You want to get jacked and perform like a pro athlete.

And you don't have all day to read useless gym theories.

You just need to know exactly what to do.

Build your routine around these top 10 off-ice exercises, reach the pro performance standards listed, and you'll be on your way to the strong and athletic hockey body you want.

Few athletes grok it:

Dryland hockey training has the potential to either rocket or ruin your game.

From injurious gym exercises to copying the latest Instagram "NHL workout", too many athletes self-sabotage their progress.

The good news?

By doing what other guys can't or won't, you can take your physical performance to heights your competition will never experience.

Let's cut to the chase:

You're reading this because you're looking to step up your hockey game.

And you figure the best way to do that is to get bigger and stronger.

If packing on muscle helps you score more goals and score Tiffany Tightbottom, the barista who gives you the sparkle eyes whenever you roll up for a post-workout smoothie at the juice bar down the street?

Even better.

But, before I walk you through an upper body hockey workout that packs on the gains, let's clear up some general off-ice training confusion.

A pro hockey player from Sweden asked me on Instagram to share what a typical hockey speed workout for my athletes looks like. 

Since I’ve been getting tons of questions about off-ice speed development – which exercises to pick, how many reps you should do, how long to rest between efforts – now is the perfect time to cover this topic.

Before walking you through a full speed session, I'll share some critical background info: 

1. True speed development is neural, not muscular.

That means you must jump and sprint in a fresh state and keep training volume low.

Excluding the warm-up, 20-30 minutes per session is all a hockey player needs to develop blazing speed.

Spending an hour at the track means you're doing conditioning work, making yourself slower.

Not a week goes by that I don't see, hear, or read about hockey players fucking around in the gym.

It happens at every level of competition.

Even guys you watch on ESPN getting paid six or seven figures to chase a rubber puck in front of 15,000 fans are duped by injurious, performance destroying workouts.

So bad is the current state of off-ice hockey training, I could have extended this list to cover 30 mistakes almost every athlete unknowingly makes, and it still would be nowhere complete.

But just steering away from these three major ones will INSTANTLY give you a leg up on your competition.

Stanley Cup winner turned strength and conditioning coach Gary Roberts once said:

"You don't stay strong, stay fit, recover, stay healthy without eating properly.

The players who learn that at a younger age, have a better opportunity to be healthier and become a better athlete."

As inconceivable as it may sound, in 2022, there are still tons of hockey players (even in the NHL) who eat garbage.

With nutritionists and strength coaches at their beck and call 24/7/365, there's no excuse for an athlete to show up at camp rocking a skinny-fat dad bod – complete with the droopy pecs and squishy love handles. 

Yet, it's the sad reality.

So, in this article, I'll shine a light on which hockey foods you should eat and which to avoid if you want to build a lean, muscular body.

But first, let's start by answering two common nutrition questions...

Browsing online last night, I came across an article titled "Top 10 Lower Body Exercises For Hockey Players".

Aside from trap bar deadlifts, split squats, lunges, and hip thrusts, the author – who shall remain unnamed to protect the guilty – listed these movements as his favorites for getting athletes strong:

* Goblet squats

* Cossack squats

* Box step-offs

You could argue how goblet squats groove your squatting mechanics, how Cossack squats improve mobility, and how box step-offs target the vastus medialis (an underdeveloped quad muscle in most hockey players).

And you'd be right. 

But to list them as the "best" hockey exercises for strength??

Nobody in the history of training has gotten STRONG from goblet squats or step-offs!

Because that's the whole point of lifting weights – to get jacked!!

It's obvious the author of said "article" doesn't know how to get hockey players STRONG, nor has he ever done so based on the simple fact I couldn't find any evidence of an athlete lifting impressive weights on his program. 

Why in the world would anyone take training advice from a self-professed hockey training goo-roo who can't produce results?