Well I'm new to these boards. Just joined and it also happens to be my birhtday today. So I guess it will be easy to figure out how long I've belonged here, down the road.
Anyway I've been in to health and fitness most of my life and in the last year or two I have become unbearably bored with the gym scene. Last year I finally gave up my membership and stocked up on a mini-gym with about 400 lbs in wieghts I also spent some money on a stepper and some in-line skates. But the biggest change I made in my workouts was to join some pickup hockey leagues. I play about 3 or 4 times a week and It has made my fitness lifestyle so much more interesting. I started out playing with some other beginner players and quickly progressed to playing with ex-pros and junior and senior A/B players. Now my workouts and nutritional lifestlyes revolve around enhancing my performance on the ice. I rarely think of my shape or wieght anymore. That just comes as an added benefit to playing the best game on earth. Anyway I'm just wondering if there are any other hockey players out there. I am looking for advice on weight training for hockey. I've always wieght trainied through my life more from a bodybuilding aspect. I was just wondering if hockey players had a different approach to weight training for enhancing thier performance.

Terry

I'm totally out of shape right now, but I am designing my training routine both around fat loss and hockey. My program is going to include plyometrics during the weight training sessions. I've been doing a lot of research, and most off-ice training programs I've read about involve plyometrics to develop an explosive stride. As far as upper body... for me that's less important since I'm a goalie. I'll probably just stick to the basic cutting plan. I also plan to do serious stretching each day. (Actually, I do this already. Right now I do about a half hour of cardio plus at least 45 minutes of stretching. I don't have weight training equipment yet.)

I am also considering getting one of these large slide boards (http://www.goalerone.com/G1_extreme.aspx) once I get some more money. (I'm a goalie, so this can be used for off-ice practice. For a cheaper alternative, you could build a slide board.) This allows you to target your skating muscles during cardio.

What I'm not sure about is how to incorporate morning drop-ins into my routine. Should I do weight training on those days, or should I do cardio later in the day? I'm leaning towards the weight training, since the hockey isn't true cardio, and I wouldn't be able to get in true cardio between the drop-in and work.