Improve Your Hockey Stamina with Capacity Circuits
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When you think of big game players, who comes to mind?
Being a bit older and becoming a hockey fan in the early 2000’s my go to guy is Crosby
The guy just gets it done - and one of the most impressive ways he gets it done is just by out working the competition.
I mean just look at these practice clips.
His ability to work the half wall and below the goal line has been pretty much unmatched for 20 years.
This has a lot to do with his conditioning!
But not conditioning in the traditional sense… Conditioning can take on a few different forms with the main ones being
Aerobic Capacity
Overall Work Capacity
These are very closely related but there are some nuances to each that we will dive into below along with specific examples so you can add them to your training
But first lets understand why both of these matter
Have you ever thought you were in really good shape until you stepped on the ice for the first time in a while and got gassed.. You quickly realize theres a difference between being in shape and being in hockey shape.
Thats because stamina and VO2 Max in particular are task specific.
Meaning the way VO2 is usually tested is on a bike or a treadmill test - now without going deep into the physiology here, all you need to understand is this.
A VO2 test is an assessment of your ability to bring in and utilize oxygen - The muscles that are working during the test are the main ones utilizing the oxygen.
Thats why when you step on the ice you feel like you’re not in hockey shape because slightly different muscles are being used during skating than running for example.
Thats not to say theres no benefit in running - There is immense value in traditional conditioning methods because they work on the “lung” side of the equation.
Aerobic capacity is more specific to your aerobic system as a whole - its what most people inherently train when their doing conditioning.. Think of it as more “lung” focused conditioning
Work capacity is your overall capacity to do work - Think of it as more “muscle” focused
The reason theres a difference between riding a bike and being in hockey shape is because when you’re battling like Crosby on the ice, you have a defender draped all over you trying to take the puck
This places much more demand on the muscular system which wears you down faster
Combining both methods of traditional aerobic training and work capacity training throughout your hockey program is what we term “hockey stamina”
Stamina is a foundational pillar of our training programs at MPRP.
It falls in the same category for us as Strength, Power and Speed training.
Every hockey play I talk to wants more speed.. And for good reason, the game is incredibly fast now.
But.. Anyone can be fast on the first shift of the game.
The impact player, the one that can help their team win games, is the player that can maintain their speed over a full 60 minutes and into overtime if necessary.
For that you need both elements of the stamina equation
You’re probably more familiar with traditional interval style methods of training so were going to focus more on work capacity in this letter
Lets first understand work capacity
Work capacity.. Shocker, is your capacity to do work.
Think of it like an engine and gas tank - A tractor has a bigger engine and gas tank than a Honda Civic.. Therefore, the capacity for a tractor to do work is greater than that of the honda.
It can go further and work harder than the civic can.
Following me so far?
Theres a few ways we can approach capacity training.
We can target a muscle group like the quads
We can target stimulus like strength and speed
But a robust program combines both!
This is exactly what the Breakaway Speed Program aims to do
Each phase has a specific goal of increasing either work capacity or speed capacity so that when you step on the ice the work you need to perform in the game is so much lower than what you have prepared for in training that you can go harder and longer than anyone else.
Theres a few frameworks you can follow that I’ll share below.
The overall concept of all these frameworks is the same - Complete more work in less amount of time.
Essentially you’re cramming a large amount of volume into short time frames replicating work you would see during a typical hockey shift
Therefore, the muscle groups or movements we chose to do usually apply directly to hockey in that we focus on muscles that would be fatigued during puck battles like the quads.
Lets dive into some examples
#1 - Escalating Density Sets
These are the easiest way to improve work capacity - They are a series of exercises on a time domain with the goal of getting as much work done as possible before the timer goes off.
There are a couple different ways to set them up and we will discuss each
From a programming standpoint I like to set these up in two different ways
Compression paired with extension - This would be pairing a MB slam with a KB swing (opposing actions)
Alternating muscle groups - Lower Body Push with Upper Body Pull
Heres two examples to put into your training using both
For both you will put a 10 - 15 minute timer on and roll through as many rounds as possible
Compression/Extension
A1) MB Slam x 3 Reps
A2) KB Swing x 5 Reps
A3) Heavy Sandbag or Farmers Carry x 20m
Alternating Muscle Groups
A1) Front Squat x 3 Reps
A2) DB Bent Over Row x 3 Reps
A3) BB RDL x 3 Reps
A4) DB Push Press x 3 Reps
The goal is to complete as many rounds as possible and then the following week you decrease the time but aim to maintain the same amount of rounds
Hence, escalating the density of work!
Pyramid Sets
Another great method for improving work capacity
Again, here we will use opposing muscle groups
The rep scheme for this one is more of a ladder format - completing 55 total reps in a 10-1 fashion… yes 10 sets of both exercises in under 10 minutes
Example
A1) Push Up x 10-9-8-7…….1
A2) Pull Up x 1-2-3-4…….10
Each exercise alternates - one starts at 10 reps - when you complete those 10 you do 1 rep of the second exercise - Go immediately into the second set where you complete 9 reps of the first exercise and 2 reps of the second… and so on until you reach 1 and 10 reps, respectively
The last method we use is known as
Timed Sets
Similar to the escalating density sets - these are timed intervals, except the rounds and time intervals are fixed.
Pick 3-5 exercises - You will rotate through these in a circuit fashion for 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest.
Example
A1) Goblet Squat x 30/30 (complete as many reps as possible in 30 seconds - then rest 30 seconds and go on to A2)
A2) DB Bench x 30/30
A3) Hamstring Curl x 30/30
A4) Pulldown x 30/30
** Rest 2 minutes after round 1 - Complete 3 total rounds **
Those are 3 examples of how we help our players improve the work capacity side of the stamina equation.
These are the frameworks - theoretically you can plug and play any exercises you want into them.
Using these in combination with our other interval training methods on the bike or sprints on the field helps our players build robust “hockey stamina”
Keep in mind this is just one way we approach this.
I didn’t even address speed capacity or repeat sprint ability in this letter as its already a lot of information.
These are two other critical aspects of hockey stamina but i’ll address those another day.
For now, start experimenting with some of these methods to improve your stamina on the ice.
Until next week
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