Where to Start

I remember the first off-season where I actually worked out like a hockey player. I was fortunate enough that my Junior hockey team had a great strength and conditioning coach. Always being a skinny tall guy I knew I needed to put on some serious mass if I wanted to play at a higher level. After the hockey season, the strength and conditioning coach gave me a program and said if I followed it properly I would be able to put on about 10-15lbs and really increase my strength over the summer. I was pretty happy to hear this because I needed to not only add size but strength as well.

I remember flipping through the pages of the training book and thinking to myself, I need to get big and strong so I don’t need to start with these light weights and high reps at the front of the book, I’ll go right to the good stuff. Following the program how I thought it should be done rather than what my strength and conditioning coach planned for it to be done left me with less than optimal results. I still got a little stronger and added a few pounds of muscle mass but nothing like what the strength coach said would happen.

The following off-season I promised myself I would follow the program correctly from start to finish. At the end of the summer, I had put on 15lbs of muscle mass and increased my strength just like the off-season program was designed to do. Not only did it make me bigger and stronger, my on-ice performance improved as well. It was a bittersweet feeling because it made me realize I could have had these results the previous year but instead I missed a whole hockey season with this added size and strength. And now I was also at the end of my Junior career.

The point I’m trying to make is that strength and conditioning coaches have a plan that is progressive in nature and will help you achieve your goals. We don’t just slap together a program. Every piece is specially designed with the end goal in mind. Every part of the program has a purpose and is as important as the next. Don’t do what you feel is best or what you feel like doing, follow the program and enjoy the results!

Your first two weeks should look like this….

During the first two weeks (minimum) of your summer training, you need to train higher volume and lower to medium loads to develop your muscle tissues, ligaments, and tendons. This will help prepare the body for more challenging demands later in the off-season. The first phase of training needs to have a “prehabilitation” mindset as it will help prevent any “rehabilitation” from occurring later in the summer.

In the first phase, the specific focus needs to be placed on improving balance, motor control, coordination, mobility, and core strength. All these aspects of training help build a strong foundation. Along with building a strong foundation, you need to work on developing the strength ratio between flexors and extensors by balancing the training on both sides of the body.

Even though this type of training might not be as glamorous as lifting heavy loads or performing plyometrics, if you don’t do it you will NOT develop your strength and power as much and the chance of injuring yourself later on in your off-season training is a lot greater.

I know every hockey players wants to lift heavy weights and get super strong and add tons of muscle mass over the off-season. Although this is important to a certain degree, what you really need to do is improve the neuromuscular system to function as effectively as possible to meet the demands of hockey. If your summer training program doesn’t have a proper progression in place and doesn’t go through the appropriate phases then you will have a hard time achieving this goal.