Daily Training Tip #707

Completing the Bench Press isn’t the key to your success. Squatting is! Your lower body strength/explosiveness is the key that can unlock a lot of different doors for you. Squat on a regular basis!

Daily Training Tip #706

Being on time is being five (5) minutes early. If you’re not five minutes early, then you are late. A workout is scheduled to start on time. Showing up five minutes earlier gives you an opportunity to get organized; shoes on and tied, water bottle filled, maybe a little foam roll, etc.

Be on time for workouts and carry that over to your life as well. Be five minutes early for everything you do!

Daily Training Tip #705

After an intense workout, it is a good idea to ‘ice’ and cool off certain areas of your body. If you still have any soreness, make sure you ice that area and/or if you have a little ‘tweak’ you should ice that area. Ice bags are your friend and help aid in the recovery process.

However, don’t abuse the icing process. If you don’t need to ice, don’t!

Daily Training Tip #704

As we progress into the dog days of summer, the tempertures will continue to climb. As an athlete, you need to drink plenty of water. Sip on water all day long. Water helps cool your body down during and after an intense workout.

Daily Training Tip #703

Make sure you pull your knees up towards your chest when you are doing hurdle jumps. This helps build up your hip flexor strength.

Daily Training Tip #702

Training your feet to become quicker is nothing more than your head telling your feet to move and then your feet actually moving. So you need to pick quick feet drills that your head can understand so it can relay the message down to your feet. The quickness ladder, for example, can be done a thousand and one different ways, some more complex than others. If you can’t understand one way, pick another and just DANCE your way through the ladder.

Daily Training Tip #701

As an athlete, there is nothing better for you than water. Just plain water. You need water! Different studies show different amounts of water is needed, which means there is no cure all. Just drink enough water all day (especially on heavy training and competition days) so your urine is clear. Your body likes water that is room tempertuare the best and without flavor or anything added to it.

Make water your best friend!

Daily Training Tip #700

As an athlete you need to avoid the trends of the world. The training and fitness industry is filled with trends and gimmicks that are developed to raise a buck. As an athlete, you need to be aware of this.
No matter how far you go or what level you reach in your career, it is going to end before you want it to. Your training needs to be geared to help you reach your athletic goals, not help someone raise a buck.

As an athlete your training program is designed to develop specific attributes to improve your performance and decrease your risk of injury. Your program needs to work on your specific movements, planes of motion you use during competition, proper anaerobic conditioning, etc. Your program needs to be developed specificially for athletes, for you.

Without naming any names, beaware of programs that aren’t athletic specific. If you attend a class at your local gym that is filled with non-athletes, it should raise a red flag for you. There is not a program that is ‘one-size fits all.’ Attend classes that are are time-tested, results proven, athlete driven, etc. Your career will thank you in the end!

Daily Training Tip #699

Your lifting program is designed for you to be slowly increasing your weights. Push yourself and constantly increase your weights. Adding weights for each set will help your development.

Daily Training Tip #698

If done properly, power skating shouldn’t take up more than 7-10 minutes of each practice. You become a better skater off of the ice by building proper lower body strength, power and explosiveness. Then spend 7-10 mintues each day refining a few things with your skates on.

Daily Training Tip #697

Every hockey player needs to be Lifting, Sprinting, Jumping AND Skating each day on a regular basis. By completing all four (4) your body improves on each area together. Just lifting isn’t enough. Just skating isn’t enough. Complete all four!

Daily Training Tip #696

We all know what Full Extension is and what it means on the ice. However, when told to have full extension in the gym, few actually do. Having full extension in the gym is something that can be done by everyone. There is a direct correlation between what we do in the gym and what we do on the ice. Training your body to have full extension off the ice will condition your body to have full extension on the ice.

Daily Training Tip #695

There will be a lot of sore bodies at Minnesota Hockey Camps today. Reason being, athletes sometimes let themselves get out of shape. Without a doubt, it is by far much easier to stay in shape than it is to get back in shape. STAY AT YOUR BEST! Athletes are always at their peak!

Daily Training Tip #694

Shin Splints can be prevented by the way you jump/run. You need to focus on a soft land or foot strike, land with the balls of your feet first and spend minimum time on the ground.

Being too heavy on your feet disagrees with your shins, causing them to hurt. So keeping good form and doing things properly will keep shin splints away.

Daily Training Tip #693

There really is no such thing as an ‘off day.’ Active Rest is a crucial part to your overall development as an athlete. There are days where you do not need to show up at the gym or the dryland area. These days are active rest days. Active rest is usually done on your own or with a teammate and is something fun. Going rollerblading, playing basketball, swimming, etc. Your body does need some down time, but it doesn’t like ‘nothing time,’ so keep working!

Daily Training Tip #692

As most of us are progressing into the heart of your off-season training program, you should be beyond the ‘soreness’ stage. At this point in the season, soreness should be an after thought. However, some of you may experience some soreness as you change from different phases within your program. If soreness does appear; make sure you cool down properly, foam roll, ice and drink plenty of fluids.

Daily Training Tip #691

You need to plan your workouts ahead of time.

You can’t just show up at the gym and pick and choose exercises that you want to do. You need to think ahead and put each piece of the puzzle together. There are plenty of certifited people around that are willing to help you plan out your training.

Daily Training Tip #689

Athletes ask their bodies to do much more than a normal person does. Therefore, athletes can not train their bodies like normal everyday people. An athletes body, needs to be developed in a specific, scientific, focused way. Train hard and train smart!

Daily Training Tip #689

A big part of your training regiment needs to be geared towards injury prevention. No matter how much you improve, injuries cause a big setback.

Daily Training Tip #688

Youth need to master body weight training before they are able to add any further resistance. This helps build a strength base and give youth athletes a chance to learn specific exercises without any added resistance.

Daily Training Tip #687

Foot placement when you are sprinting (even jogging) is crucial to the success of run. Your heals stay off of the ground, the outside of your foot becomes in contact with the ground, foot rolls and your big toe is the last to leave the ground. This helps keep you light on your feet and minimizes your ground contact time.

Daily Training Tip #686

If done properly, foam rolling, can be a great post workout activity. Roll out the area you just worked. Start rolling the areas that was worked the most intense and ‘roll on’ from there.

Daily Training Tip #685

Your off-season training program needs to have periodization or simply change. Your body reacts well to change, but you need to have consistant change. Which mean, spend 3-4 weeks completing the same cycle and then change. Each change, or period, should build off of the previous one. Too much change too fast, will not produce the best results.

Daily Training Tip #683

Your grip strength is a minor, but important part of your on-ice performance. Grip strength does need to be trained and can be improved.

There are numerous exercises that help improve grip strength. Wrist curls, wrist extensions, wrist rollers, heavy ropes, plate catches, DB catches, etc. All will add a benefit to your training program.

Daily Training Tip #682

When you’re completing off-ice workouts; it’s what you do when no one else is looking that matters the most!