fixed ranges of motion and no lateral movement, don't develop balance and stabilizor muscles (ie CORE).

[Finlay82uk 0]

I did a sports course at uni for a few years+ everyone that I had talked to said that the best thing to do is work each muscle group on seperate days+ then leave at least 3-4days recovery time. Fixed machines are good but the best to use is free weights since you get a full range of movement

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

I am one of those who think that legs must be train more than once a week. At least 2 or 3 times a week.

Day1 could be :

Squats

Heel raises

Step up

Crossover step up

Day 2

1-leg squat on stability ball

Speedtraxx hockey and crossover stride

Deadlift

Sumo side lunges

Day 3

Squat or Squat on bosu ball

Hockey lunges

Heel raises

Power cleans to chest

So I don't kill my leg but it makes a solid leg workout every 2 day. I don't like the theory of killing the leg for 1 day and than be 1 week on not working them

[tume 0]

So I don't kill my leg but it makes a solid leg workout every 2 day. I don't like the theory of killing the leg for 1 day and than be 1 week on not working them

I agree, if you train your legs more than once a week you should have light workouts. But if you train HARD you don't want to train your legs more than once a week (this is what I do). As mentioned before, your legs are a large muscle group and they need more time for recovery than most other groups (ie hands). If you are in the middle of a season, have a lot of aerobic workouts / ice time, then you already know you can't "kill" your legs.

[usahockey22 0]

You should not be lifting different muscle groups on different days of the week...that is for building muscle and bodybuilding, and isn't good for an athlete.

For sports, you want to stick to basic compound lifting movements, heavy weights, and low reps...lift 2-6 reps per set, and once you can get more, move the weight up. The purpose of lifting for sports is to increase maximum strength, and not to fatigue the muscles with high reps for "endurance", because if you are doing 8 reps or more, you aren't really improving any kind of muscular endurance...you are simply not lifting enough, and tiring your muscles. For sports, you need exercises to give you the best overall functional strength improvement, with the least amount of recovery time.

A good starting strength program would be the "Bill Starr" 5x5 routine:

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/5x5_.../Linear_5x5.htm

Personally, I use the following basic strength workout:

Day1: Deadlifts- 4 sets Flat Bench- 4 Sets Wide Grip (weighted) Chin-Ups- 4 Sets

Day2: Squats- 4 sets Dips or Incline Bench- 4 Sets Barbell Row- 4 Sets

Day3: Clean & Press- 2 Sets Clean- 2 Sets Leg Press- 2 Sets

1-Leg Extensions and 1-Leg Curls- 1 Set of Each Dumbell Press- 3 Sets

Barbell Curl- 2 Sets French Press- 2 Sets

At the end of each workout I work on core strength by doing weighted decline bench crunches, windmill (obliques) twists, weighted hyperextensions, etc. You should train your core muscles with higher reps, and more often than others, as they recover faster, and are used more than anything else. If you have strong legs and a strong core, that is much more important for hockey, or most other sports than having a strong or big upper body. Your legs generate all of your power, and your core transfers the power to your upper body. Delivering/receiving checks, and shooting, are directly related to lower body and core strength more than anything else. It is also stupid for a hockey player to create a large or muscular upper body by eating lots of food in the hopes of adding power...this raises your center of gravity, throwing off your balance, and makes you more cumbersome. What you want is a high strength to weight ratio, and power. Big muscles does not equal strength or power...

I don't organize this by days of the week, as it is important to get full recovery for your muscles and CNS when training hard and heavy. I will do one workout, then rest two days, then do the next workout, rest two days, etc. And in each workout you are hitting all muscle groups of the body in some way, so you need 72 hours of rest between each one. Recovery is very important, and is the biggest mistake of most athletes. If you are still in season and playing a lot of hockey and doing other activities, you should only lift 2-3 days a week at the most, preferably 2. During an offseason or midseason, etc, you could increase it to 3-4 days per week, but never more than 4, as you should be doing other things for power and speed throughout the week.

Also, make sure to have a good amount of simple carbs and protein immediately after training, and drink plenty of water throughout the day, and while in the gym. As for simply bulking up and building muscle, as long as you are doing any workout program you will "bulk up" if you are eating enough protein, carbs, and good fats. Body size and composition is almost entirely due to diet, but strength, speed, and power are made through training. As an athlete, you want to focus on the latter, and just make sure you are eating enough good foods, but a hockey player doesn't need to specifically "bulk up" unless you are already malnourished/underweight.

Strength is very important in hockey, but power, explosiveness, and speed are more important. In order to increase power along with strength, you need to be doing power specific movements...the clean & press and clean on day 3 of my lifting program are great full body explosive movements with weights. In addition to that, you should be doing plyometrics outside of the gym for quickness and power. Squat jumps, shuffle runs, 1 leg squat jumps, etc.

For hockey, you want to be training in intervals, simulating what your body goes through during a game. You can accomplish this with "high intensity interval training", using a bike, or just running. Basically you would do about a 15-20 minute workout, not including warm ups and cooldowns. (Always do light warmup and cooldowns including stretching before and after all workouts).

The interval workout consists of nearly all-out sprints, followed by a light jog/walk, followed by another sprint, and continuing until about 20 minutes is up. So you might first start off doing a 20 second sprint, followed by 1 minute of walking, etc, until 15 minutes is up. Then as you get in better condition, improve the work:rest ratio, until you are doing 1 minute sprints, 30 second jogs, for 20 minutes. This is very hard work, and will whip your ass into shape for any high intensity sport. It's also much more efficient cardio than distance running. Distances are still good...if you can run 2-4 miles at a good pace for 2 times a week, that would help keep you in good cardio shape.

Last but not least, try to do some hill sprints. There is a very steep, but not too high hill near my house that is great for sprints. Just explode up the hill in a full sprint, throwing your legs as far as they will go to pull you up, and then run back down. Do several of these, or even a couple in a row (up down up down) at full speed. Then also try doing them while running up backwards on your toes, and shuffling left foot up, then right foot up, etc. If you have ankle weights you can use these for even more resistance. I can guarantee you that someone who is doing steep hill sprints with ankle weights at full intensity a couple times a week will have a much more powerful stride on the ice than someone who isn't.

All of these things are simply for off-ice conditioning, but remember that being on the ice is still the best for hockey. For people like me who don't have a lot of practice ice time, off ice conditioning can really help. Also many of the things you can do with weights, and with running hill sprints, are much harder than what you could do to train on the ice, and can really help your strength, power, and quickness on skates.

For hockey and most sports, there are really 3 main areas of your game that you can work on to help you out... your mental focus/ability/knowledge of the game, your skills, and your conditioning. You can be the most talented team or player in the world with naturally gifted skills, but if your head isn't in the game, and if you aren't in shape, you won't be able to do anything. Conditioning is one aspect that can be improved much more easily and readily than the other two simply through hard work and repetition. All 3 are important, but any of them can make or break you come game time. (Just like the 1980 "miracle" olympic team beat the russians with conditioning and team play, rather than individual talent, and just like the canadians lost in 2006 to teams which outplayed them on a team level, even though they had so many talented individual players).

If you guys have any conditioning, workout, or diet questions, send me a message...I can also help you design a program for offseason, inseason, preseason, or whatever, depending on your needs if you would like that too.

[willy0314 0]

You should not be lifting different muscle groups on different days of the week...that is for building muscle and bodybuilding, and isn't good for an athlete..........

  For sports, you need exercises to give you the best overall functional strength improvement, with the least amount of recovery time.........

It is also stupid for a hockey player to create a large or muscular upper body by eating lots of food in the hopes of adding power...this raises your center of gravity, throwing off your balance, and makes you more cumbersome.  What you want is a high strength to weight ratio, and power.  Big muscles does not equal strength or power...

Im by no means an expert, but i think that a few of the things you posted here are wrong.

first, where you say functional strength improvement with the least amount of revocery time, and you say that lifting on different muscle groups on different days of the week is for buildign muscle and bodybuilding, and that they arent' good for athletes..... theres no such thing as "functional strength" you muscles can do the work that they can do. Compound lifting movements are fine, but you shouldn't try to hit your entire body in one workout, the quality of your workout will suffer. By lifting for one major muscle group at a time, you allow yourself to maximize each workout and allow your muscles enough time to recover.

seccond where you talk about not lifting to bulk because your going to throw off your center of gravity and become cumbersome, and you talk about strength to weight ratio...... as far as giving yourself a high center of gravity from lifting weights, no freaking way unless you pack on 50lbs and never do a leg workout. as you work out and get stronger, especially leg back and ab workouts, your center of gravity and balance are going to improve greatly. its a simple fact that bigger muscles are stonger muscles. unless you go from a 140lbs to 300lbs iron man, you will never notice any kind of coordination problems from lifting weights.

However, i couldn't agree more with you on the HIT cardio program and hill sprints. They are a staple of NCAA soccer programs, and are used by many developed hockey programs for off ice training.

[usahockey22 0]

first, where you say functional strength improvement with the least amount of revocery time, and you say that lifting on different muscle groups on different days of the week is for buildign muscle and bodybuilding, and that they arent' good for athletes..... theres no such thing as "functional strength" you muscles can do the work that they can do. Compound lifting movements are fine, but you shouldn't try to hit your entire body in one workout, the quality of your workout will suffer. By lifting for one major muscle group at a time, you allow yourself to maximize each workout and allow your muscles enough time to recover.

seccond where you talk about not lifting to bulk because your going to throw off your center of gravity and become cumbersome, and you talk about strength to weight ratio...... as far as giving yourself a high center of gravity from lifting weights, no freaking way unless you pack on 50lbs and never do a leg workout. as you work out and get stronger, especially leg back and ab workouts, your center of gravity and balance are going to improve greatly. its a simple fact that bigger muscles are stonger muscles. unless you go from a 140lbs to 300lbs iron man, you will never notice any kind of coordination problems from lifting weights.

However, i couldn't agree more with you on the HIT cardio program and hill sprints. They are a staple of NCAA soccer programs, and are used by many developed hockey programs for off ice training.

There is such thing as "functional strength". Ask any athletic or strength trainer. "Functional strength", meaning actual strength you develop which is the most "functional" for the sport you are training for. If you sit in a gym using a barbell curl machine all day and do nothing else, you are not developing functional strength, you are just isolating a muscle group.

Lifting one major muscle group at a time is just a bad way to workout for sports. It is fine if you are trying to pack on muscle mass, but not for athletics. Any kind of sport-specific training workout or strength workout will call for you to hit each muscle group 2-3 times per week. You can't do this if you are hitting each muscle group on its own day each week. Consult with the top athletic, powerlifting, or strength coaches, and they will tell you to leave the split routines to the bodybuilders. To develop maximal full body strength for a sport, you need to be working each muscle group more than once per week.

Here's an example...

Let's say you do a split 5 days a week, and hit each muscle group for 12 sets each day...this is not working on strength, this is just taxing the muscle group to the point of breakdown so it will build up bigger, for bodybuilding purposes. But if you just do 3 workouts of all the muscle groups per week, with 4 sets per muscle group, you are doing the same amount of sets per week. It allows you to gain and maintain strength constantly, while working the whole body in unison, making small amounts of progress between each workout, instead of just resting the one muscle group each week. Strength and sports athletes use high weights and low reps for maximum strength output...there is no way you can do a whole workout dedicated to one muscle group each day, and still make any positive strength gains after the first 4-5 hard sets. By doing this, you are causing unnecessary fatigue and muscular breakdown, which won't help strength or performance.

Also, the main reason I mentioned why you shouldn't bulk and add upper body mass, is mostly to discourage people from doing what is the most common mistake in the gym...they neglect the lower body and just lift the muscles that "look good". When it comes down to it though, an athlete should just be training for strength and power, and training the body equally. And it is a common misconception that bigger muscles are stronger muscles...big muscles come from doing mostly higher rep, high volume workouts, with bodybuilding splits like you mentioned, and from eating a ton of food in order to bulk up. Your muscle size is probably about 90% determined by your diet, and your amount of recovery time...the actual workout doesn't make much difference, just as long as you are providing a constant stimulus for growth. But we aren't aiming to build musclemen, we need fast, strong hockey players. Big muscles can make you more cumbersome if you aren't careful, although usually it does not happen. But strength is not from big muscles, it comes from stronger ligaments and tendons. There are all sorts of 200 pound solid muscle guys at the gym who look strong and ripped but can't even squat their own bodyweight, and then there are 150 pound wrestlers benching 350...strength usually equals size, but size does not equal strength.

Balance and coordination will not come from weights...you can only improve that from actually playing hockey, sprints, plyos, etc...weights just build the strength from which everything else arises.

[hyprlte 0]

i find that just running daily helps avoiding any sluggish play when im on the ice

[Patrick67 1]

Monday: 30min workout (abs, biceps , triceps , lower abs, "jumping" exercises between the others)

Tuesday: Game

Wensday: 30min workout (abs, biceps , triceps , lower abs, "jumping" exercises between the others)

Thursday: Pratice

Friday: Swimming 1km with a friend and a sauna visit (love heat ) , if swimming is cancelled I run a 3km high intensity trip.

Saturday: Relax

Sunday: Pratice

To sum it up 3xtimes on the skates, and 3xtimes additional workout.

I'm 5'11 and weigh around 160lb and very fit. Don't feel like it's a drag to do the workouts since it's only 30mins a pop (while I listen to some music).

And it seems to work pretty well, wouldn't mind some more muscle in the corners but I more than make up for it with athleticsism.

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

first, where you say functional strength improvement with the least amount of revocery time, and you say that lifting on different muscle groups on different days of the week is for buildign muscle and bodybuilding, and that they arent' good for athletes.....  theres no such thing as "functional strength" you muscles can do the work that they can do. Compound lifting movements are fine, but you shouldn't try to hit your entire body in one workout, the quality of your workout will suffer. By lifting for one major muscle group at a time, you allow yourself to maximize each workout and allow your muscles enough time to recover. 

seccond where you talk about not lifting to bulk because your going to throw off your center of gravity and become cumbersome, and you talk about strength to weight ratio...... as far as giving yourself a high center of gravity from lifting weights, no freaking way unless you pack on 50lbs and never do a leg workout. as you work out and get stronger, especially leg back and ab workouts, your center of gravity and balance are going to improve greatly.  its a simple fact that bigger muscles are stonger muscles. unless you go from a 140lbs to 300lbs iron man, you will never notice any kind of coordination problems from lifting weights.

However, i couldn't agree more with you on the HIT cardio program and hill sprints. They are a staple of NCAA soccer programs, and are used by many developed hockey programs for off ice training.

There is such thing as "functional strength". Ask any athletic or strength trainer. "Functional strength", meaning actual strength you develop which is the most "functional" for the sport you are training for. If you sit in a gym using a barbell curl machine all day and do nothing else, you are not developing functional strength, you are just isolating a muscle group.

Lifting one major muscle group at a time is just a bad way to workout for sports. It is fine if you are trying to pack on muscle mass, but not for athletics. Any kind of sport-specific training workout or strength workout will call for you to hit each muscle group 2-3 times per week. You can't do this if you are hitting each muscle group on its own day each week. Consult with the top athletic, powerlifting, or strength coaches, and they will tell you to leave the split routines to the bodybuilders. To develop maximal full body strength for a sport, you need to be working each muscle group more than once per week.

Here's an example...

Let's say you do a split 5 days a week, and hit each muscle group for 12 sets each day...this is not working on strength, this is just taxing the muscle group to the point of breakdown so it will build up bigger, for bodybuilding purposes. But if you just do 3 workouts of all the muscle groups per week, with 4 sets per muscle group, you are doing the same amount of sets per week. It allows you to gain and maintain strength constantly, while working the whole body in unison, making small amounts of progress between each workout, instead of just resting the one muscle group each week. Strength and sports athletes use high weights and low reps for maximum strength output...there is no way you can do a whole workout dedicated to one muscle group each day, and still make any positive strength gains after the first 4-5 hard sets. By doing this, you are causing unnecessary fatigue and muscular breakdown, which won't help strength or performance.

Also, the main reason I mentioned why you shouldn't bulk and add upper body mass, is mostly to discourage people from doing what is the most common mistake in the gym...they neglect the lower body and just lift the muscles that "look good". When it comes down to it though, an athlete should just be training for strength and power, and training the body equally. And it is a common misconception that bigger muscles are stronger muscles...big muscles come from doing mostly higher rep, high volume workouts, with bodybuilding splits like you mentioned, and from eating a ton of food in order to bulk up. Your muscle size is probably about 90% determined by your diet, and your amount of recovery time...the actual workout doesn't make much difference, just as long as you are providing a constant stimulus for growth. But we aren't aiming to build musclemen, we need fast, strong hockey players. Big muscles can make you more cumbersome if you aren't careful, although usually it does not happen. But strength is not from big muscles, it comes from stronger ligaments and tendons. There are all sorts of 200 pound solid muscle guys at the gym who look strong and ripped but can't even squat their own bodyweight, and then there are 150 pound wrestlers benching 350...strength usually equals size, but size does not equal strength.

Balance and coordination will not come from weights...you can only improve that from actually playing hockey, sprints, plyos, etc...weights just build the strength from which everything else arises.

Totally agree with that, only 1 point I would add I don't know if you're agree but to work balance playing hockey is the best, but exercise like lunges and 1 leg squat are good for balance too.

[Buzz_LightBeer 966]

I take these two before a workout

http://www.gnc.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2134182

http://www.gnc.com/product/index.jsp?produ...rentPage=search

And this after,

http://www.gnc.com/product/index.jsp?produ...rentPage=family

Great taste with noticable results. You could also take some sort of hydroxycut if youre looking to lose weight. Ive dropped 24 lbs since halloween, now im gaining lbs but muscle. I prefer these, you dont get the sick feeling afterwards like Creatine tends to do. Also find a reputable workout program. just because you work out hard and can barely walk the following day isnt necessarily a good thing. You dont need to work out HARD, you need to work out WELL.

Also if you have access to... Hop in the hot tub for 2 mins following a workout, then immediately into a cold shower (i mean cold to where you can hardly breathe) then repeat for 10-12 mins. Envigorating to say the least.

[usahockey22 0]

hey lightbeer...those bsn supplements are probably pretty good if you want to spend the money on them, but the vyo-tech probably isn't going to give you any results. Most supplements out there either won't work, and/or they might slightly help you but be too costly or have unpleasant side effects, or possible long term side effects we don't even know about.

If you want to play it safe and save money, just stick to basic things like a multivitamin, vitamin C, fish oil or flax oil, whey protein powder, and creatine monohydrate. Those are all tried and tested, effective, safe, and cheap. Also remember to stay adequately hydrated throughout the day, and have a good diet...supplements will get you nowhere if you slack on nutrition and training.

There are many new supplements coming out that can help, but they are very new and untested, and thrown out on the market immediately to make sales...it's a bit risky to basically experiment on yourself with these things.

As for the hot/cold recovery, that can work quite well...cold should be used first immediately after a workout, then a hot shower. If you are really sore, or if you need more recovery after workouts, or are having muscle pains, you can try an ice bath for 10-15 minutes followed by a hot shower.

[Buzz_LightBeer 966]

Yeah i forgot to add that, drink 80-100 oz. of water per day.

I have yet to feel negativities from any of those, plus the taste is tolerable and actually very good. If i grom breasts of hair in odd places, ill be sure to let every one know to stay away.

...Kind of reminds me of the Sportscenter "Banned Substances" commercial

[flaming_june 2]

You should not be lifting different muscle groups on different days of the week...that is for building muscle and bodybuilding, and isn't good for an athlete...

freaking sweet insights

[QandA 0]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I just want to ask Buzz how his supplements are working for him, especially the 17HD.

Also, would those supplements be good to add weight as well?

[mew1838 0]

never train more than 4 times a week