By the time you are reading this post, Paul & I will be on our way to, or in, Las Vegas for a few days of holiday followed by a few days of business meetings. We are spending the first few days doing some hiking and relaxing out in the Red Rock Canyon area and then we will come into the craziness of Vegas proper for the rest of the time. Stay tuned for stories.
Before I get to part two of the article “The Death of Cardio for Goalies” I want to tell you about the SPECIAL BONUS with the Ultimate Goalie Training system that I am offering while I am away on holiday. When I first released the Ultimate 12-minute Goalie Warm-Up, I had a special offer where you could get the Ultimate 12-Minute Goalie Warm-Up AND the Ultimate Goalie Training System for only $97 rather than $134. I called it the Ultimate Goalie Domination package! Some of you have still found that link and got a great deal on the package, but I have not been advertising that it is there…until now!
Here is what you need to do… use this link to purchase both products – Ultimate Goalie Domination then (and this is important) go all the way to the bottom of that page and click on the LARGE “click to order now” button. If you click on the small “click to order now” button you will only receive the Ultimate 12-Minute Goalie Warm-Up. Once you have paid you will register by entering your name and email and then you will be taken to the download page. Make sure you bookmark the download page right away. Every week a couple folks lose the link to the download page. This is not a big deal because I just verify your order and then re-send the download link – but for the next week I will not be in the gym, so I will not be available to help you out and you will have to wait a full week to get your material. All of the material is downloadable, you do not receive anything in the mail!
CLICK HERE FOR THE ULTIMATE GOALIE DOMINATION FREE BONUS OFFER
Now on to the rest of the article entitled “The Death of Cardio for Goalies”:
Cardio that stops pucks.
As I mentioned above, your body does not know the source of what is making your cardiovascular system work harder. Your body does not care if it is running that is challenging your cardiovascular system, if it is agility training or if it is weight training.
You may notice that instead of discussing cardio training in my programs I refer to energy system development or speed and stamina. In fact I have had athletes who completed the Ultimate Goalie Training system which includes sprints and agility drills for energy system development, email to ask me where the ‘cardio’ training is. They still want to go and ride the bike or go for a jog.
You probably know that we have three energy systems that work in an overlapping fashion. You are never using just one energy system. The three systems are:
- · Anaerobic Alactic – first few seconds of explosive work. No lactic acid build up, i.e. no burning in your legs.
- · Anaerobic Lactic – 5-90 seconds of high intensity work. This will get the burning in your legs going!
- · Aerobic – 90 seconds onward. Slower supply of energy, but no burning in your legs so it is good for steady activity.
As you can see, a goalie will use all of these energy systems during the course of a game, but if we zero in on when it counts the most, it is the goalie’s ability to perform repeated bursts of explosive movements within the context of keeping up with the play. Although any self-respecting exercise physiologist may cringe at this term, I am going to refer to it as power endurance.
Think about times when the puck is buried in your end and you have to follow the play moving within your crease with some big explosive moves thrown in for those dramatic saves. During these times you have more demand on your anaerobic system and this is where we are going to focus your precious time. Did I mention that anaerobic training will also improve your VO2 max (measure of your aerobic fitness)? Did I also mention that training anaerobically will help you burn more calories in less time than long steady state training in the ‘fat burning zone’? What this means is that this type of training which also improves your performance on the ice, will also help you stay lean or reduce your body fat if that is one of your goals. Assuming you are backing up your consistent training, with consistently good nutritional choices of course. You knew I was going to say that didn’t you?
Now think of the benefit if we combine some of your power endurance training with some reaction drills that will improve your hand-eye reaction – do you think that will help you stop the puck?
Have a great week gang! Don’t miss me too much!
Cheers,
Maria