Fitness for try-outs

[hockeymom 2]

OK, OK, I know this gets done every year… in 25 days MissD goes into hockey try-outs – a grueling 7-10 day period where she will be skating flat out for an hour and a half each night and I'll be practicing my "zen hockeymom" skills.

MissD had a low grade virus this spring/summer/fall that cost her her fitness levels... it's been a long climb back into shape. Since January, in addition to about 3 days/wk on the ice, she’s been working about 2-3 days/wk in the gym… mostly core strength, some weights, stretching and a little cardio. The ice time is largely done now (I’ll be getting her into some other skates in April).

This is her last year of midget and she wants to (finally) break into a higher level team… her skills are fine, but to make it she is going to have to be quick and have stamina. Her cardio is not good enough: at her current fitness level she won’t be able to skate with intensity for 1.5 hours and do it night after night.

What can she do to get the best results in about 3 weeks?

[chippa13 1844]

Doing some cardio work should do wonders and 3 weeks is almost enough time to realize at least some benefits. I would recommend mixing in cardio and interval workouts, without your wind, skills and strength won't do much good. One thing that I have learned and really like, splitting cardio work among 2-3 different machines/exercises to keep the boredom level down. Instead of just running on a treadmill for 60 minutes, you can warm up for 5 minutes on it, work for 20 and then hop over to an elliptical for 20 and then a rower for another 20, moving quickly from station to station to keep the heart rate up.

[Jordan 13]

3 weeks is a little short, but she can make some improvements. The key will be for her to work hard enough to raise her aerobic capacity and raise her lactic acid threshold, and recovery rate, while not over-working to the point where her legs feel heavy and tired going into try outs.

I would have her do some light running at fairly moderate pace augmented with hill repeats and some interval speed work.

A sample program would be:

Monday: a light 5km run

Tuesday: 1 km warm-up, run a fairly long (say 500m) fairly steep hill 5 times - jog up, walk down, 1km warm down. Stretch

Wednesday: light 5 km run

Thursday: 1 km warm-up, 5 times 400m - take a 1minute rest between repeats, 1 km warm down

Friday: switch it up, and ride the bike for 20-25 minutes

Saturday: take a day off from aerobic activity, work on stick handling, shooting etc

Sunday: Do something physical, like rollerblade, play basketball, etc, but different from the other work...and it should be something fun!

2nd week:

Basically the same, but increase the number of hill repeats on Tuesday. Also add some shorter intervals to the speed work, do a couple of 100m, 50m intervals.

3rd week: I wouldn't increase anything, just try to up the intensity of the hills and the intervals.

The focus of the hills and intervals is to improve your daughter's recovery rate. Hockey is highly anaerobic, the faster her recovery rate, the better she will look at tryouts.

Good luck hockey mom. Oh and one more thing, if anything starts to hurt...STOP. no point being injured for tryouts.

[RecLeagueHero 0]

One of the most important factors here is going to be resisting the urge to overtrain due to the time limits involved. If you can find/afford a decent personal trainer it might not be a bad investment. Off hand I would recommend a schedule of three heavy cardio days (say 2-3 mile runs) and three light cardio days (.5-1 mile slower pace runs) in the mornings. Three days a week of resistance training in gym and three days of plyo/sprint work in afternoon/evenings. One day a week of complete recovery. Diet needs to be adjusted to lose, gain, or maintain weight as desired. Also, a few days before going into try-outs she needs to allow some recovery time.

[raygunpk 0]

Isn't it better to do the HIIT methods like jog-sprint-jog-sprint? To simulate a real hockey game situation that is.

[Kevin 5]

Intervals only--no or very little steady state cardio.

Short and intense, not long and slow.

You want to replicate the demand of a hockey game--30s-1 min of work followed by a 1 min-3min of rest/slow down.

Sprints, hills, sled dragging, and slideboard are all excellent.

However, the stationary bike is frequently the easiest and quickest to get a HIIT workout regardless of the weather and time of day.

[RecLeagueHero 0]

Cardio work is needed to help the body become better at latic acid removal. If you just run sprints you're not going to do much to develop overall cardio endurance which is the corner stone of latic acid removal. If all she does are sprints a quater of the way through her 1.5 hour try out sessions her legs are going to be burning terribly, she'll be out of gas, and slow as all get out.

[jeffw 1]

I've been laid off since the first week of feb. To fill in my free time I've been getting out on my mountain bikes 3-5 days a week for 2-3 hours at a time. My cardio is at an all time high at the age of 41. Not to mention my thighs are getting enormous. :lol:

At last weeks beer league game we had a short bench & I was sometimes triple shifting before I got winded. Back to the bench for a quick drink & wipe the sweat off & I was ready to go back out. Good fun way to get your cardio workout. B)

[chippa13 1844]

Intervals only--no or very little steady state cardio.

Short and intense, not long and slow.

You want to replicate the demand of a hockey game--30s-1 min of work followed by a 1 min-3min of rest/slow down.

Sprints, hills, sled dragging, and slideboard are all excellent.

However, the stationary bike is frequently the easiest and quickest to get a HIIT workout regardless of the weather and time of day.

Ignoring cardio will have her dying before she even gets close to the end of 1 1/2 hours on the ice. If your cardio is no good then you won't be able to survive a hard interval session let alone get any benefits from it.

[Kevin 5]

Intervals are a form of cardio.

Unless she is obese or has some other health condtion, she should be able to handle interval training.

maybe it's LIIT at first instead of HIIT

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/I...IIT+or+Miss%3F/

Take it from Mike Boyle if you won't listen to me.

[chippa13 1844]

Let's split hairs a little more. Of course, interval is a form of cardio but your first recommendation of HIIT is something she probably wouldn't have been able to do since her cardio was so bad to begin with. If you can't make it through a regular moderate intensity cardio workout then there is no way you can put periods of high intensity into it.

[Aussie Joe 0]

Plyos mixed with a cardio (runs or cycling) session are what I use to maintain fitness during slow periods. I am in the middle of pre-season tryouts atm, fitting in all the fitness like the above over the past few weeks I have lost the loose flab and gained extra endurance + explosiveness on my strides.

PS: Also due to my inability to get up early enough I seem to fitting in mystery cardio hits most mornings like running for the bus or tram. Generally 500-700mtrs medium level intensity.