Joe Caligiuri (MS, ATC) is the owner of Stadium Performance in Dedham, Mass., and has served as athletic trainer for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and NFL’s New England Patriots. SP offers Boston’s No. 1 injury-prevention, ACL rehab and speed programming. Check out spstrengthcoach.com.
Today, more than ever, high school and college athletes can benefit from a level playing field. Gone are the days of two amateur teams per state that consist of the best athletes in the north, south, east and west of their prospective sport. Private schools, club programs and an increased social media presence have allowed any athlete the opportunity to promote their abilities to potential onlookers far and near.
With these advances, however, come increased demands for productivity and results. It is your decision to either accept or decline the challenge proposed before you. The opportunity to oppose negative pressures and surpass the expectations of your supporters is at your your fingertips. Only the most committed athletes will conform to the regimen required for success. This is what it takes.
Like any great recipe, the recipe for success has multiple components. If you leave out any of them, the odds of your product meeting the expectations you have set are very low. Your summer regimen will need to incorporate more than just strength training, skating and nutrition. You will need to implement self-reflection, intellect and rest to complement the other components that yield physical results. Together, you will create and maintain consistency that will allow you to manage expectations and repeatability.
Professional athletes understand their job well. Football players spend 10 hours at work each day. They spend about three hours on wellness and nutrition, two hours for weight training and recovery, two hours in practice and three hours studying their opponents. Hockey players endure more travel so spend less time at work but more time on self-care. Professional hockey players live by routine that gets them out of bed early and back to bed at a reasonable time. Often, NHL
players never will adjust their watch to reflect their current time zone — instead they will stick to the routine of their home city for increased consistency and manageable expectation of performance results. You need to establish your personal time zone, routine and repeatability structure to ensure success.
For your summer planning, you will start with a seven-day template. Four of those days will be training days, two of them will be rest and recovery, and the seventh will be strictly family and friends. Creating a balance between work and family is imperative to success. Without a time-management plan for both, one is sure to suffer dire consequences.
Training days are long and difficult, yet rewarding. I recommend you choose from one of the two summer formats.
Format A
Monday – Train Lowers/Aerobic
Tuesday – Train Uppers/Anaerobic
Wednesday – Train Lowers/Aerobic
Thursday – Train Uppers/Anaerobic
Friday – Off/Rest/Recover
Saturday – Family/Friends
Sunday – Off/Rest/Recover
Format B
Monday – Train Lowers/Aerobic
Tuesday – Train Uppers/Anaerobic
Wednesday – Off/Rest/Recover
Thursday – Train Lowers/Aerobic
Friday – Train Uppers/Anaerobic
Saturday – Family/Friends
Sunday – Off/Rest/Recover
Training days revolve on needs rather than wants. Each decision you make is based on necessity. You wake up because it’s time to wake up. You eat because it’s time to eat. You read the news because you need to stay current, train because you need to improve, skate because you need to refine, nap because you need to recover, and decompress because you need to unwind. Off days exist to rest your mind and body but allow for flexibility with your time. You can optimize your recovery based on the rigidity of your wants. You will focus on nutrition, reflection and recovery. Taking up a hobby that is completely mindless is an excellent opportunity to separate your performance anxiety from your personal growth. Volunteering, going to church, taking a free online class at www.edx.org or simply spending time with siblings, cousins and parents are great ways to stay connected with the world around you.
Looking closer into a training day, you will need to focus on sleep, nutrient timing, muscle targets and energy systems utilized. Utilizing both A and B training splits, you will see that lower-body lifting is done at an aerobic intensity and upper-body training is completed with an anaerobic intensity. Because your lower body represents two-thirds of your body’s lean mass, you will focus on larger muscle groups while enlisting maximum effort each set. Focus on building circuits with 2-3 exercises with 5-6 repetitions each. With a stopwatch, time how long it takes you to complete those three exercises with the inclusion of a 30-second rest between sets. Take that final value and multiply it by two. That will be how much time you have to recover before beginning the circuit again. To complement lower-body strength training, 30 minutes of moderate-intensity, moderate weight-bearing cardio should be incorporated into your day. You can do this before a workout, after a workout, later in the day or included in your skating intensity for the day.
On upper-body training days, you will focus on a high intensity of lifting to maximize speed and power. These days, decreased rest is required to enlist your anaerobic system. Your entire workout should be performed at 75-85 percent of your max heart rate (220 minus your age for males or 226 minus your age for females). The primary focus of your lifting exercises should be velocity. To be considered a high-velocity exercise, a single repetition for any given exercise should be completed in less than 1.2 seconds. Because upper-body training requires minimal lower-body strength, this is the day you will either incorporate 30-second sprints into your workout or add 25-30 sprints at least 90 percent of your max heart rate to the end of your workout. The purpose of sprints on anaerobic day is to mimic a 30-second shift on the ice. Hockey shifts often start before you are fully recovered and end when your lower body or lungs are completely taxed.
Examples of a lower-body aerobic circuit vs. an upper-body anaerobic circuit can be seen below:
Lower body
Barbell back squat x 5
High box jumps x 5
Slide board dumbbell reverse lunge x 5 each
Rest x 3:00
Post workout arc trainer x 30 minutes
Upper body            Â
Barbell chain bench x 5
Rotational wall ball slams x 5 each
Battle rope jumping jacks x 20
Airdyne sprint x :30
More important than the workout selection and intensity is the fuel required to perform such repetitions and intensities. Training and non-training days have different nutrient requirements but follow similar macro-nutrient profiles. For training days, your body will require a caloric intake relative to your personal size. For both days, you will begin with your standard caloric number, which may or may not change throughout the summer. Your standard caloric number is represented by your weight in pounds plus one zero. For example, if you are 200 pounds, your standard caloric intake is 2,000 calories. These are the equations you will need on training vs. off days.
Training day for 200-pound athlete
50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat
2,000 plus 15% = 2,300 calories
Add 500 per one hour of workout
Add 500 per one hour of hockey
Total requirement: 4,300 calories
Off day for 200-pound athlete
40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat
2,000 calories
Add 250 per hour of recovery
Total requirement: 2,500 calories
Utilizing your total caloric intake number, you will need to divide that into three meals and three snacks. When you are eating for performance, it’s not about eating when you are hungry, it’s about eating when it is time to eat. Nutrient timing is far more important than macro-nutrient counting. For lean mass gains and muscle recovery, athletes should focus on one equation relative to protein. For males, you should consume 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight on training days and 1.25 grams per pound of body weight on off days. Females, you should consume 1.25 grams of protein on training days and 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight on off days. To help you understand a typical nutrient intake for all days, you will simply need to remember how many calories are in each gram of a macro-nutrient.
Nutrient intake
Carbohydrate: 4 calories per gram
Protein: 4 calories per gram
Fat: 9 calories per gram
Alcohol: 7 calories per gram
Based on the macro-nutrient profiles provided, this is what your meal prepping should look like for each day.
Training day: 4,300 calories
Carbs: 2,150 calories (536 g)
Protein: 1,290 calories (323 g)
Fat: 860 calories (96 g)
Off day: 2,500 calories
Carbs: 1,000 calories (250 g)
Protein: 1,000 calories (250 g)
Fat: 500 calories (56 g)
All athletes need to understand protein types, absorption rates and ideal timing. Rather than get into the scientific details of it all, these are the protein rules you need to know and adhere to.
Protein rules
- Animal protein for breakfast — provides the most energy and is most beneficial
- Whey protein post workout or skating — fastest-digesting protein. Drink within 30 minutes of exercise.
- Casein protein before bed — slowest-digesting protein. Best for muscle recovery and growth while you sleep.
Lastly, and certainly not least, is your commitment to sleep. Sleeping souls are magicians in the dark. Research suggests that we sleep somewhere between seven and eight hours per night. Our brain enters the rapid eye movement (REM) nearly 60 minutes into our night sleep. This is when our brain, tissues and organs repair the previous day’s damage and establish surpluses of vitamins, nutrients, hormones and water concentrations for the day ahead.
During sleep, both males and females have the highest levels of human growth hormone (HGH). HGH is the growth factor responsible for hyperplasia, which is the creation and multiplication of new muscle, connective and soft tissue. Through this multiplication, athletes will gain strength and lean mass, produce more power and burn more fat. Without sleep, most of all physical sacrifices and contributions will essentially go to waste. Remember, effort is given by day and rewarded by night. Never let a night of gains pass you by.
Enjoy your summer. Enjoy your gains.
