Mental Preparation

Athletes know how much mental preparation it takes to compete at a high level. It can be a critical factor in taking the next step forward to reaching a higher level. There are many mental techniques that help athletes succeed, from visualization to self-talk, but it is hard to deny the fact that working out is a great tool to add. With team sports, this can increase when you are working out with teammates or other athletes. You’re doing explosive moments, You’re doing some strength movements, you start to think about the upcoming game, and you’re with teammates. Sounds like mental preparation to me.

Range of Motion

While the warm-up can definitely increase the range of motion, it might be a good idea to take it a step further. The warm-up for many youth teams starts about 5 minutes before the competition. What has recently started, is the warm-up starting even earlier, with teams going through a dynamic type warm-up before they take to the field, court, or ice.

Range of motion can be a limiting factor when it comes to getting in the right positions for the sport. Doing a variety of strength exercises can increase your range of motion and allow you to freely move in and out of certain positions. Going through the full range when doing strength exercises will help you in your sporting activity.

Balance

Balance is a key component of the majority of team sports. Whether it is on the field, court, or ice, a player will have to fight to keep their balance at some point during their game/competition. Doing single-leg exercises before the game can help to get the body ready to deal with many types of balance issues.

Primes Central Nervous System

The central nervous system has to be working in top order when playing sports. How efficiently it responds to a certain stimulus can make a huge difference. When training, the central nervous system is in charge of recruiting more motor units when it comes to producing force and power. Shouldn’t an athlete be ready to produce the right amount of force and power when needed? I think so. Strength training can definitely help get the body ready to produce force and power when called upon.

Coordination

Coordination is often taken for granted by many athletes. Often, it’s the people who aren’t overly coordinated who aren’t in sports. Coordination can be worked on and can get better. This is why working out on game day can be very beneficial. Sports and athletics take a great deal of coordination to do everything that’s involved in the particular sport. Running, skating, jumping, shooting the ball, passing the puck, receiving a pass and the list goes on. Working out on game day enables the body to prepare for the different types of conditions for coordination that will be called upon.

Strength and Performance Professional

The one thing with game day workouts is you really don’t want to tire yourself or the athletes, too much..or at all. Working out on game days shouldn’t be a taxing workout, a conditioning workout, or a workout that will expend too much energy. This is why consulting a qualified performance coach or strength coach is your best bet. He/She will know the best exercises that will get the athlete game-ready, yet not drain needed energy.

There are a few reasons which may have caused this lack of basic body strength and coordination. In days past youth have been outside for hours, playing on the school playground (which has been removed for safety precautions), playing road hockey/street basketball (which kids no longer do because of more enticing video games), or just playing outside with friends (which is not done much anymore without supervision). So, despite all those reasons, there are ways to get stronger and faster, but two main factors are holding people back:

Skill Training vs Strength/Performance Training

All athletes need skill training for their sport if they intend to get better. Skill training is key for any sport, and it seems as if skill coaches are all over! Here in Canada, hockey is at the forefront. You can walk into any arena, here in Ontario, and see tons of advertisements and posters for skill coaches that will work on your skating edge work, skating stride, stick handling, shooting, etc. But, how many posters will you see up about strength training and performance training?

While skill training is very important, strength and performance training is just as important. There are a ton of befits of strength and performance training:

• Injury reduction
• Getting into the right positions
• Escaping out of bad situations
• More strength can produce more speed
• Greater strength combined with greater speed can equal more power
• General body awareness

Time and Money

Many of the benefits of strength and performance training are listed above, but how are you going to fit it into your schedule and afford the extra cost? The first is scheduling it. It is very hard to schedule in strength training when the week is filled with games, practices, and skill training. This is when the priorities come into play. Skill coaches have actually approached me and said that this certain player needs to get stronger and asked me which programs I have running. It’s not one or the other, in regard to skill training and strength training. You need them both. If you had to pick one, just ask yourself what you need more. If you have a lot of practices and games, don’t you think it might be time to fit in some strength training?

Money is also a big factor for many. Sports are not cheap. It seems as though everything costs money. You pay for the registration for the sport and also pay for the extra skill training. Strength training is not really any different. You usually need to pay for a gym membership or pay for enrollment in a youth strength training group. But paying for strength training doesn’t always have to cost a lot of money if you know where to look.

I did an article during the pandemic on exercises athletes can do at home to stay physically active. These next few movements fall along that category and can be done at home. So if you, your child, or someone you know can benefit from knowing and applying these few exercises, then you should definitely show them. They are simple exercises but are often done wrong, or young athletes don’t have the strength or body awareness to do them…and they are exercises ALL athletes should be able to perform. This can also be part of a movement screen for a strength coach, with other added movements.

Basic Movements All Athletes Should Know

Athletic Stance/Hip Hinge

This is a standard position for many athletes and for many athletic movements. There are multiple exercises that use this position and you get into that position in almost every sport. Hockey, football, tennis, baseball, and the list keeps going. Properly perform it by having your feet about shoulder width apart (this may be slightly wider or narrower depending on the sport and what the position is being used for). Keep your back straight and chest up. Notice I didn’t say to keep your back vertical. You will need to lean slightly forward and drive your hips backward. Your hand position will also depend on the sport or exercise, as will the amount of bend in your knees.

Split Squat/Lunge

When I start to teach this movement I see done wrong in every which way, from young kids to older athletes. To start this exercise, both feet are facing forward, about 12-14 inches apart, depending on the height of the athlete. The feet split the frontal plane, with the weight of the body over the forward foot. The back foot always has the heel off the ground. Doing this ensures too much of the weight isn’t transferred to the rear leg in the upright position. Then move up and down in a controlled manner. When you are in the down position, the opposite arm of the forward leg, also moves forward. Doing this helps engage the upper body and core.

Bilateral Squat

The bilateral squat is also just simply a squat. To perform this one, I start by placing the athlete’s hands and arms in front of their chest in a vertical position. Feet are spread about shoulder-width apart (the toes can slightly turn outwards). Have the athlete lower as far as they are able (ideally without a posterior tilt of the pelvis, or butt-wink). As a movement screen, you may want to have the hand on the hips or arms straight out. Having them on the inside of the knees helps to avoid any knee valgus, or caving in of the knees. But seeing knee valgus may help the strength coach determine other exercises that will help out that problem.

Push-up/Incline Push-up

This is good for upper body and core strength. If the athlete can do a proper push-up CORRECTLY, he/she will be off to a good start athletically. Start by placing the hands directly below the shoulders, or slightly wider. Have the elbows pointed at a 45-degree angle. Lower and raise the body in a controlled manner, in one motion. A lot of young athletes and female athletes have trouble doing push-ups from the floor (reasoning is something for another article). To keep the kinetic chain intact from head to feet, I often do elevated push-ups, with hands elevated to a level so the push-up is achievable. Just be sure to keep a straight line from your head to your feet. For the strength coach using this as a screen, he/she might see a sagging torso or raised hips, which is core instability and lack of strength in the upper body.

The list is large of the athletes who played both growing up, from the great Wayne Gretzky to the great John Travares (Buffalo Bandits, lacrosse) to his nephew, John Travares of the Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL). The similarities go far beyond them both being team sports. Let me dive a little deeper into how playing these two sports compliment each other.

Playing Area

In many cases, the playing area of box lacrosse and the playing area of ice hockey is the same spot. The National Lacrosse League and the National Hockey League are both played during the winter and, just like the National Basketball Association, have the luxury of a crew of people who do the floor changes from sport to sport in their respective arenas.

In normal circumstances, hokey is played in the winter, then the springtime comes, the ice is removed and lacrosse begins. The boards stay in, the glass stays in and the only things that change are the playing surface and the nets.

Physical Contact

The fact that physical contact is allowed in both lacrosse and hockey is one main factor in how a player progresses in each sport. In each sport, you need to embrace the physicality that’s involved in reaching that next level. Every player is different, and some may like the contact a lot more than others, but you need to understand that it is part of the game.

You are running/skating with the ball/puck and not only have to worry about the other players getting in the way of a pass or shot but also other players trying to run into you and physically knock you away from the ball/puck.

Out of Bounds

Field hockey, basketball, soccer, or football have out-of-bounds markers where you may step and avoid physical contact or stop the play. Hockey and box lacrosse have boards that are in play, which increases the physicality and allows a faster pace game. There’s nowhere to hide.

Stick Skills/Hand-Eye Coordination

Both sports involve a stick. The stick controls the puck/ball. It’s not your hands. Your hands control the stick, and the stick controls the puck/ball. This takes an immense amount of concentration and coordination.

Once you get that coordination under control is when all the still skills start. You can watch any YouTube video of stickhandling skills in the National Hockey League or National Lacrosse League. The things you will see are incredible.

To receive a pass, goaltenders stopping the puck/ball from entering the net, and taking a shot all involve a great amount of hand-eye coordination. You are not just receiving the ball/puck in your hand, which, like football or basketball, is hard enough. You are handling an object, in which you use to receive the puck/ball. Then remember, this is being done while someone is trying to physically separate you from the ball/puck.

5-on-5

These two sports not only play in the same arenas but play with the same amount of players. The format is a little different, but there are 5 players on at any given moment.

Even the penalties are the same. When a penalty is called in either sport a player goes off and “sits in the box” for usually 2 or 4 minutes (major penalties are 5 minutes and misconduct penalties worth 10 minutes are also given).

Weight Transfer

Shooting to puck and ball is the main component of both hockey and lacrosse. The aim is to shoot the puck/ball in the net and past the goaltender. There is a great deal of rotational power involved in a good, hand shot in both lacrosse and baseball, but the greatest effect comes from solid weight transfer.

Field hockey is for right-shooting players, golf is predominately right and in most sports, including baseball, a left-handed athlete is somewhat rare. When it comes to hockey and lacrosse this is not the case. Though most of the players are right-hand dominant, you see a pretty even number of left-hand shooters compared to right-handed shooters.

When talking about weight transfer, this means that weight is shifted from the back leg to the front leg when shooting. Just as a right-handed pitcher in baseball transfers weight from the right leg (back leg) to the left leg (front leg), the hockey and lacrosse shot is the same principle. You will not get your hardest/fasted shot when the weight starts on the back leg and transfers to the front leg.

Work-to-Rest

The final and arguably the biggest factor is the work-to-rest ratio. This is very important to a strength and conditioning coach, as this is where energy systems come into play. Soccer is much different than hockey and lacrosse, which are both much different from basketball.

There are three main energy systems, and the key for performance coaches and players looking for proper conditioning is to determine how much time is spent in each energy system and how much rest is given.

Now, hockey and lacrosse have more of a work-to-rest(a)-to-rest(b) format. Your shift length differs slightly from hockey to lacrosse, but it’s important to understand that even when you are on the ice/floor you are not working at full capacity the whole time. Think of it like work-short rest-work-short rest-work-short rest-work-long rest rest-long rest, etc.

Your anaerobic system, of which there are two types is the system at work during your shift. The aerobic system sess action during your recovery time on the bench. With hockey and lacrosse having very close work-to-rest ratios, it’s only natural to play both.

Hockey Warm-Up

First, we will start with a warm-up. Whether a practice or a game, you need to warm up and get the blood flowing. It’s essential to warm up the muscles you will use for hockey. Hockey is different than most other team sports, mainly because it’s done on ice, with skates. It’s not sprinting or jumping. The movements are slightly different, which could be one of the reasons for the non-contact “hockey” injuries. The lateral motion and the constant flexion of the hip can raise the instance of hockey injuries because those motions are not regularly used in other sports, and therefore not properly trained for.

When I do warm-ups for any athlete training at my gym, I do warm-up exercises for the training session. A-skips, high knees, butt kicks, carioca, and side shuffles are some exercises that the athletes perform to prepare them for the session they are about to do. They raise the heart rate and prepare the body. Yes, it gets the heart rate up and gets the legs moving, but the warm-up doesn’t end there.

Dynamic Stretching and Mobility

Dynamic stretching and mobility exercises are essential tools to use when warming up and helping reduce injuries. The regular ones, such as knee-to-chest, the inchworm, and Frankenstein walks, can be considered staples to any warm-up, but when we talk about hockey, you might have a few other ones, such as the 90-90 hip flexor stretch. Because you are in the hip flexed state with skating, those two positions are vital to reduce hockey-related, non-contact injuries.

90-90 Position

The 90-90 position is used to warm up the hips for warming up. As the name suggests, put your hips and knees both at 90 degrees while seated. Keep your left foot in line with your right knee. With your hands on the ground, stretched out slightly behind you, and leaving your feet on the ground, raise your knees. Move them toward the other side of your body and move them back and forth for 45-60 seconds. This is a great exercise to help warm up and activate the hips.

Hip Flexor Dynamic Stretch

This one can be done walking or stationary. Start by taking a big step forward. Put your trailing knee on the ground and start to move your upper body forward, having your knee slowly move over your toes. Hold that position for about 5 seconds before taking a step and doing it with the other leg/hip flexors. Continue until you do 8-12 on each leg.

Side Lunge With Pause

If you have the space it can be done across the floor, but stationary is also fine. Step out to the right, bending your right and keeping your left leg straight. Your right foot should be flat on the ground. As your left leg straightens, point the toe towards the ceiling, rotate the foot, and keep your heel on the ground. Do 8-12 on each leg, pausing for 2-4 seconds each time.

Warming up the right muscles is a pretty easy way and just one of a couple of other ways to help prevent injuries in hockey. Another way is strength and conditioning. This might be an obvious one, but what might not be so obvious are the exercises you should be doing. Start to look at the motion you’re doing, the time you spend on the ice compared to the time you spend on the bench, as well as the muscles you are mostly using, and you should set yourself up in a good position.

When we’re talking about strength and conditioning for hockey, there are a few specific things you should consider. To reduce the likelihood of an injury, think of the way you move on the ice, how many minutes you actually play, and of those minutes, how much of that time you skate hard. I look at all that when I’m developing strength and conditioning programs for hockey players.

A lot of the traditional exercises are hard to get away from, such as bench press and back squats. There are so many more exercises that hockey players (and not just them) should do.

First, think in all planes of movement. You have the sagittal plane, or having the body divided in half from left to right. Then you have the frontal plane, or when the body is divided in half from front to back. Those two planes of motion are the most common in the weight room. Bench press, shoulder press, squats, deadlifts, and the list goes on. But, hockey, like other sports, involves motion in all three planes of movement. That’s right, I said THREE. We are forgetting about the transverse plane. That plane often gets neglected. Just think rotation, as the transverse plane divides the body from top to bottom. Not training in all three planes of motion, like a hockey player, is asking for injuries.

Strength Exercises For Hockey Players

• Wood-Chops
• Reverse Wood-Chops
• Stability Ball Plank
• Rear-Elevated Split Squat
• Single-Leg RDL
• TRX Push-ups
• TRX Single-Arm Rows

Strength has a lot to do for injury prevention in hockey players, as does the proper warm-up. These two things, though important, are not the only ways to reduce injuries. Proper movement patterns can add a huge benefit to on-ice performance and play a big role in injury reduction. The key is to move the right way in training to move the right way on the ice.

I do a lot of agility training for hockey players. There are a few movements that will be beneficial to them. Skating isn’t quite like running or sprinting. It’s usually the lateral motion of the legs that cause most injuries. Not only that but there is a lot of twisting, turning, backward motion. I incorporate all those in my training programs with hockey players. Here are a couple of staples in my hockey training programs that help reduce injuries because the correct movements are stressed:

Agility Training

Single-Leg Lateral Start to Sprint

• Start on one knee, facing perpendicular to the direction you’re sprinting
• With your inside knee is down, place your outside leg on a bit of an angle, with your knee pointing in the direction you’re going
• Start the sprint by pushing directly out, not up, and try to really extend your pushing leg, mimicking a skating stride

Backpedal to Forward Sprint

• Start by backpedaling in a straight direction
• Using a hip turn, open the hips to run forward in the same direction
• Make sure the hips turn enough so that the first leg clears space for the trailing knee to drive through and start your sprint
• Most hockey players know the Mohawk turn and you should be in that position for a split second (in a wider variation) when transitioning from backward to forwards, with the hip turn

There is a chance of injury in any sport you play, let alone one done on ice with the physical nature of hockey. You may never get rid of all injuries. Still, with training with a proper warm-up, correct strength exercises, and movement patterns, you can greatly decrease your chances of getting the typical most common injuries in hockey players. Just remember, hockey is different. Though sprinting and lifting weights will definitely help and are encouraged, start to train the movements that replicate skating and moves on the ice.

When it comes to the summertime, hockey still hasn’t left the minds of many young kids. They are always looking to improve their on-ice performance through street hockey, roller hockey, power skating, and many on-ice drills with various coaches. Just here in Niagara Falls, it seems the number of people offering on-ice instruction is endless.

Though the best way to get better at a sport is doing that sport, you better find other ways to get stronger and faster if you want to get good. Because that’s what every athlete wants, right? You won’t be able to compete with skill alone!

I train a lot of younger athletes to be better all-around athletes. I still believe in having an off-season and playing a wide range of activities. I leave the actual improvement for skating to their on-ice coaches. Being young and on the ice all the time, you should be looking to activities other than hockey and get in a wide range of activities to become more athletic. As you get older and start to narrow your focus down to just hockey, strength, conditioning, and getting faster are the main factors. It is often not realized what can be done in the gym to help them.

As I said earlier, everyone wants to get faster. Skating is a little different than sprinting. As a past sprint coach, I know sprints will help. And the concept behind sprinting and skating is fundamentally the same. Specifically, turnover rate increase leads to speed increase (how fast your leg can get back to starting the next stride). The length of your stride put in combination with your turnover rate should lead to your speed output. That is a straightforward way of putting it. But when you look at them more closely, skating and sprinting are very different in terms of ground/ice contact time (or the time the foot spends in contact with the ground/ice) and the lateral motion of the leg when skating versus the vertical/horizontal motion when sprinting.

The skating motion can be worked very effectively off-ice. I do a few drills with the hockey players that specifically work on the motion of the skating stride, leg strength, explosiveness, and hockey conditioning. These include isometrics holds, lateral jumps/hops, and resisted sprinting. Let’s take a look at each of those and how it relates to hockey.

Dry Land Hockey Drills

Isometric Holds

It would help if you had the right depth of a knee bend when skating. You won’t get a very long stride if your knees aren’t bent and you’re standing straight up but you won’t be very effective if you are in a deep squat position, either. You need to hold that half-squat position so that the legs can fully extend laterally and towards the back. One drill I find very good is holding a half-squat with one leg and extending the other leg laterally towards the back. If you repeat this drill for about 30-45 seconds, you will feel how this drill mimics the skating strides.

Isometric holds are a great way to build strength. The drill above is great for hockey players, as it builds the strength/endurance needed to hold the position. But more single-leg strength isometric holds can be done. When weight is added to any of these, the difficulty is greatly increased:

• Single-leg Wall Sit (hold for 10-20sec per leg)
• Split Squat (with weight, hold in the bottom position for 30-45sec)
• Rear-Elevated Split Squat (with weight, hold in the bottom position for 30-45sec)

Lateral Jumping/Hopping

Lateral jumping and hoping can do a lot for generating the power for skating. Straight vertical and horizontal jumps have their place for power generation, but the lateral jumps just offer a new dimension. My favorite lateral jump/hop for hockey players is the right/left/right lateral jump. Start on your right foot, make a short and quick hop to your left foot, then immediately hop laterally back to your right foot. You want to utilize the stretch-shortening reflex after making the first hop, so spend as little time on the ground as possible after that first hop.

The goal is to jump/hop over as far as possible. Resistance can be added to the jumps in the form of a band, or you can even use them in combination with a strength exercise for some contrast training (more on that another time). Just know what you want the outcome to be. I want my athletes to gain explosiveness for and really train that stretch-shortening reflex. So spend very little time in that specific phase for the jump.

Resisted Sprinting

As I said, skating differs from sprinting in the amount of time your skate blade is in contact with the ice compared to the time your foot is in contact with the ground in sprinting. As a father said to me, he hasn’t seen a person get faster on the track without getting faster on the ice. As a sprint coach, I agree and train a lot of athletes to get faster. Some things can be done and added to get faster on the ice since it is different from sprinting.

One of the main differences between skating and sprinting is the amount of time your foot contacts the ice/ground. When sprinting, a ground contact time is increased by either pulling a sled, pushing a sled, or even me holding their harness. Since the time their feet are in contact with the ground is increased, so is the amount of force they can generate. The time it takes for your foot to contact with the ice is longer than that of your foot when it is in contact with the ground when sprinting. The ice contact time is needed to generate the skating stride. Unlike sprinting, you don’t just want the foot to make quick contact. You want to keep the foot in contact with the ice so that you generate enough strength and power through the entire stride.

Sprinting

There are two ways to sprint. The first way is to train for speed and the second way is to train for speed/endurance. If you want to get fast, you need to put in your max effort. You can’t do that if you’re tired or fatigued. The key real speed work is getting in the proper recovery. For example, if you’re making 50m sprints at max you need to recover fully before you do another one. This is when the timing heps. Your first 50m sprints should be done at the same time as your last one.

The second way is conditioning sprints. When you look at hockey, you need to look at shift length and the average amount of time you’re on the bench. So, work-to-rest ratios are used but aren’t the whole story. Let’s say you have a 1min shift and spend 3min on the bench. That’s a 1:3 work-to-rest ratio. But in that 1min shift, you aren’t going full out the entire time. I have hockey players sprint for 5 seconds, jog for 10 seconds. That will last 1min, and then they get a 3min rest.

Eccentric Training

I have mentioned in previous articles the importance of eccentric training for building strength. An eccentric muscle contraction is when the muscle lengthens, such as the downwards motion of a squat. The quadriceps muscles increase, and you are up to 40% stronger. One drawback to eccentric training is that though it is a great way to build strength, it causes more muscle soreness. For that reason, eccentric training is best kept for the off-season rather than risking being too sore for your in-season games.

Hypertrophy Hockey Program

Here is a sample 4 day hypertrophy hockey program excluding the warm-up, which should include skipping, the agility ladder, and dynamic stretching to prepare you for the workout:

Day 1 & 3

Warm-up

Speedwork

• • 8 x 30m sprints with full recovery (core exercises in the rest period, eg. planks, dead bugs, bird dogs, woodchops, etc)Strength
  • Rear-Elevated Split Squats – 3 sets x 8-12 reps
  • Single-leg Wall Sits – 3 sets x 10-20sec holds per leg
  • Horizontal pulls – 3 sets x 8-12 reps
  • Horizontal pushes – 3 sets x 8-12 reps

Day 2 & 4

Warm-up

Plyometric

Depth Jumps – 2-3 sets x 10 jumps

Strength

Lateral Fake Throws – 3 shuffles to throw x 12

Single-leg Romanian Deadlifts – 3 sets x 8-12

Single-leg lateral stride holds – 3 sets x 30-45sec per leg

Vertical pulls – 3 sets x 8-12 reps

Vertical pushes – 3 sets x 8-12 reps

Speed/Endurance

Sprint for 5sec, jog of for 10 sec for 1min x 3sets

Read More: At-Home Bodyweight Hockey Workouts

Sounds complicated, eh? Well, it’s not. What it means is all the non-exercises related activity you do that help burn calories. Sitting on the couch watching T.V., probably doesn’t burn too much. Parking a little further away and walking that extra little bit to the grocery store is a bit more like it. Are there more ways to use N.E.A.T. to stay healthy? You bet.

Let’s look at some averages right now. Specifically, average weekly trips to the gym, that is, before all the Covid-19 closures. So, let’s say you make it to the gym roughly three times a week and for an hour each time. That’s pretty good (it’s better than not making it there at all). That’s three hours out of 168 hours in a week. You’re looking at less than 2%!! If you’re only spending 2% of your week at the gym, you better be doing other things that contribute to an active and healthy lifestyle.

What contributes to N.E.A.T.

When we look at resting metabolism, things like calories burnt from digestion, organ functions, breathing, and circulating blood are included. Other things that burn calories are often included with N.E.A.T. Like walking to work, the items mentioned above contribute to N.E.A.T., but so do things like physical labor, shoveling the driveway in the winter, gardening in the summer, or typing and fidgeting have an impact. Many jobs include physical labor as a requirement, but regular physical labor as part of daily living is out of the equation. We don’t have to chase and hunt for our food. We don’t have to hang up our clothes to dry. We don’t have to manually cultivate our land for growing fruits and vegetables. Doing all those things in the past, have a great impact on N.E.A.T. On the other hand, while the industry has given us great things in more recent times, it has caused us not to move near as much.

As author Dr. James Levine, MD, Ph.D. says in an article from 2002, N.E.A.T. has a great deal with the culture we live in. It’s pointed out that agricultural and manual workers have high N.E.A.T., while this great deal of industrialization has appeared to decrease N.E.A.T. He also mentions that it is a change in energy balance that greatly impacts the factor of N.E.A.T. and it can largely influence weight loss or weight gain.

The number of calories you burn daily from things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking a little further away from the office entrance and walking more or even asking for a standing desk will have a much larger impact than you might think. Here we go again with the math and averages. On average, standing burns roughly 100-200 calories an hour compared to 60-130 calories an hour when sitting. So that standing desk I mentioned above might be a good idea (on top of why it’s said that sitting has become the new smoking, but that’s for another article). So, just standing for a few hours each day instead of sitting, you may burn around 100 more calories an hour. Do the math. If you’re standing three more hours a day rather than sitting, you’re going to burn roughly 2100 more calories each week just by standing a bit more. That’s just by standing. If you were to add more of the mentioned things, you’d be well on your way.

We Need To Move More Often

The sedentary lifestyle that we’ve become accustomed to needs to be adapted to include movement of all types. Lifting, reaching, running, walking, and many more. In another article by Dr. Levine, he says that both environmental and biological factors impact one’s N.E.A.T. It, too, mentions the “concrete jungle” and a large degree of sitting at a desk for 8hrs a day, but let’s take a look at biological factors.

When looking to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, it’s not exactly fair in many cases. Some people are naturally skinny, and some people are naturally larger, not to mention gender. Body structure, body type, and natural metabolism all have a role in weight loss or gain, but so does N.E.A.T. Those wanting or needing to lose weight need to start looking at what they are doing for the majority of their time. Not so much making it to the gym for 2% of the week.

The Pandemic

This pandemic that we are in has not helped people stay active, especially here in Canada, with the cold winter months. Much is made about being active for an hour a day, but just as I mentioned going to the gym three days a week account for 2% of the week, going for an hour walk every day accounts for 4%. We must start finding ways to increase our N.E.A.T. Start find ways to increase activity the other 96-98% of the time.

How To Increase Your Activity Level

I mentioned some things that can be done to increase N.E.A.T., but there are many more things that you probably wouldn’t even consider. Yes, standing more, like a standing desk at work, but what about playing guitar, toe-tapping, and shopping. When you’re at work, get up for a few minutes each hour. Go for a little walk each break time. Start cooking your meals more (that really gets you moving). Adding a little bit of movement will burn a few more calories. Those little bits added up over a week, and a month can have an outstanding effect. I tell people looking to lose a few pounds to start looking at their snacking habits because small things added up can have a big impact. Same things with N.E.A.T. you add all the movements doing throughout the day, the week, and the month, the cumulative effect is a whole lot of extra calories burnt.

Remember, N.E.A.T. is about all the small things. As a whole, we need to start being more active in today’s world of automation. We have made great strides with all the incredible technological advances, but it has also taken away our need to move. The more we move the better off we’ll be. Jerry Seinfeld says it best “life boils down to one thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving”.

READ MORE:

• 6 Everyday Stretches For People Who Sit Too Much
• 5 Best Stretches to Reset Your Body After Sitting for Several Hours
• 3 Tips To Make Your Stretching Routine More Effective

Throughout the pandemic, though gyms were closed, athletes still found ample opportunity to stay in shape. They could go to a community track or even a local park for an excellent workout. With gyms still being closed or being shut down again, athletes still have to find new methods to stay in shape and keep their motivation high so that workouts continue and they stay game ready.

Just as an athlete needs to stay in shape and game ready, every individual needs some way to keep active. It’s the gym they count on for many adults for the physical activity they so desperately need. Gone are the days of hunting and physical labor for food and house maintenance, so with gyms closed, other avenues must be taken.

I have been lucky enough to continue training all throughout this pandemic by way of virtual training and having virtual groups of young athletes. Everyone is looking for the best way to either stay active for performance or a healthy lifestyle. Let’s take a look at some simple yet effective exercises athletes and non-athletes can do at home to stay in shape.

Simple Exercises To Stay In Shape

Lower Body

Split Squat

• Place foot behind your lead foot at a distance, so when your back knee is on the ground, your weight is through your lead heel, and your lead knee is behind your toe.
• With your hands on your hip, proceed to lower your knee to the ground. Return to the starting position and repeat for 8-20 repetitions.
• For a progression, keep all your weight over the lead leg, and don’t let your back heel touch the ground when your legs straighten.
• For a regression, shift weight to your back leg and let your back heel touch the ground when your legs straighten.

Rear Elevated Split Squat

• Place your rear foot on a chair, couch, or any other elevated piece of equipment.
• Place your front foot at a position so that your weight is through your heel and the knee is not over the toe when you lower.
• Place your hands on your hips, and slowly lower and raise.
• For added difficulty, more down to a slow count of 5.

Single-Leg RDL

• While standing in an upright position, start to bend over while raising one leg.
• With the balancing leg slightly bent, keep a straight line from the heel of your raised leg to the head of your body.
• Make sure you keep your back straight, chest out, and shoulder blades retracted.
• Don’t round your back to reach for the ground, instead spread your arms like an airplane and only bend down as far as your hamstrings allow.

Glute Raises

• On your back, place your hands on your hips and raise your hips in their air, squeezing your glutes.
• Slowly lower to the starting position.
• For added difficulty, try putting one leg in the air and completing the exercise with one leg.

Upper Body

Push-ups

• Lying face down, place your hands slightly outside your shoulders, with your thumbs in line with your shoulders.
• With your feet together, push yourself up, keeping a straight line from your head to your heels.
• Keep your core stiff and tight
• Different variations include putting your hands together, holding one foot in the air, and lowering very slowly.

Towel Pull-downs

• Start in a tall kneeling position, with your knees together, and core tight.
• Grab a towel with both hands, about 10cm/6in apart.
• With your forearms vertical, create tension and try to rip the towel in half.
• Proceed to raise your arms straight in the air, above your head. Keeping your arms vertical.
• Lower slowly to the starting position, squeezing your back as you lower and repeat.

Towel Rows

• Start in a tall kneeling position, with your knees together, and core tight.
• Grab a towel with both hands, about 10cm/6in apart.
• With tension created, trying to rip the towel apart, push out, horizontal.
• Proceed to bring the towel in toward your body, slowly, squeezing your shoulder blades together, and repeat.

Core

Moving Plank

• Start in a traditional plank position, balancing on your forearms and toes, keeping your core stiff, your knees off the ground, and keeping a straight line from your heels to your head.
• Proceed to move into straight arm plank, moving your right arm first, followed by your left arm.
• When you get into the straight arm plank position, move back to the traditional plank position, moving your right arm, followed by your left arm.
• Repeat, moving your left arm first. Complete 10-20 repetitions
• Move your legs/feet apart for more stability and keep the legs/feet together for less stability.

Rotating Plank

• Start in straight arm plank position, with your legs spread wide and your core tight.
• With your toes still facing the ground, rotate your chest to one direction, lifting your arm and moving it along with your rotation.

Deadbug

• Starting on your back, lift your legs with your knees bent at 90 degrees and your arms straight in the air.
• Continue by putting your straight right arm above your head while at the same time extending your left leg.
• Bring both arm and leg back to the starting position and repeat with the opposite arm and leg. That equals one repetition.
• Repeat the process for up to 30 repetitions, depending on your fitness level.

Birddog

• Start on all fours, with your knees directly below your hips and your hands directly below your shoulders.
• Raise your right arm, stretching it out straight, parallel with the ground.
• Simultaneously raise your left leg, stretching it out straight, parallel to the ground.
• Return them both to the starting position and repeat with the opposite limbs. That is one repetition. Complete 15-30 repetitions.
• For added difficulty, bring in the knee and opposite elbow, extend and repeat up to 20 times. Repeat with the other arm and leg.

Plyometric

Plyometric exercises are great for athletes. To keep it short and not too scientific, it is just the muscle lengthening and quickly shortening. Think of your muscle as an elastic band. Stretch the elastic and let it go. What happens? The same thing that will happen with your muscles when you stretch them and then rapidly “let them go”. I won’t get into all the exercises you can do at home, but they include box jumps, countermovement jumps, tuck jumps, squat jumps, 2-foot to 1-foot jumps, 1-foot to 2-foot jumps, transverse plane jumps, and more. Sports are very plyometric, and the better you can make use of these exercises, the better you’ll on the ice, court, or field.

The exercises listed all should be done with the guidance of a professional. The desired outcome will determine what exercises you should do. Every exercise has a purpose, and knowing the exercise is only one step. Rest times, how many repetitions you should perform, and how many sets you should do each exercise is another step. But, they are all exercises you CAN do at home, so there are no excuses for having no gym for workouts!

That’s what EPOC stands for. What it is can be very important for those looking to lose a bit of weight, get in better shape, or both. It’s the body trying to return to normal after you’re done exercising. Ever go for a nice hard run? The body continues to sweat long after you’re done running. Part of that is the EPOC effect. Your body will intake more oxygen until it returns to its natural resting state. This can last for a few hours after exercise, and some say up to 48 hours after a hard resistance training workout.

This is why athletes and non-athletes need to understand the effect of EPOC. When you’re finished your exercise, the body doesn’t just quit. It is still working, getting stronger and faster with increased metabolism. Aerobic activity is said to raise your metabolism for a few hours after exercise. An intense resistance training or anaerobic work is said to raise your metabolism up to 48 hours after! The oxygen the body needs is what helps burn the calories. And the body needing more oxygen means the body will burn more calories. A raised metabolism will help that.

The more oxygen required by the body then, the more calories will be burned. That statement leads one to think that aerobic activity is where it’s at if you’re looking to lose weight. But that’s not the whole story. Resistance training and anaerobic interval training are key in getting that.

EPOC Effect

Anaerobic training is tough. When I say anaerobic interval training, I may sound a little redundant. That’s because if you’re working in one of the two anaerobic energy systems, you’ll have to do intervals. The key point is that you’ll need to tap into the anaerobic energy systems for the greatest EPOC effect.

I’ll try not to sound too scientific, but the two anaerobic energy systems are important for you to understand if you want to experience the best EPOC effect. The phosphagen and the glycolytic energy systems are the two anaerobic systems that I’m talking about. The phosphagen system is the one that you use first and lasts about 10 seconds. Think of the 100m or 200m sprint. The glycolytic system lasts for up to 2 minutes. Think about the 400m or 800m sprint. Try doing intervals with those distances: complete one, short rest, and complete another one.

To get good resistance training for your goals, go for exercises that involve large muscle groups, and require more muscles. These types of exercises are called complex exercises. Want to work the triceps? Stay away from tricep pulldowns and try push-ups, which also work the core and the chest. Time to work the legs, head for the back squat, which will work the core, glutes, and quads.

While resistance training has been shown to increase the EPOC effect more than steady-state aerobic activity, the EPOC effect is also shown to be influenced by the intensity of the exercise. It’s not just doing exercise for the sake of doing exercise. It’s doing exercise with a bit of intensity. You need to make yourself sweat and breathe heavy. Use those rest periods wisely during interval training or resistance training. Recover, get a little bit of your energy back, and go again. This goes for everyone, including athletes and non-athletes. That’s how we get better!

If you’d like to get some use of that EPOC effect in the best way, try one of the programs below and give me a call.

Scott Paul, Driving Force Sports Performance Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, Performance Enhancement Specialist 289-228-4424 scottiepaul@dfsportsperformance.ca

If you’d like to get some use of that EPOC effect in the best way, try one of my programs below and give me a call.

I use to be able to lift this easy, how come it’s so hard, now?

I had my three sons at the gym yesterday and my one son goes to me “I use to be able to lift this easy, how come it’s so hard, now?”. Though he has been active, he is not in the same shape he was in a month ago. This is because he has fallen into the trap of thinking just being physically active is good enough. Active youth are in the very fortunate position of even when they’re not in as good as shape as they’d like to be, they are still in great shape and it doesn’t take long to get back to the level they’re used to. Hockey players are back on the ice, soccer sessions are going, track athletes are back to practice and all the athletes should now find it a tad easier to stay in shape.

That leads me to what two of my young hockey players said to me. They were back on the ice and each one said how much the training has helped and they notice a difference, comparing themselves to their peers. Like I said above, keeping active is one thing….staying in game shape is a whole other ball game.

I know all the teammates of these hockey players were staying active, but proper training can, in fact, make you better! There are different ways to get in better shape. You need to start getting in what they call “game shape”. Depending on what sport you’re training for and want to be in shape for will depend on what you’re doing to get in that “game shape”. Let’s take a look at a few different sports and what being in shape means for that particular sport.

The Difference Between Aerobic And Anaerobic Activity

n simplest terms, aerobic activity means with oxygen and anaerobic means without oxygen. For aerobic activity, think a long run, maybe a 10k. For anaerobic activity, think the 100m sprint. The average team sport is anaerobic, though some believe aerobic training can aid in recovery.

Now that we know we need to get in good anaerobic shape, the first step is complete. The second step, getting in the best shape for your sport, can be a little more complicated. This is when work to rest ratios need to be addressed. Hockey, for example, you’re shift length is an average of 45sec. You then go off to the bench and rest for 3min. So, you would think a good tool might be to sprint for 45sec and rest for 3min. Well, not quite. In that 45sec shift, you aren’t skating full out for that entire time. You go hard, relax, go hard, relax, go hard, and then go off. Training should reflect that. Try sprinting hard for 5sec, jog for 10sec, repeat that for 1min, and then take a 2-3min break. Do that drill about 5-8 sets near the end of your workout and you will find yourself in much better “game shape”.

How about boxing?

Boxers have always been considered to be one of the best-conditioned athletes. Yes, you need to be in shape to punch and move. The thing that many people forget is that someone else is trying to punch you, too. The work to rest ratio is a little different than hockey. At the professional level, the round is 3-minutes long with a 1-minute rest in between rounds. Depending on what level you’re at, you can go anywhere from 4 to 12 rounds. Proper conditioning for this sport might be similar to the above drill, except longer with shorter rest. Try sprinting hard for 5sec, jog for 10sec, repeat for 3min and then relax for 30-45sec.

All sports are different and should be treated differently in terms of getting in “game shape”. Be aware of the work to rest ratios of your sport. So, don’t just be active…TRAIN!!