Off-ice conditioning

Hank19

Registered User
Apr 11, 2005
1,870
1
HIIT is extremely usefully for hockey players. I do it on a 'cut' cycle for the spring to lose extra fat (Don't really play hockey anymore). But you will notice, from the HIIT, you will get faster (sprint speed) and your endurance for your shifts will go up. But long term endurance won't improve dramatically (Which doesn't matter for the most part, since your not constantly on the ice). It may just be me, but my revoery improved greatly from HIIT. I could run, rest, run, rest, and over time be able to keep up pace in my runs after rests. HIIT also targets fat loss, with minimal muscle loss, which is always good.


This is great advice. I do both. Long distance endurance is still necessary for hockey. For a while I was only doing HIIT on a stationary bike. I found that it helped me in the 1st period but as the game wore on, I got more and more fatigued. So now I run 2-3 miles twice a week while doing HIIT on the bike twice a week also. It helped immensely.

And of course I also do squats, presses, lunges, etc as part of my regualr weight training program.
 

Whiplash27

Quattro!!
Jan 25, 2007
17,343
66
Westchester, NY
So I tried my version of HIIT a couple of times and it's killer.
I've been trying three times a week where I run twice and play hockey once.
I've been doing open hockey (since next season doesn't start til the end of the month) on Tuesdays. Open hockey seems to be a harder workout than actually playing when you are playing in a studio rink which is like pond ice and you get basically no breaks if there are 6 to 8 guys there at most.
So it's been
Tuesday - Hockey
Thursday - Run
Saturday - Run

Anyway... At my high school they have a track and I've been doing this, it's brutal. So I walk to the track either from my house or the parking lot, whichever I feel like doing. Either way, it's either a fairly long walk or a walk the length of the track. Get there, put my water bottle down and jog around the track once. Then I stretch.

Then the way I've been doing it is I would start in a jog from the bend of the track and then when I get to the straight part I sprint full out until near the end of the straight part, then I jog around the bend until the track gets straight again and then I sprint again until the end.

Then I walk and get my water bottle and do a lap around the track just walking and drinking water, then I do it all over again.

By the time I'm done with the 2nd lap I needed to sit down for about 2 or 3 minutes and by the end of the 3rd lap I'm dead. That was what I did yesterday. I'm not sure if I did it 4 times the first time, I think I may have.

Then when i'm done and out of breath I walk around for a bit to cool down and stretch and go home. I'm sure there are guys who are in much better shape than me, but just doing 3 or 4 laps is brutal for me. I can imagine for your average guy this is brutal. I can only see someone who's in really good shape being able to do this and not being that tired at all.

I come out breathing very heavily for quite some time and sweating like crazy. After the first time my calves were sore the next day too (probably from stretching everything but my calves).

Either way, it's one hell of a workout which takes maybe 15 minutes plus stretching time. I figure it's close to a hockey shift where there's a mixture of all out skating, medium pace skating (jog) and either little movement or none (walking). Then the walk/break is your line change. Although the sprinting is more like skating from end to end at a full sprint twice in the same shift. It also takes less strides to get from end to end on the ice than if you're running.
 
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