In-Season Training Do’s and Don’ts – Weight Training

  Weight training…everyones favorite topic! It’s considered one of the most important and sought after training techniques out there, and for good reason, you need to be strong to be an elite hockey player! But how you program your weight training will dictate wether you get the results you’re looking for! In-Season training is a whole different beast, you’ll need to program it appropriately to reduce injury risk (not increase it) and manage overall load of the season. So let’s break down the do’s and don’ts of In-Season weight training.

Weight Training Don’ts

Overload or Over Program – usually one of the biggest mistakes we see with in-season weight training programs is trying to keep up with what you did in the summer. If you weight trained 5 days a week in the summer, that doesn’t mean you train 5 days a week In-Season. The load of all the practices and games will be too much for your body to keep up with intensity of the same 5 days a week split you did in the summer.

Go Heavy – Another huge mistake we see is trying to go too heavy on your lifts or trying to continually increase the weight your lifting. This is a great progression for the off-season program when that’s your main focus, but it’ll overload the body and you won’t be able to recovery properly In-Season to get the gainz you’re looking for. It can also lead to potential injury as you break the body down too much without the proper recovery time.

Look to Put on Mass – If you’re looking to gain weight or pack on muscle during the season you’re nutrition and recover plan better be impeccable! Remember every time you workout, skate or play in a game you’re burning a massive amount of energy and calories. That means you need to replenish all those nutrients and calories on a daily basis just to get back to baseline. If you’re trying to gain you’ll need to increase those calories, protein, etc even further to see any potential for an increase in lean muscle or overall weight.

Weight Training Do’s

Strength Maintenance – maintaining the strength you built all off-season should be your main goal for In-season weight training. This allows for you to not overload the body while still staying strong! Also preventing injury while keeping up energy and stamina for the whole season! With how grueling the season schedule can get you need to make sure you can last all season and perform up to your top ability on every shift!

Focus on Planes of motion – Add more planes of motion to your lifts. This includes more side to side and rotational movements as well as multi-directional. This allows for you to increase movement efficiency and strength in all planes of motion. This helps increase performance in your stride, speed and explosiveness, as well as reducing injury risk so you can stay on the ice all season long!

Program/Schedule Properly – 2-3x a week training is the sweet spot for In-Season strength maintenance, movement efficiency, and injury prevention. This allows for you to focus on a strength training competent, movement/explosiveness and mobility specifics to ensure your having your top season!    

#unleashthepotential

Written by:

Rob Jost – ACE-CPT, NSCA-CPT

Suggested Article: In-Season Do’s and Don’ts Conditioning

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