Before I hit you up with two new hockey training exercises that will help skaters and goalies alike, let me tell you a bit about my Mastermind Meeting in Miami (that’s South Beach in the photo on the left). The meeting was great as always – it is like going to a training camp with the most awesome players you have ever seen. Everyone is working hard and the coaches are motivating and educating you the entire time. That is exactly what this meeting is like for me, but this time there was one stumbling point…
On Friday afternoon, our coaches brought in the Mario Lemieux of fitness info marketing. This guys makes millions – per year! All online. Wow! His niche is the fat loss niche – you know, lose your belly and all that.
So at the end of the day we had the opportunity to have a ‘Hot Seat’ with this guy. This is where you basically go to the front of the room (in front of my 40 group-mates plus two coaches) and get grilled about my business and where the weaknesses are. Does that sound like fun? Hopefully not, because it isn’t.
But, without knowing it, you guys (and all the athletes I work with at Revolution Conditioning) helped push me out of my comfort zone. I thought of what I would say if one of my high school athletes had a chance to train with an Olympian. Would I think they were crazy if they did not jump all over the opportunity? Absolutely. So here I had a hall of famer to help point me in the right direction. Here’s where things went sideways…
I really wanted him to look at one of my sales pages and show me what I was doing well (if anything) and what I could be doing better. Instead, he looked at the title of the product and then asked me questions like – ‘yeah, but is this for soccer goalies too?’ Um, no – just hockey goalies, a completely different sport.
‘Oh’ he continued, ‘well, when I drive through my neighbourhood, I see 72 fat people, but I don’t see any hockey goalies.’ You need to make more products for other mainstream sports – according to him hockey is really a ‘fringe sport’ that I should not bother with.
I was deflated (but not discouraged :)). I put my self out there and not get the help I was looking for. Like going to a camp and being told you try out for house league.
In his defense, I appreciate where he is coming from. He makes MILLIONS – and I am sure that he really enjoys that. I imagine that he thinks we are all trying to make millions (and as quickly as possible). I am okay to make less than millions and keep working with my hockey players. I also trust my coaches who have never steered me wrong and who know me and have a sense of what I can accomplish. They told me to stick with hockey – in fact they asked me if I loved helping hockey goalies and skaters. I said ‘Yes’ so they said – ‘keep going with that’ and I intend to.
Right now we are in NYC for three days of holiday and then back to the gym on Friday. Okay, here’s what you’ve been waiting for…
Exercise #1 – A New Hockey Training Twist On The Ol’ Plank
The first exercise I want to share with you is a new twist on an old standard – the core plank. I hear you ‘y-AWN, oh no, not more planks!’ well this one is different – even though it looks exactly the same.
Here’s what I mean – let’s take a little trip to the past – grade 9 physics class to be precise. Remember learning Newton’s laws? Yes, vaguely, well that is a great start!
Remember the one about for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction? That is the one we are talking about today.
Now, picture yourself in a perfect plank position. You hold it for 10 seconds and some of you will feel a slight fatigue, others will not feel a thing – you could sit there all day.
You are supporting the force of gravity on your body; that is all.
Now let’s play around with Newton’s equation. Let’s generate some of our own force by pulling our elbows toward our toes and our toes toward our elbows (your body should stay in the same spot).
We have isometrically contracted (contracted without shortening) our lats, triceps and tibialis anterior, to name a few, BUT the equal and opposite reaction comes in the form of an isometric contraction through the anterior hips and abdominals. I show you how to do it in the video – start with a medium contraction because it is pretty tough!
Start with 3-5 reps of a 10s contraction, do not rest after each contraction, just hold your ‘relaxed’ plank position.
Exercise #2 – Hockey Training Exercise For The Torso & Hips
You need a resistance band for the next exercise. It is called the Low Rotary Chop and I use it to elicit a few different adaptations – hip rotation, core stabilization, eccentric loading of the adductors (groins) and I love the integration of all three – I think it does a good job of using these muscles in a similar way you may use them on the ice.
The key with this exercise is to stay low in the legs. You will not pop up and down as you do it – stay low the entire time with your knees bet to approximately 90 degrees.
It is fine to pivot on your back foot, as you push away from the anchor point with the resistance band and remember to keep your arms straight.
Check out the video to see exactly how it should look.
Start with 2-3 sets of 8 reps each way using a medium or heavy resistance band.
Cheers,
M