Training hard is extremely important if you want to experience incredible gains. But if your recovery doesn’t match the efforts of your training you won’t see the gains you should.  I’ve already written an article outlining different ways to help you recover from your training, you can read it here.

Today’s post is going to focus on the # 1 way to best recover from rigorous training…

…..SLEEP!

Sleep is by far the best way to allow your tissues to rebuild and give you the strength and energy you need to continue to train as hard as you do.

To learn more about the importance of sleep and what it can do for your training and the longevity of your career make sure to read “Rest is a Weapon”.

Below I’m going to share some strategies to help you fall asleep faster at night, and hopefully keep you asleep longer.

I’m sure at some point you’ve heard that our bodies work on a schedule (known as the circadian rhythm). The closer we can fall asleep each night and wake up at the same time each morning (as much as possible) the more efficient our circadian rhythm becomes and this will promote a higher quality of sleep each night.

You’ll want to avoid any and all electronics in bed like your tv, laptop, cell phone, tablet, and gaming system. The light these electronics emit causes a reduction in melatonin (sleepy-time hormone). This reduction will make it hard to fall asleep, and once you are asleep your quality of sleep goes way down. Another reason to avoid electronics in bed as well any other activities other than sleeping (do your Netflix binging in the living room) is so that you make the mental association that your bed is only for sleeping.

A few other things you might want to avoid before going to bed are caffeinated beverages, such as pop, coffee, black tea, chocolate, etc. Caffeine has a half-life of 6 hours, so your afternoon coffee could still be in your system come bedtime. Try and avoid alcohol before bed. Yes you might feel like that glass of wine or that beer helps you sleep better at night but your body actually doesn’t get the same restful sleep. (If you’re currently under the legal drinking age then you won’t have to worry)

If you constantly find yourself having trouble falling asleep at night you need to ask yourself, what are the distractions that are keeping me from falling asleep and getting a good quality sleep?

Go through this sample checklist:

• Is it too light in my room?
• Is there too much noise?
• Did I watch TV right before bed?
• Was I on my computer/phone/tablet while lying in bed?
• Is my room temperature is too warm or too cold?

If you answered yes to any of those then it’s time to make some adjustments. Put your phone away and out of your room. Yes, I know you use it for your alarm clock, but stop it. It’s the worst thing for you. As you’re trying to fall asleep you’ll continue to look at it and get distracted by someone’s message or a stupid game notification. Go down to the dollar store and buy yourself a cheap alarm clock. It’ll do the job waking you up! Get the TV out of your room.

Remember, your room is only for sleeping, not gaming, not binge watching Netflix in your bed, nothing, but sleep!

Try and keep your room nice and dark and the temperature between 17-20 degrees Celsius. This will help cool your core temperature slightly (ever so slightly) thus promoting a deeper sleep. Reducing the noise in your room will help you fall asleep faster and keep you asleep longer. If you can’t make your room quieter for whatever reason (maybe you live near the highway or a busy city center) then invest in some 50 cent ear plugs.

If you need to calm yourself down and wind down before bed, try performing some breathing exercises. This will help bring down the excitement of the central nervous system (CNS). While lying in bed with your eyes closed, inhale for 7 seconds, hold this breath for 4 seconds, and then exhale on an 8-second count. Repeat this a few times and it should help you relax and fall asleep.

Establishing a sleep routine will help train the mind and body to prepare for sleep and you’ll start to notice you’ll automatically want to go to bed at the same time each night. Keep your routine consistent and simple and you’ll start to get better sleeps each night.

It’s not fair but sometimes things in life aren’t fair and this is one of those times. Whether you’re male or female under eating and over working will have huge negative effects on your performance. But the thing that’s really scary is, not only does under eating have negative effects on a female’s performance it has an even bigger effect on her overall health. This is a very serious topic and I’m going to cover what I feel is important. However, if you’re a female hockey player and you think you may have some form of an eating disorder, I strongly recommend that you go talk with a health care provider.

It’s very unfortunate but society has made females believe that they need to look thin in order to be attractive. And most females believe this is only achievable if they don’t eat and exercise lots. This could not be farther from the truth. Social media has made this way of thinking even more prevalent in today’s female population and that needs to stop.

Today’s post is going to be geared towards female hockey players and the risks and concerns they can undergo if they don’t follow a proper nutrition plan.

In my last post, I talked about the importance of rest and the large role it plays in our recovery. If you haven’t yet read the article I suggest you do by clicking here.

If you did read my last post then you’ll know there are two types of recovery, passive and active. And today I’m going to talk about a few different types of active recovery that you can use to help keep yourself at peak performance as well help prevent injury and reduce stress.

Just like your strength days are planned out in your training program, so are your active recovery days.  If you wait for enjoy recovery days until you start to feel pain or discomfort in your muscles or notice the effects of overtraining it’s too late.

If you search the internet you will find a list of different ways you can recover. From special garments to withstanding subzero temperatures in a cryo chamber. But which of these measures actually work? And which are actually practical?

Some recovery modalities haven’t been around long enough or had the in-depth research to know for sure if they actually work. So today I’ll be talking about the ones that have been proven to work and that are convenient for you to do.

The active recovery modalities I’m going to cover are:

• Cryotherapy
• Hot/Cold contrast
• Self-Myofascial release
• Aerobic flushing

Cryotherapy

There are more and more facilities opening up that provide this type of service. If you’re not familiar with cryotherapy in the form of a cryo chamber, it’s basically a little pod or small room that you go into with just shoes, tight shorts, mitts, toque, and face mask on and the temperature can reach as low as minus 114 degrees Celsius. I have actually used one before and maybe due to the fact that I’m a hockey player and have spent most of my life in a hockey rink, I actually didn’t find it that cold.

Literature does support the effectiveness of a cryo chamber for recovery purposes. Although this service is becoming more accessible, it can be quite expensive. There is a high risk associated with using such cold temperatures. If the athlete isn’t 100% dry when entering a cryo chamber there is a high probability of frostbite. So is the risk worth the reward? So what is your next best option?

Hot/Cold contrast

You can perform hot/cold plunges by going from an ice bath to a hot tub (or hot shower) and back again. This type of recovery modality has also been proven to work when trying to recover the body. The effectiveness of ice baths and hot/cold plunges varies based on the type of sport you play and what type of exercise you’re trying to recover from (weight bearing or non-weight bearing). And like any stimulus, if we constantly expose our body to it we will soon adapt and it will lose its effectiveness. So if you’re always taking ice baths after your training the body will adapt and the cold water will no longer have the same recovery benefit. ONLY after an extremely intense training session is it recommended you take an ice bath or perform hot/cold plunges. The water temperature should be between 10-15 degrees Celsius and you should stay in no longer than 10-15 minutes.

Though this modality has been proven to work it should come with a disclaimer. Research does not yield consistent results across the board.  Each study’s water temperature varied slightly. Some studies looked at athletes submerged up to their neck, while other studies only had them submerged to their waist. Due to these differing variables, it’s hard to draw a clear conclusion whether ice baths work or not.

Self-Myofascial Release (foam rolling)

This type of recovery modality has been proven to reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). A study was conducted testing the effectiveness of foam rolling following high volume training. The subjects completed 10 sets of 10 repetitions at 60% of their 1 rep max back squat. After completion the subjects who foam rolled for 20 minutes immediately after and then again 24 and 48 hours post workout had significantly reduced quadriceps DOMS compared to those who didn’t partake in foam rolling.

This method is not only proven to effective but is also the easiest for you to start implementing into your training routine. Foam rollers are relatively inexpensive and can be found at any fitness shop.

Aerobic Flushing

I’m sure you’ve seen a post game interview of a hockey player and he’s riding the bike. This post game ride helps flush that lactic acid from his muscles so he’ll recover for his next game. To the left is a video of Wade Redden doing just that. While this will help speed up the clearance rate of the lactic acid, you should know that the lactic acid will also clear on its own after a few hours without doing anything. Here is a great article debunking myths about lactic acid.

For me, aerobic flushing is like ice baths, use it right after extremely hard training sessions as it does serve a purpose speeding up the recovery process.

The takeaway

The effectiveness of each of the active recovery modalities I talked about is athlete dependent. There is also a big psychological component when it comes to these types of things. Everyone is different. In the ice bath studies I reviewed, some athletes swear the method worked and they felt 100x better after, while other athletes didn’t report improvements in recovery. Since research has proven that these forms of active recovery do work at some level, you need to try them to see which ones actually work for you.

As a general rule, the more intense your training session is the longer recovery period you’ll need. Keep in mind, beginners’ need more recovery time than experienced lifters because beginner’s bodies haven’t adapted to the stresses of training yet.

To achieve anything worth having you must have an incredible work ethic. I feel it’s imperative to work harder than your competition to get what you want, whether that be in hockey or life. It’s no different when it comes to training, you need to put the time to get the results you want. While working hard in the gym is important, if you’re not resting you are impeding your improvement.

Last hockey season I had a conversation with one of my teammates. He told me a story about a hockey mom who approached him at his local gym and started asking if he had tips to alleviate hip flexor/groin issues that her son was experiencing. Having played 20 years of professional hockey my teammate tried his best to help. The way the conversation was going my teammate thought for sure her son was 14-16 years old but when he asked, she said her son was only 9 years old.

When he told me about this conversation, I couldn’t believe it! A 9-year-old should never be having hip flexor/groin problems. And the reason a 9-year old would be having hip flexor/groin issues is because he or she is getting ZERO rest and is probably playing hockey 12 months of the year.

That’s absolutely insane!

Having said that, I see this a lot with some of the hockey players at the gym. They are constantly doing the same workouts each day and continue to skate year round. While it is important to improve your hockey skills if you want to make it to the next level, sometimes it’s more important to allow your body time to rest.

If we continue to do the same thing day after day, week after week and month after month we’ll stop seeing any type of improvement. The complete opposite will start to happen and we’ll actually start to notice a decline in performance and possibly develop some type of overuse injury (like the 9 year old above).

There are two types of recovery; Passive recovery and active recovery. Today I am going to talk about passive recovery and why it’s so important and how to start implementing it into your training program right away.

The definition of passive recovery is pretty simple. It’s when you do absolutely nothing. This is when you take a complete day off to relax and hang out on the couch. I feel it’s very important that you have at least 1 but no more than 2 passive recovery days in a training week. The harder your training program is the more passive recovery days you’ll need.

When training we actually do quite a bit of damage to our muscular system as well as our nervous system. This is normal. In order for our muscles to get bigger, stronger, and more explosive we must break down our muscles a little bit. But if you continue to break down the muscles and never allow for them to recover they will never have the chance to repair. Continuing this type of trend over time will eventually lead to overtraining and possibly an overuse injury.

One of the best ways to give the body the downtime and rest it needs to repair all the muscle fibers and restore the nervous system is by getting adequate sleep each night.

Sleep deprivation leads to the following:

• Decreased function at a high level
• Decreased speed
• Decreased reaction time
• Decreased positive mood
• Decreased testosterone

How much sleep do you need?

This number is determined on individual basis. Some athletes can get a full recovery from 7 hours of sleep while other athletes might need as much as 10 hours a night. If you are training between 4-6 hours per day you might need close to 12 hours of sleep in order to recover fully.

Sleep is recognized as the most important recovery strategy!

If you don’t get enough hours of sleep each night (whatever your sleep number is) you will go into what is called sleep debt.

Sleep debt can be classified as the amount of missed sleep that you should be obtaining each night. For example, let’s say you’re supposed to get 9 hours of sleep each night but for 3 nights out of the week you were only able to get 8 hours of sleep. You would then have a sleep debt of 3 hours. In order to pay back your sleep debt, you would have to sleep an extra hour per night to make it a total of 10 hours until you’ve made up for the 3 hours of sleep you lost. Sleep debt accumulates over time so you’ll want to make sure you pay back your debt as quickly as possible. One of the best ways to pay back your debt is by taking naps. Having said that, you’ll want to make sure you don’t nap longer than 90 minutes.  Ideally, your nap will be around 30mins. Always make sure you don’t start your nap past 3 pm as this will affect your ability to fall asleep later that night.

To make sure you understand how important sleep is I want to share some numbers from a study that was done on Major League Baseball (MLB) players. The study followed 80 MLB players for a 3-year span and grouped the players into 3 categories. Normal sleep patterns, poor sleep patterns, severe sleep patterns.

After following the players for 3 years they found that 72% of the baseball players that were in the normal sleep pattern group were still playing while only 14% of the players who were classified as severe sleepers were still playing. To think, players who didn’t sleep enough shortened their careers is absolutely incredible.

Sleep not only helps with short-term recovery but it also has a huge implication on career longevity.

Remember: Sleep is the #1 key ingredient to performing at a high level!

I’m sure at some point in your career you have experienced discomfort in your lower back. It’s almost unavoidable for hockey players because of our skating stance. Not only are hockey players bent over at the waist placing extra stress on the lower back they also place a huge amount of stress on the musculature on the front side of the hip while skating. Since the muscles of the hip and back work together it is only natural to experience some type of lower back discomfort or pain when the muscles of the hips get tight from skating.

The muscles of the hip can be broken down into 3 basic categories; anterior (front), posterior (back), and medial (side). If any one of these areas gets tight the muscles shorten and it can pull the hip out of neutral position resulting in discomfort or pain in the lower back.

When skating it’s important to have roughly a 45-degree bend at the waist and close to a 90-degree bend at the knees. Even though this is the ideal skating position to generate power it does place a lot of stress on the anterior musculature of the hip. The muscles of the quadriceps work hard to hold this 90-degree knee bend and start to shorten due to the constantly compressed position. When these muscles shorten it pulls the pelvis forward and places the hip into an anterior pelvic tilt. This position places extra stress on the low back by continuously having the muscles of the low back stretched out. Over time these muscles will weaken and the low back pain will worsen.

Skating requires such unique mechanics to generate a powerful stride. The gluteal muscles play a large role in this action. Every time you push your leg out while taking a stride the gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus are responsible for generating power. If you aren’t stretching and rolling them out, these muscles get tight over time. In addition to tight anterior muscles like the iliopsoas and rectus femoris, tight glutes will also cause discomfort in the low back.

I have put together a video for you that runs through a progression of exercises that will help keep your hips healthy. Healthy hips equal a healthy back. Spend as much time on each drill as you need. Some of you might find that certain areas are more tender than others. Only you know exactly what areas need more attention. Run through these drills every day to prevent any future low back pain from arising.

Details of the video are below.

Foam Rolling (2min Each Side) – Spend at least 2 minutes on each quad to break up any knots that might be in the muscles. Make sure you roll nice and slow and don’t rush through this process. When you find a tender spot, stop and hang out there until the discomfort starts to dissipate.

Trigger Release (2min Each Side) – You can use a tennis ball, hockey ball, or lacrosse ball (really any type of ball, except a golf ball. It’s too small). Place the ball in the front of your hip, right below your hip bone and right at the top of your quad (your hip flexor region). Slowly, make little circles with the ball. Again, pause on any areas that are super uncomfortable and hang out here until they feel better. You can also flex and extend your leg at the knee to change the muscle length you are targeting. Changing the length will allow the ball to dig deeper into the belly of the muscle and release any stubborn knots.

After releasing the muscles on the front of the leg, you’ll want to target the muscles of the glutes. Slowly move the ball around the side of your hip and by extending and shorting your leg you’ll hit different parts of the muscle fibers. You’ll notice that I also fan my leg slowly inwards and outwards. This changes the muscles length and the ball can get deeper into the muscles fibers to help break up deeper knots. I like to spend a little more than 2 mins on each side because these are larger muscles.

Banded Hip Flexor Stretch (30s to 2min Each Side) – Wrap the band around a solid object like a squat rack and place your leg inside the band. Hold this stretch for at least 30 seconds and work up to 2 minutes eventually.

Banded Glute Stretch (30s to 2min Each Side) – Allow the band to pull the hip open, don’t resist the band. Try and relax as much as possible.

Cat/Camel (15 reps) – Work through each position nice and slow and slightly pause at each end range. This drill helps increase the mobility through the entire spine as well the hips. Think about placing your hips in an exaggerated anterior hip tilt while looking up to the ceiling. When moving through the range in the opposite direction think about trying to tuck your hips under your body as much as you can.

Lying Knee-to-Knee Pull-ins (15reps) – This drill focuses on improving the internal rotation of the hips. Once again, move nice and slow throughout the entirety of the drill and slightly pause when bringing the knees together.

Split Stance Kneeling Hip Adductor MOB (10 reps Each Side) – This drill helps improve the length of adductor magnus. Keep a flat back and neutral spine throughout the drill.

3- Way Hydrants (5 Reps Each Way) – Make sure you keep a neutral spine and don’t tip your hips to the opposite side of the working leg.

Lying Supermans (15 reps) – A healthy back is a strong back. This exercise will help develop strength in the lower back without placing any stress on the joints. Slightly pause at the top of the range and work on controlling your body back down to the ground. Don’t just flop back!

SB Deadbug (8 reps Each Side) – Before starting, make sure your back is completely flat and that it stays flat throughout the entirety of the exercise. This exercise helps restore your pelvis back into neutral position while strengthening the musculature of the core. If you can’t extend the opposite arm and leg simultaneously without raising your low back off the ground, then extend one leg at a time and then one arm at a time and progress to the exercise as it is shown.

Does your back get sore from skating?

Are you always having groin and or hip flexor issues?

Does your skating coach tell you that you have a short stride or that you need to get deeper in your skating stance?

All these problems might stem from the same issue.

YOU HAVE TIGHT HIPS!

It is almost pointless having strength in the legs and glutes without having the mobility to utilize that strength in a full range of motion (ROM). If you don’t have a full ROM through the hips you are robbing yourself of your full strength and power potential while skating. Not only will your lack of mobility hinder you on the ice, but it’ll also hamper any type of strength or power gains you are trying to make in the gym. Think of your muscles like a rubber band. If took a rubber band, put it around your finger, pulled back and let go, would you get greater distance out of the rubber band if you pulled further back? Absolutely! Your muscles are the same! The greater stretch you can produce on your muscles, the more power you are able to generate. The only way you can provide the maximal amount of stretch to your muscles is by increasing your ROM through mobility work.

How do you maximize the stretch to your muscles so you can generate the greatest amount of strength and power while skating?

You need to work on your mobility daily!

Incorporate these hip mobility drills into your warm-up routine right away and start to notice the difference.

Watch the video below to find out how to perform each drill. Below the video is a description of each drill and why it is beneficial.

Banded Hip Flexor Stretch 3x10e (each side)

Hold the stretch position for 5 seconds before releasing to the relaxed position and hold this for 2 seconds before repeating for the desired amount of reps and sets. This drill helps stretch the hip flexor as well distract the hip from the joint. This will allow for better external and internal rotation of the hip joint.

½ Kneeling Rec Fem mobility 2x10e

Hold each position of this mobility drill for 2 seconds. Using a bench provides a target to rock towards. This drill can be performed without a bench as well. Make sure not to hyperextend through the lower back! Think about driving the hips forward and keeping the back flat throughout the entirety of the drill. Holding each position for 2 seconds helps increase the mobility throughout the joint.

½ Kneeling RFE Rec Fem Mob 2x10e

With this drill, hold each position for 5 seconds. Having the back foot elevated off the ground puts more emphasis on the quad and helps the release these muscles.

½ Kneeling Adductor Mob 3x10e

In order to have great hip mobility don’t think of the hips in one singular plane. When skating there is a lot of demand put on the groin. Open the hip by placing the leg out to the side. Keep the toe and heel of the open leg in line with the planted knee of the other leg.  Having the leg and hip open helps target the hip in a different plane and will increase the mobility throughout the entirety of the hip.

Hip Openers 2x10e  (for all 3 variations)

The next 3 mobility drills focus on external rotation through the hips. Changing the angle of the chest changes the targeted area of the glutes. It is possible that one direction is stiffer than another. Play around with the different variations of this drill and figure out what areas require more focus. Lacking sufficient external rotation in the hips will make it tougher to generate enough power in the glutes which in turn affects the power of your skating stride.

Lying Knee-to-knee pull-ins 3×10 each

This drill places focus on improving the internal rotation of the hips. Internal hip rotation has a direct correlation to the extent of how far the hips can rotate externally. Therefore working on your internal and external rotation goes hand in hand.