Pre season hockey training
Did you feel slow, sluggish and unfit at the beginning of the last hockey season? It's time to think about some pre-season training if you really want to up your game come September. Here are some top tips from Ben at lifeFIT personal training to get your started. Ben is an ex-national league hockey player, has served with the Royal Marines, is an endurance sports fanatic and has over 20 years experience in the fitness industry.
Hockey pre-season training
Hockey requires speed, strength and endurance. Here are 6 great sports conditioning work outs for you to integrate into your pre season training. . Choose from 3 intensity levels: each session can be as easy or as hard as you want make it. But remember, intensity is the defining factor on changing your muscles and fitness levels. Why not get together with some of your team mates over the summer so you can really smash the beginning of next season.
Guidelines
These sessions do not require any gym equipment and focus on leg and core development. You should also look to develop upper body strength and muscular endurance. If you’d like further advice on any form of fitness training, specific goals or rehabilitation drop me a line ben@lifefit.me or find more information at www.lifefit.me.
There are a few guidelines to follow:
Warm up
Spend 10 minutes warming up properly. The first 5/7 minutes getting warm, so jogging or mobility work and 3-5 minutes of stretching. Ideally this should be dynamic stretching, e.g. long slow lunges to stretch the quads or follow more traditional stretching holding each stretch for 8-10 seconds.
Time
Train really hard for 30/35 minutes. Scrap the steady state and focus on sprints and plyometrics (explosive jumping).
Use a reduced version of the Perceived Ratings of Exertion scale. This has direct correlation to your heart rate.
0 = Sat at home on the sofa watching Netflix
10 = Death through exercise (or that’s what it feels like)
You are aiming for a 8/9 out of 10 feeling for the majority of the workout.
If you are not as fast as you used to be or have knee problems or other injuries contact me for a TUT (Time Under Tension) work out. The TUT workouts are low impact so are kinder on your joints. They will add strength and muscular endurance.
Warm down for 5 minutes. Walking/jogging and light stretching. Hold stretches for longer (15-20 secs) in this phase.
Drink water – 1 litre an hour before you are due to train and 1 litre after.
Try to train 3 times a week.
Try to do your fitness training on grass or the beach. Not on the astro - research shows this can increase compression of the spine.
Be technique driven, if you are unsure of any exercises please ask and if you can’t do the number of repetitions set while keeping perfect posture you have done enough.
If you’d like a strength training programme you can follow in the gym drop me a line ben@lifefit.me
