5 Ways for Hockey Players to Stay Fresh for Game Day

1. Place Your Strength Work and Heavier Reps at the Start of the Week

It takes 48-72 hours to recover from a meaningful resistance training session. There are multiple physiological responses that occur after a workout to help raise your level of fitness. Your central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) has to organize quickly to deliver impulses to the nerves in your muscle tissue, helping you lift heavy weights as explosively as possible. Next your muscle fibers have to contract and lengthen each rep to lift heavy weights for multiple reps, creating microtears in the process. The glycogen stores (carbohydrates) in your muscles and liver begin to deplete in order to continue fueling your muscles and brain throughout the workout. All of this must be accounted for and coupled with the fact that practice is occurring on a daily basis, which also comes with a significant recovery cost.

Some may read this and question the benefits of in-season training when realizing the recovery cost associated with it, but this is where a knowledgeable physical performance coach can provide you with a massive competitive advantage. By placing your training sessions closer to the previous game (Sunday, Monday or Tuesday), you promote blood flow to inflamed tissues to speed up the recovery process, while buying yourself enough time to recover throughout the rest of the week. Training in itself will improve your rate of force development (first step), give you the strength to stay on the puck, improve endurance, allow you to maintain efficient skating technique and deliver and withstand harder hits.

2. Manage Your Off-Ice Volume

Like I said, this is where a qualified strength and conditioning coach can help you out-train the competition WITHOUT affecting your recovery for gameday. Generally, you want to opt for two to three workouts during the in-season period. These workouts should focus on basic, full-body movements to train as many muscle groups as possible, giving you the most bang for your buck at the minimal effective dose. You want to train with a high intensity (almost to failure), without doing multiple sets for each muscle group. For example:

• Off-season workout: DB Split-Squats 4 sets of 8-10 reps per leg

  • Will lead to high levels of soreness and the athlete will not be able to use a heavier weight until soreness dissipates

• In-season workout: DB Split-Squats: 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps per leg

  • The level of strength gained from this workout may not be to as high of an extent, but the athlete will be able to perform at or close to 100% in practice that day or the following!

Lastly, on lift days, your reps should be in the lower range:

• 3-5 reps for 18-year-olds and up

• 5-7 for 14-17 year-olds and up

• 6-8 reps for 12 and up

• Usually anyone under 12 can get away with training at higher rep ranges without

creating much fatigue (a great reason why athletes CAN start training at a young age).

As you become stronger, you will actually find that it is harder to recover, as you can lift heavier weights and impose more stress and damage to your tissue, hence the longer time it will take to recover. Younger athletes can train more frequently until they notice that they become too sore to recover in time for the next practice or workout.

3. Train For Speed and Power Closer to Gameday

As you get closer to gameday, your workouts should be shorter and the exercises should be more explosive in nature (activating the nervous system without causing much soreness). These “primer” sessions should feel like an extended warm-up, leaving you hungry to do more. In fact, when many of my players do their first Primer workout, they ask me if they can do one or two more rounds, as they feel like they are just getting started. They don’t fully understand why the workouts are so short until they walk into the locker room prior to gametime. The response becomes “holy crap, this is the best my legs have ever felt before a game” or “this is the first time my legs have never felt sore and heavy on gameday!” A Strength and Conditioning coach should know how to formulate these sessions while choosing exercises that increase speed and power without the risk of pulling a muscle for example. Stimulate, don’t annihilate.

4. Yes, You Must be Hydrated, but Don’t Forget Carbohydrates!

Hydration always comes first, as even a 2% decrease in hydration levels can lead to a major decrease in sport performance. Electrolyte powders like LMNT or Catalyte can ensure proper hydration but aren’t overloaded with unnecessary ingredients that cause gut distress (the last thing you need when trying to perform at your absolute best). With that being said, I continue to notice that more and more players are undereating, especially when it comes to carbohydrates. Hockey is primarily a glycolytic activity, meaning that it is performed explosively, but for longer durations and carbohydrates become the major and most efficient fuel source to power these activities.

Unfortunately, carbohydrates have gotten a bad wrap for causing unnecessary weight gain. In an attempt to be health conscious, many players abstain from eating them in large quantities. These athletes usually complain of cramping in the third period or tell me they feel out of shape (even when I know that they are some of the most conditioned players on the team). This is because they have depleted their glycogen stores (stored carbohydrates) and the body is beginning to metabolize protein from muscle tissue to continue fueling them. This is why we commonly see athletes drop significant amounts of body weight throughout the course of the season. When we find ways to add in more starchy carbohydrates throughout their week, the cramping and fatigue dissipate pretty quickly.

A good rule of thumb for athletes is to eat 7-8 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight daily, and even 8-10 grams per kilogram on game days. Remember, not all carbohydrates are created equal. Vegetables have fiber which is vital for long-term gut health, but fiber will not help fuel a hockey player, as it is not synthesized into glycogen. Fruits are a source of carbohydrate, but most fruits are high in fructose, a sugar that is synthesized into glycogen that is stored primarily in the liver rather than muscle tissue. This makes it less efficient of a fuel source, and it should be noted that excess fructose intake can lead to metabolic disorders in the long-term. Starchy carbohydrates such as rice, potatoes, quinoa, gluten-free oatmeal and certain breads are all good options. We will dive into the importance of protein in a future blog post.

5. A Consistent Sleep Routine vs. Amount of Sleep

Recent research is pointing to the cognitive and performance-based benefits of a consistent sleep schedule. For example, falling asleep by 10:30 PM and waking up at 6:30 AM on a daily basis, could be more important than stressing about getting eight to ten hours per night. When you think about it, this makes sense; if you fall asleep later on a random night you will wake up later the next morning, affecting your ability to fall asleep on time the next night.

Furthermore, if you cannot get to sleep before midnight, you will not achieve as much

deep sleep as possible, as the human circadian rhythm operates on a strict biological clock, regardless of lifestyle and schedule. Neurotransmitters like Serotonin, and various hormones responsible for deep, meaningful sleep begin to peak at midnight. If you get nine hours of sleep (let's say sleeping from 1:00 AM to 10:00 AM) you will not experience the same type of sleep needed to help you recover and perform at your highest ability.

These five tips are surefire ways for hockey players to give themselves the greatest advantage to play at their peak potential when it matters most: game day.

If you’re looking to take your hockey performance to the next level, check out our in-person training options here. We take pride in accounting for all facets of an athlete’s daily routine, not just the hour they spend training with us, as that is what will truly move the needle for long-term, elite performance.

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