The in-season training with our elite youth hockey organization started a couple of weeks ago. Endeavor is responsible for the in-season training of 9 AAA hockey teams from the Comcast organization. We do everything out of the rink located in Pennsauken, New Jersey where the organization is based out of. This is our third year with this program helping them develop their hockey players. To say that it’s been a work in progress would be an understatement.
We started this program with no facility, no equipment, and we had to run the sessions in the hallway next to the snack bar between tables, and parents hanging out. Last year we had a major upgrade because we were able to rent a small room in the rink, which used to be a party room, to run all of our sessions. We were then able to get some equipment in there. We had a dumbbell rack (up to 50lbs), a chin up bar, 5 homemade slideboard, a couple stability balls, a couple of Olympic bars, and a bunch of weight plates (but no racks). It’s not much, but it’s about all we could fit in there. Even if this was a major upgrade from the previous year, this wasn’t optimal in part because we had this one and only room to train 9 teams who almost all had practice on the same nights. But we made it work.
This is our first 700 square foot room located in the Pennsauken rink
This year was another major upgrade as we were able to rent a second room in the building and fit in some more equipment. On top of the small room and equipment that we still have, we now have another room that’s probably twice as big, and more equipment; 2 squat racks, dumbbell rack (up to 90lbs), homemade slideboards, stability balls, bumper plates, chains, bands, suspension handles, and more. We need a serious decoration makeover, but other than that it’s great! We’re very fortunate because we are in a very special situation with a unique setting for a youth hockey organization.
This year’s in-season training has been taking a drastic turn for the better with the 2 rooms and basically no equipment limitations (we train the younger teams in the smallest room, which has more than enough equipment). We have the equipment, we have the programs, and we have high level hockey players to train.
Like I said, we started the in-season training 3 weeks ago, and things have been great so far. I have been fortunate to be able to train the 3 oldest groups this year (U18, and two U16 teams). Workouts have been going well, but I still felt like there was something missing…
This past Thursday, one the kid from one of the U16 teams brought in his stereo system. Bingo! The team never trained that hard, and the energy during the session was unbelievable.
I know the importance music can have on training, but it’s always good to be reminded by a group of 16 year old kids that it’s not just important…it’s necessary!
I know I blogged about music before, and made some suggestions for your training playlists, but it’s always good to have new material to add to it. Here are a couple of my recent favorites:
Kanye & Jay-Z, Niggas in Paris:
Mac Miller, Knock Knock:
Foo Fighters, Bridge Burning:
If you’re into French rap, you’ll enjoy this one. Although I don’t share their political views, it’s a great song on my training playlist, and my kids at Endeavor seem to really enjoy it! Loco Locass, Liberez-Nous des Liberaux:
And lastly, this is my geeky wrestling fan side coming out, but great song that gets me pumped up. Living Colour, The Cult of Personality:
What’s on your training playlist? I’m looking forward to hearing your picks!
It is time for another….you guessed it….Random thoughts post! Hopefully you enjoy these as much as I do! Let’s get started:
1. My friend and colleague Kevin Neeld posted on his YouTube channel 3 presentations of about 10 minutes each about hockey training; one on program design, one on speed training and one on conditioning. These were the 3 videos that he used to promote his book, which you needed to sign up for to get access to the videos. Now, you don’t even need to sign up for anything to watch these 3 awesome videos, as they are just one click away for you to see. Here’s the program design video, which I think is pretty cool:
2. Speaking of Kevin and his book, if you haven’t checked it out yet, you absolutely have to! For some reason, he hasn’t bumped the introduction price up yet. Let me remind you that this book highlights Kevin’s complete training system to building powerful and bulletproof hockey players. In fact, the principles in this book could very well apply to any athlete in any sports as well! Any book of that quality would usually price at over 80$, but Kevin is giving you Ultimate Hockey Training for less than 30$! Click HERE if you want to pick up a copy!
3. My own training for the last 6 weeks have been geared towards muscular endurance and aerobic training (probably not the type that you think) based on Joel Jamieson’s general endurance block from his book Ultimate MMA Conditioning. To say it is a nice change of pace would be an understatement. For the past 6 years, my whole training has basically been max strength and very low volumes of conditioning (always in the form of anaerobic intervals) and nothing else. My joints were kinda hating me recently and I was getting a little bored with my training, so I decided to give that general endurance thing a shot, you know, to mix things up and give my body a break. The lifting volume have been pretty low (but not necessarily easy)- hey, could have thought that doing DB chest press with 45′s could be so hard? Not me! And the conditioning volume has been pretty high for what I’m used to, but since I’m working my aerobic system I don’t feel like the intensity is killing me. The main difference I’ve noticed so far is my recovery improved drastically! I used to dread every training day because I always felt crushed from the previous one, but with this phase, even if I get pretty sore from some of that stuff, I pretty much always feel ready to go when I’m training. I also play hockey twice a week, and I noted a major recovery difference between my shifts; I pretty much feel like I can go just as hard every single shift, and it’s like that the whole game! I used to gas out after 3o minutes. I know I’m gonna need to go back to lifting heavy stuff soon, so I don’t loose too much strength, but I’m definitely going to use 8 weeks endurance blocks more often in the future.
4. As a big music fan, and having written entire blog posts about music to train to (if you missed it you can check ‘em out HERE and HERE), I feel like haven’t posted anything music related in a while. Here’s a little something to enjoy… As you may already know I’m growing more and more into a die-hard Foo Fighters fan, which is funny because I used to dislike this band a couple years ago. But the fact that they stuck with their original roots for almost 20 years, never became a foo-foo fake pop-rock band through the years like many rock bands do (huh humm…Nickelback), and because they totally kick ass in concert for almost 3 hours, I’ve become a huge fan. Here ‘s Bridges Burning, from their new album, which gets you want to smash someone in the head with a steel chair, a la Stone Cold Steve Austin:
And this next one, even though is not as high-energy, for some reason really gets me going! The band is called Chickenfoot, which is a band formed by Sammy Hagar, another guy from Van Halen and the drummer from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It has kind of an 80′s sound to it, which Coach Jorts can appreciate, but it definitely pumps me up:
5. Last but not least, I just got 2 spots that opened up on my online training clients schedule. So if you’re interested, read my ‘Services’ page to make sure you qualify and that it’s what you’re looking for, and drop me an email at the link at the bottom of the page! You’ll be surprised at how much of a difference a structured program can make, and how much faster you can reach your goals. I’ve worked with clients from all walks of life from pro athlete to completely out-of-shape 60 year-old women, so don’t be afraid and think it’s not for you! We’ll have to talk first, but chances are I can do something for you no matter what your training goal is.
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This past Tuesday was my birthday, and I just turned 30. People asked me a lot how I felt about it and if I was depressed about leaving my 20s behind. To be honest other than the fact that I’m probably not where I imagined my life to be at 30 5-10 years ago, I really don’t care about a simple number.
Exactly how I celebrated my birthday…I guess I was a little depressed
So as usual I’ll celebrate on my blog by…….you guessed it…..A RANDOM THOUGHTS POST!! I could put a 30 thoughts for 30 years thing, but frankly I’m getting a bit old and lazy, so I’ll make it 10! Without further ado, here it is!
1. If you haven’t started re-training breathing patterns, you’re totally missing the boat. This is something that the more I learn about it the more I realized its importance and how it affects everything else in the body (movement patterns, muscle elasticity, muscle tone, etc). If you haven’t already, you should familiarize with PRI and/or DNS stuff; you’ll understand what I mean when I say breathing patterns control everything.
2. I went to the Foo Fighters concert 2 weeks ago. Most. Awesome. Concert. Ever.
3. Learn more about the FMS. This is the simplest, most effective tool for fitness and strength and conditioning professionals to identify movement pattern limitations and dysfunctions. When you find the a limitation, you simply apply the corrections and you magically decrease the risk of injury of your athletes and clients. One really doesn’t need to know everything about functional anatomy or be a rehab genius. And it just works. Period.
4. Periodization is not only about writing different training cycles that alternate qualities being worked on; it’s about training volume more than anything else. Once you understand you don’t need to run your athletes to the ground during every training sessions, they start to make huge progress. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, it’s alright (even favorable) to let your athletes leave the gym fresh sometimes. When you understand how to manipulate training volumes to create overload and overcompensation, you understand how powerful it is.
5. I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by great people in my life. My bosses, friends and my girlfriend all took care of me so much for my birthday, and I am very thankful to them. A new pair of Nike Free’s and tickets for a Cowboys-Eagles game are just a few of the reasons that made my birthday so awesome.
6. Another thought on breathing; it should be trained in various positions (supine, prone, quadruped, etc) to make sure you “own the breath” in various postures. Also, to train breathing, a balloon might become your best friend.
My new best friend
7. Right now is the best time of year for sports. Football season is in full effect, hockey season just started and it’s playoff time in baseball. You couldn’t ask for anything more! ……oh, wait….maybe that your team would do better….
Not the best year to be a Red Sox fan…
8. One of the readers of my blog sent me a link to a 3D shoulder model. When people send me stuff like that I usually assume that they’re looking for some kind of financial benefit, but this one is a totally free website and I thought I’d share it with you because it’s pretty cool. You see the whole shoulder in 3D and spin it around, and click one button if you want to see the skin layer, only the muscles, the bones, etc. It’s pretty cool. Check it out HERE.
9. Next on my continuing education list for the next couple of months:
- USA Weightlifting certification
- The book Movement System Impairment Syndrome, by Shirley Sahrmann
- The Functional Training Handbook, by Craig Liebenson
- Muscle Imbalances Revealed 2.0 DVDs
- Both of Alwyn Cosgrove and Cressey, Robertson and Rigsby’s fitness business products
10. Yet another great post from my colleague and nutrition expert Brian St. Pierre on artificial sweeteners and stevia. Definitely a must read: The Stevia Story. I really enjoy Brian’s blog as he is as honest and objective as it gets with what he writes about on top of being incredibly smart.
That’s all for the celebratory randomness! See you next week with some new content!
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