Should Hockey Players Train CrossFit – Part 3

by Travis Martell | Jun 3, 2019 | Educational

Should Hockey Players Train CrossFit – Part 3

PART 2 OF SHOULD HOCKEY PLAYERS TRAIN CROSSFIT?

If you haven’t read the first two parts of why hockey players shouldn’t train CrossFit I would suggest doing that first. Here are the links for Part 1 and Part 2.

The first two parts of this series of articles shouldn’t have been overly complicated and the concepts should have been fairly easy to grasp. Over the next two parts, I’m going to get into the specifics of power, strength, and conditioning and why you need to STOP doing CrossFit and that this style of training is preventing you from becoming the best hockey player possible.

Let’s dive in!

POINT FOUR: Power development

Both the Olympic lifts, the hang clean and power clean are great exercises to develop power. Typically hockey players who are more powerful are also faster skaters because they can produce more power with each stride thus creating more propulsion on the ice. It’s imperative for hockey players to add these exercises or similar ones to their training program if they want to become faster skaters. But when you look at the complexity of these Olympic lifts, it can actually take a long time to learn how to perform them in a safe but effective manner. That’s why high-level Olympians take years to learn the movement before they actually start to load them.

When it comes to CrossFit, not only will they start to perform these complex exercises too soon they’ll also perform them with a high number of repetitions. And due to the technical nature of Olympic lifts and their effectiveness to develop power, it’s actually counterproductive to perform these exercises with high volume (lots of repetitions) and more importantly extremely dangerous. What starts to happen is that the proper sequencing of the proper speed and timing of the muscles start to alter. When this occurs, the benefit of developing power from the use of hang/power clean or a similar power exercise is virtually eliminated. This alone should make you want to stop performing these exercises with high volume and reconsider the style of your training because, at the end of the day, you should want to become as powerful as possible on the ice.

POINT FIVE: Too much risk

Continuing with the detrimental effects of performing high repetitions of the Olympic lifts and other power exercises (like the box jump) and why it’s not the most intelligent way to train. We need to understand that every exercise poses some type of risk when performed incorrectly. Each time we train and decide to do a certain exercise we must weigh out the risks and the rewards of that given exercise. After the decision is made of what the exercise will be and how many reps and sets will be performed the rewards better outweigh the risks by at least 10 fold. When we look at CrossFit and how they prescribe their Olympic lifts and other power exercises, they choose to perform them with very high repetitions. In point four you learned that power development is completely negated when high reps are performed.

With performance aside, let’s look at the risk this style of training imposes on us. It doesn’t matter how big, strong or powerful you are if you’re getting hurt along the way. You cannot perform at your best, whether that be on the ice or in the gym if you’re hurt or even battling small nagging injuries. It’s pretty simple to know what happens when performing any exercises for too many repetitions. Fatigue sets in! And when this happens with lifts like the Clean, Squat, Deadlift, or any other complex lift it causes deterioration of lifting form and thus increases the probability of disc bulges and herniation due to the extra stress placed on the spine.

Another thing to think about is how CrossFit sessions are set up. A lot of times the athlete will perform a set of burpees (click here to watch) before a complex lift like a Clean, Squat or Deadlift. While this may seem fine on the surface it’s actually detrimental on two levels. The first reason is that it has caused fatigued prior to a very complex exercise. This fatigue alone will increase the chances of a possible injury. The second reason and a little more complex is what the burpees will do to the spine. The burpees will replace disc toughness with flexibility and also soften the matrix holding the collagen fibers together. This combination will result in a more potent injury risk scenario due to less stiffness for the spine. Combine the decreased stiffness in the spine and the fatigue caused by the burpees and we have ourselves a high-risk situation.

The next risk factor is something that happens to the body at a global level. When we train longer than 10 seconds for one set of exercise we start breaking down glucose (sugar) for energy. In order for this process to happen the body must have oxygen present. With the presence of oxygen and the breakdown of glucose the body starts to create and accumulate harmful by-products (i.e., free radicals). When we don’t allow the body to fully recover between sets, this accumulation of by-products inhibits the body’s ability to balance the oxygen and the free radical ratio which may cause damage to the body and this is classified as oxidative stress. Don’t think that it’s extremely harmful and we should never train this way but when every training session causes this to happen it can lead to too much breakdown of the body and the results will be a decrease in performance and increase in the possibility of injury down the road.

Like I just said, this style of training is an important part of a holistic development plan, especially during certain times of the year. But it’s only a part of the equation and you’d be missing large pieces of the performance puzzle if it’s all you choose to do when it comes to your training.

Should Hockey Players Train CrossFit? (Part 2)

by Travis Martell | May 6, 2019 | Educational

Should Hockey Players Train CrossFit? (Part 2)

Part 2 of Should Hockey Players Train CrossFit?

If you haven’t read Part 1, click here to read it now.

Now let’s jump right into the second point of why hockey players shouldn’t train CrossFit.

POINT TWO: Rewarded for completion

What I’m about to say may make a lot of people angry with me and I’m ok with that (I hope). When you consider an exercise like the “Kipping Pull-up“, which is basically a Pull-up variation allowing you to use momentum by swinging and/or jerking your hips to help get your chin up over the bar and thus perform more repetitions. I consider this “cheating an exercise”. It really doesn’t do much to develop good upper back or shoulder strength. Also, unless you’re coaching technique and stopping athletes when their form isn’t correct, the potential for injury increases. In addition, the benefit and positive response from the exercise decreases. If you’ve ever watched CrossFit, most coaches encourage athletes to continue lifting until the set is complete. They do this instead of making corrections on form and stopping athletes when they notice decreased lifting quality. The greatest improvement happens when the repetitions are performed with proper form and technique. Sloppy movements result in sloppy and weak performance on the ice.

POINT THREE: Specific training = specific results

Let’s look at the golf swing and a slapshot in hockey. They look very similar, the rotation of the body is almost identical and the path of the stick and club closely resembles one another. One of the major differences is the placement of the hands. But it’s safe to say that both these skills look similar. It’s why most hockey players are really good at golf.

Look at this hypothetical situation for a minute. It’s the off-season and you and two friends are wanting to improve your slapshots. You decide to hit the driving range all summer because it’s similar to a slapshot and quite honestly, you don’t feel like carrying your net out each and every day and you think, “whatever, it’s the practically the same thing”. One of your buddies is completely lazy and isn’t planning on doing anything to improve his shot but it doesn’t surprise you as he doesn’t have much drive when it comes to his training. And then there is your one friend who plans on shooting pucks all summer.

By the end of summer, both you and your friend who shot pucks all summer ended up taking the exact same amount of shots. While you were hitting golf balls he was hitting pucks. No one practiced more than the other. Since you practiced the same amount you’d think both of your shots would have improved the exact same because both a golf swing and slapshot are similar, right? But it didn’t happen (weird), your buddy’s shot is way better than yours!

How could have this happened?

It’s because a slapshot is the exact skill you wanted to improve but you decided to hit golf balls all summer and the golf swing is only similar in nature. So it should come as no surprise that your shot didn’t improve as much as your buddy. It’s no different when it comes to training. CrossFit style of training is very general by design and the results will be just that, general. Hockey players, on the other hand, need a very specific style of training to get specific results and their training needs to imitate the demands hockey as much as possible.

I hope this makes sense and if you have any questions regarding this article, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.

Click here to read Part 3

Should Hockey Players Train CrossFit?

by Travis Martell | Apr 25, 2019 | Educational

Should Hockey Players Train CrossFit?

Should hockey players train CrossFit? Before we start I want to let you know that this article will be broken down into four parts with this post being the first part. There’s a lot of information that I’ll be covering and it’ll be way too much for one article.

Enjoy!

Part one: What is CrossFit.

First off, if you don’t know what CrossFit is you’ll get my description of it as well as the official one off their website.

My explanation, CrossFit is a unique style of training. It’s extremely intense in the sense you perform a ton of reps of whatever exercise you’re performing, whether that be deadlifts, squats, hang cleans or box jumps, you’re doing a lot of them (upwards to 50 or more).

Now, here’s the official definition of CrossFit from their website:

CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.

Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.

CrossFit contends that a person is as fit as they are proficient in each of ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.

Take that statement/definition for what it is. The way I see it, if you do 50 box jumps or deadlifts for one set, perform 50+ repetitions for time (having a certain amount of time to complete the reps), and or have a workout of the day, there’s a good chance it’s CrossFit. CrossFit workouts are somewhat randomized and most are done to exhaustion. This means that the instructor writes up a workout for that day that everyone performs, whether you’re an athlete or a stay at home parent. Everyone does the same thing and you do it until you can’t do it anymore.

Now, should hockey players train CrossFit? Having a better idea of what CrossFit is and the unique style of training they perform we can continue to start to understand why this style of training (whether they call it’s CrossFit or not) isn’t the best way for hockey players to train.

If you’re a hockey player who’s currently doing CrossFit and are offended by my statement please give me time to explain. If you aren’t doing that style of training yet but you were considering it, please continue to read and hopefully I’ll do a great job explaining why CrossFit training isn’t the best style of training for hockey players.

Let’s look at an example before we get into the details of why this style of training will NOT help you on the ice as much as training in more specific ways will.

This is how I look at CrossFit.

CrossFit is a sport and an extremely popular one at that. To be a CrossFit athlete you have to be in incredible shape, there’s no denying that. You also have to have a proficient background in Olympic lifting and a tremendous amount of muscular endurance. So far it sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it? Well, there is a problem, like with any sport or style of training, when you only perform that one thing you get really good at only that one thing. It’s great if that’s all you want to do. But you’re a hockey player and you should want to become the best at hockey and not CrossFit, so why limit yourself by only training one way?

Let’s look at marathon training for example. Someone who runs marathons has to be in phenomenal shape, I don’t think anyone could argue that. When you look at what they have to do it’s impressive. They have to run FAST for 3 hours and if they’re elite, it’s more like 2 hours. This means elite marathon runners are averaging a sub-5-minute mile. If you’ve never run a mile, that’s really fast! Now having said that, I don’t think a marathon runner would be a very good hockey player, even if they could skate and had the skills to play the game. The reason why is because their athletic development (strength & speed) is for something completely different than the demands of hockey. They wouldn’t have the quickness, strength or power needed to excel on the ice.

With me so far?

GREAT!

Now let’s dive into the first point on why CrossFit training (or similar style) isn’t great for hockey players

POINT ONE: Too basic & general

Going back to the definition from their site it says “ Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing …” So CrossFitters know firsthand they aren’t looking to develop anything specific when it comes to athleticism. Since Crossfit doesn’t offer a wide enough variety of exercises it can’t help with developing specific hockey athleticism to the maximum degree. This will prevent hockey players from performing at their peak. Performing the same movements over and over doesn’t develop strength, agility, and mobility as well as a training program implemented with a variety of exercises and movements. CrossFit becomes ineffective for hockey players because it doesn’t challenge the body from various angles of push and pull exercises and different types of movements that work different modalities.

When you look at what a CrossFit athlete has to do in a competition it’s a lot of the same movements and very repetitive and not specific to any one thing. It’s kind of like the decathlon at the Olympics. The athletes that compete in this discipline are good at everything but not really great at any one thing. And to do well at either CrossFit or the decathlon you must train with a very broad range in order to be successful because at the end of the day you must be a jack of all trades.

I hope you enjoyed part one of my four-part series of why hockey players shouldn’t train CrossFit.

Click here to read Part Two.

3 Nutritional (Timing) Tips to Help Performance

by Travis Martell | Jul 31, 2017 | Educational

3 Nutritional (Timing) Tips to Help Performance

Hockey players should know the importance of eating properly. If you’re an athlete and you don’t know that poor nutrition can hinder your performance then you better pay extra attention to this post. I am going to discuss 3 tips that will help to keep your body performing at an optimal level. These tips will cover what and when you should be eating before, during and after a training session. Following these tips will help you recover faster, maximize your energy levels without feeling heavy and sluggish while also keeping you mentally focused. If you’re not sure how close to a training session you should be eating read this first Should You Eat Before Training? Depending on how much time you have before your training session will determine what your best options are for food. If you have more than 2 hours you can basically eat anything (as long as it’s healthy) because your body will have enough time to digest almost all of the contents. When you only have an hour or less before you have to train and you feel your stomach rumbling, it’s easy to overeat but this will make you feel terrible during your training. Make the smart choice and pick the correct foods to eat so that you don’t make yourself sick during your training session.

BEFORE

If you have around an hour I would suggest having a bagel with peanut butter and a banana or bagel with a small amount of cream cheese and a banana. This small snack will provide your body with the nutrients it needs to perform at a high level without slowing you down. If you have less than 30 minutes, then I would stick with eating only a banana. The banana will provide your body with satisfaction but it’s small enough that it won’t make you feel ill during your training. I won’t get into what you should be eating before games as I’ve written about this in this article Pre-game Meal For Hockey Players.

DURING

Our bodies do a good job at storing enough energy (glycogen) in our muscles to enable us to perform for 60 – 90 minutes. Once the training exceeds 90 minutes then you’ll want to consume some type of carbohydrates to help maintain your energy levels. Choosing the right foods during competition can be a difficult task. The easiest way to consume carbohydrates during prolonged events is in liquid form. Consuming 250ml (8oz) of a sports drink containing 6-10% carbohydrates every 15 – 20 minutes will help you keep optimal energy levels. It’s highly recommended to avoid drinks like pop (Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc…) that are extremely high in sugar as they will only give you a quick burst of energy but at the expense of your performance because you’ll quickly crash after and feel tired.

AFTER

The post training meal is very important and has 3 stages. First, you’ll want to get 75 – 100 grams of carbohydrates paired with 15-25 grams of protein within 15 – 30 minutes of completing your activity. Combining carbohydrates and protein together helps the absorption of both nutrients into the muscle faster making it a more effective way to replenish your energy stores (muscle glycogen). Liquid forms of carbohydrates are easier to mix with a whey protein and easier to consume after training. Second, 2-3 hours after completing your activity you’ll want to consume at least an additional 100 grams of carbohydrates. At this stage in your recovery you should have a very healthy appetite and be eating some solid foods will allow you to consume the 100 grams of carbohydrates you need. Third, and final part of your post training recovery strategy is REST! (Read more here) I know this doesn’t have anything to do with nutrition but if you’re not resting (sleeping and relaxing) then it doesn’t matter how hard you train or what types of fuel you’re providing your body because you won’t be able to perform at your best. To recap everything, consuming the right nutrients at the right time and in the proper amounts will allow your muscles to have the energy they need to perform at their best while also speeding up your recovery to best prepare you for your next training session.

Should You Eat Before Training?

by Travis Martell | Jun 5, 2017 | Educational

Should You Eat Before Training?

When training as an athlete your main focus is increasing your performance. When you don’t fuel your body properly this is a lot harder to achieve. It’s extremely important to give your body the nutrients it needs to perform at its best. So should you eat before training? The answer is yes. When you don’t fuel before your workouts you’re making everything harder for yourself. I feel too many athletes nowadays think it’s better to train in a fasted state but this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

There are a few reasons why someone may choose NOT to eat prior to lifting. First, athletes may feel it will burn more fat. In actuality, lowering your daily caloric intake helps you lose fat in the long run, if you avoid eating prior to a workout it can be detrimental. It will put your body under stress while also resulting in a lack the energy needed to get the most out of your workout. Even if your goal as an athlete is to lose body fat, it’s more effective to consume the bulk of your calories before and after your workout. Then throughout the remainder of the day, you’ll want to reduce the total amount of calories you consume. A fatigued (hungry) body will burn fewer calories in a workout and bring your body into a catabolic state, thus making it harder for your performance to improve (through recovery).

There’s an upside and downside to eating before a workout. The upside is that you give your muscles the fuel they need to perform as well allowing you to burn more calories. Eating prior to exercise can also help with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar); having low levels of sugar in our blood can result in dizziness, blurred vision, and needless fatigue.

The downside that I hear from hockey players is that eating prior to a training session results in them having an upset stomach and feeling sluggish. When muscles work, blood flow will increase in response to the muscles demand for more oxygen and nutrients. Eating too close to training means food will sit in our stomachs undigested. As blood flows away from the stomach and to the working muscles, and this can cause unpleasant symptoms. If you’re going to eat a big meal, do so at least 2.5 hours prior to exercising. This will give the stomach adequate time to digest the food, convert it into energy and fuel your body for best perform.

If you forget or don’t have time to eat a big meal before a training session make sure you eat at least a small snack. Choosing a snack that digests easily like crackers, bagels, bananas or granola bars will allow you to eat as close as 20 minutes prior to your training session. Getting these quick-digesting carbohydrates in your body will increase your performance while preventing the negative effect a larger meal has on the stomach.

The moral of the story

When eating close to your workouts it is also important to consider the type of exercise you are doing. For example, biking will have a different effect on the food in your stomach than running. There is less body movement with biking than running so the food in your stomach won’t be getting tossed around as much.

Ultimately, everyone is different and some people can handle a little more food before exercising while other people cannot, so it is important to figure out what works best for you.

How To: Safely Bulk Up

by Travis Martell | May 8, 2017 | Educational

How To: Safely Bulk Up

Besides always being told that I needed to improve my foot speed as a young hockey player, coaches would also tell me that I needed to put on weight. I have always been a skinny kid and it was extremely hard to put on weight during the off-season, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t try. I listened to my coaches recommendations, did what they said and started eating everything I could get my hands on. It didn’t matter what type of food it was, as long as it would make me heavier I would eat it. Looking back I’ve realized I was given the wrong advice and as a result, I did it completely incorrectly. Everything I gained during the off-season wasn’t helpful when it came to my performance on the ice. It actually made me slower and I definitely couldn’t afford to get any slower. Not only did I suck when I first got back on the ice I would end up losing all the weight in the first 2 weeks of training camp anyways. The extra weight I gained did me no good. A few years wiser now, I know that there’s a huge difference between healthy (usable) weight, and just adding weight to be heavier.

Bulking up during the off-season probably has more to do with your nutrition than the type of workout program you’re doing. But with saying that, if you’re following the incorrect workout plan then you’ll be wasting your time and energy trying to put on extra muscle mass. Each time we lift weights or do some type of conditioning, we are creating a stimulus for our body. The response we get is determined by that exact stimulus. If we’re trying to accomplish a specific outcome then we need to apply the correct stimulus so we can achieve our specific goal.

I’m going to lay out some basic things you should follow in order to safely add healthy, usable weight that won’t slow you down on the ice. I don’t want you to make the same mistake I did!

Supplementing appropriately before and after your workout probably has the biggest impact on adding muscle size. Before your workout, you’ll want to take roughly 5g of BCAA (branched chain amino acids). BCAA’s are made up of 3 amino acids, leucine, isoleucine, and valine. Consuming these amino acids pre-workout will make them readily available for your muscles to use while you’re training. When lifting weights the muscle fibers break down (this is a good thing) and in order for the muscles to get larger, they need amino acids to repair them. The amino acids can start the repair process during the workout when consumed before. This not only helps to increase the muscle’s size but can also help with the recovery process.

After the workout, you’ll want to consume a protein shake along with some carbohydrates. Post workout you should have roughly .44g of protein per 1kg of body weight and 3-4 times the amount of carbohydrates (more protein isn’t better for you). For example, if you weighed 60kg you would have 26g of protein and somewhere between 80 – 105g of carbohydrates. The carbohydrates help the muscles absorb the proteins faster and also supply energy to the muscles so you can train harder in the gym the following day. You’ll also want to add an extra 300-500cals per day on top of your recommended daily allowance.

Now, what type of workout should you do?

Workouts focused on muscle hypertrophy (growth) require the correct balance between volume and intensity. Too much or too little will hinder your results. Performing sets of 8-12 reps with around 60 seconds of rest between sets is ideal for muscle hypertrophy. You’ll want to make sure you change up your rep count throughout this training phase (should be about 6 weeks) which will give your muscles a slightly different stimulus to spark new muscle growth. Don’t be in the gym for over 90 minutes as this will hamper your growth by having too many of the wrong hormones released. Keep the rest short between sets and make sure you’re getting your pre and post nutrition shakes to maximize your gains.

If you want a plan that is specifically designed for hockey players check out the one below. I have put together two different programs. One is for the advanced lifter who has at least 2 years of training experience while the other program is for a beginner who has less than 2 years of training experience. If you decide to purchase my program I’ll send you a promo code so you can receive 30% off my nutritional guideline eBook for hockey players. This eBook will give you all the knowledge you need to make sure you’re fueling your body correctly to maximize your efforts in the gym!

Original price was: $97.00.Current price is: $67.00.Read more

Original price was: $97.00.Current price is: $67.00.Read more