Training: Building
a Hockey Body by Ryan Kennedy Hockey
News Sept 20/05
Vol 59 No 3
When Calgary Flames star Jarome Iginla got really serious
about hockey, he was 15 years old and willing to make sacrifices.
In order to get an NHL body, he did weight training and put on some pounds. Years later, Iginla knows
it isn’t just the bulk that makes you a pro.
“My heart was in the right place,” Iginla said.
“To be honest, I didn’t know how to train.”
With a full year off due to the lockout, Iginla kept himself in game
shape with an off-ice training regiment that focused specifically on hockey skills. “I was in great aerobic shape, but (lacked) a lot of
explosion,” he said. It’s that
type of explosive speed that is crucial for, say, beating a defenseman to a puck
that squirts out of the corner. “If
you’re battling with a D-man".
When Calgary Flames star Jarome Iginla got really serious
about hockey, he was 15 years old and willing to make sacrifices.
In order to get an NHL body, he did weight training and put on some
pounds. Years later, Iginla knows
it isn’t just the bulk that makes you a pro.
“My heart was in the right place,” Iginla said.
“To be honest, I didn’t know how to train.”
With a full year off due to the lockout, Iginla kept
himself in game shape with an off-ice training regiment that focused
specifically on hockey skills. “I
was in great aerobic shape, but (lacked) a lot of explosion,” he said.
It’s that type of explosive speed that is crucial for,
say, beating a defenseman to a puck that squirts out of the corner.
“If you’re battling with a D-man, it’s who tires out first,”
Iginla said. “That half-step can
make the difference between getting a scoring chance or not.”
Iginla recently helped launch a Nike hockey training
program alongside his trainer Rich Hesketh and Vancouver Canucks star Markus
Naslund. The campaign focuses on
hockey-specific off-ice exercises.
The lockout-induced rest helped Iginla – the sniper was
able to work certain parts of his body while resting others.
“I would do upper body, take a month off my legs and vice versa,” he
said.
T.R. Goodman, owner of Pro Camp Sports in California, spent
his summer training NHL all-stars such as Mario Lemieux, Rob Blake and Glen
Murray, and said the time off did wonders for those who were ailing.
“We tried to get the trauma out of their bodies,” Goodman said.
“You could see the range of motion in their bodies was
much better.”
But building
the perfect hockey player is about more than just exercise.
For trainer Charles Poliquin, the man who resurrected Gary Roberts from
his career-threatening neck injury, diet is a key element for post-lockout
players.
“Body fat is the best predictor to determine training
camp (shape), “ Poliquin said. The
ideal body fat rate for an NHLer is 10 per cent, and every percentage point
either way has an exponential affect. “Al
MacInnis had six-and –a-half per cent, “ Poliquin said.
“He played a long time, and hard.”